Searching the Internet
Search Engines & Boolean Connectors
What helps you find
information in a book?
An Index
A Contents page
Chapters, Sections, Categories etc.
What can help you find
information on the INTERNET??
A search engine
Some examples of SEARCH ENGINES
www.google.com
www.yahooligans.com
www.excite.com
www.dogpile.com
Using Search Engines
What does WWW stand for?
World Wide Web
What does URL stand for?
Uniform Resource Locator
What is a URL?
It is the address of a specific Website or file on
the Internet
What does HTTP stand for?
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
HTTP defines how messages are formatted and
transmitted
What are URLs?
URL stands for….
Uniform resource locator
For example, www.bbc.co.uk is a URL
Can you think of your favourite URL?
Internet Information
URL
Stands for Uniform or Universal Resource
Locator. The URL can tell you if the site is
secure, the country it comes from and what
type of site it is.
.gov
.edu
.com
.org
.net
Where was the
site created?
Government Website
Educational Website
Commercial business
Organisation, such as a charity
Network
.sg – Singapore
.uk – United Kingdom
.au – Australia
Searching for Information on the Internet
Be specific and use as many KEYWORDS as
possible: WHY??
there will be fewer results to look
through
the results will be more accurate
This is how a search engine interprets your keywords:
Search Engine Interpretation
Results
The Lion King
The AND Lion AND King
1,090,000
“The Lion King”
“As a whole phrase”
238,000
“The Lion King”
London
“As a whole phrase”
AND London
12,100
Keywords
“The Lion King” “As a whole phrase”
“musical London” AND “As a whole phrase”
210
BOOLEAN CONNECTORS
Most search engines automatically insert AND
between each word
There are other operators you can add yourself
between words called Boolean connectors (or
Boolean operators).
These include: OR, NOT
By using AND, OR, NOT you can narrow the search
and focus on the exact information you need.
HOW TO REFERENCE A WEBSITE
-Reference List1. AUTHOR
2. YEAR
3. TITLE
Last Name, First Name
in ( )
underlined
5. Publisher &
6. Place
Holland, M. (1996). Havard System.
[Internet] Bournemouth University,
Poole. <www.bournemouth.ac.uk>
[Accessed 6 May 2006] 7. URL (website’s
address) In < >
4. Internet
in [ ]
8. Date you accessed the website in [ ]
TIPS
If there is NO AUTHOR, start with the TITLE
(step 3)
If there is NO DATE, write n.d. after the
Author’s Name
eg Hanson, B. n.d.
If there is NO PUBLISHER or PLACE, go
straight to the <URL> and [date accessed]
(step 7 and step 8)
HOW TO REFERENCE A WEBSITE
- In text referencing Include the AUTHOR and COPYRIGHT
YEAR if you can
If you don’t have the Author, include
the COPYRIGHT YEAR AND URL OF
WEBSITE
Remember to also reference IMAGES