Objective
This module is a comprehensive introduction to internet searching methods and strategies. Assuming no previous understanding, the module will explain methods to find what you are “genuinely” seeking out in place of masses of other exciting hyperlinks. Searching is simple; locating what you are seeking out can, on occasion, be hard. Hopefully, the recommendation will make your subsequent Web Search powerful. While 3 quarters of the Web customers of the sector cite finding records as their most important use of the Internet, identical percentages also cite their incapability to find the facts they need as their largest frustration. The cause of this module is to help you quit that frustration. Staff at ICIMOD additionally indicated that Internet Searching is a concern subject matter during schooling desires evaluation.
Key topics
Part A: Tools and Effective Searching
1. Overview of the World Wide Web
2. Before Starting the Search
3. Tools for Searching
4. Which Tools ought to you operate
5. Building your Search Strategy
6. Keywords Searching
7. Phrase Searching
eight. Boolean search
9. Advanced Search/Field Searching
10. Checking the Results
11. Useful to Know
Part B: References
Part C: Practical Exercise – Let’s Start Searching!
Part A
1. Overview of World Wide Web
The Internet is not just about information; it’s far and a worldwide network of folks that share statistics, engage, and speak. From its customers’ point of view, the Internet is a big series of resources–people, statistics, and multimedia.
The Internet is an inter-linked community of networks; the World Wide Web is the “digital” internet linking these networks. Each device (or group of machines – for example, ICIMOD computers related to the internet via V-SAT) on a network has a unique “deal with” from which it could request and acquire data. A Web “browser” is a patron software that requests records from different computers, which briefly characteristic as “servers” sending the data upon request. The Web has existed for a long time. However, its exponential use and boom started in 1995 when graphical Web browsers (like Netscape, Internet Explorer) have become extra famous.
At ICIMOD, Internet Explorer is the widely used web browser. With these graphical internet browsers, the Internet, especially the internet, became “consumer-friendly,” and people commenced to broaden and submit websites and internet pages. The hyperlink is the gain of the web pages. The hyperlink is the element in a web page that links to another page/location on the same internet site or a completely exclusive website. Typically, you click on the hyperlink to comply with the hyperlink.
There are billions of web websites on the internet. With billions of net pages online, you may spend a lifetime browsing the Web, following links from one page to any other. Amusing possibly, however now not very efficient in case you are after some precise statistics. One of the most important issues we revel in is the difficulty of locating focused/particular data. Where do you start from? Searching
Searching the Internet requires ability, luck, and a bit bit of art.
2. Before Starting the Search
The easiest way to locate records is to realize a web page Internet address or URL (Uniform Resource Locator) inclusive of ICIMOD home internet site. You can locate these addresses on business cards, email signatures, or newspapers. Type the URL in the browser’s address container and hit the key. If you do not recognize the URL, you will have to discover it by searching the Internet. In many instances, a simple seek on an organization’s call inside maximum search engines like google will return an immediate hit on their internet.
3. Tools for Searching
There are many seek gear to be had:
· Web Directories / Virtual Library / Library Gateways
· Search Engines / Meta-search engines like google
· Deep net databases
‘Web Directories’ (challenge directory) are the repositories of beneficial internet websites organized right into a hierarchical, problem-based totally structure. They require human beings to view the man or woman Web website and determine its placement into a subject category scheme or taxonomy. Once completed, certain key phrases related to one’s websites can be used to search the directory’s information banks to discover Web sites of interest.
For searches that can be effortlessly labeled, such as shades providers, the quest directories tend to provide the most regular and well-clustered effects. This advantage is usually confined entirely to the one’s category regions already used in the taxonomy with that service’s aid. For example, Yahoo has about 2,000 classifications (apart from what it calls ‘Regional’ ones, which can be a duplication of the primary class areas with the aid of geographic region) in its contemporary taxonomy. The Open Directory Project has nearly 590,000 classes and 5,142,051 web sites. Some widely used web directories are:
Google™ Directory
Open Directory Project (ODP) – the most important net directory
Yahoo!
