CSC106 Intermed PC Appls and Programming - Research on the Internet

Research on the Internet

Searching

There are a number of search engines and directories available for finding information on the Internet. See the MCC Library page on search engines (http://www.middlesexcc.edu/library/control.cfm?ID=776) for an introduction on searching.

From the MCC Library page we see that the following techniques can be used to improve our search results:

AND: You can include the word AND (it must be capitalized) between two terms you are searching for. The search engine will return only those pages that contain both words. For example, if you enter lung AND cancer, the search engine will return pages that contain both the word lung and the word cancer. The words can appear anywhere in the page, and don't need to be together or in any specific order. For most search engines this is not necessary because it is how the search engine works by default. Some search engines use + instead of the word AND.
OR: You can include the word OR (it must be capitalized) between two terms you are searching for. The search engine will return those pages that contain either of the words. For example, if you enter lung OR cancer, the search engine will return pages that contain either the word lung or the word cancer or both.In general this will return a lot more pages.
" ": You can put a phrase inside double quotes. The search engine will return only pages that contain the phrase. It will not return pages that contain the words in the phrase if the words are not together and in order. For example, if you enter "lung cancer", the search engine will only return pages with that exact phrase. If the words lung and cancer appear in the page, but not as the given phrase, the page will not be returned.
NOT: You can use NOT to get pages that have one word but do not have another word. For example, if you enter lung NOT cancer, the search engine will return pages that contain the word lung but do not contain the word cancer. Some search engines use - instead of the word NOT.

Each search engine has its own rules, so check the help page to be sure how to use a particular search engine. For example, you can find googe's help for searches at http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/basics.html.

Evaluating Web Sites

Once you have found a web site, you need to decide whether the web site is trustworthy to use as a source for your research. Books, journals, databases, and magazines that you find in the library have gone through a careful process of editing and review before they are published. While not everything that is published is true, at least you know that the information has been checked by professionals. Web pages, on the other hand, can be published by anyone. You want to make sure that a web page that you use as a source was written by someone who is qualified to write on the given topic, and not by a seventh grader for a school project.

The MCC Library has a good page on evaluating web pages at http://www.middlesexcc.edu/library/control.cfm/ID/775. Don't forget to read the following page with more info on evaluating web sites at http://www.middlesexcc.edu/library/control.cfm?ID=778.

Remember, when you are looking at domain names, hosts with names ending in .edu can only belong a college or university, hosts with names ending in .gov can only belong to a US government agency, and hosts with names ending in .mil can only belong to the US military. For all other host names, you cannot be sure who owns the host, unless you are already familiar with the organization.