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Conducting Successful Web Searches

The World Wide Web has become an easily accessible source of information for students, professionals and the public. In fact, the volume of information is so overwhelming that it is not unusual to get thousands of "hits" when conducting a search. The Oracle was established as an on-line resource for people with science questions that they cannot find answers for. Our experts make use of the vast information in libraries as well as in on-line sources. You can often find the information you need by searching the web yourself. There are four steps to a successful search:

  1. Selecting a search engine to use for the search.
  2. Entering the appropriate key word(s) or phrase.
  3. Selecting the best sites to visit.
  4. Visiting sites to determine if the information you need is there.

Selecting a Search Engine

There are many search engines available on the web. They differ from one another in ease of use, accuracy, speed and variety of features. Some of the commonly used search engines are listed below.

  • Google
    Google is fast, easy to use and big. Presently, it looks at more of the Web than any of the other search engines. After typing in your keyword(s) Google allows you to search for websites that contain the keyword or image files if what you really want is a photograph.
  • Alta Vista
    Alta Vista is one of the oldest search engines. One interesting feature is the use of Babel Fish to translate the web pages you find.
  • Dogpile
    Dogpile is a metasearch service. It queries the databases of other search engines and allows you to customize your search by limiting which databases are reported.
  • Metacrawler
    Yet another metasearch service that suggests alternate keywords or phrases to refine your search.
  • Yahoo!
    Yahoo is an extremely popular search service and has a reputation for helping people find information easily.

This list is by no means comprehensive. You can find out about other search engines by, "You got it!", typing the phrase "search engine" into your present search engine. Try several search services and choose the one that is easiest for you to use and produces the best results.

Entering Keywords

Using the appropriate keyword(s) is essential for a successful search. Very broad keywords will result in a large number of hits, many of them useless. Try to use exact words or phrases. If very specific terms are not producing the information you are looking for you can refine your search by substituting more general terms to pull in more sites. For example, when searching for information about a particular breed of dog, type in the name of the breed, "beagle" rather than simply typing the word "dog". When Google searched for the word "dog" it found 12,500,00 sites dealing with dog genetics, dog training, dog products and even the search engine Dogpile. Substituting "beagle" in the search engine produced 317,000 hits for beagle dog breed websites, the European space project to Mars, the BioMedNet magazine HMS Beagle and information about Charles Darwin and his expeditions on the ship HMS Beagle. A third search using the phrase "beagle dog" decreased the search results to 81,500 websites dedicated to providing information about the breed of dog named beagle. A further refinement using "beagle dog breed history" produced 4,280 websites, most dealing with the development of the beagle as a distinct breed.

Once you have decided on the keyword you wish to use be sure that it is properly spelled. Misspelling may be the single most important reason behind unsuccessful web searches. The Oracle receives hundreds of questions a week and many of them contain misspelled words. A common error is the use of "vertibrate" for "vertebrate". Although it is easy for one of our experts to understand what was meant, web searches require precise spelling. A misspelling will get no hits or only find websites that contain the misspelled word. If you are unsure of a proper spelling look up the word in your dictionary. There are many online dictionaries that you can use. Merriam-Webster at http://www.m-w.com/ and yourDictionary at http://www.yourdictionary.com/ are two that offered alternate spellings when the misspelled word "vertibrate" was entered. In the case of a person's name you might try using several alternate spellings and see what websites turn up. For more reasons on why you want to get the spelling and grammar right, see our spelling faq.

Selecting Websites to Use

Quality of Website: Many companies, schools, government agencies and nonprofit organizations publish websites to provide easy access to the information they have. In fact, anyone can build a website and make it available to the public. When you search the web for information one of the first things you should look at is who built and maintains the website. If you are looking for up to date, accurate information, use reputable sources. For example, if you are looking for information about the latest treatments for migraine headaches you should look at medical sites such as WebMD or the Mayo Clinic Migraine Information Center rather than personal websites of people who have published anecdotal information. It can be dangerous to use the web to self-diagnose or self-treat a medical condition. Your personal physician is your best source of information. There are lots of websites that contain inaccurate and erroneous information. Be careful to verify the source of the information found at any website.

Visiting Sites: Once you obtain a list of hits you should visit the sites that look the most promising. Using Google to search for migraine headaches produced 1.72 million results. The following website appeared toward the top of the list of hits.

  1. Migraine Headache - MayoClinic.com
  2. Abbreviated summary: More than 28 million Americans — three times more women than men — suffer from migraine headaches, a type of headache that's often severe...
  3. URL:http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/migraine-headache/DS00120
  4. Cached
  5. Similar Pages

Line 1 is the title of the website, Migraine Headache - MayoClinic.com. It is underlined indicating that it is a hyperlink. This means that you simply have to point and click and you will be directed to the site.

Line 2 is an abbreviated summary of the information available at the site. Although the summary doesn't provide a lot of information, the name, Mayo Clinic, provides a high degree of credibility.

Line 3 is the URL or Uniform Resource Locator of the website. mayoclinic is the domain name and .com indicates that the domain is a commercial site. The rest of the URL, health/migraine-headache/DS00120 is the exact pathway to the migraine information from the Mayo Clinic home page at http://www.mayoclinic.com/

Line 4, Cached, is a link to a snapshot of the web page taken during the most recent web crawl.It's content, depending on how long ago the snapshot was taken, may be different from the most current version of the web site. A cached version is useful in case the home page is down or unavailable.

Line 5, Similar Pages, is a link to a list of similar web sites that have information about migraine headaches.categories in which your search term appears. They are underlined, again indicating a hyperlink, that you can click on to view other useful related websites in the Google web directory.

Many websites have their own search engines so that you can retrieve information from the site more easily. The Mayo Clinic site is one such website.

A Sample Web Search

To determine whether the site you have found is useful you will need to visit the site and spend some time looking at the information it provides. In our example of migraine headaches, we found the Mayo Clinic Migraine Headache Information website at: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/migraine-headache/DS00120

If you follow this link you will see that the site has a List of links to a variety of different topics. There are links to signs and symptoms, causes and risk factors for migraines. One link helps you decide when to seek professional medical help and other sections provide suggestions for self-care and coping skills. The link to complementary and alternative medicine discusses some nontraditional therapies that may be helpful. The sources for all the information at the website are the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. It can be considered a highly reputable, accurate and up to date web site.