Internet Searching Made Easy Last Updated: 2007 Lesson Plan • Review • Lesson 1: Finding information on the Internet • Lesson 3: Finding Reliable Results – Web address – Using links – Search engines • Lesson 2: Search Engine Strategies – Keyword searching – Reducing the number of results 2 Review: What is the Internet? • Computers connected to each other around the world • Accessible to billions of people worldwide • Offers many free services including: - Email - Chatting - World Wide Web • The Internet is also called “The Net” or being “online” 3 Review: Browsers • Computer software that lets you read information on the Internet. • Most popular browser is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. – Great alternatives include Mozilla Firefox and Opera. • Use “Website addresses” to find information – E.g. www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca 4 Lesson 1: The Website Address http://www.gov.ns.ca/premier/ Tells the browser to “Use the Web” The “Website” address, also known as the website’s “Home Page.” The “Premier” page on the website 5 Lesson 1: The Next Step • Q: How do I find information on the Internet if I do not know the web address? • A1: Click links until a page leads you to the information you want. • A2: Use an Internet Search Engine. 6 Lesson 1: Using Links • Website use “links” to lead people from one page to another. – To go to another page, you “click” (just once!) on the link. – These links are generated by humans. • When you put the mouse pointer [ turns into a hand [ ]. ] over a link, it • Links are usually bolded, underlined and/or have a different colour than other text on a website. – Sometimes pictures can be links too. 7 Lesson 1: “Websites” versus “Pages” • Every website can have one or more pages – The first page on a website is called “The Home Page” and usually has pictures to help tell you where you are. – To make it easy to get to the “Home Page” Websites: • Make their logo link to the Home Page • Or have a Link called “Home” • A link can lead to: – A page inside the website – The homepage of another website – A page inside another website. 8 Try This • Go to www.cbc.ca • Find the “links” on the page – How can you tell something is a link? – Do the pictures contain links as well? How do you know? • Click on a link and see where it goes – How can you get back to the cbc.ca page? 9 Lesson 1: Search Engines • Display a list of websites based on words that are typed into a search box (keywords). • Display the most relevant websites first. – – – – Pages with many “reliable” links show first. Pages selected most often by other searches show higher. Results are machine generated. There will like be irrelevant results. 10 Lesson 1: Popular Search Engines • • • • • • Google (about 49% of searches) Yahoo (23.8%) MSN (9.8%) AOL Search (6.3%) Ask (2.6%) Others (8.5%) 11 Lesson 2: Searching with Google Google Canada is just one of the flavours of Google This button takes you to the first web page Google returned for your query. You will not see the other search results at all. Google Canada is also available in French 12 Lesson 2: Keyword Searching Enter your search terms (keywords) into the search box 13 Lesson 2: Interpreting Your Google Search Results Each result has 3 details 1. Title of website 2. Text sample 3. Web address A list of websites that have paid to be included with the results of your selected keywords 14 Lesson 2: Interpreting Your Google Search Results Google also suggests more refined results using more keywords that are related to similar subjects Simple keywords can return many search results Google divides the results into manageable sets of pages for viewing 15 Lesson 2: Keyword Searches • When searching for 1+ keywords, Google automatically searches for all keywords entered into the search box. chicken soup is the same as chicken AND soup 16 Lesson 2: Finding Better Results Reducing the Number of Results 1. Use more descriptive keywords Example: chicken soup vs. spicy chicken soup recipe 17 Lesson 2: Finding Better Results TRY THIS: 1. Search for soup recipe. How many results do you get? 2. Search for chicken soup recipe. How many results do you get? 3. Search for spicy chicken soup recipe. How many results do you get? 18 Lesson 2: Finding Better Results http://ile-maurice.tripod.com/mulluk.htm 19 Lesson 2: Finding Better Results Reducing the Number of Results 2. Use phrase searching. Example: “spicy chicken soup” recipe 20 Lesson 2: Finding Better Results TRY THIS: 1. Search for spicy chicken soup recipe. How many results do you get? 2. Search for “spicy chicken soup” recipe. How many results do you get? 21 Lesson 2: Finding Better Results Reducing the Number of Results 3. Using a “-” in front of a keyword you can remove all results with that search term. (Note: There is NO space between the minus sign and the search term.) Example: halifax genealogy -virginia 22 Lesson 2: Finding Better Results TRY THIS: 1. Search for halifax genealogy. How many results do you get? 2. Look at results on pages 1 and 2. Do you see any that relate to a Halifax that isn’t in Nova Scotia? 