Beyond Google Tips & Tricks: Teaching Web Search Strategies to the Digital Natives

William H. Weare, Jr.Friday, April 21, 2006ILA/ACRL Spring Conference 2006

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Google Tips & Tricks

Find a definition Find a phone number Check the performance of a stock Check the weather Get movie show times Do simple math calculations Find the best gas prices in your areaGOOGLE

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Digital Natives

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Digital Natives

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Recommended Reading:

Scott, Thomas J., and Michael K. O’Sullivan. “Analyzing Student Search Strategies: Making a Case for Integrating Information Literacy Skills into the Curriculum.” Teacher Librarian 33, no. 1 (2005): 21-25.

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Scott & O’Sullivan

“We know, if given a choice, many high school students will choose to browse or surf the Internet for the information they need for a particular assignment. This approach to research does not require developing sophisticated search strategies or critical thinking skills.”

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Scott & O’Sullivan

“The typical high school student simply employs the basic strategy of keyword searching.”

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Scott & O’Sullivan

“Students often get frustrated and end up resorting to surfing from one site to another in hopes of discovering that one nugget. Or they abandon their search entirely and claim they could not find anything on their topic.”

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Scott & O’Sullivan

“High school students frequently have difficulty defining exactly what kind of information they need. This inability to define their information needs may account for the frustration voiced by several students on the Internet survey.”

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Scott & O’Sullivan

“In spite of this frustration, students persist in pursuing this approach to finding information.”

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In a nutshell:

Google or Yahoo! is the first stop Employ key word searching Lack sophisticated search strategies Lack critical thinking skills Search in a random manner Searching based on trial and error Easily frustrated Abandon search

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Question #1

If students are so easily frustrated, why do they continue to use search engines to find information?

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Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education

1. The information literate student determines the nature and extent of the information needed.

2. The information literate student accesses needed information effectively and efficiently.

Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2000.

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Digression #1

Overview: Four Major Search Providers

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Overview: Four Major Search Providers

Ask Full-text search engine http://ask.com/

Google Full-text search engine http://www.google.com/Directory http://www.google.com/dirhp

MSN Searchable subject index http://www.msn.com/Clean screen (search engine) http://search.msn.com/

Yahoo! Searchable subject index http://www.yahoo.com/Clean screen (search engine) http://search.yahoo.com/

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Question #2

If we did the same search in each of the big four search providers, what is the likelihood that a site will show up on the first page (in the top ten) of all four providers?

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Answer:

1.1%

Dogpile Search Engine Overlap Study(July 2005)

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Dogpile Search Engine Overlap Study

“The study looked at search results from more than 12,500 random queries on Ask Jeeves, Google, MSN Search and Yahoo, and found that the overlap in first page results for these four engines was a scant 1.1% on average for a given query, suggesting that each of the four major search engines has a unique voice that's not duplicated by the other services.”

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Dogpile Search Engine Overlap Study

1.1 % of results were found using all four search engines

2.6% of results were found using three search engines

11.4% of results were found using two search engines

84.9% of results were unique to one search engine

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Use More Than One Search Engine

Not finding what you are looking for? Open another window, and try another search engine.

Mary Ellen Bates recommends using a timer. Haven’t found what you are looking for in 15 minutes? Time to re-think your search strategy—or look somewhere else.

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Digression #2Search Comparison Tools

Langreiter.com:http://www.langreiter.com/exec/yahoo-vs-google.html

Thumbshots Ranking: http://ranking.thumbshots.com/

Jux2: http://www.jux2.com/

Gooyaglehoo:http://www.gooyaglehoo.com/

Dogpile’s Search Comparison Tool:http://comparesearchengines.dogpile.com/

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Search Strategies

Tools and strategies we already use Strategies that are particularly

useful in searching the web Questions we need to be asking

before we begin searching

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Existing Tools & Strategies

Phrase Searching Proximity Natural Language Boolean Operators Nesting Truncation Wildcards

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Phrase Searching

Des Moines River

11,000,000

“Des Moines River”

197,000

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Word Order Matters!

Three Mice Blind 15,100,000Blind Mice Three 14,100,000Blind Three Mice 14,100,000Mice Three Blind 13,700,000Mice Blind Three 14,500,000

Three Blind Mice 5,040,000

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Remember Jeeves?

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Natural Language Searching

“Who won the Oscar for best actress in 1980?”

“What is the population of Chicago?”

“Where is the Danube?”

ASK

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Boolean Operators & Nesting

Boolean Operators: AND is the default OR used with parentheses is useful for

searching synonyms NOT / - can be useful

Nesting It works!

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Using AND

Sprouts 11,300,000

Alfalfa Sprouts 874,000

“Alfalfa Sprouts” 316,000

“Alfalfa Sprouts” salmonella 45,900

“Alfalfa Sprouts” salmonella safety 29,800

“Alfalfa Sprouts” salmonella safety guidelines 11,000

“Alfalfa Sprouts” salmonella “safety guidelines” 131

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Using OR

Adoption 310,000,000

Adoption “birth parents” 1,130,000

Adoption “biological parents” 403,000

Adoption (“birth parents” OR “biological parents”) 1,540,000

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Not!

