Tipperary Institute
About Us
Search Engines:
What are they? Which to use?
There are alot of search engines who use robot code to crawl the Internet and index websites.
- www.google.com
- www.yahoo.com
- www.altavista.com
- www.searchenginewatch.com provides latest information about search engines.
Web Searching tutorial at www.brightplanet.com/deepcontent/index.asp
Search Refinement
Search for nouns and objects as query keywords as opposed to verbs. Broadband, Tipperary, Wireless. For best results use 6 to 8 keywords in query. Search Tip: Always keep in mind the who, what, where, how and why in formulating your query.
Use AND to match two words. e.g. Broadband AND Tipperary AND Wireless. Search Tip: AND should be your most frequently used Boolean operator. Use synonyms via the OR operator. Example: discover* OR find
Combine keywords into phrases where possible. Use quotes to denote phrases. Phrases restrict results to EXACT matches.e.g. "Wireless Broadband in Tipperary". Search Tip: Always look for natural phrases in your query concepts — they are one of the most powerful weapons available.
Use the asterisk wildcard to truncate words to pick up singular and plural versions.
Combine 2 to 3 "concepts" in query. Triangulating on multiple query concepts narrows and targets results. Order "concepts" with subject first. Link "concepts" with the AND operator. Issue query to full "Boolean" search engine or metasearcher.
Meta Searching
Is using a website which checks all the major search engines.
Subject Directories
Attempt to use human intelligence more than just raw search engine power.
- www.invisibleweb.net
- www.alphasearch.org
- http://infomine.ucr.edu
- www.kartoo.com
- www.thebrain.com
- www.excite.com
Evaluating Web Content
Who has published it? Do you know and trust them?
What perspective are they coming from? How does this perspective compare to yours?
Are the facts presented clearly, separated from opinion, and are they verifiable?
When was it published? Is it still accurate and up-to-date?
Is it what you’re looking for? Was it easy to find?