Are you having trouble finding what you want on the internet? Here are a few search

strategies that will help you quickly and efficiently find what you are looking for.

Search Strategies

Search Engines

• When beginning an internet search, what do you do first?– When looking for information about Antarctica,

would you type in www.antarctica.com? • Let’s see what happens-

• Okay, that didn’t work. • Let’s try www.skateboards.com

Search Engines

Search Engines

• So, the “dot.com” formula doesn’t seem to work.

• What can we use to search for topics of interest?– What “search engines” have you used? Which

ones do you like best and why?

• There are several out there, and they each have their own usefullness.

Search Engines• For younger students or very basic easy to

read information:– www.askforkids.com (www.ask.com is the adult

version)• This one allows you to search using natural language

processing, like the way we speak. You can type in your question- “What is Antarctica like?” It often provides related topics as well.

Search Engines– www.yahooligans.com• This site provides categories for your search topic to

help get you started.• It also provides category matches with a description of

the information you will find, but the descriptions are brief.

Search Engines• www.kidsclick.org

– This site offers a reading level to help you determine whether or not the text will be appropriate for you.

– It provides detailed descriptions of the information you will find on each site.

– Unfortunately, there are fewer hits for topics on this site.

Search Engines• For older students and adults:

– www.google.com• This site uses text matching to match your search terms with over

8 billion websites. • It ranks and lists the websites by popularity (and therefore

usefulness).• It offers spell check– “Did you mean…” and topics related to your

search terms.

Search Engines

• Other search engines for adults include:– www.yahoo.com – search.aol.com– www.ask.com

• Meta-search engines search other search engines for you:– www.webcrawler.com– www.dogpile.com

Key Words

• Do you think about which words you ought to use before beginning a search?– Some keywords are too broad such as,

“Antarctica,” “volcano,” “animals”– Some keywords are too wordy such as, “types of

animals who live in Antarctica,” “types of wrestling moves,” “What was Jim Carrey’s childhood like?”

“Topic + Focus”

• A “just right” key word search uses the topic + focus such as, “wrestling + techniques,” “Antarctica + vegetation,” “African American + “Nobel Prize” + literature,”

– What if the researcher left out “literature” in the last example?

• Use Topic + Focus– What is the history of lacrosse?

lacrosse history

Evaluating the Search Engine Results

• How do you choose a website from the list?– Do you just pick one at random?– Do you click on each of them in order until you

find one that is useful?– Do you give up if the first one or two do not yields

good results?

• Instead, ask “Which website will match my informational needs?”– Read the descriptions underneath to determine

usefulness and make a choice.• Be sure you have a clear topic + focus in mind first!