Internet Searcher (Task 1)

Enter your name:	Enter your email address:

Now on to the Search Task

1. Using double quotes around specific phrases to focus your search on occurrences of the actual phrase.

Examples:

• recipes for "chocolate cake"
• "General Dynamics"

Searches with single quotes will return the same results as searches that are not quoted.

Perform the following searches at all three sites. To get to the search site simply click on the name of the search engine. A new window will open for you to do the search. When the search is completed note the number of hits, close the window, and record the number of hits in the box below.

Query	Yahoo	AltaVista	Google
War of the Worlds
"War of the Worlds"

2. Using + (plus) and - (minus). The use of a + (plus) to indicate words that must be present in the documents and a - (minus) for those that must not be present. You must include a space between the + and - symbols and the terms which immediately precede them, but not between the symbols and the terms that follow them.

Examples:

• +dolphins -NFL
• +recipes for +"chocolate cake" -nuts

Query	Yahoo	AltaVista	Google
+Atlantis
+Atlantis -shuttle
+Atlantis -shuttle +continent -movie

3. Using the * (Wildcard). You must have at least four non-wildcard characters in a word before you introduce a wildcard. The * (asterisk) can be used to replace multiple characters. The % (percent) symbol is used to replace only one character. Please note that most search engines automatically stems most common plural and singular forms of words (a search on cat will also return results containing the word cats, and a search on cats will return results containing the word cat.)

Examples:

• chemi* will find results containing words that begin with 'chemi' (e.g. chemical, chemistry, chemist)
• psych*ist will find all results which contain words that begin and end with 'psych' and 'ist' (e.g. psychologist, psychiatrist)

Query	Yahoo	AltaVista	Google
teacher
teach*

4. Using Field Searches: Field searches help you locate specific kinds of documents. These include:

• URL: searches for a URL or partial URL
• TITLE: searches for a document title or partial title
• LINK: searches for other web pages linked to a specific URL.
• COMPANY: searches for information about a particular company**
• TICKER: searches for information about a company based upon the company's stock ticker**
• TEXT: searches within the text of the document or website
• SORT:date sorts results by date, from newest to oldest

Query	Yahoo	AltaVista	Google
Title:"California Missions"
intitle:"California Missions"

5. Doing a "Vanity Search": this type of search is when you search for your own name when used in quotes. This kind of search is purely for fun.

Query	Yahoo	AltaVista	Google
"your name"

6. Write a short reflection on how these searching techniques will assist you in using the Internet a) personally and b) professionally.

7. Pick a "hoax" site from the Open Directory hoax site list. Enter here the name of the site and its URL. Write a short reflection on you would have determined this was a hoax if you encountered it through a web search. More importantly, describe briefly how you would help your students to know how it is a hoax if they encountered it through a web search.