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Beyond GoogleSean Barr

Bernie MathiasJan 30th, 2013

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Outline of Session

•Using Google to the fullest/ Google Scholar•Alternatives to Google•The Deep Web•Directories & Subject Gateways

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Overview of the Web

• Hundreds of millions of sites- Billions of pages• Browsers –Firefox, Chrome, Safari, IE etc• Search Engines such as Google – use Spiders and

Crawlers to extract data• Indexed and Stored in the Search Engine database• You search the database -not the web.

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Search engines

Use a search engine when you have a clear idea what you are looking for on a specific subject.

Use more search terms and more specific terms to give you more specific results.

Search engines usually link your search terms with AND (i.e. search for all terms).

Use quote marks to search for a specific phrase (e.g. “climate change”).

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Search tips

1. filetype :ppt e.g. Horsemeat:ppt

2. Site :nhs.uk e.g. Horsemeat :site:nhs.uk

3. ~ tilde for synonyms e.g ~Horsemeat

4. - minus . Exclude pages that contain it e.g.

burgers –Horsemeat

5. Verbatim

6. Instant

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More search tips

Repeat your key search terms:

• chocolate production UK france belgium • chocolate production UK france belgium belgium belgium

– different resultsChange the order of your terms:

• chocolate production Belgium Switzerland • production Belgium Switzerland chocolate

– different results

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Google is now more than just Google

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Two Worlds Collide

Facebook's Graph Search is as much a search engine as Google's Google+ is a social network.

“Social Search”

Google coming at it from the “Search”side.

Facebook from the “Social” side

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Facebook Graph Search –Privacy fears

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Google Scholar

Provides a search of scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles

Also features Alerts, Metrics and Citations

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Google Scholar Use with caution!

•searches “scholarly literature” not the whole web•not restricted to peer-reviewed content•includes “cited by” and “Related Articles” links•secrecy about coverage; important exclusions•“library links” option (in Preferences)•“import into EndNote” option (in Preferences)

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More Academic Options

Iseek - Clusters results into topics, people, places, organisations, date & time.

“Education” option – more research oriented pages

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All Googled out ?

DDG for example doesn’t personalize, filter or track. Some report better results than with Google.

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Multi-search engines or ‘One site to Search them all’

Zuulahttp://www.zuula.com•Runs your search through a range of search tools one by one•Order can be customised

MrSapohttp://www.mrsapo.com•Similar to Zuula but with more options

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The Deep Web

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The Deep Web

•Visible Web: the web pages that a standard search engine can find and index.

•Deep Web: everything else.

aka: The Invisible Web; The Hidden Web; Deepnet; DarkNet; Undernet

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Deep Web resources

•Dynamic content•Unlinked content•Subscription / password-protected content•Limited access / robot exclusions•Multimedia content•Gopher / FTP content

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Searching the Deep Web

You have probably used the invisible web without being aware of it.

•Library catalogues•Electronic journals•Bibliographic databases

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Web Directories & Subject Gateways

Useful for finding web sites rather than specific pages or pieces of text.

Manually compiled.

Quality control: academics & librarians.

Open Directory Project: http://www.dmoz.org/Yahoo Directory: http://dir.yahoo.com/

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Mailing Lists

• JISCmail http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/ has thousands of groups covering many categories.

• Useful way to keep up to date with developments in your subject areas.

• Can subscribe to groups on a very wide range of topics and join in debates and discussions.

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Science/Academic Search Engines

RefSeek – http://www.refseek.com

Scirus – http://www.scirus.com

Scientific WebPlus - http://scientific.thomsonwebplus.com

Science.gov – http://www.science.gov

WorldWideScience.org - http://worldwidescience.org

Science Accelerator - http://www.scienceaccelerator.gov