Searching the Web

introduction | search engines | subject directories | broken links

Introduction

There are millions of pages of information on the Web, and finding relevant and reliable information can be quite a challenge. To be able to search at all for information on the Web you will need to use either a search engine or subject directory.

Search engines

A search engine is defined as a database of resources extracted from the Web through an automated process. This is performed by a robot known as a spider. Because every spider is programmed to search for and retrieve sites in its own particular way, each search engine provides different results. It is therefore best to use more than one search engine when you are trying to find information. A few popular search engines are:-

• Google: http://www.google.com
• Altavista: http://www.altavista.com
• Anzwers: http://www.anzwers.com.au/ (an Australian search engine)

When you visit one of these search engines you will be asked to enter in key words or a phrase in a search box. The image below is from the Google Website. It uses a simple interface; type in what you are looking for in the search box provided and then press the Google Search button.

ACTIVITY Visit two of the search engines listed above and search for the basic rules of netiquette. Do you get different results from each search engine used?

All search engines use different ways of finding information and you need to be aware of the different techniques of entering keywords or phrases. The best way to find out how each individual search engine operates is to read and/or print out their help page/s. For example, some search engines might require you to place inverted commas around phrases while others need you to put "AND" in between each keyword. Below are the help pages for some of the sites mentioned above.

• Google help page
• Altavista help page

ACTIVITY Visit the help pages of the same search engines used in your first search. After reading through them, perform the same search again but using the conventions suggested in the help pages. eg using inverted commas around a phrase. Do you get different results?

Subject Directories

A subject directory is also often called a search engine although it operates in quite a different way. Subject directories are compiled by humans rather than spiders and are divided up into subject categories. A well known subject directory is Yahoo.

You can still perform searches in subject directories but you can also follow links into sub-categories and so on until you get to a page of interest. A couple of popular subject directories are:-

• Yahoo: http://www.yahoo.com/
• About: http://www.about.com/

ACTIVITY Perform the same search in one of the subject directories listed above.

Broken links

A hyperlink or link is said to be "broken" when you click on it and instead of taking you to the intended page, you get some kind of error message like "file not found". This happens quite a lot because people and organisations often move or rearrange their whole site. The new address does not correspond with the old address and thus the link is "broken".

If this happens to you, you may still be able to locate the Web page requested, by following these instrctions:

1. Press the Back button which will take you back to the page with the original link.

2. Determine the Web address of the broken link.
   As mentioned in the tips section above, move your mouse pointer over the broken link (no click necessary), and the hidden link address, or URL, will appear in the status/progress bar (lower border of the Web browser window).

3. Go to the home page of the broken link.
   The leftmost, very first part of this address will usually be the portion needed to get to the home page or main site of the organisation. The portion you need will often end with a suffix such as ".com", ".org", or ".net" or ".com.au", ".edu.au" etc. In the image above, the part of the URL that you need is http://www.google.com/. Write this down to minimise spelling errors, then carefully type it into your browser's Web site address box near the top of its window, and press your Return key.

4. If the page still cannot be found, the Web server which is hosting the Web site is "down" or having problems.
   
   
5. If you can access the home page, try to find the page you are looking for by using the search function or navigation buttons or links on the homepage.