Today's lecture was about the use of search engines on the web and how to narrow your searches by the use of characters such as - , ( ) and also the use of words like and, without, or and not. Our lecturer exlplained what everything meant on the screen at the search engines and their functions with your searching. Some examples of search engines are google, yahoo, altavista and dogpile.
Summary of Tutorial:
In the tutorial today we learnt some useful search tips/functions when using search engines. When using search engines you can not be to vague on what it is you are looking for otherwise millions of hits will come up and many of them irrelavent to what it is you are looking for. We were asked to visit the website www.monash.com/spidap.html and list four strategies found on this website on how to structure a good search when using online search engines. Some strategies such as the boolean theory, using keywords, the use of phrases and using other words with the same meaning or definition are just some of the ways to narrow your search.
Reading 1 Summary- ‘Robert Harris-Web Search Strategies’
This reading shows and explains the importance of using search engines and how to use them effectively. Using them effectively can be simple once you know how to, the use of keywords and phrases can narrow searches down. Tells how the internet has become a huge source of information but now it is just a matter of locating the right sources of information to use. If searching for a certain topic try typing in more than one key word or phrase that would come up in a reading on that topic, this should narrow the search down. This webpage also shows some of the more common abbreviations used in the computer language, with this the available the reader can familiarise themself with this lingo.
Reading 2 Summary- ‘ The History of the Internet: (Chap 4- Search Engines)’
This reading gives a brief rundown on the history of the internet and how it all began. In 1990 the first search engine was created for finding and retrieving computer files.
Reading 3 Summary- ‘Search Engine Optimization for Companies’
This is an overview of the internet's search engines and how the became what they are today and also what they started out like. There are thousands of search engines but some can and are more suitable to use than others.
