Basics of Search Engines

What are search engines?

 Term “search engine” used generically to describe both
Directories and Search Engines
 Directories (Yahoo, Google’s directory)
 Links to Web sites organized by hierarchy of topics
 Created by human editors
 Cover only a tiny portion of the Web
 Access via browsing or searching site
 Meta Search Engines
 Send searches to multiple Search Engines at one time
 Search Engines (Focus will be on these)
 Database created by software programs
 Search database by keyword to find Web sites
 Cover larger portion of Web than Directories
Why use them for legal
research?
 Material only “published” on the Web
 E-journals
 Newsletters
 Postings to e-discussion groups
 Search engines = one important tool to locate
Web-based resources
 Useful for general Web searching
Meta Search Engines
 Do not crawl the web themselves to build
databases
 Allow users to search multiple Search
Engines at one time with one search
 Present results from various Search Engines
together on one page
Dogpile (http:www.dogpile.com)
Dogpile sample search
Dogpile search results
Vivisimo/Clusty
(http://clusty.com/)
Clusty search results display
Pros and Cons of Meta Search
Engines
 Pros
 Search a variety of
Search Engines with one
query
 Clustering feature on
Clusty
 Comparison tool on
Dogpile
 Cons
 May time out if search
processing takes to long
 Only retrieve the top 10-
50 hits from each Search
Engine
 Less advanced search
features
 Differing syntax of
various Search Engines
makes Boolean
searching difficult
General Search Engines
 What makes one search engine’s database different
from another?
 Contents
 Size
 Currency
 Ranking/relevance algorithm
 Three main Search Engines at this time:
 Google
 Yahoo!
 MSN Search
Basic Search Tips
 Use multiple Search Engines [LINK]
 Use advanced search pages
 Single most efficient way to increase your
effectiveness as a searcher
 Set your options
 Read search help and additional information
pages [LINK]
 Remember: Not all Web information is
indexed on these Search Engines
The Invisible Web
 Info not readily indexed by Search Engines
 Only small portion of info posted on the Internet is
indexed by Search Engines.
 Why?
 Format that Search Engines don’t recognize
 Site not submitted to be indexed
 Search Engine has chosen not to index a site
 Site has blocked Search Engine’s indexing software
 Site requires a password
 Information is in a database that must be queried before
data can be retrieved
Invisible Web Example: Info in
Web-accessible Databases
Invisible Web Example: Info in
Web-accessible Databases
The Invisible Web: Other ways
to find information
 Subject-based Directories
 Invisible Web portals
 Complete Planet
 ProFusion
 More information in “Sources for Further
Learning” section of my paper
Unique Tool: Google Scholar
 http://scholar.google.com/
 Agreements with publishers, associations,
universities and others allow Google Scholar
to index databases that search engine
crawlers normally cannot penetrate,
 Covers “peer-reviewed” papers, theses,
books, preprints, abstracts and technical
reports.
Advanced Search
Strategies
Advanced Search Pages
 After choosing a Search Engine go directly to
the Advanced Search page [LINK]
 This is the most important strategy you can
use
 Advanced Search pages give you
significantly more options
 Boolean searching
 Limiting by format, domain or date range
 No need to remember specific terms and
commands
Google Advanced Search Page
SEARCH: Martha AND Stewart AND trial OR court OR
case AND "insider trading" BUT NOT jimmy

