Smart Keyword Searching

Just think! Every major search engine has information about millions and millions of World Wide Web sites. At the click of a button, a search engine sorts through what it "knows" and lists the sites it "thinks" you want. In some ways, a search engine is like a well-trained dog. It will fetch what you tell it to and only that.

HOW MANY WORDS?While single words are better commands for dogs, a balance between too few and too many words is better for searching. Think of Goldilocks tasting the porridge!

* A search for a single word may “fetch” a million sites. Obviously, it’s tough

and frustrating to check a million sites to find the best one for your needs. * Adding more words “fetches” fewer sites that are closer to what you need.* Adding too many words, such as an entire sentence or question, causes the search engine to “fetch” sites with any or all of those words.

Choose a search engine: Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Dogpile, etc.

THE QUESTION: Is the element mercury toxic? Let’s say your teacher tells you to find the

answer. In your search engine, start by typing in mercury and hitting the enter key.

Look over the description of the first ten sites in the list.

SEARCH ENGINE YOU’RE USING:Google

NUMBER OF WEB PAGES RETRIEVED:291,000,000

TELL WHAT THEY ARE ABOUT BY LOOKING AT THE SITE TITLES & MINI-DESCRIPTIONS:Element, planet, mercury on twitter, images, educational, insurance, marine, cars, vaccines, characteristics

By now you may realize that the word mercury has more than one meaning. Try addingan additional key word to tell what it is about mercury that really interests you. Type in mercury element.

Look over the description of the first few sites in the list.

Although these sites might have the answer to your question, they might not. Now try adding athird word. Type in mercury element toxic.

Look over the description of the first few sites.

Now you are getting somewhere! By now all the sites retrieved should help answerthe question.

How many results do you get using each of these search termsSearch terms Resultsantsants eggsworker ants eggs“worker ants” eggs

NUMBER OF WEB PAGES RETRIEVED:

 48,800,000

TELL WHAT THEY ARE ABOUT BY LOOKING AT THE SITE TITLES & MINI-DESCRIPTIONS: They are about the mercury element Wikipedia, the chemical element, facts about the mercury element, element information properties, uses etc. and facts.

NUMBER OF WEB PAGES RETRIEVED:731,000

TELL WHAT THEY ARE ABOUT BY LOOKING AT THE SITE TITLES & MINI-DESCRIPTIONS: They are about the poisoning, toxicity, Mercury health, in the environment,

ANSWER IN A COMPLETE SENTENCE:

“worker ants” eggs k3

Looking at the Numbers - CONCLUSIONCompare the number and types of web results for your searches as they relate to or connect with the search terms you used. In other words, write sentences describing what you learned from doing this assignment. What did you learn about choosing key words?