Zeal
The virtual library is a web directory that consists of enormously selective links, chosen in most cases through librarians. Use library gateways whilst you are seeking out excessive first-class records websites on the Web. You may be pretty certain that those websites were reviewed and evaluated by way of problem professionals for their accuracy and content material. Popular digital libraries include:
- Librarians’ Index to the Internet
- INFOMINE
- Internet Public Library
- The WWW Virtual Library
Funded by way of Danida and Sida and hosted with the aid of the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, Eldis offers a large collection of sources for 40 development-related sectors.
SD Gateway consists of over 1200 documents referring to sustainable development, NGOs.
Mountain Forum’s Online Library, for articles and courses on global mountain troubles.
Search engines index every painting within all or a part of documents. When you pose a query to a search engine, it matches your question works in opposition to the facts it has in its databases to offer a listing of feasible documents assembly your request. Search engines are great for searches in more tough subject matter areas or those that fall into the gray regions between the issue classifications used by directories. But, engines like google are silly and can handiest give you what you ask for. You can now and then get heaps of documents matching a query. At best, even the biggest serps best index a small fraction of the Internet’s documents.
It is critical to remember the fact that while you are the user of a search engine, you are NOT looking at the whole net because it exists at this second. You are without a doubt looking at a part of the web, captured in a hard and fast index created at an in advance date.
Popular search engines presently are:
- Google™
- Teoma
- AltaVista
Meta-search engines do no longer crawl the web, compiling their personal, searchable databases. Instead, they search the databases of a couple of sets of individual serps simultaneously, from a single site and the use of the equal interface. Meta-searchers provide a short way of locating out which engines are retrieving the fine outcomes for your search.
Deep internet (or invisible net or hidden net databases) is the name given to pages on the World Wide Web that aren’t listed using conventional search engines like google and yahoo. It consists of pages that aren’t linked to through other pages, including Dynamic Web pages. Dynamic Web pages are basically searchable databases that deliver Web pages generated simply in reaction to a question.
4. Which Tools You Should Use
If you seek out unique facts, use search engines (e.G. Paper presented on biodiversity in the 2005 ABCD convention. You could additionally use a keyword look for difficult to understand subjects, move-category searches (e.G. Mountain and GIS, environment, and soil)
If you’re looking for trendy statistics on popular subjects, use subject (web) directories. You can also use it in cases in which you do not understand any keywords associated with a topic
Use virtual library/Library gateways while you are searching out high first-rate facts websites on the Web. You can be pretty positive that these websites had been reviewed and evaluated using situation specialists for their accuracy and content.
If you’re seeking out a unique or obscure, seek time period or in case you want to make an in-intensity analysis of what is out there on the Web on a selected problem, then use meta-search engines.
If you’re looking for actual-time information or for dynamically changing content such as the ultra-modern news, telephone e-book listings, available airline flights, and so forth., then use deep databases (invisible or deep internet.)
5. Building Your Search Strategy
Your capability to discover the facts you are seeking on the Internet is a feature of how specific your queries are and how successfully you use search offerings. Poor queries return bad outcomes; true queries return brilliant effects. Search outcomes are only as desirable as the question you pose and how you search. There is no silver bullet.
The statistics experts at the University of California at Berkeley propose a graduated method to Web looking. Here is their stepwise collection of steps to follow, which we generally endorse for starting searchers:
1. ANALYZE your subject matter to determine wherein to begin
2. Pick the right beginning place
3. Learn as you go & VARY your method with what you learn
4. Don’t abate in any strategy that does not paintings
5. Return to preceding strategies with higher knowledge.
As you benefit from the experience, you could begin reducing out the center steps. By the time you are doing actual heavy lifting together with your queries, you without a doubt most effective want spend some time first getting your query proper, after which cutting to the lowest line with a full Boolean search the usage of terms and 3 or so principles related through the AND operator and multiple search engines like google.
