Searching the Internet

Hubbard Middle School LibraryMrs. Ostrom

“Internet” or “World Wide Web”?Which is it?

From the World English Dictionary: internet — n ( sometimes with a capital ) the internet  Also

known as: the Net  the single worldwide computer network that interconnects other computer networks, on which end-user services, such as World Wide Web sites or data archives, are located, enabling data and other information to be exchanged

World Wide Web - The complete set of electronic documents stored on computers that are connected over the Internet and are made available by the protocol known as HTTP. The World Wide Web makes up a large part of the Internet.

Image source: www.dailyclipart.net

In other words : The Internet connects one computer to the other. A program called HTTP makes it possible for you to see what is stored on another computer, if the owner posts his document on the internet.

“Web sites” and “search engines” – what can I use as a source?

Website: a page or pages that anybody can post. For example: Hubbard Middle School (or any organization) social networking websites where you all have your own pages businesses government websites, etc.

But how do you find the website you need for your research on the Internet??????

You use a search engine! Search engine: a computer program that allows you to search all the

websites by keyword. They all have different methods and produce different results. For example: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, Bing, Altavista.

Any website can be quoted as a source, but Google cannot be a source!

A Regular Search Engine:Google

Type search term, such as “Hubbard Middle School”.

If you make a spelling mistake, it will offer spelling suggestions.

Find the blue menu bar items and click “images” to see pictures of Hubbard Middle School.

Translation: click “more”, from the drop down menu choose “translate”, select the original language (English) and the goal langage (Spanish) or vice versa.

Maps: you can find HMS on a map. Navigation: if you notice that pages open in

the same window, right click on the link to open it in a different window. This way you can keep the Google (or any other search engine) window open. Or, change the settings.

What are “sponsored links”?Sponsored links come up at the top or on the side bar because they are paid for by advertisements. When doing school research, it is wise to ignore them.

Meta Search Engines

Meta search engines search several regular search engines, so they are more powerful and may give you more “hits”.

Examples: Cacti Search at www.cactisearch.com – searches Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.

Meta Crawler at www.metacrawler.com – searches Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask and more.

Yippy at http://search.yippy.com is a “cluster” or “cloud” search engine that groups the results by topic, into clusters or clouds. It also groups sites by domain name type, such as .edu and .gov.

Mrs. Ostrom’s Favorites

Yippy … because it searches Wikipedia, it clusters by topic and by domain name. And it has games!

Google … because it looks simple and clean.

Factmonster … because it has homework help and games.

Hubbard Library Wiki at http://hubbardlibrary.wikispaces.com/ because it has pathfinders.

Answers.com … because you can ask a full question and the site is really easy to use.