3. Now search for halifax genealogy –virginia. Google reads the search as “Look for ‘halifax genealogy’ but NOT ‘virginia’. How many results do you get? That’s gotten rid of the results related to the Halifax in Virginia, but how do we eliminate the results for Halifax, Yorkshire, England? 23 Lesson 2: Finding Better Results TRY THIS (cont’d) 3. Search for halifax genealogy –virginia –yorkshire. How many results do you get? 4. Search for halifax genealogy –virginia –yorkshire – england. How many results do you get? 5. You’ve just found out that there’s a Halifax in Australia. How can you change your search to filter out Halifax, Australia? 24 Try This 1. Go to google.com 2. Try searching: Halifax 3. Click on the title link for: 1. The top item 2. The third item from the top 4. Do you see . . .?: 1. The title of the website? 2. The sample text? 3. The website address? 5. Repeat steps 2-5 but this time search for sidney crosbie. 6. Search for brad gushoo. 25 Try this 1. Go to google.com 2. Try Searching 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. halifax regional municipality halifax england halifax library “halifax library” “[your name]” 26 Lesson 3: Finding Reliable Sites • Not all web pages offer reliable information (but neither do all books, magazines and newspapers) – Be a critical web consumer! – Some people like to talk about hobbies on their website, but are not experts – Search engines are pretty good at finding good information, but they are not perfect 27 Lesson 3: Four Strategies • Who is writing the information? – Can you trust them to answer your question? • Why are they writing the information? • Is the information up to date? • Does the site have any errors that you notice? 28 Lesson 3: Who is writing the information? • Reliable sites usually identify who they are. • Look for links to an “About” page – the information should be specific and should include: • • • • • A name of someone responsible for the information A description of what the organization or individual does Where they are located and who they serve Specific contact information Names of executive members and their roles if it is an organization or business 29 Try This • Go to www.customerservicesummit.org – – – – Who owns the site? Find a name of someone responsible for this information. Is this a reliable site? Is there any other information that helps you tell whether this is reliable or not? • Go to www.csa.ca – – – – Who owns the site? Find a name of someone responsible for this information. Is this a reliable site? Is there any other information that helps you tell whether this is reliable or not? 30 Lesson 3: Why are they writing the information? • Reliable websites usually make their purpose obvious. – – – – – Education Sales of products or services Influence or inform you about a particular issue Fun/games Social interaction 31 Lesson 3: Look Out For. . . • Lots of Advertisements • Lots of Grammar and Spelling Errors – Unreliable sites use spelling errors and bad grammar to keep Google from recognizing them as unreliable. E.g.. “1vory Coast” instead of “Ivory Coast.” • “Facts” stated without a note about where they got it – Experts say that 99 % of computer instructors are geniuses (Do you believe me?). 32 Try This • Go to www.atkins.com – What is the purpose of this website? – Recap: Who is responsible for the information on this website? • Go to www.atkinsdietalert.org – What is the purpose of this website? – Recap: Who is responsible for the information on this website? 33 Lesson 3: Is the Information Up-to-Date? • Reliable websites usually update their information frequently and show when they did it • Look a date that shows how up-to-date the site is • Look for other signs as well: – Old addresses in the contact section – News that happened long ago – Links that are not working 34 Recap • Ways to access web pages – Web address – Using links – Search engines • Search Engine Strategies – Keyword searching – Reducing the number of results • Finding Reliable Information 35 The End Any Questions? 36