BUSS 909
Office Automation & Intranets
Tutorial 2
Researching on the WWW
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Agenda
set up the accounts required to access
WWW and other software from the
MicroLabs for use in BUSS909- subject
login (Labs 1 and 2 only)
define the two types of search engines
available from the WWW
identify the two types of search that can
be performed: general search for and the
more specific within search
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Setup Accounts
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Setup Accounts
Required Information
in order to use the Internet from the
Microcomputer Laboratories, you
need to have two things:
a University of Wollongong Student
(email) Account Userid and password,
and
a Microcomputer Laboratories
BUSS909 Subject Login
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Setup Accounts
Preparation
if you are unsure of the procedure then
consult the 2001 MicroComputer
Laboratories Online Help
if you have problems logging in then see the
attendant at the MicroLabs Office
if the PC is off then switch it on; reboot the
machine
click on the application icon- double click on
the Internet Explorer icon
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Search Engines
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Search Engines
search engines are web-sites
specifically designed to let users search
lists of other web-sites
some engines enable searches of
Usenet news groups, and FTP sites
there are two general types of service:
web indexes and web guides
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Search Engines
Web Indexes
web indexes are similar to indexes in
books
consist of large databases which
reference web pages- information
stored includes page title, keywords,
and the first phrase or two of the
page
the keywords are often created by
the web page author
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Search Engines
Web Indexes
web page information is collected by
search robots (the software technology
which implements them is referred to
as autonomous agents)
these agents move around the Internet
cataloguing the content of each
encountered Web server
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Search Engines
Web Guides
web guides consist of lists of channels
which are in effect lists of predefined
searches
these are constructed by monitoring
the type of searches users are
frequently requesting
most search engines are both guides
and indexes- the more users, the more
advertising dollars
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Search Engines
Search Procedure
enter a keyword into the search
engine and press search
a message will be displayed
indicating the number of web pages
found which match the criteria
sometimes no matches are found
however the search is more likely to
have produced a large number of ‘hits’
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Search Engines
Search Procedure
the search results are listed starting
from the most relevant sites, in
decreasing order of relevance
order of relevance is indicated by a
percentage based on the keyword
match to the search criteria
sometimes the same web-page is
referenced more than once in the
search results list
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Search Engines
Types of Searches
there are several strategies for
producing a smaller set of relevant
pages for you to study:
the first strategy is to use a within
search to argument the more general
search for (see following section)
the second strategy is to use a complex
search using boolean operators (see
next section)
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Search Engines
Types of Searches
not all search engines support a
within search feature
to implement a within search, the
search engine is actually helping the
user to construct a limited complex
search
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Search Engines
Examples
Yahoo
http://www.yahoo.com/
http://home.netscape.com/escapes/search/ntsrchdft-4.html
Excite
http://www.excite.com/
http://home.netscape.com/escapes/search/
netsearch_1.html?cp=click_from=/escapes/search/
netsearch_4.html
Lycos
http://www.lycos.com/
http://home.netscape.com/escapes/search/netsearch_3.html
?cp=click_from=/escapes/search/netsearch_1.html
Infoseek http://www.infoseek.com/
http://home.netscape.com/escapes/search/netsearch_2.html
?cp=click_from=/escapes/search/netsearch_1.html
The direct URL for these search engines are provided first. These search engines are
also available from the Netscape Search option, the URLs for which are provided below.
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Search Engines
Examples
Anzwers
http://www.anzwers.com
LookSmart
http://www.looksmart.com
WebCrawler http://www.webcrawler.com
AltaVista
http://www.altavista.yellowpages.com.au
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Searching Example
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Searching Example
Within Search
within searches enable subsequent
searches of a list of hits previously
requested by the user and found by the
search engine
the following example uses the Infoseek
engine
select Infoseek indirectly from Netscape
Search or directly at
http://www.infoseek.com
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Searching Example
Within Search
search on
pages returned
system failure
11,297,139
within searches
risks and failure
organisations and information systems
major
australia
52,402
15,491
2,278
125*
* but, the closest match to the criteria was a page rated at 67% relevant (very poor)
which was actually an advertisment for a Data Recovery company located in Canada!
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Searching Example
Within Search
1. system failure 11,297,139
2. risks and failure 52,402
3. organisations and
information systems 15,491
4. major 2,278
5. australia 125
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Searching Syntax
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Searching Syntax
most Search Engines and Web
Guides let you define more than just
the keywords for your search
there is a special syntax that can be
used to create specific searches
using a combination of symbols and
Boolean Operators
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Searching Syntax
Boolean Operators & Complex Searches
Boolean operators will be famiar to
those who have programmed
computers
they include AND, OR, NOT
these operators can be used in
combination together with ( ) to
create complex search queries on
the WWW
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Searching Syntax
Examples
Syntax
Italian movies
movies +Italian
movies -Italian
Italian AND movies
Interpretation
Finds sites that contain “Italian OR
movies”
Finds sites that contain “Italian”, ie.
the results must include “Italian”
Find sites about movies that don’t
mention “Italian”, ie. the results must
not include “Italian”
Find sites containing “Italian” and
“movies”. Differs from the previous
option in that the words do not have
to be found next to each other
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Searching Syntax
Examples
Syntax
movies OR Italian
movies AND NOT Italian
(movies +Italian) AND
(Fellini -“La Dolce
Vita”) AND Pasolini
movies +Italian AND
Fellini -“La Dolce
Vita” AND Pasolini
Interpretation
Finds sites containing “movies” or
“Italian”, or both. The search may
find Italian movies, Italian cooking,
Hollywood movies, etc.
see “movies - Italian”
Finds information on Italian movies
that made reference to the directors
Pasolini and Fellini, but not to
Fellini’s film “La Dolce Vita”
Finds sites containing movies that
mention Italian and Fellini, but not La
Dolce Vita or Pasolini
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Searching Syntax
Order of Precedence
search engines recognise an order of
precedence for search operators
if a search request is ambiguous the
engine will use the order of
precedence to complete the search
the order of precedence for
operators is: (), AND, OR, NOT.
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Searching Syntax
Order of Precedence
the symbols + and - are not part of
standard Boolean Operators but it
has the same meaning as AND and
AND NOT respectively.
enclosing a phrase in inverted
commas “like this” is also not a
standard Boolean Operator but it has
the same meaning as ().
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Class Exercise
use the search engines to get URLs
about the Office Automation
use the bookmark feature to store
sites you might find useful (eg. those
which describe actual OA systems)
appropriate URLs should be written
on the Useful Links page provided by
the Lecturer
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