| Step 5 | Find information on the World Wide Web (WWW) |
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| Use WWW sources to locate general information, current news events, statistics, points of view or opinion on your topic. You may locate your materials by using suitable Web search tools listed below: |
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| 5.1 Search engines |
| Start here when your search is specific, or well defined. Type in your keywords or phrases in the search box and the search engines will find a listing of web pages, images and other types of files that contains the specified keywords (commonly called hits). To get more relevant hits, use Boolean operators like AND, OR, and NOT to specify your search. |
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Examples:
- Google- The most popular search engine on the Web and probably the biggest. Results are ranked by number of references as well as by matching search term(s). It is highly recommended as the first stop in your search for information.
- Yahoo! - In addition to subject-based lists of resources, Yahoo! hosts one of the most popular search engines. It claims to have over 20 billion total Web objects.
- Ask - One of the top search engines, using natural language querying for searching.
- AllTheWeb.com - Powered by Yahoo!, and using its database, but presenting results differently. The focus is on the web search, but news, picture, video, MP3 and FTP search are also offered
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| Meta search engine |
| In a meta-search engine, you submit keywords in its search box, and it transmits your search simultaneously to several individual search engines and their databases of web pages. Within few seconds, you get back results from all the search engines queried. Meta-search engines do not own a database of Web pages, they send your search terms to the databases maintained by search engine companies. |
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Examples:
- Clusty - Currently searches a number of free search engines and directories. It does not search Google or Yahoo!.
- Dogpile - Searches Google, Yahoo, LookSmart, Ask.com, MSN search and more. Sites that have purchased ranking and inclusion are blended in. Watch for Sponsored by ... links below the search results.
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| 5.2 Subject directories |
| Subject directories, unlike search engines, are created and maintained by humans. They are commonly referred to as subject "trees" because they start with a few main categories and then branch out into subcategories, topics and subtopics. There are good sources for information on popular topics, organizations, commercial sites and products. |
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Examples:
- Librarian's Index - Carefully chosen, organised and annotated directory maintained by a large group of librarians in California.
- Virtual Library - Searches Google, Yahoo, LookSmart, Ask.com, MSN search and more. Sites that have purchased ranking and inclusion are blended in. Watch for Sponsored by ... links below the search results.
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| 5.3 Invisible or also referred to as Deep or Hidden Web |
| You may need to use the invisible web if search engines and subject directories fail to generate satisfactory results. This is especially so for research topics that is rather obscure or complicating. The invisible web has the largest category of new information on the Internet. |
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| One way of searching for such information is by searching a subject term and the word database using either Google or other search engines. You can also use the word database in searching a topic in the Google Directory or the Yahoo! Directory, because they sometimes use the term to describe searchable databases in their listings. |
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Examples:
- Child psychology database
- Ethics database
- Course development database
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| Listed below are some gateways to the invisible web:
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| Back to Main |
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| Step 1: | Develop your topic
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| Step 2: | Find background information
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| Step 3: | Use the Library catalogue
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| Step 4: | Search MyDigital Library
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| Step 5: | Find information on the World Wide Web (WWW)
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| Step 6: | Review and evaluate your sources
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| Step 7: | Cite your resources using a standard format
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