Search Engine Tips

Internet Search Strategies

Internet search engines provide us with a way to search for and access information on the Internet. Given the broad range of search engines currently available, it is important to understand what portion of the Internet each search engine covers, and how to use each search engine in the most efficient way.

 

At present, the search engine Google appears to be the most commonly used basic search engine. AltaVista, HotBot/Lycos, AskJeeves, and Yahoo are some of the other frequently-used search engines. Unfortunately, these different search engines were not programmed to respond to queries in exactly the same way, which means that the searcher must understand a slightly different set of "search rules" when using each search engine. Some of the variations in search rules have been outlined below.

 

Carefully Select Key Words/Concepts

Regardless of which search engine you choose, the success of your search will be determined by your choice of search terms

 

Before you begin, consider your question or topic. It might be helpful to write your question out. For example:

With your topic or question written out, you can identify the key concepts. It is generally best to limit the number of key concepts to two or three. In this particular case, the key ideas would be:

Now, consider what synonymous terms or phrases might be used for the ideas you've selected. In addition to synonyms, are there any alternate spellings to your key concepts? Add these additional terms below their respective headings:

Now you can select your initial search terms from the words and phrases above. There is no need to try to incorporate all of the above search terms . Instead, simply select the term or phrase from each column that you think is the most commonly used. After looking through the results of the first search, you may or may not wish to adjust your search terms accordingly. It is important to keep in mind that Internet searching is not an exact science and that you should anticipate revising your search terms several times as you go through the search process.

Search for phrases using quotation marks

When searching for a phrase, it is necessary to let the search engine know that you are looking for two or more words grouped together. Without such instruction, many search engines will retrieve documents that include the individual words separately, not together as a phrase.

 

For example, if we simply type in the words Iowa River in AltaVista, our results will not necessarily include the phrase Iowa River, but instead might merely contain the separate words iowa and river. Look at the first item that AltaVista retrieved in response to such a search:

As you can see, this result is not about the Iowa River. Instead, it merely contains the two search terms within the same sentence.

 

To ensure that AltaVista does search for the words Iowa and River adjacent to one another, we need to put quotation marks around the phrase: "Iowa River"

 

The same will hold true for our search on "prisoner reform" or "criminal reform." Quotation marks must be placed around these phrases to indicate that the terms need to be searched for together.

 Example:

 

Truncation

 

Truncation is a useful tool if you're searching for multiple variations of a term. When placed at the end of a root word, a truncation symbol represents or replaces all possible endings, thereby searching for variant forms of that term.

 

For example, if you wish to find biographical information on an individual, you might want to truncate the root term biog. Doing so will retrieve results that include the words biography, biographies, biographical, or biographer.

 

WARNING: While most search engines allow you to truncate, Google is the exception. You cannot truncate search terms within Google!

 

 

Most of the major search engines use an asterisk (*) as their truncation symbol. Other common truncation symbols are the exclamation point (!), plus sign (+), and question mark (?). To find out which symbol to use in a specific search engine, consult that search engine's "Help" or "How To" page.

 

Limiting Searches by Domain

It can be useful to limit your searches by domain. Domain suffixes (also known as "top-level domains" or "TLD's") indicate what type of group or organization is responsible for hosting an individual web site. Here's a partial list of some of the more common suffixes along with a brief summary of their meaning:

 

.com   Indicates a "commercial" site. This is the most common top-level domain. Keep in mind that sites ending in ".com" are generally created and maintained by for-profit enterprises.

 

.org   Indicates "organization." This top-level domain was originally intended for nonprofit groups. Now, however, just about any group can sign up for a .org address.

 

.gov   Used for federal government sites.

 

.edu   Indicates an educational institution. This domain suffix applies only to American colleges and universities.

.mil   Any of the U.S. military branches.

 

.net   Originally reserved for network services providers.

 

.us   United States. This is a "country-code" top-level domain. For a full list of all country codes, go to http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm .

.ia.us Indicates a site supported by the state government of Iowa. This includes state offices and public schools.

 

.uk   Country-code for the United Kingdom

 

.ac.uk   ".ac" stands for "Academic". The coupling of .ac with .uk denotes an academic institution in the United Kingdom.

 

.museum One of the newer TLD's. Reserved for museums, museum organizations, and individual members of the museum profession.

 

If you are searching for information that is likely to be found in just one of these domain types, then you can limit your search accordingly. For example, in Google, select "Advanced Search" from the initial search screen. See the Advanced Search screen image below:

 

 

In the Domain field, type in the suffix to which you'd like to focus your search. Or, if you wish to search across a number of domains, but want to exclude one particular domain type, then you can use the drop-down box to change the "Only" default to "Don't". This allows you to search across all domains types with the exception of the domain suffix you enter in the corresponding search field.

HINT: You can also use this feature to limit your search to a specific server. For example, if you type grinnell.edu in the Domain search field, you can limit your search to the pages housed on the www.grinnell.edu server.

Advanced Search Features

 

Nearly all search engines offer some type of "advanced search" screen. Generally, the advanced search options allow you to control the date range searched, the languages searched, the number of results per page, etc. If you wish to conduct a more precise search, it's always worthwhile to explore the advanced search features.

 

Boolean Operators

 

Most search engines support Boolean searching. By employing the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT in your search statements, you can better describe the relationship between your search terms, which will result in more accurate searches. For more information on Boolean Operators and their use, go to Burling Library's Creating Search Statements instruction guide.

Help Screens

 

Bear in mind that search engines are forever being updated or revised. This means that these search rules are subject to change. It's always a good idea to acquaint yourself with the Help or How To pages.

 

Please remember that the librarians at Burling Library and Kistle Science Library are always happy to assist you with any of your searches.