Following those suggestions, right here are endorsed steps to imminent the Internet search project:
· Spend time BEFORE your search to research what it’s miles you’re seeking out
· Use nouns in your queries – the who/what, whilst, wherein, how and why; keep away from conjunctions, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives
· Use key phrases on the right “stage” of specificity: unique, but not overly restrictive
· Use phrases wherein natural; they’re your most powerful weapon
· User-based (“Boolean”) syntax, especially the ‘AND’ operator
· Constrain your search by way of the usage of or 3 related, but narrowing, principles for your query
· BUT, normally, preserve overall query duration restricted to 6 to eight key phrases most
· Use superior search options and uniqueness functions whilst suitable
· For tough searches, use simplest serps that assist Boolean syntax, or gear or meta searchers that do
· For specific topic searches, don’t forget search engines like google tailored to the one’s subjects
6. Keywords Searching
Despite all of the gobbledygook approximately such things as ‘Boolean’ and implied operators, the maximum hard – and essential – aspect of a seek are the keywords used in your query. Mastering the principles at the back of a search isn’t as complicated as it may seem initially. The first few searches are perhaps tough; however, once executed, the nuggets in the back of your data request start becoming clear. Like using a bike for the first time, it does take a few exercises.
Before typing the keywords, take a while and brainstorm relevant phrases. Create a listing of seeking terms. Write them down. A few seconds of brainstorming may want to save you mins or hours of retrieving inappropriate consequences.
What are the characteristics to search for at the same time as buying a diamond? You should underline the principle concepts, consequently – What are the characteristics to look for at the same time as purchasing a diamond. Select synonyms and variation phrases, if required- (pleasant, functions) (shopping for, procuring).
Formulate a question with simple concept/phrases first, e.G. Search phrases – “diamond shopping for manual” is well sufficient.
7. Phrase Searching
A compelling manner to increase the relevance or precision of “hits” is to look like a word. In most cases, without a doubt, approach setting citation marks across the search terms. “net searching” is an extraordinary search than net searching in most search engines. What you are truly doing through searching as a phrase is the usage of the concept of proximity, which issues the phrases’ bodily closeness to one another (this is, their proximity). A record with a net looking near or after every other is more likely to be on course than a file with the internet in the identity and searching buried within the textual content.
Find the quantity of list decreased from 30, one hundred,000 to 977,000 whilst using the word for searching the internet looking.
8. Boolean seek
Boolean looking is an implementation of Boolean common sense and set theory. Boolean operators, including AND, OR, and NOT, are used to mix search units in various methods and seem within Internet search engines in several disguises. A rapid evaluation:
Search phrase: cats and dogs or cats puppies
method locate internet pages wherein both phrases arise
Search word: cats OR dogs
manner discover web pages in which either term occurs
Search word: cats NOT puppies (use cats -puppies in Google as NOT is supported)
method find internet pages in which the term dogs appear; however, now not cats
Most web search engines like google have the capability to put in force those fundamental Boolean operators but can also exceptionally present them. You will almost continually need to visit an “Advanced” seek function to use genuine Boolean operators; but, you’ll be capable of searching the usage of implied Boolean using the symbols + (have to consist of) or – (exclude) from the “Basic” search interface.
Note: those Boolean operators are often presented as options like “encompass all the phrases,” (AND operator) “consist of any of the words,” (OR operator) and “exclude” (NOT operator).
While you might assume that search engines default to an implied AND (which means that if you input 2 search terms, it returns files in which they BOTH occur), in truth, this isn’t continually the case — a few serps default to the to start with unhelpful OR (it returns files in which EITHER occur)
Use an *, called a wildcard, to fit any word(s) in a phrase (enclosed in quotes) mainly with Google.
Search phrase: “Mountain * poverty.”
manner locate net pages containing a word that starts with “mountain” observed using a phrase(s), observed by using “poverty.”
Phrases that healthy include: “mountain assuaging poverty,” “mountain areas poverty,” “mountain regions remained in poverty.”
9. Advanced Search / Field looking
Remember that a web search engine is only as good as its database and indexes. Databases are collections of facts prepared similarly; really positioned, this means they’re divided into fields that include the same statistics in each record. If facts are entered into a separate area, you can retrieve them using its discipline label. This approach that in case you want to look by way of title, the quest engine seems in a special title index (or searches notations that imply that the time period happens in the name area) wherein it has amassed data from the field with the label title. Many keyword search engine also has an “advanced seek” option, additionally known as subject searching. This will permit you to specify which keywords have to appear, allowing more control over the consequences.
Field looking is so outstanding that you can specify wherein to look in the web record, for instance, within the name handiest or the URL fields. Field looking allows you to be unique about where you want your terms to occur and consequently is a very effective device.
