Internet Search Engine Searching Guide-LRC

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Internet Search Engine Searching Guide

Introduction

Search engines are important tools/programmes for people locating online information. Searching engines use spiders/robots programmes to collect websites, then index and store these websites in a database. Users can obtain the appropriate information by keywords/full-text searching via search engines. Currently, Google and Baidu are two major search engines in the English and Chinese context. This guide will introduce the key functions of Google and Baidu and explain their searching results. Some search tips and skills will be covered in this guide as well.

Google

About Google

Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. Since then, it becomes the most powerful search engine in the world. The services provided by Google China include Searching Services, Go Mobile, Explore and Innovate, Communicate, Show & Share, and other services provided in English.

Searching Services has the following products:

 · University Search: search Chinese and world universities
 · Maps: view maps and get directions
 · Toolbar: add a search box to your browser
 · Alerts: get email updates on the topics of your choice
 · Images: search for images on the web
 · Book Search: search the full-text of books
 · Directory: browse the web by topic
 · Web Search: search over billions of web pages
 · Web Search Features: find movies, music, stocks, books and more
 · Scholar: search scholarly papers
 · News: search news from major media’s websites

Go Mobile offers
 · Mobile: use Google on your mobile phone

Explore and Innovate has
· Labs: explore Google’s technology playground

Communicate, Show & Share includes
 · Translate: view web pages in other languages
 · Calendar: organize your schedule and share events with friends
 · Picasa: find, edit and share your photos
 · Docs & Spreadsheets: Create and share your projects online and access them from anywhere

Other services in English:
 · Code: Download APIs and open source code
 · Patent Search: Search the full-text of U.S. Patents
 · SketchUp: create 3D models for Google Earch

More Google Products (http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/index.html) contains all Google products.

Go to the website http://www.google.com, the browser defaults to open Google China. The search page defaults to Web Search page.

Web Search Steps

· Analyse the information you would like to search and identify the keywords from the information.

e.g. Write an essay on Aging Society in Asia

· Type the keywords into the search box and hit the ‘Enter’ key or click on the Google Search button. To obtain accurate results, use quotation marks for phrase search and leave a blank space between two search terms.

· Some tips for selecting keywords.

- Be specific and succinct as possible.

- Google searches are not case sensitive.

- Google searches ignore common words, such as “the” “an” “a” “where” “how”.

- Be aware of the different expressions between British and American English.

- Try synonymous terms to expand the search.

e.g. “older people” “demographics” for “aging”; “social conditions and trends” for “society”

- Use other operators to modify search terms:

Operator

Meaning

Example

-

Excluded words

Mouse -computer

~

Similar words

~ship

…

Numerical ranges

Bill Gates 2000…2007

OR

Multiple words

University U.S. OR U.K.

Understand and Evaluate Search Results

The Internet facilitates the dissemination of the information. People easily put all kinds of information on the Internet, including unauthorized and biased misinformation. Students need to evaluate what you found on the Internet. There are some techniques to evaluate the Internet resource.

 · Identify the type of website from the domain.

Types of Organisations

.com

Commercial companies in U.S.

.co

Commercial companies in most countries except the US

.org

Non-profit making organization

.edu

Educational institute

.ac

Educational institute

.gov

Government site in some countries

.govt

Government site in some countries

.int

International organizations

.net

Network

Country of Origin

.au

Australia

.ca

Canada

.cn

China

.de

Germany

.hk

Hong Kong

.fr

France

.jp

Japan

.kr

Korea

.mo

Macao

.us

United States

.uk

United Kindom

Look for author/organization who is responsible for the website.

Look the date cited on the website to check whether the content is current.

百度（http://www.baidu.com）

产品介绍
百度是最常用的中文搜索引擎。其主要搜索产品包括：

·网页搜索：可查询数十亿的中文网页。

·新闻搜索：每天发布120000- 130000 条新闻。可设置个性化新闻。有全文和标题两种搜索方式。

·百度超级搜索霸：安装在浏览上的工具。用户可在浏览器上直接搜索。

·百度影视：汇集了国内多家著名宽频影视服务提供商的影视片资源，面向互联网所有用户提供宽带视频检索服务。

·百度邮编搜索：由国家邮政局名址信息中心提供数据，可搜索全国354个城市的37823个邮政编码。

·百度教育网站搜索：搜索中文教育网站。

·百度图片搜索：可以搜索从网页中提取的近亿张图片。

·百度地图搜索：提供中国地理位置搜索和线路查询。

·百度政府网站搜索：查找各类政府公文、政策法规等政府信息。

·百度视频搜索：汇集了几十个在线视频资料。

搜索技巧

 分析你要查找的信息，选择适合的查询词。查询词要尽量表述准确，相关和简练。
 多个查询词间用空格隔开。
 用双引号把查询词括起来，增加搜索的精确度。
 用减号表示除去某些含有特定词的网页。
 用语法限定查询结果。比如 Intitle, 表示后接的词限制在网页标题范围内。Site, 把搜索范围限定在某些网站内。Inurl, 表示把搜索范围限定在URL的连接中。Filetype, 表示限定查找的结果是某种特定的文档。

搜索结果

Ask a Librarian

Information Literacy Courses

Search the LRC OPAC Guide

Citation Guide

Database Searching Guide

Internet Search Engine Searching Guide

Career Advice

The right book or other materials


United International College Learning Resources Centre, Block A, 28 Jingfen Rd, Tanjiawan, Zhuhai, P.R.China Tel:0086-756-3620320 Library@uic.edu.hk Last updated: July 2007