apply an effective search strategy to locate required information on the Internet
Read pages 205, 207 and 207 of Computers: Tools for an Information Age, Capron, HL
A Search Engine is a piece of software that you can access via the WWW and a browser like Netscape or Internet Explorer that provides you with the address of sites (and other information) based upon information that provide. Examples of search engines are Alta Vista, Yahoo and Web Wombat.
These search engines do not all work using the same algorithms and thus are not equal. Each Search Engine works in it's own way and returns name address of sites based upon the data you have entered as a search criteria and the way it seaks out the data.
Searchers can be refined by using boolean operators. These are usually AND, OR and NOT. Note that the operators are in upper case.
AND - both search values must be found to produce a hit.
eg Rottnest AND Snorkle should provide sites that relate to snorkling on Rottnest Island
OR - either search value must be found to provide a hit
eg Perth OR Bunbury should provides sites that relate to either city
NOT - the search value must not be found.
In most cases, brackets can be used to group the search value and boolean operators to exactly specify waht is required.
eg (Perth OR "Margaret River") AND Surfing should provide sites about surfing at either location. Note that Margaret River is in quotes. This is to tie the two words Margaret and River together.
Some search engines use other methods of selecting data such as Piping, forcing words that must appear, and using key words such as site:, link:, url: and title: (see http://www.search.com)
An example of piping is: Rottnest | bicycle. This will select sites that relate to Rottnest and then filter out those that relate to bicycle.
Task
For each of the following, find the Help pages and read them. Then write a short paragraph on how the engine works, what it indexes and how advanced searching works.
Mike Leishman