Two MinuteTutorials

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Using General Search Engines

Extend Search

When you do the Extend Search, one option you can choose is to search in General Search Engines. Selecting this will do your search automatically in the most popular general websites. This does not mean that these are necessarily the best sites to search, but good information may be found so long as you understand the powers and limitations of these tools.

This tutorial will give you a very brief overview of what you are searching when you come to this page.

General SearchEngines

Just for one example, as you use this section, you may want to keep an eye on the total results

returned in each search engine. In almost all cases, there will be too many to look at, but the magnitude of the differences can be

revealing.

Extend Search

Everyone knows Google and how powerful it is. Yet, while excellent resources may be found there, it is important to understand its weaknesses, such as a lack of objectivity and intellectual standards, plus the fact that the search results can be manipulated.

Note: Show options…

Extend Search

You can now limit your search in various ways, including the strange

Wonder Wheel

Extend Search

Yahoo is very similar to Google and you may find some materials that are not in Google.

Notice the differences in the total results returned. Too many to look at in any case, but revealing in another way.

For more information on some of the advantages and problems of searching

general search engines, see Full-Text and Search Engines in the AUR

Library Information Wiki.

Extend Search

Ask.com is another variant of the general search engine. It is seen mainly as a giant “answer-machine.”

Extend Search

Answers.com is based on answering questions using many reference tools, including several specialized dictionaries.

One of the advantages of using this resource is that the citations are provided.

Extend Search

AlltheWeb is another general search engine that displays the results differently from Google and Yahoo.

Extend Search

Wikipedia is a social resource, which means that it is built by everyone and anyone. There is some excellent information in Wikipedia, but it is not a scholarly, peer-reviewed resource.

Wikipedia can be an excellent place to start when you have no knowledge of a topic, so long

as you understand its limitations.

To understand a bit more of the different types of information resources, see:

Places to Find Informationin the AUR Library Information Wiki.

Extend Search

LibraryThing is a different type of socially-created resource. People can “catalog” and tag their favorite books and find others who have similar books.

Extend Search

You can see other people’s lists who have similar books, and there are also recommendations that may prove useful.

Extend Search

Delicious is another type of socially-created service, but this is for web pages. Anyone can make a link to page and tag it. The most highly-tagged materials on a topic come up first.

Extend Search

Hakia is a relative new-comer to the search engine market (founded in 2004) but it brings with it some semantic searching capability, and it works with librarians, who help provide Credible sites that you can click on.

Currently, the credible sites work only with the topics of health and environment, but it is yet another attempt to improve search results.

Extend Search

Zuula is still another site that allows you to search multiple general search engines at once and tries to order your searches in different ways.

Select different search engines

Extend Search

Bing is the newest of the general search engines, and is Google’s newest competitor from Microsoft.

It supposedly gives better results than Google, but the jury is still out. There are several simplified options for image searches, however.

Extend Search

VisWiki doesn’t actually provide any new information, but it gives a unique view into the contents of Wikipedia which you may find helpful.

Scroll to the bottom of the page, and you will find a visual display that may lead you to more useful information.

Extend Search

Many of these search engines are experimental and it is too early to decide how good they are. Still, they are free to search and are often worth a try!

All of these sites and materials are fine so long as you keep in mind their limitations. Remember that most have not been reviewed by anyone for factual correctness and what you see may be quite wrong.

They still can prove useful for many uses.

As goes for any source of information:

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Using General Search Engines