search engines meta engines people directories subject directories domains explained urls explained...
TRANSCRIPT
• Search Engines• Meta Engines• People Directories• Subject Directories• Domains explained• URLs explained• Hypertext Language
Contents
Search Engines
When will I use them?
• Use when looking for information about a specific topic.
E.g. Bastille day
Search Engines
What are they? How do they work?
• Search engines allow keyword searches on the World Wide Web.
• Information is gathered by programs called robots or spiders.
AllTheWebhttp://www.alltheweb.com/
Googlehttp://www.google.com/
Hotbothttp://www.hotbot.com/
Useful Search Engines
Meta Engines
How do they work?• Meta engines are
programs which query multiple web sources (search engines, web directories and/or other specialized databases). They do not have their own databases.
• They send queries simultaneously to their specified web sources (varies with each meta engine). Many of them integrate the search results and rank according tovarious criteria.
What are they?
Meta Engines
When will I use them?
• Use these engines when you want the highest recall of documents on a specific subject.
Beaucouphttp://beaucoup.com/
Ixquick Metasearchhttp://www.ixquick.com/
Profusionhttp://www.profusion.com/
Useful Meta Engines
People Directories
What are they? How are they organized?• People directories are
often referred to as ‘whitepages’ and include directories of email and snail mail addresses and telephone numbers.
• The information is gathered by robots or by submissions by individuals.
People Directories
When will I use them?
• Use when looking for email and snail mail addresses and telephone numbers.
WhoWherehttp://www.whowhere.com/
IAF (Internet Address Finder)http://www.iaf.net/
Whitepageshttp://wp.superpages.com/
Useful People Directories
Subject Directories
What are they? How are they organized?
• An index or catalog of Web sites.
• They are organized by humans.
Subject Directories
When will I use them?
• Use when looking for general information about a topic.
E.g. education, medicine
• Use when looking for a list of sites which have been selected by human experts.
LookSmarthttp://www.looksmart.com/
Lycoshttp://www.lycos.com/
Yahoohttp://www.yahoo.com/
Useful Subject Directories
Domains Explained
What are they?• A domain name is a meaningful and easy-
to-remember “handle” for an Internet address.
• The domain name system (DNS) is the way that internet domain names are located and translated into computer addresses.
Domains Explained
How do they help?• The DNS includes:
• Name of country e.g. ca for Canada e.g. fr for France E.g. au for Australia
• Type of organization e.g. com for commercial e.g. edu for educational e.g. gov for government
• Name of organization e.g. brown for Brown University
URLs Explained
An example
• The URL for Brown University is:
http://www.brown.edu
• Typically a WWW address includes:
• http:// - hypertext transfer protocol• www - World Wide Web• brown - name of the organization• edu - type of organization
Web Browsers
What are they?• The web browser is a software program
installed on your PC that lets you look at (or “browse”) websites.
• Popular browsers include:– Internet Explorer, Netscape, and Mosaic.
Hypertext links
What are they?• The Web is based on a system called
hypertext markup language (HTML).
• Hyperlinks are used to link information within documents and between documents on the World Wide Web.
Hypertext links
Recognizing hyperlinks• Hyperlinks appear as:
Icons Images Text
• Text links are commonly a different color and are usually underlined.
Works Cited
Henninger, M. Don’t Just Surf: Effective Research Strategies for the Net. Sydney: U of New South Wales Press Ltd, 1999.
Tyner, R. “Internet Search Tools & Techniques.” 19 June 2001 M.L.S. Okanagan U College. 4 Oct. 2001 <http://www.sci.ouc. bc.ca/libr/connect96/search.htm>.
Barlow, L. “How Search Engines Work.” The Spider’s Apprentice: A Helpful Guide to Search Engines. 22 Sept. 2001. Monash Information Services. 4 Oct. 2001 <http://www.monash.com/ spidap4.html/>.
Created & Designed bySyba Signs P/L
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