AND
PHRASE
OR
AND NOT

NOTE: YOU CAN MIX AND MATCH THE BOOLEAN SEARCHING

Modifying a Google
Advanced Search
Modifying a Google
Advanced Search
Searching By Format
 Excellent strategy for targeting your search
and returning more relevant search results
 Google -- PowerPoint, Word, Excel, PDF
 Yahoo! -- PowerPoint, Word, Excel, PDF,
RSS/XML and plain text (.txt) files
 MSN Search – Does not have this feature
Searching for a PowerPoint
Presentation
 Use Google to restrict your search to a
PowerPoint presentation if you are looking for
information such as:
 Your expert (or the opposition’s) presentation at
a conference
 A hot topic that no one has written about yet,
but that someone may have given a recent
presentation on
 Many presentations are created in
PowerPoint and posted to the Web
PowerPoint search on Google
Results of ppt search
Google’s HTML and PPT version of
first hit
Audio and Visual Material:
Images
 All three Search Engines offer image
searching
 I recommend trying Google first
 Offers an Advanced Search
 Offers a limit by domain
 Indexes nearly half a million images
 Determines image’s content by using
surrounding text, accompanying captions and
file names, among other criteria
Image search example
Audio and Visual Material:
Multimedia
 Yahoo! and Google offer video searching.
 Google’s is still in beta testing
 It can be found at: http://video.google.com
 At present it only searches about 20 TV channels
and videos uploaded to the site
 Yahoo!’s search is of video on the Web
 Select the “Video” tab and then select advanced
search – you are taken to a customized search
page to enter your search terms.
Video search example
Video search results
Searching for News
 All three Search Engines offer a News
search
 Google’s News search
 Collects recent (only covers past 30 days)
news stories from sources all over the world
 Updates continuously throughout the day
 Sorts results by relevance OR date/time
 Limit by country/state OR publication
 Option to use search in News Alert service
Getting to Google’s News
Search
News Search Example
News Search Results
“Hidden” tools
Searching within your results
 Of the three search engines featured this
handy tool is only available on Google
 Hidden just below visible bottom of page
 Useful for further narrowing relevant
searches
Searching within results
Example
Toolbars

 Google, Yahoo! MSN Search, Dogpile, and

Clusty all offer a toolbar
 Customizable
 Easy to download
 Sit at top of browser window
 Advanced Searchbar (http://www.advancedsearchbar.com/)
 One toolbar access to over 100 search engines
Google’s toolbar
 Search the Web using Google without going first
to their Web site
 With the click of a button use advanced search
techniques such as:
 Searching within a page
 Searching within a site
 Searching Images, News, Google’s Directory or
Dictionary
 Highlight search terms
 Block pop-ups
 Fill in forms automatically
Highlighting terms using the
toolbar
Getting to Google’s toolbar (1)
Getting to Google’s toolbar (2)
Google’s Synonym Feature
 Search for a word and its common synonyms
using
 Basic search box
 Advanced Search page “find results with at least
one of the words” box
 Enter the word you want to search preceded
by the tilde [~word]
 ~law
 This retrieves sites with the words: law, laws,
lawyer, lawyers, legal, attorney and regulations
Google’s Synonym Feature:
Example

Time saver!
Yahoo! Shortcuts
Assessing the Quality of
Information on the
Internet
 “So you ran a web search for it?”
“Yes.”
“And the word returned hundreds
of references, no doubt.”
“Thousands.” Kohler said. “Yours,
however, contained references to Harvard,
Oxford, a reputable publisher, as well as a
list of related publications. As a scientist I
have come to learn that information is only
as valuable as its source. Your credentials
seemed authentic.”
Excerpt Angels & Demons, Dan Brown
Judging Authenticity
 Look for site documentation
 About us links
 View source
 Web address structure
 Ask basic questions about the source of
information
 Who is the author?
Assessing Information Quality

 Who said, “Question Authority?”

 Timothy Leary?
 Socrates?
 Unitarian Universalists?
 Maynard James Keenan
 Bumper sticker?
Assessing Information Quality:
Am I in the right place?
 Searching for Cases
 Go to the web site for the court that originally
published the opinions
 Searching for Statutes
 Go to the web site for the state or federal
legislature
 Don’t use secondary sources for material
readily available online from the actual
source
Determine Accuracy

 Assess objectivity
 How does it compare with print resources?
 Check for errors
 Verify information
 Check for use of common technical tricks
used to make information appear to be
something it is not
Currency

 Decide if timeliness is relevant

 Last updated?
Assess Completeness

 How comprehensive is the resource?

 Watch for selective fact citation
 Compare coverage with print resources
Conclusion
 Amount of information  Consult my paper for
on the Web makes it additional tips!
overwhelming to locate  Please contact me with
relevant sites any questions:
 Learning to use the  eholmes@uga.edu
above mentioned tools  706-542-5082
and tips will make your
search for information
on the Web efficient
and successful
Advanced Search guide has a link to a
one page cheat sheet at:
www.google.com/help/cheat sheet.html
Clusty Help page

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How to get to the Advanced
Search page: Example
BACK
Google and Yahoo compared
http://www.langreiter.com/exec/yahoo-vs-google.html

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