Literature search: How to find websites

Handy hints before you begin

Contents:
What is a search engine? How the literature search techniques pages work Simple search techniques Advanced search techniques	Evaluating your results Referencing websites Let's find some websites !

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What is a search engine?

A search engine is a tool which helps you to find information on a given subject from among the billions of pages that exist on the web. It has several components: search engine software, spider software, an index (database), and a relevancy algorithm (rules for ranking). The search engine software consists of a server dedicated to indexing web pages, storing the results and returning lists of pages to match user queries. The spidering software constantly crawls the Web collecting Web page data for the index.
On this page I'll show you how to make the most effective use of search engines to get the most relevant results.

How the literature search techniques pages work

I've put together a series of linked images of web pages showing the whole process step by step. Simply click anywhere on an image, or on a green arrow button, to go to the next step in the search sequence.

Bear in mind that the results of looking up a topic using a search engine won't be the same every time: the indexing process is continuous and new pages are constantly being added. The screens that you see on the following pages won't necessarily be what you'll get if you repeat my search examples.

Simple search techniques

You can improve the quality of the results you get from using search engines dramatically if you take the time to learn a few basic techniques. Applying these techniques will greatly reduce the number of irrelevant hits that will be returned from a particular search.

Most search engines will provide a page which tells you how to make effective use of the program. Look for a link marked Help or Tips, or similar, on the main search page.

It helps to write out your search in plain English and then underline the key concepts
Use your imagination or a thesaurus to think of synonyms for the words you have underlined. You may need to include them in your search strategy
Be specific: tell the search engine exactly what you want to find
Entering more search words will narrow your search results
Use the plus symbol + immediately in front of your search words to make sure that a search engine finds pages that have all the words you type in, not just some of them. For example, +computer +virus +macintosh will help to focus the search on the topic that you are interested in
To exclude a word from your search, put a minus symbol - in front of it

+java -coffee

Here are some links to more information on web searching:

Finding Information on the Internet: An online tutorial from the University of California, Berkeley. There are separate sections on Search strategy, Search tools, Evaluation, Style sheets for citing your sources, and a handy Glossary of Internet and Web jargon.
Bare Bones 101: A basic tutorial on searching the Web from the Beaufort Library, University of South Carolina. "The information contained in the following lessons is truly "bare bones," designed to get you started in the right direction with a minimum of time and effort. You can zip through these lessons in no time, any time. They are very short and succinct; each can be read in a few minutes. Feel free to jump in wherever you like, skip what you don't want to read, and come back whenever you need to..."
Web searching tips: Provides tips on using search engines better, along with some fun facts such as what people search for on search engines. A very comprehensive site from Search Engine Watch.
Six Great Ways to Search the Web: "Everyone knows all about the search engines like Google, Yahoo and now Microsoft's new Bing. But there are numerous other ways to find information on the Internet. Here are five great ways to search for exactly what you need on the Internet..."
Search Engine Features Chart: Lists the major search engines by size, showing what features are supported - Boolean operators, truncation, fileds names, etc. From the Search Engine Showdown site.

Advanced search techniques

Advanced searching is usually offered by most search engines - look for the link to Advanced Search on the main search page - and will certainly help to improve the relevance in the results that you obtain.

You'll also find advanced techniques such as the use of logical or Boolean operators (and, or, not) are essential when you are using electronic databases to find journal articles on a particular topic.

Useful link:

Boolean Searching on the Internet - an excellent, easy to understand explanation.

Evaluating your results

It is crucial when you are searching the web for information to know the criteria that indicate that a particular web page has academic merit; the websites you choose to explore and utilise for your assignments must meet all the evaluation criteria before you accept them as part of your literature search and refer to them in your bibliography.

A web page must meet all of these criteria:

Accuracy | Authority | Objectivity | Currency | Coverage

Accuracy:
Is the information reliable and error-free?
Is there an editor or someone who verifies/checks the information?

Authority:
Is there an author? Is the paged signed?
Is the author qualified? An expert?
Is the sponsor of the page reputable?
Is there a link to further information about the author or the sponsor?
If no author or sponsor, look for a header/footer, the domain in the URL (eg .edu, .com)

Objectivity:
Does the information show a minimum of bias?
Is the page designed to sway opinion?
Is there any advertising on the page?

Currency:
Is the page dated?
If so, when was the last update?
How current are the links? Have some expired or moved?

Coverage:
What topics are covered?
What does this page offer that is not covered elsewhere?
How in-depth is the material?

For rationale and further information, see: Evaluation criteria ( New Mexico State University Library)

Referencing websites

A question that I am often asked these days is how to cite references that you find on the web and other electronic sources. You'll find all you need to know about this topic on my Essay writing, referencing and style guides resources for Philosophy page.

Let's find some websites !

Now it's time to start learning how to use a search engine to find literature resources on the web. The structure is a series of linked images of web pages showing the whole process step by step. Simply click anywhere on an image, or on a green arrow button, to go to the next step in the search sequence.

Click the arrow to begin