Ginger Webb

SLM 521 – Search Engines

Spring 05

 

Webby’s Best Search Tips   

 

 

Searching the internet for quality information can be a tricky process.  When looking for stuff, we want the quickest, most accurate information with the least amount of work.  Hopefully the sites recommended below will help you in your quest for information.

 

Where do I Start Searching?

 

The internet is such a big place that it can be overwhelming choosing a place to get started.  Webby recommends beginning with Google™.  This site is easy to use and you can look for anything even if you can’t spell, Google can help.  http://www.google.com/  This tool, while easy to use, is also very powerful.  If you click on “Advanced Searches”, you can specify files of a particular type (such as .gov, edu, or .org) which provide the most reliable and recent information available on the internet.

 

Honorable mention goes to Yahoo™.  http://www.yahoo.com/  

 

What’s top in Print News?

 

Headline Spot provides a friendly way to look at newspapers both national and international.  You can search by country, by or by publication.  http://www.headlinespot.com/

 

For a look at magazines and periodicals, FindArticles.com is a well organized and easy to use site for research.  http://www.findarticles.com/

 

Daily Earth gives a one-stop shop for print media, both national and international newspapers.  It’s not as easy to use as the others.  http://dailyearth.com/

 

What are they saying in the Media?

 

CNN provides the best news site.  Well organized, easy to read news directly from AP/UPI or from dedicated sources such as Sports Illustrated for their sports link.  http://www.cnn.com/  Another site to consider is MSN. The site is also easy to read, and like CNN is updated regularly.  http://www.msn.com/

If you are looking for a recent speech on public radio, then SpeechBot is worth looking at.  The site has over 15,000 hours of speeches online from radio stations.  http://speechbot.research.compaq.com/

 

 

What’s a Meta Search Engine?

 

A Meta Search engine takes a query and searches it against multiple search engines.  It is one-stop shopping for the most complete list of information as a user.  You can tell it you only want to look at images or the web or directories and that is how the search will be limited.  Dogpile is my favorite in this category because I enjoy watching my dog fetch and the results are listed with source engine information.  http://www.dogpile.com/

 

If you like to view things visually, another meta-search engine which provides good results is Kartoo.  Kartoo results print to the page in a sort of diagram rather than a list.  I find this hard to work with as opposed to a traditional results list, but a visual learner may have success with it.  http://www.kartoo.com/

 

Just the Answers Please…

 

These sites provide answers to user’s questions.  My favorite is Information Please.  This site will provide you with just the facts from its almanacs, encyclopedias and dictionaries. 

 

Ask Jeeves is another site with good information.  One poses a question to “Jeeves” and he provides answers in a fashionable manner.  http://www.askjeeves.com/  This site is especially popular with younger children because of the friendly question/answer format.