Friday, July 27, 2012

Research Journal, Part 8: Types of Information: Focus on Search Engines and Web Sites

Search Tools:
Exalead

This search engine offers a advance search option where you can exclude terms, do a proximity search, exact words, and exact phrases. One thing I liked about this search engine was that it was pretty simple to use, and also it lets you add on for example:+Internet +Addiction (Youth)  OPT adults. There is also the option of where you want to find it; like site search, title search, URL search,and Link search, and gives you the option of time period. 

What are you looking for?

  • Exact Phrases e.g. "to be or not to be"
  • Exact Words e.g. +the godfather
  • Optional Terms e.g. cow OPT mad
  • Exclude Terms e.g. star -movie
  • Proximity Search e.g. movie NEXT star
  • Logic e.g. (movie AND star) OR (famous AND people)
  • Phonetic Search e.g. soundslike:shakespear
  • Approximate spelling Search e.g. spellslike:exlaead
  •  e.g. movie star language:en

Where do you want to find it?

In which period of time are you interested?

There seems to be a lot of options available in this search engine, it is something I might use in the future due to it's friendly user function.


Metasearch Tools:
Dogpile.  All the best search engines piled into one

With this search engine it didn't seem like they offered that much of options, it had a advance search option that only offered:

  • All of these words
  • the exact phrase
  • Any of these words
  • none of these words
  • Include domain or exclude domain
   






Web Search Results for "Internet "Internet addiction" youth…


This engine did find sources for what I was looking for, but the search could of been narrowed better.
I really don't think I would use this search engine in the future even though it is very simple to use I would rather have more options.


Subject Directories:


INFOMINE logo

After looking through the subject directories I found that Infomine looked the most promising, to me it seemed similar to Boolean. Infomine offered Advance search such as search in these fields, search in these subject categories, limit search to, display options, and browse options for all subject categories. Infomine also provided search tips which can be very helpful to breaking down the topic your searching for by giving examples on how to do this. There is also a browse resource type that can be useful. The only downfall  was it was a little confusing to me, maybe because it does gives you a lot of options which that is good but can be a little overwhelming at times.  There is a possibility I might use this site in the future, I've bookmarked it for future reference, and so I can play around with it more to get more acquainted with.



1 comment:

  1. Hi, Cynthia:

    Thanks for your report. It's amazing to consider the search world beyond Google, isn't it? There are many powerful tools for search and exploring all the functions and features can be enlightening.

    Cheers,
    Andrea

    ReplyDelete