Google and Beyond: Searching the Web more Effectively

Introduction

Google is often the only resource consulted by users when they search the web for information. However, there are a number of other useful search engines that possess features and capabilities such as Result Clustering and Visualization that Google does not offer to its users. Highlighted are several Internet Search Engines in addition to special Google features to locate information on the web more effectively.

Search Engines

Google google.com

• Why Use?
  • Biggest search engine.
  • Results are ranked using proprietary PageRank^TM technology that looks at how many times a page is linked to, how important the linking site is, and the prominence of a search term within a page
  • Easy to learn
  • Need a quick fact rather than evidence-based information
  • Unique limiters (images, books)
  • Need multimedia resources
  • Supplement to library databases, not replacement; 70% of web users use Google to search
• Search Basics
  • Default operator is AND which searches all words
  • OR operator (or the pipe |) searches for either word  ex. statistics OR data OR table  ex. statistics|data|table
  • Use quotes to search as phrase  ex. "public health"
  • Find synonyms with tilde  ex. ~nutrition
  • May use stemming (searches similar search terms) ex. diabetes diet needs also searches diabetes dietary needs and other variations of terms
  • Use a hyphen - to exclude words from a search ex. sinusitis guidelines -child
• Additional Search Strategies
  • To nest searches, use parentheses () ex. video games (violent|violence)
  • Search for statistics: ex. hiv ~statistics|~data|~table
  • Search for tests: depression ~test|~instrument|~survey
• Special Features:
  • Cached: View a snapshot of each page as it looked when indexed
  • I'm Feeling Lucky: Bypass results and go directly to the first web page on a regular Google search
  • View as html
  • Similar pages: Display pages related to a particular result
  • Definitions: glossary definitions gathered from various online sources   ex. define: pdf
• Limitations
  • No mediation of results
  • Limited access to full-text content
  • Lack of quality control
  • Dead links
  • Although the largest search engine, Google provides access to less than half the searchable web
• Other Google Searches
  • Google Images images.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi
  • Google Books google.com/bkshp?hl=en&tab=ip
  • Seach full text of books
  • May see preview of book or entire text
  • Can create a personalized library
  • Advanced Google google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
    • Can limit search to:
      • Language
      • File type, i.e. PDF, PowerPoint
      • Date
      • Occurrences, i.e., in title
      • Domain, i.e., .edu, .gov, .com, .net
  • Google Scholar (Beta) scholar.google.com
    • Search for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research
    • Find articles from academic publishers, professional societies, universities, etc. as well as scholarly articles available on the web
    • A "Cited by" link identifies other papers that have cited the original one listed
    • Access to full text only available with subscription
    • Now links to full text articles the UW subscribes to (Select UW Libraries from the Scholar Preferences link. Enter Washington in the search box, select UW from the list, and save preferences)
    • Can change Preferences to export to EndNote, RefWorks, etc. in Bibliography Manager
    • Caution: Not a reliable sole source for searching scholarly literature

Ask.com ask.com

• Formerly known as Ask Jeeves and incorporates the Teoma database
• Uses ExpertRank (subject-specific popularity), which ranks results based on their standing among recognized authorities on the web, rather than simply link popularity
• Includes Q&A (Beta)

Scirusscirus.com

• Comprehensive science-specific search engine
• Pinpoints scientific, scholarly, technical, and medical data on the web
• Finds reports, peer-reviewed articles, patents, etc. that other search engines miss
• Refines searches, using suggested journal sources, file types, or search terms
• Can email, save, or export results

Meta-Search Engines

Meta-search engines allow you to send your search to more than one search engine at a time and return the results from each one.

Clustyclusty.com

• Automatically clusters results into categories
• Combines clustering by topics, urls, or sources with meta-searching
• Special viewing features: can open the page in a new window or preview the page in the description location
• Show in clusters feature: every cluster that contains that result is highlighted
• Can organize images by size, name, type, and URL
• Customized gov tab searches government-related web sites from FirstGov.gov
• Does not search Google
• Can create Clusty Clouds (Beta) to visualize a topic

DogPile dogpile.com

• Searches Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, and other search engines
• Ability to search for images, audio, video
• IntelliFind recommends additional content based on your search terms

KartOO kartoo.com

• Presents results on a visual, conceptual map
• Metasearch engine with visual display interfaces. When you click on OK, KartOO launches the query to a set of search engines, gathers the results, compiles them and represents them in a series of interactive maps through a proprietary algorithm

TurboScout TurboScout.com

• Compares original results from over 90 search engines

Invisible or Deep Web

What is it?

• The Invisible Web is that portion of the Web that is not reached by standard search engines such as Google. It is estimated to be 2-500 times bigger than the visible web. It includes specialized searchable databases (e.g. article databases, library catalogs), search engines, archives of documents, directories and locators, dictionaries, and gated resources requiring a password or login.
  • http://www.internettutorials.net/deepweb.html
  • http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/InvisibleWeb.html

How to Find the Invisible Web

• Use a Searchable Database
  • Healthlinks Databases  http://healthlinks.washington.edu/databases
    • Listing over 240 health-related databases available to UW faculty, staff and students.
  • Infomine: Scholarly Internet Resource Collections  http://infomine.ucr.edu
    • Virtual library of scholarly internet resource collections relevant to faculty, students, and research staff at the university level. It contains useful internet resources such as databases, electronic journals, electronic books, bulletin boards, mailing lists, online library card catalogs, articles, directories of researchers, and many other types of information.
  • Librarian's Internet Index http://lii.org/
    • High-quality websites selected by librarians and organized into 14 main topics and nearly 300 related topics.
• Use Google or another search engine to find a searchable database by searching your subject with the word "database", e.g., toxic chemicals database

Further Information

Google Searching vs. Pubmed Searching healthlinks.washington.edu/howto/googlechart.html

GoogleGuide googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html

• A Google cheat sheet

Search Engine Showdown searchengineshowdown.com

• Compares and evaluates Internet search engines from the searcher's perspective. Includes Search Engine Features Chart, detailed search engine reviews, an online newsletter, statistical analysis, and search strategies.

Library Liaisons

• If you have searched for information on the web unsuccessfully for more than 10 minutes, contact your library liaison for assistance.

Last update: November 2008
Adapted from Beyond Google presentation by Andrew Hamilton, June 10, 2004, OHSU Library, Portland, OR.