Presentation on theme: "Using Search Engines How to find what you need quickly!"— Presentation transcript:
Using Search Engines How to find what you need quickly!
What search engines? Search Engines look throughout the Internet to find the words you are looking for. Some examples of Search Engines are: Dogpile.com – a meta search engine Google.com Netscape.com Yahoo.com
What is a “Meta Search Engine”? Meta Search Engines search more than one search engine at the same time. They can search up to 20 search engines all at once.
How to Search Engines Work? Search engines actually search the web to “index” all of the words on the Internet. This is a huge job! A good search engine will be able to find the exact words you are looking for. Some search engines search only certain types of sites, like medical sites, animal sites, and so on. The results they give will be more limited, but probably more through.
How To Search Search by word: rainforest Search by phrase: rainforest destruction Search by question: Why are rainforests being destroyed? Search by name of an author: Steve Knight Google.com
How To Search When searching, keep these things in mind: Capitol letters or lower case letters do not make any difference in search results If you put your words in “ “ the search engines will search for that exact phrase only If you do not put your words in “ “ the search engines will search for pages that include all of those words. They may not be all together.
Do all search engines give the same results? No, they do not. Not even close. A meta search engine should give the most results Google gives very comprehensive results, quickly. Google.com Google.com
Why can’t I find what I want? Simple. You aren’t searching the right way. If you want to find out about coyote population trends, you have to search on that. Your search phrase should be something like: “coyote population trends” or “elephant population trends”. Google.com Google.com
Is that all? No How about this: “Why is the impala population going down?” “What is the social structure of the baboon?”
Try more than one search engine. If you don’t like the results from one search engine, try another on. They are different and search differently. Google.com Google.com
What do I do if the answers I get are all different? Only you can decide which information to use. If you get conflicting results, keep searching for more sources. Consider who is supplying the information. A scientist? A college? Look for the author of the page.
Document Your Sources If you use Google for a search and then go to a website from Google, your source is not Google. Your source is the website you visited. Don’t list Google as a source (or Dogpile, or Netscape or any other search engine)
And last but not least; If you have a library card for the Maricopa County Regional Library, don’t be afraid to use it. You can use the card anywhere you have access to an Internet computer, and you can use their online research tools.