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Searching

Finding things on the World Wide Web takes a system, so . . .

okay, STOP:

The Web is enormous, and it's messy.  Don't just go to a search engine, directory, or list and start typing phrases.  Unless what you want to do is waste time and find everything except what you were looking for in the first place.  In that case, go ahead.  I've enjoyed that myself.  But if you're looking for information on a specific topic, THINK first.

so THINK:

1. What's the topic?  Write it down.  
   For instance:  invertebrates (That's a start, but it will give you several thousand pages, or none at all, or none that are suitable if that's all you type when you start searching)
2. What special words go with your topic?  Write them down (words, names, abbreviations, acronyms:  search for specific words or for phrases as a "phrase in quotes," which will narrow things down considerably)
   For instance:  animal, biology, "without backbones," "invertebrate animals"
3. What organizations might know about it? Write them down (search for them as a "phrase in quotes," and that might give you some good information)
   For instance:  "Natural History Museum" or "Franklin Institute"
4. What other words might be in any Web documents you want to find on your topic? Write them down (you could join them with AND or precede each by "+" and that will give you sites that are more suitable)
   For instance:  animals AND biology, or kids +animals +biology
5. Do any of the words belong in a certain order? Write them down (search for them as a "phrase in quotes")
   For instance:  "invertebrate animal" but not "animal invertebrate"
6. Could you accept different words for the same thing?  Write them down (search for them with OR)
   For instance:  (animal) OR (beast) OR (critter)
7. What bigger words could your topic be covered by?  Write them down.
   For instance:  "living things"
8. What words do you definitely NOT want?  Write them down (eliminate them with NOT or "-", and that will get rid of the sites you don't want to wade through that don't have anything to do with your topic, such as rock bands or companies that have named themselves after your topic, or joke pages)
   For instance:  invertebrate NOT (music), or animal -plant -human, or bugs NOT (computer)

okay, then LOOK:

Try different combinations of the words and phrases you came up with.  Keep looking.  Keep track of what you did so you don't do it twice or three times and kick yourself, and so you know what works.  Here are some good search sites, in no particular order.  Some of them are search engines, some of them are directories, some of them (like Dogpile) search other search engines.  I personally really like Google (a search engine) and Yahoo! (a directory) myself.  No matter which one you use, it will miss some of the Web sites you want.  Try several.

Search Links

This is an alphabetical list.

• • AltaVista (http://www.altavista.net) is a network which has one of the first search engines on the Web.  They keep improving it, and many people think this is the best.  However, it has so many features that sometimes it's slow.
  • Ask Jeeves (http://www.askjeeves.com) - Unlike most search engines, this one you can ask for results in a regular sentence.  As far as I'm concerned, that isn't enough.  If you're looking for an encyclopedia article, this works.
  • Ask Jeeves For Kids (http://www.ajkids.com/) - Ask any question, get an answer. Sometimes the answer is to a different question than you asked.  Many kids like being able to ask questions instead of think up search terms. For me, I'd rather get good results.  
  • Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com)  Part of Go2Net (along with Metacrawler), Dogpile searches a group of other search services and comes up with hits for your search on each one.  Sometimes I use this to get started, then switch to the search service that gives the best hits for my question.
  • Excite (http://www.excite.com) - Excite, like Yahoo, has a directory - a list of recommended sites that you can search.  
  • Factmonster (http://www.factmonster.com/) which is more of a reference than a search engine, and used to be Kids' Information Please Almanac.
  • Google (http://www.google.com) - I love Google.  It gives results that are likely to be popular with other Web sites (and therefore good) because it looks at how many links point to a site on the Web that answers your search question.  In my experience, this gives great results.
  • Hotbot (http://www.hotbot.lycos.com) is part of the Lycos Network and is one of the Web's best-rated search engines.
  • Ixquick (http://ixquick.com) searches other search engines, and it seems to select and display the results well. I like it even better than Dogpile. Give it a try
  • KidsClick (http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!/) - "Web search for kids by librarians" (Runner-Up for "Most Child-Friendly Search Tool" in the Millennial Favorites of the 12/30/99 Philadelphia Inquirer) - you can search by clicking on lists in an index, clicking on an alphabetical list, or typing in your own search terms.
  • Lycos (http://www.lycos.com) is a network with many other services in addition to its search tool.  
  • Metacrawler (http://www.metacrawler.com) Part of Go2Net (along with Dogpile), "MetaCrawler incorporates from the top search engines on the Web. It collates results, eliminates duplication, scores the results and provides the user with a comprehensive list of relevant sites. "
  • Northern Light (http://www.nlsearch.com) is well-organized and gives you results from not only the Web but books, magazines, databases, and newswires.
  • Yahooligans! (http://www.yahooligans.com) A directory of good sites on the Web; it will give you results based on what the people at Yahoo! think of sites that are good for kids. It doesn't get updated very often, in my experience.
  • Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com)  This is also a directory of good sites.  It used to be great but got too big to keep itself up to date.

If you're looking for science news links for article summaries, you're in the wrong place.  Click here instead.

Another way to look for information is to piggyback on somebody else's research.  Many people with topic-related web-sites have Internet link lists, and sometimes their lists can be more useful than the whole site.  Also, teachers and schools often have good lists of links.  For instance, Taylor Road Middle School in Georgia has a great web site and a very useful list of science links in their Virtual Library.  Or you could look in the 4th grade or 5th grade list of subject links!

and finally, DOCUMENT:

GET THE URL!  (that's the Web address, or Uniform Resource Locator, such as the URL for my homepage:  http://www.dmturner.org/DMT.html) When you find a Web page with the information you want, either:

1. bookmark the page so you can write down the URL later on,
2. block and copy the URL, and paste it into a text document for later use,
3. block and copy the URL, and paste it into an e-mail message to yourself, or
4. write down the URL on a piece of paper.

That's the exact URL of the page where the information was.  With every slash and colon and period and odd spelling.  All of it.  When you're doing research, you gotta say where you got your facts, and that's the URL.  If you don't get the URL, you don't really have the facts.  I'm warning you in advance.

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This page last updated August 17, 2002

Copyright 2002 Delia M. Turner, Ph.D.