Searching the Internet Effectively
I always thought you logged on to the Internet, did a key word search and then went through the THOUSANDS of sites to find what you needed. I couldn't understand why people loved the Internet so much, it seemed like a lot more work than going to the library and looking up what I needed. Well, since I was searching so poorly, it was faster for me to drive to the library and look up information. I never realized there was a difference between a search engine and a directory. Now that I do watch out!
I now know that you want to use a search engine (Google.com) when you have clearly defined terms and a directory (Yahoo.com) when it's hard to define your search in a few key terms. I also understand that there are advance searches to help you filter through all those unwanted sites to shorten your research time.
The only thing that is still a little puzzling to me, is whether or not the information is correct and trustworthy. Why would someone want to deliberately put out false information? At least now, I know to verify the information before using it somewhere else.
2 comments:
Search engine vs. subject directory, what is the difference? is the question many people still have. Knowing the difference can definately be confusing. I always used to just use google to search for everything. Now I use the more advance features, which is much more helpful.
As far as trusting everything you see on the internet is still a difficult process, but an excellent question to always have on your mind.
Yes, using the advanced features of the internet is helpful. It is also helpful to use a number of search devices based on what you are searching for. Did you know that Google has a four different search engines? I use Google scholar a lot to find scholarly articles. I also used yahoo when I need to search for something that fits nicely into the area of subject directories. Yahoo also will give alternative subject searches that relate to your first entry. There are other search engines as well. You can actually design your own that will only look at site that you trust. There is one out there, (http://www.podscope.com/) that can search audio and video files, not for text, but for the spoken word! Don’t forget about social networking site either where others share useful site matrixes. As far as what information to trust: I have few tips. One, trust authorities on the subject, they can be found at university sites and in scholarly article searches. Two, established sites where there is a public trust, like the Library of Congress and the Federal Resave bank site. Three, you can often trust sites that are giving primary source information, like a copy of the Constitution. Fourth, you can trust sites referred to you by people who either you trust or are authorities on the subject. I hope that this is helpful, but be advised you can do it all right and still get bad information.
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