Gettysburg 19,100,000Gettysburg -battle 13,300,000Gettysburg -address 13,000,000Gettysburg -college 10,900,000

Gettysburg -battle -address –college5,650,000

Gettysburg ship 1,560,000“USS Gettysburg” 34,300

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Truncation & Wildcards

Truncation is not supported, but it can be done

Wildcards are supported and can be useful to find specific information

GOOGLE

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Additional Strategies

Use the options available via Advanced Search

Limit by domain or site Limit by file format Limit by where your search terms

appear Find related sites See MORE with each search

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Limit the Search by Site or Domain

Syntax—site:

“Bailey White” 61,900

“Bailey White” site:.npr.org 72

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Limit the Search by File Type

Syntax—filetype:

MLA EBSCOhost help filetype:.pdf

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Limit the Search by Using Special Syntaxes

Syntax—intitle: restricts the search to the

title of the page

inurl: restricts the search to the URL

intext: restricts the search to the text only

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Special Syntaxes

North American Black Bear 65,400,000intitle:North American Black Bear 248,000inurl:North American Black Bear 52,500inurl:NorthAmericanBlackBear 3intext:North American Black Bear 64,100,000

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Find Related Sites

Syntax– related:

related:www.worldwildlife.org

GOOGLE

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See MORE with Each Search

Rather than view only 10 results at a time, you can view 20, 30, 50, or 100 results on a page

GOOGLE

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Search Strategy Questions

What is it exactly that I am looking for?

Where am I likely to find this information?

What terms are likely to appear on the page I am looking for?

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What is it exactly that I am looking for?

Archival materials Biographical

information Conference

proceedings Government

publications Literary criticism

Maps Newspaper

accounts Primary source

materials Statistics Tabular data

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Where am I likely to find this information?

Can I name an organization that is associated in some way with my topic?

Is there a government agency that is associated in some way with my topic?

Do I know the name of an expert in this field? Does she have a website? What organization is she affiliated with?

Who, or what organization, would have an opinion about my topic?

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What terms are likely to appear on the page I am looking for?

About / About us Archives Books & Journals Contact us Directory Education Fact Sheet FAQ Go Home Information

Jobs Links Membership News / Newsroom Press Releases Product Information Publications Q & A Sale Search Site Map

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What exactly am I looking for?—and where am I likely to find this information?

Topic: the reintroduction of DDT in Africa as a way to combat Malaria.

A likely search in Google:

Kenya DDT malaria 47,600

A better search: DDT malaria site:.go.ke

GOOGLE

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What we found

National Environment Management Authority - (NEMA) WHY DDT SHOULD NOT BE RE-INTRODUCED FORUSE IN MALARIA CONTROL IN KENYA. . .By Alfred K. Lang'atwww.nema.go.ke/ddt.htm |

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What terms are likely to appear on the pageI am looking for?—and where am I likely to find this information?

"exotic pets" 2,180,000

"exotic pets“ “fact sheet” 592

"exotic pets“ “fact sheet” site:.peta.org 6

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What is it I want to know—and where am I likely to find it?

Propecia 12,600,000

Propecia (risks OR side effects)3,260,000

Propecia (risks OR side effects) site:.gov 309

Propecia (risks OR side effects) site:.fda.gov 50

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Bibliography

Calishain, Tara. Web Search Garage. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2005.

Calishain, Tara, and Rael Dornfest. Google Hacks: 100 Industrial Strength Tips & Tools. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly, 2003.

Dogpile.com, “Different Engines, Different Results: Web Searchers Not Always Finding What They’re Looking For Online,” http://comparesearchengines.dogpile.com/OverlapAnalysis.pdf.

Hock, Randolph. The Extreme Searcher’s Internet Handbook: A Guide for the Serious Searcher. Medford, NJ: CyberAge Books, 2004.

Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries, 2000.

Milstein, Sara, and Rael Dornfest. Google: The Missing Manual. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly, 2004.

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Bibliography

Prensky, Marc. “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.” On the Horizon 9, no. 5 (2001). http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20- %20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf.

ResearchBuzz. http://www.researchbuzz.com/.

ResourceShelf. http://www.resourceshelf.com/.

Scott, Thomas J., and Michael K. O’Sullivan. “Analyzing Student Search Strategies: Making a Case for Integrating Information Literacy Skills into the Curriculum.” Teacher Librarian 33, no. 1 (2005): 21-25.

SearchEngineShowdown. http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/.

SearchEngineWatch. http://searchenginewatch.com/.

Sherman, Chris, and Gary Price. The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can’t See. Medford, NJ: CyberAge Books, 2001.

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Questions?

Ask Full-text search engine http://ask.com/

Google Full-text search engine http://www.google.com/Directory http://www.google.com/dirhp

MSN Searchable subject index http://www.msn.com/Clean screen (search engine) http://search.msn.com/

Yahoo! Searchable subject index http://www.yahoo.com/Clean screen (search engine) http://search.yahoo.com/

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Contact

William H. Weare, Jr.Collection Development LibrarianGeisler LibraryCentral College812 University StreetPella, IA 50219-1999 641-628-5221 or 641-628-8138wearew@central.eduwilliam.weare@gmail.com