search the internet like an expert
TRANSCRIPT
Search the Internet like an expert
Daniyar Salikhov, U.S. Embassy Tashkent
One of the Internet's strengths is its ability to help
consumers find the right needle in a digital haystack
of data. --Jared Sandberg, Editor @bloomberg.com
Internet search • Web directories (ipl.org,
about.com)
- Managed and edited by humans
- Carefully reviewed. selected and organized
info
- Reliable and authentic
• Search engines (Google,
Yandex, Bing, etc)
- Search by keywords
- Databases compiled by machine crawlers
(minimal human oversight)
- Not curated
Useful terms
• Browser
• Bookmarks/Favorites
• Cookie
• Domain/Domain type
• Domain name
• HTML - Hypertext/Link
• Keywords
• Uniform resource locator
(URL)
Parts of a URL
http://www.starwars.com/seminars.html
• http://--hypertext transfer protocol: the language computers use to “talk” to one
another
• www—world wide web: the body of information connected by the cables and
computers of the Internet
• .starwars—domain name: the structured, alphabetic-based, unique name for a
computer on a network
• .com—top level domain: gives an idea of where the document is stored
• /seminars—file name: a folder within a website
• .html—hypertext markup language: the computer language used to format
documents
Top level domains
• .edu - higher education (harvard.edu)
• .com - commercial (audi.com)
• .gov - government agency (whitehouse.gov)
• .mil - military (army.mil)
• .org - general noncommercial organization (un.org)
• .info - Information (educationusa.info)
• .uz - geographic (gazeta.uz)
Google: Basic search
• Use more keywords or search terms
• Capitalization
• Automatic “and” queries (news reader
--> news AND reader OR readers)
• Exclusion of common words
• Word variations
• Truncation / wild card searching
• I’m Feeling Lucky
Google search results PAID vs. ORGANIC
Phrase search
Narrows down search by looking for an exact phrase or
sentence. Useful when searching for a title or a
quotation. Usually quotation marks are used to connect
the words together.
Examples:
• “U.S. Uzbek relations” vs U.S. Uzbek relations
• “Graduate scholarship”
• “Test centers”
Negative search terms
Use a "minus" sign to exclude terms you don’t want
to appear on a page
Examples:
• "International scholarships" -sport -art
• Graduate admission requirements -GMAT -GRE
Intitle/Allintitle:
Standard HTML page
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>……………</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
………………..
</BODY>
</HTML>
Allintitle:
Search for query words in the title of a
page
Examples:
•allintitle:international student
scholarships
•allintitle:foundations scholarships
•allintitle:top MBA schools
Inurl/Allinurl:
Search for query words in page URLs
Examples:
• allinurl:application waiver
• allinurl:rolling admissions
• harvard inurl:financial aid
• TOEFL inurl:listening
Allintext:
Search for query words in the text of a page
Examples:
• allintext:international graduate scholarships
psychology
• allintext:dual degree "computer science" business
international
• allintext:research central asian studies fellowship
Related:
List web pages similar to a web page you specify
Examples:
• related:educationusa.info
• related:www.internationalscholarships.com
Site:
• Search all pages containing a particular word or words from a single website;
• Search pages from a particular type of domain or institution
• Search pages from a single country
Examples:
• scholarships site:educationusa.info
• student visa site:travel.state.gov
• tourist attractions site:nycgo.com
• obama biography site:gov
• рестораны site:uz
Link:
Find linked pages, i.e. show pages that point to a
URL
• link:educationusa.info
• link:www.internationalscholarships.com
• link:nycgo.com
Filetype:
Search for a particular file type
Examples:
• un internship application form filetype:pdf OR
filetype:docx
• how to study in the US filetype:ppt
• health management dissertations john hopkins
filetype:xls
The Internet is like a vast ocean full of
wonderful things
But like the ocean, the Internet can also become
polluted with garbage and unsavory elements as well.
Evaluate information Know how search engines work and learn to identify
quality information from bad information
C.A.R.P test
• C - currency
• A - authority
• R – reliability/relevance
• P – purpose/point of view
Bonus
• Google Advanced Search
(http://www.google.com/advanced_search)
• Google Alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts)
• Yandex Blog Search (http://blogs.yandex.ru/)
Questions?