PhAST Track Information Skills Module: Web sites

The Internet can be a rich source of information but not everything will be useful or appropriate for research use. Web resources should be carefully evaluated and used in conjunction with the scholarly resources provided by the Library. Use the Advanced search features of Google or Google Scholar to restrict your search to search results from reputable sources.

• Phrase search ("")
  By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change. 
• Search within a specific website (site:)
  Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website. For example, the query [ iraq site:nytimes.com ] will return pages about Iraq but only from nytimes.com. T
• Terms you want to exclude (-)
  Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages that contain this word to appear in your results.
• Fill in the blanks (*)
  The *, or wildcard, is a little-known feature that can be very powerful. If you include * within a query, it tells Google to try to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches.
• Search exactly as is (+)
  By attaching a + immediately before a word (remember, don't add a space after the +), you are telling Google to match that word precisely as you typed it. Putting double quotes around a single word will do the same thing.

Find out more.

Try the following search variations in Google, and see how different ways of structuring your search will get you different results.  Which gives you the best range of reliable information?

1. pain management
2. "pain management"
3. "pain management" pharmaceutical
4. "pain management" (pharmaceutical OR pharmacy)
5. "pain management" (pharmaceutical OR pharmacy) site:.au
6. "pain management" (pharmaceutical OR pharmacy) site:.gov.au
7. "pain management" (pharmaceutical OR pharmacy) site:.edu.au
8. "pain management" (pharmaceutical OR pharmacy) site:.org.au

No two search engines are the same in terms of size, speed, content, ranking schemes and search options. Therefore, your search is going to be different on every engine you use. Typically, with two search engines, out of any 100 hits, 60 will appear in both, and 40 will appear in only one or the other.

Try a few search engines. Choose the one that seems to work best for you for your default use. If it doesn't come up with the goods, then try others - for serious searching, always consider using two search engines.

Don't believe everything you find on the web!

Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can put "information" on the Internet:

• some of them know what they are talking about
• some think they know what they are talking about (but they are wrong)
• some are lying to you - either to get your money, or for their own personal amusement.

You need to read carefully and decide whether you can trust the website.  Make sure you read the section on Reliable Websites under the "Avoiding Crappy Sources"

First, think carefully about what you are searching for:

• What question do you want answered, and why?
• Is your question very general or highly specialised?
• What sort of information are you looking for?  
• Is there likely to be lots of information, or very little available?

Next, decide your approach - do you want to 

• Locate a specific piece of information?
  • Use a search engine. If that fails, try a subject gateway or directory.  
• Retrieve everything you can find on the subject?
  • Use more than one search engine, play around with your search strategy, use advanced search techniques and look beyond the first two pages of results.
• Browse?
  • If you're browsing and getting an idea of what's available in your subject area, start with a subject directory or gateway. If this fails, try a meta-search engines, just to see what sort of stuff is out there.

Finally, construct your search statement

Constructing a search statement

Every search statement or query consists of a few key words or phrases which MUST, MAY or MUST NOT occur in a webpage for the search engine to list it.

When constructing your search, keep the following tips in mind:

• carefully analyse your question/topic
• reduce it to a few KEYWORDS - words that are vital to your search and accurately describe your topic
• use more than one keyword (three is a useful minimum to aim for)
• try to think of all the other words (and spellings) that might be used in webpages covering your topic.
• be as specific as you can
• use nouns as keywords wherever possible
• try to avoid using very common words
• start with a simple search first (unless you are pretty expert)
• if a simple search fails, try using advanced search strategies like Booleans and Trunction (if you need a reminder, we looked at that here)

You can successfully use web searches to gain a basic understanding of your topic. Wikipedia is an ok place to start, however you will need to read and reference scholarly works for your assessment. 

In a Google search:

Do:

• Keep your search simple
• Use keywords in your searches. For example: hitler germany nazi propaganda
• Use the search tools in Google. For example to find a definition type: define:nazi  or define:communism
• Read the Google help notes, both basic search help and more search help
• Choose from the list of search results carefully. Go to sites with edu, ac, gov in the web address first
• Use wikipedia to gain basic understanding and to provide better keywords for more demanding searches in Tropicat and databases
• Move on to more scholarly sources to gain in depth understanding

Don't

• Type your essay question into the search box - every word counts in the search and some words will confuse the search engine
• Make references to wikipedia in your assessment (unless you would cite your uncle Bob).