Searching the Internet

Why Yahoo!Today?

•All search engines are not created equal•They index different contents•They have different features•They generate different results

Why Boolean Operators?- AND, OR, “”, site:

•Natural Language vs. Boolean Operators “Why college textbooks are so expensive?” vs. Textbooks AND (college OR university) site:edu

•Precise•Effective•Efficient•Educational•So, Why Not?

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Start with Good Keywords

•Use background information and read between lines• If your research topic is E-85

▫E-85▫Alternative Fuel▫Green Energy

Green Energy

Alternative Fuel

E-85

AND• Narrow search results – yield less results• Sample Searches

▫cost - 2,150,000,000 Results Cost of living, online shopping mall eCost, COST (Stock

Ticker), …..▫textbooks - 254,000,000 Results

Cheap Textbooks, Online Bookstores…▫cost AND textbooks - 27,300,000 Results

Textbook costs in Higher Ed, Make Textbooks affordable…

OR

•Broaden search results – yield more results•Always use Parentheses () with OR•Sample Searches

▫cost AND textbooks AND college - 9,140,000 Results

▫cost AND textbooks AND (college OR university) - 10,700,000 Results

▫(college OR university) added more search results

Phrase Search “”• Searches the exact phrase• Sample Searches

▫college Student - 742,000,000 Results▫“college Student” - 38,800,000 Results

▫cost of textbooks - 25,100,000 Results▫“cost of textbooks” - 175,000 Results

• Consider replacing prepositions with AND unless it is a part of proper noun such as “University of Nebraska,” “Gone with Wind.”

Tip: Prepositions

•… of … … on … … in … … to… … with …•Sample Searches

▫“cost of textbooks” - 175,000 Results▫cost of textbooks - 25,100,000 Results▫cost AND textbooks - 27,300,0000 Results

site:

• Limit to a specific domain ▫site:edu, site:gov, site:org, site:com, site:mo.us

• Limit to a specific site▫site:nwmissouri.edu

•Sample Searches▫scholarships site:edu

32,300,000 Results▫scholarships site:nwmissouri.edu

1,260 Results

Summary of Searching Techniques•Quotation Marks " "

▫Enclose a phrase of two or more words •AND

▫Combine two topics to narrow a search •OR

▫Connect synonyms to broaden a search •Parentheses ( )

▫Always use to enclose synonyms connected with OR • site:edu

▫Retrieves only pages with the domain .edu