seven steps toward better searching
TRANSCRIPT
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Seven Steps Toward
Better Searching Most people use a search engine by simply typing a few words into the query box
and then scrolling through whatever comes up. Sometimes their choice of wordsends up narrowing the search unduly and causing them not to find what they're
looking for. More often the end result of the search is a haystack of off-target webpages that must be combed through.
You can become a better searcher by simply mastering 7 tricks in AltaVista. To helpyou remember them, think of a sentence so goofy you'll never get it out of your
mind:
My
plumpstarfish
quicklylowered
Lincoln'stie.
What does it all mean? You'll know when you've completed the exercise that follows.
You can access the AltaVista simple search here, and there is a simple search help
page that you should look over now, before we start. Bookmark both of them so thatyou can get back to them at any point.
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Print out the accompanying worksheet NEW and record the number of matchesyou find for each search so that when you review you can see the patterns of
widening and narrowing your search.
Look for something like this and record the
number of hits you get for each search.
Simple Search Practice
Include and Exclude (+ and -)
My plump The first two basic
tools to practice with the simple searchare the use of + and - to include or
exclude words. For example, if you wantedto find sites about Atlantis, the purported
lost continent, and you wanted toeliminate all pages that were about
Atlantis, the space shuttle.
Note: There's no space between the +or - and the word, but there is a space
between words.
You'd type+Atlantis -shuttle
(i.e., +Atlantis space -shuttle)
NOT
+Atlantis-shuttle(i.e., +Atlantis nospace -shuttle)
Try each of the searches now, and recordhow many sites you find.
As you do each search, take note of what
kinds of things turn up. Notice that the
more specific the terms you include andexclude, the more focused your search.
Query # Matches
+Atlantis 241,757
+Atlantis -shuttle 215,857
+Atlantis -shuttle+continent
+Atlantis -shuttle
+continent -film-movie
NEWSFLASH! March 7, 2001. Altavista recently
made a change in their search engine so that the + is
always assumed. (That is, they assume that if you
typed in a word, you really want it included). Someother search engines still use the +, so we're keeping
it in this page for now.
We'll have to come up with a new mnemonic soon to
replace Plump :-)
Thanks to Cheryl Nielsen of Clear Lake, Iowa for
alerting me to the change!
Use the Wildcard (*)
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Starfish A common mistake
people make is to inadvertantly narrow
their search too much by excludingvariations on a word they're looking for.
For example, if you typed in +mushrooms,
you'd miss all those pages that just hadthe singular word mushroom on them.
The * wildcard stands for any letter(s).
The wildcard is also useful for catchingother variations on a word such as
different forms of a verb.
In general, never search for the plural
of a word. Use the wildcard and get both
the singular and plural forms.
Query # Matches
mushrooms
mushroom*
surf*surf* -surface*
Use "Quotes" to Look for a Phrase
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Quickly If you type a sequence of
words in as a query, AltaVista will look for
documents that contain any of thosewords. If you want the words to hang
together as a phrase, you should put
double quotes around them.
Try these:
AltaVista recently added a phrase-
guessing element to its algorithms. If youtype a few words in, and those words are
commonly found hanging together in itsindex, it will assume that you're searching
for them as a phrase even if you don't put
quotes around them. If you're looking fora phrase that is not common, though,
you'll need the quotes.
The ability to search for phrases can besurprisingly useful. Do you suspect that
something your student turned in was plagiarized, or at least heavily borrowed
without attribution? Type in a phrase or two from the paper and see if it turns up
elsewhere! You can also check to see if your own work is being copied without
your permission.
Query # Matches
San Diego
"San Diego"
merits of laziness
"merits of laziness"
Another use for this feature: stamping out urban legends. Next time you get an e-
mail warning you about a repressive new law about to pass or a vicious computer
virus about to attack, check it out before passing on misinformation to others.
use lower case (usually)
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Lowered AltaVista pays attention
to any capital letters you type into a
query. If you search for Octopus, it willonly find documents in which it's spelled
that way. In general, unless you're
after a particular spelling, use alllower case.
Try these:
Query # Matches
Octopus
octopus
WebQuestwebquest
webquest*
Use the link: Tag to Find Pages Linked to Another Page
Lincoln's Suppose you
und the absolutely perfectage about life in Ancient
gypt, and it's located attp://touregypt.net/Antiq.htm.
ou suspect that any other webages out there that contain a
nk to that page would alsoontain things that would
terest your students.
you put all or part of the URL
the page after "link:", you'llet a list of pages that are
nked to the one you found
seful.
Query #
Match
link:http://www.clpgh.org/cmnh/tours/egypt/walton.html
link:edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/webquest.html
Try these and see how many other pages are linked to the Ancient Egypt pageto the WebQuest Page. (In fact, because Altavista has indexed the page you'r
reading now, you'll see it among the Egypt links as well.)
Use the title: Tag to Focus Your Search
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Tie A simple search will find a word
anywhere on the web page. To locate
pages that are primarily about one thing,look for pages that have that thing in their
title. The result is much more tightly
focused.
Note: There can be a space betweentitle: and the next word or not. It
doesn't seem to matter.
Try these:
Query # Matches
frog*
title:frog*
webquesttitle:webquest
So, to recap... remembering this sentence will help you to remember the seven
techniques you just experimented with:
My plump starfish quickly lowered Lincoln's tie.
minus plus star quoteslower
caselink: title:
-exclude +include wildcard*"phrases in
quotes"case MATTERS
find pageslinked
find words inthe title