Internet Search Engines

Internet Search

Being able to locate the information you need fast and efficiently is a great skill to have. Developing that skill can take practice.  This activity will allow you to practice using several different internet search tools to ‘beef up’ your searching skills.

Internet Search Engines - Google

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Go to the Google homepage. Locate their Search tips, Help, Directions, or something that will lead you to a page describing how the search engine works.  Find answers to the following questions.

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1. How does it add sites to its database? How big is the database?

                (do sites have to register or does the search engine use a “robot” to search them out?)

Google is one of the top search engines that many people use. There are a few ways that google adds sites to its database. One is called the Googlebot. Googlebot is Googles web crawler. The Googlebot discovers pages on the web. Once the Googlebot does that the pages then go onto the indexer. The indexer sorts out all the words on the pages and puts them into a big database. When you then search for something specific the query processor will show the results it considers to be the most relevant to what has just been searched. In this case the site uses a robot to search them out. Googles database is enormous. Google deals with millions of searches each and every day.

1. What kind of searches does it do? (keyword, subject)  Does it support all Boolean syntax? (AND, OR,  NOT)

Google can search with keywords and with subjects. Google also supports Boolean syntax, and, or , and not. Google recognizes all three words in which it bases its results off of those words.

1. Does it give you any general tips for searching.  

One of the basic tips for searching on google is to start with a simple search adding descriptive words if necessary. Search words you believe that will be on the webpage that you are looking for so it gives google a better chance of finding what exactly you are looking for.

1. What special punctuation is necessary or helpful?

It is only necessary or helpful if you are doing an advanced search.

1. How does it order/rank responses?

The search criteria entered is filtered and the most applicable information will come up first.

1. Any special features? (customizing, etc.)
   

Some special features include language, file type, where key words show up on a page, find pages similar to a page, or find pages that link to a page.

1. Overall, how would you rate this search engine? Any special comments?

I rate Google very high, it is my favorite search engine and the one I use for looking up different things when needed be. I have never had a problem finding the information that I was looking for and I recommend everyone to use google.

Internet Search Engines - Yahoo

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Go to the Yahoo homepage. Locate their Search tips, Help, Directions, or something that will lead you to a page describing how the search engine works.  Find answers to the following questions.

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1. How does it add sites to its database? How big is the database?

(do sites have to register or does the search engine use a “robot” to search them out?)

 Yahoo adds sites to its database by doing what Google does, Yahoo’s web pages are crawled and indexed by the web crawler. Yahoo’s data base does not even come close to comparing to Google. The latest number of databases found was 2,812,840.

1. What kind of searches does it do? (keyword, subject)  Does it support all Boolean syntax? (AND, OR,  NOT)

When searching something in the yahoo search engine you can search by keyword or subject. You also have the option to search in the engine under images, news, videos, and more. Yahoo does accept the Boolean syntax.

1. Does it give you any general tips for searching.

When searching in yahoo, use specific words, and know when to add more words in to make your search more accurate. You can also narrow your search by using the Yahoo site explorer.

1. What special punctuation is necessary or helpful?

It is more helpful to use exact phrases and be specific, rather than to exclude important information.

1. How does it order/rank responses?

Sponsors are listed first and then web results by rank.

1. Any special features? (customizing, etc.)

Yahoo’s search assist gives you other examples of other searches that are alike.

1. Overall, how would you rate this search engine? Any special comments?

Yahoo has always been one of my favorites, it was the search engine I used before google became more popular. If they got rid of a majority of their ads I think their search engine would become more popular.