Beyond Google

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Susan K. Stewart
http://delicious.com/internet_at_home
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It’s not the savior of anything
There’s bad stuff
Pornography
 Evil People
 Viruses
 Spyware
 Urban Myths
 Cyber-bullying
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Would you say in person? In front of your
mother?
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Is it true? How do you know?
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CAPITAL LETTERS are shouting.
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Don’t send an email when angry.
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Don’t hide behind fake names
Don’t steal someone else’s writing – even from
an email
Don’t steal computer programs, music, or
videos
Don’t hack a web site
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Index or Directory
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Search Engine
Metasearch
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Google Directory
Yahoo Directory
Metacrawler
Specialty Directory (topic specific)
Expert Guide
Library
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Think through the task
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What is the real question?
Think outside the box
Move beyond keywords to thoughts
 Look elsewhere
 Do offline research first
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Be specific
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Civil War - Confederacy – Robert E. Lee
Other hints
Research-quality Web Searching
Google and Beyond
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John Kupersmith
jkupersm [at] library.berkeley.edu
A “Know Your Library” Workshop
Teaching Library, University of California, Berkeley
Spring 2009
COURSE PAGES:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/find/types/websites.html
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html
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Think “full text” = be specific
war of 1812 economic causes vs. history
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Use academic & professional terms
domestic architecture vs. houses
genome society
gets International Mammalian Genome Society
also try combinations with
association, research center, institute,
directory, database
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Specify exact phrases
“tom bates”
“what you're looking for is already inside you”
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Exclude or require a word
proliferation -nuclear
bush legacy +environment
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Web page title
intitle:hybrid
allintitle:hybrid mileage
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Website or domain
site:whitehouse.gov “global warming”
site:edu “global warming”
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File type
filetype:ppt site:edu “global warming”
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Definitions
define:pixel
define:“due diligence”
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Search box (use to modify)
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“Cache”
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“Related pages”
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“Translate this page”
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Specify exact phrases
“tom bates”
“what you're looking for is already inside you”
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Exclude or require a word
proliferation -nuclear
bush legacy +environment
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Anyone can put up a Web page
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about anything
Many pages not kept up-to-date
No quality control
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most sites not “peer-reviewed”
 less trustworthy than scholarly publications
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no selection guidelines for search engines
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Look at the URL - personal page or site ?
~ or % or users or members
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Domain name appropriate for the content ?
edu, com, org, net, gov, ca.us, uk, etc.
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Published by an entity that makes sense ?
 News from its source?
www.nytimes.com
 Advice from valid agency?
www.nih.gov/
www.nlm.nih.gov/
www.nimh.nih.gov/
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Can you tell who wrote it ?
 name of page author
 organization, institution, agency you recognize
 e-mail contact by itself not enough
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Credentials for the subject matter ?
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Look for links to:
“About us” “Philosophy” “Background” “Biography”
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Is it recent or current enough ?
 Look for “last updated” date - usually at bottom
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If no links or other clues...
 truncate back the URL
http://hs.houstonisd.org/hspva/academic/Science/Thinkquest/gail/text/ethics.
html
1. Search a controversial topic in Google
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nuclear armageddon
prions danger
“stem cells” abortion
2. Scan the first two pages of results
3. Visit one or two sites
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evaluate their quality and reliability
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Bookmarks or Favorites
Save as file
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File – Save Page As – Web page complete
Use a special program
Online search saves
Browser extensions
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Google Books
Google Maps
Google Translate
Google Scholar
Google Patent Search
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distance learning
chats
research
lesson plans
virtual field trips
develop a web page
newsletters
blogs
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Blogs
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Alex post what he’s learned
Twitter
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Mom sends links to son
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