Field Searching is likewise the method used in searching databases. Particularly, websites sharing databases offer this as a seek device inside an internet site. For example, to search ICIMOD’s Library database or Mailing List Database or even FAO’s guides database, field looking is provided.
Nesting
Nesting uses brackets with Boolean operators to make your search query syntax extra significant and specific—for instance, pan pizza and either coke or ice-cream and cheese.
Simple type in “pan pizza” AND coke OR ice-cream and cheese. This syntax might be confusing to engines like google as it may be interpreted with many meanings – it can imply pan pizza and coke, or coke and cheese, so we use brackets to separate the blocks – “pan pizza” AND (coke OR ice-cream) and cheese. Just don’t forget your high college arithmetic.
10. Checking the Results
Now you have got a hard activity. After a search, you have to decide which search effects will take you to the most informative website. Your high-quality guess is to take a look at the identification and description of the webpage. Are they relevant for your seek? If yes, open the page. If not, test the following result by scrolling down at the browser’s right facet.
To view a page, you’ve got alternatives.
1. Click on the name of the web page – although it says “No identity” or “?????”. Place the cursor at the page name, and the cursor will exchange to the picture of a hand. Usually, the hyperlinks are in blue and underlined; however, often, they’re no longer.
2. The 2nd technique is to open the web page in a brand new browser window. Right-click on the title of the result. This produces a pop-up menu. Select “open (link) in a new window.” After checking the result, near the new browser window. You will nonetheless have the first window browser along with you seek.
If you use the primary approach maximum probable, you’ll not use the lower back button to go lower back to the outcomes page, but instead, you’ll genuinely close the window, losing the quest web page altogether.
What to do whilst you get TOO MANY consequences.
It’s a commonplace to receive millions of outcomes, often unrelated to the quest. To acquire more applicable results, you’ll need to refine or even reconsider the search. Here are a few ideas that will help you refine your search:
Add one or greater descriptive words to your question.
Use terms. Enclose two or greater phrases that could appear in genuine order within double citation marks.
Use Boolean Operator as you want to be precise or Exclude phrases with NOT or implied Boolean.
Use the hunt device’s “advanced seek” features. Limit you’re seeking via language, date, or by discipline searching: name, URL, link, and many others.
What to do while you get TOO FEW consequences
Sometimes you will get messages like “Your seek did now not in shape any files” or “No pages had been discovered containing your question” or “No outcomes.” In other instances, you may get few or inappropriate results. What should do you do:
· Check the spelling of the query. Some serps robotically stumble on misspelled phrases and could show the correct spelling. Just click on the recommended phrase or phrases.
· Delete the least crucial phrase from the question.
· If you used seek terms, try eliminating the double-quotes.
· Use more trendy phrases, alternate spellings, plural paperwork, or synonyms. “Google™ has currently introduced a new superior seek function that allows you to now not only look for a selected keyword however additionally for its synonyms. Just location the “~” (tilde) mark without delay in front of the keyword in your seek to question. For instance, “UN ~vacancies” not the most effective searches for “UN vacancies,” but also for “UN process possibilities,” “UN employment opportunities,” and “UN Jobs.”
Evaluating the Results
First of all, do not accept as true with the entirety you examine on the Internet. Be cautious about what you trust. Governmental corporations, instructional institutions, libraries, and prestigious guides are the most reliable sources of information. Be circumspect with data discovered on non-public websites stored in loose hosts.
Tips on evaluating a domain useful resource
1. Is the internet website online posted using an authoritative supply?
2. Is the writer an identified expert within the discipline or difficulty vicinity?
Three. Are the facts applicable, credible, and accurate? It does not harm to pass take a look at a few extra, dependable assets.
4. Is the website modern-day and lately updated?
5. Does the website online have an expert “appearance and experience”: structure, format, shade scheme, navigation menu(s), etc.? Are there spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistakes?
6. Does the website have contact information, including a postal address, smartphone, or e-mail?
Rest confident that locating facts on the Web is by no means a query of good fortune. Instead, it is the result of radical expertise of how search tools paintings, blended with mastering the art of making a centered search query. Searching the Web is not hard. Like any challenge, you, in reality, need to press the proper buttons.
Author: Deependra Tandukar
This article has been peer-reviewed via Mr. Sushil Pandey, ICIMOD.
