Savvy Searching:Strategies for more
effective Web searching
Tech TuesdaySeptember 28, 2010
Lisa J.M. LinfieldTechnology Education Specialist
Cooperative Extension Technology Services
Why be savvy?
“Recently…our systems that process links on the web to find new content hit a milestone: 1 trillion (as in 1,000,000,000,000) unique URLs on the web at once!”
- The Official Google Blog2008
Today we will explore…
Web search tools
Strategies to make Web searches more effective
Clues to look for when evaluating Websites for credibility
Search Engine Sampler
All -purpose
Meta-search
Human-powered
…plus a few hundred more!
Search process
Evaluate results
Identify keywords and
phrases
Modify and refine search
Try more than one search
tool
Strategy
Be as specific as you can with keywords Synonyms? Try to put main keyword first
Learn one or two search engines well Know some advanced searching features
(Look for the HELP tool)▪ Boolean searching (AND, NOT, OR)▪ Exact phrase, exclude/include words, site specific
searching, specific doc types, etc.
ABCs of Savvy Searching
Authority and
Accuracy
Bias or
BalanceCurrency and
Completeness
Authority and Accuracy Clues
Links to biographical statements
Copyright symbol ©
Tilde ~ in URL
Contact info for author or organization
Parody or satire?
Grammatical or spelling errors
Bias or Balance Clues
Type of site (blog, scholarly journal, etc.) URL (.edu, .gov, etc.)
“About This Site”
Requests for money, time, registration
Evidence/documentation
Ads
Currency and Completeness Clues
Relevant hyperlinks Links to outside sources
Page revision or creation dates
Dated materials
“Under construction”
For further learning
Web Search Strategies in Plain Englishhttp://www.commoncraft.com/search
Research Help from Steenbock Library http://steenbock.library.wisc.edu/instruct/research-help.html
Google Search Cheat Sheet http://www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html
Bing Search Tipshttp://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/ff524480.aspx
Comprehensive List of Search Engines (descriptions)http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/
Choose the best search engine for your information needshttp://www.noodletools.com