Researching

Example: Google www.google.com

Google is an example of a search engine and it is one of the most popular and largest search engines on the Internet. You can search by just typing in a few keywords.

Google does allow some use of boolean search statement (for a break down of what kinds of searches Google can do check out Greg Notess table of search features). In this part of the tutorial we will take a look at Google's advanced search tips. In order to get the most of a search engine and to get relevant results in a shorter time spending some time in getting to know the advanced search features and help pages can be particularly useful.

Advanced Search can be used by clicking on the advanced search tab next to the Google Search box or by typing in commands. Google provide some detailed help on how to use these features. Please take the time to read through the help screen. Both methods are outlined below and both work equally well.

Phrase Searching

Phrase searching is a way of ensuring that you are searching on the exact term you want. Google automatically joins words with "and" so you can just put in words without connectors. To search for a phrase the common method in most web and database sources is brackets or " ". To see the power of phrase searching undertake this simple test.

Search for charles darwin university and check the number of results. Try it again with "charles darwin university" and see the number of results and the order they display. Using "" can make your search more specific.

Part Sentences

Keywords and boolean logic are all useful but sometimes, you need to change your approach. Google software relies on words, not terms or subject headings. As a result Google will not add context to individual words like a database will. For example, if you are seeking facts, figures, dates, definitions and the like try one of the following searches:

"first prime minister of australia"

"Cathy Freeman was born in"

"is the tallest mountain in Australia"

"consumer behaviour the study of"

"pernicious anemia is"

"the capital of northern territory is"

"how to measure PH" water

By all means use keywords and boolean logic as your basic tools in constructing a Google search, but when these don't work, think in terms of part sentences. In many cases, this simple trick will get the results you need with a minimum of fuss.

Field Searching

Electronic records, like print records, are organised into separate fields. A typical webpage is composed of the following major fields: title, domain, site (or host), URL and link. Field searching is a powerful tool as it allows you to specify exactly where you want the search engine to look in the web documents.

Understanding fields can help you make an educated guess about where you might be able to find some information, particularly about companies and institutions.

Title Searching

If you know the subject of a page, it is a good bet that important words describing the subject will appear within its title. Searching for a keyword in the title field, rather than as a keyword alone, will very likely produce more relevant responses.

Activity

Use the advanced search , type legal ethics in the with exact phrase search box and change occurrences to in the title of the page OR type in in allintitle:"legal ethics" using the standard search box on the Google homepage.

If you try the search just as "legal ethics" note the different number and relevancy of results that are returned.

Returns pages that have these words in the title. (This search doesn't work very well with one word title entries)

Domain Searching

If you are seeking information from a particular kind of website, you may choose to limit your field search to one of the current top level domains eg

Activity

Use the advanced search , type darwin in the with all of the words box and on the origin of the species in the with the exact phrase box and in the domain box add edu OR type site:edu and "on the origin of the species" and Darwin using the standard search box on the Google homepage.

This limits your search to educational sites dealing with Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution.

If you are seeking information from a particular international domain, you may choose to limit your search to a particular domain geographically, eg.

  • au – Australia
  • ca – Canada
  • cn – China
  • tp - East Timor
  • fr – France
  • de – Germany
  • hk – Hong Kong
  • id - Indonesia
  • in - India
  • jp – Japan
  • ki - Kiribati
  • my – Malaysia
  • ni– Netherlands
  • nz - New Zealand
  • pk - Pakistan
  • sg - Singapore
  • za – South Africa
  • uk – United Kingdom

Note: Because the internet was created in the US, it is not assigned as a country letter code. Most sites without a geographical indicator have their origin or are registered in the US.

For links to further geographical code for other countries go to BitMedia

Also remember that many organisations host personal pages that may not express the opinions of, or be endorsed by that organisation. Personal pages often have a ~ (tilde) in the URL.

 

Activity

Use the advanced search , type legal ethics in the with the exact phrase box and in the domain box add au OR type site:au and "Legal Ethics" using the standard search box on the Google homepage.

Image Searching

If you want to find a particular image on the web, you may choose an image search. Google provide you with a separate search screen tab to search for images.

Activity

Click on the images tab at the top of the Google Search Box and type in "Charles Darwin University" in order to look at some images of your university.

File Format

You can search for a particular format of information on the Internet, for example a powerpoint (.ppt), word file (.doc), excel spreadsheet (.xls) or an adobe acrobat (.pdf) document.

Activity

To find a powerpoint presentation on business ethics you can use the file format field in the advanced search OR type: "business ethics" filetype:ppt using the standard search box on the Google homepage.

To look at Australian presentations only further limit the search by domain. Use the advanced search to construct this search OR type: "business ethics" filetype:ppt site:au using the standard search box on the Google homepage.

Academic Information on the Internet

In general, academic research that has been commercially published is not freely available on the internet. Subject gateways as outlined in the previous section assist in narrowing down your search to relevant sites.

Google has recently launched a new search engine Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com which enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer reviewed papers, theses, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. By using Google Scholar you should limit your results to what Google thinks of as scholarly, so this may narrow your search results considerably. In may also exclude sources that may be relevant.

Ranking

The order in which search results appear on a page is called ranking. Different search engines use different ways to calculate this, factors such as how often the term appears, whether they appear in the title, and how close they are to each other are all part of this calculation. Relevancy ranking means that the results are ranked in order of relevance, dependent on how the search engine calculates. Sometimes popularity is used as a form of ranking, which means a search engine counts how many other sites link to a given site. Advertising dollars are another method of assuring that a site is ranked near the top of the results list, which provides us with another reason not to believe that the top 10 results are the best.

Reflection

What is a simple search strategy for internet searching?
 After each step you should evaluate what you have found and see if it is relevant and useful. Remember, in many cases you will find information you need in a book or electronic database far more quickly than using the web

  • Check the subject gateways for your area - but don't neglect good sites not academically produced either
  • Try using phrase searching if possible. Don't use too many words.
  • Note the alternative terms that seem useful for further searching, such as synonyms, different spelling and variations in name
  • Refine your search by using the facilities built into the search engine and try to eliminate as much irrelevant material as is possible
  • If you can't find anything that answers your question, seek help by contacting experts in the field, or by joining mailing list or discussion groups on the topic

Key things to remember about using the Internet for research are:

  • There is more to the internet than search engines and webpages. Contrary to public belief, all information is not available on the net. Try other sources also.
  • Finding good academic material is often best done through gateways
  • Learning more about how search engines work can help you to search better
  • No one search engine, directory or database contains a list of everything on the web
  • Evaluate what you fine to ensure that it is academically suitable

If you need more help contact the library.