Module 4: Searching the Web

After reading Using Web Search Tools and Specialised Databases and doing the pop quiz at the end of each page, I was wanting to put searching into practise. I knew of advanced search options, but wasn't sure how they operated. Time and again in the past, I would either use too many words or have to change the order they came in to see different results. Now I'm a little more informed as to how I get my answers when using a search engine, I want to see the difference in using the new areas.

Figure 1 Figure 2

The two search trees above were such a simple way to think about search engines, I had to add them. That way, I didn't need to keep referring to the tutorial. The first one is an outline of search engines, the second is for specialised databases.

As instructed, I used my normal search engine (Google) to look for "Internet Communication", a broad topic that I need extra information on anyway, and then search for the same words in a variety of engines using Copernic. These were the first five of 89,100,000 results for internet communication through Google.




A massive amount of hits using Google didn't surprise me. Using these very common words to search for through Google basically leaves you with a lot of sifting to do before you would get to any information that is specific to your need. However, lots of information relating to a topic that I want to know more about can be beneficial. I have the ability here to broaden my thinking as there is more to browse, I may stumble across something that is relevant unintentionally. Google takes a very generalised approach when searching the web and grabs anything with the keywords in the title and the content.

Next I used Copernic to search for the same words. To do this, I clicked on the world icon which linked up to the web and a new search page appeared not unlike the Google page. I was wondering how to change the settings to make the program search three different engines, but realised on getting my results that it searches a broad range of engines anyway.

I also became aware that Copernic is a meta search engine. The top five of 93 hits were:



Ok, so obviously we are a lot lower on the hit rate for the words internet communication using Copernic. What did come up was of no use to me really and I found that more words were needed to specify what I was looking for. In the column on the right in the picture you can see that Copernic prompts you to help minimise the search. I opted for internet and social effect which gave me some useful sites to visit. This was a much better way of searching for a specific topic.


Interestingly, to me, were the results I found searching the database at the Education Resources Information Centre (ERIC). The same two words I had used previously internet communication
gave me a list of 3195 results. I felt like I had hit information jackpot! Here were some journalistic excerpts that focused on the Internet. Most were recent and relevant to my purpose. I now have some journals that I can reference for my concepts assignment and I am very pleased with the way all of this searching has turned out.



I searched deep web search engine Complete Planet and got 586 hits for Internet communication. The first 5 hits were of no use to me but more research into what the best way to appoach that style of search engine is necessary. I will definitely be using my new found searching skills from now on. Previously, I had felt frustrated by my inability to find any relevant information that I could use to reference my concepts assignment, now not only have I done that, but I have blogged the search task! This task was a very efficient use of my morning, and couldn't have come at a better time.