Searching the Web
What is the Internet or World Wide Web?
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked text, graphics, and sound and animation documents accessed via the Internet. The first generation Web was dominated by static HTML websites. Currently, Web 2.0 is about social networking and mass collaboration through blogs or sites like Digg, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Web 3.0, the next generation or semantic web, is about personalization (e.g. iGoogle), and intelligent search. En example of how the sematic web will work is Twine, a service which organizes, shares and discovers information about a user’s interests in networks of like-minded people.
1. Search Engines
- Individual engines use spiders/crawlers to collect their own searchable index. Some examples are: Google, Bing, Exalead, and Yahoo. Meta engines search multiple individual engines simultaneously. They do not have their own index, but use the indexes collected by the spiders of other search engines. Some examples are: Dogpile, SurfWax, and Copernic Agent. Another interesting search engine, WolframAlpha, started as a project to make all systematic knowledge computable by anyone, ranging from mathematics, statistics, data analysis, to health, culture and weather.
- Concept clustering engines organize search results by peer ranking, or cluster results by concept, site or domain. This is in contrast to the more long-standing method of term relevancy ranking. Examples are Clusty and WebClust.
The "invisible Web" or “deep Web” refers to content stored in databases in such programs as Access, Oracle, or SQL Server. The information stored in databases is accessible only by query which is distinct from static Web pages. Search engine spiders cannot or will not go inside database tables and extract the data. Database content is therefore "invisible" to them.
A significant amount of valuable information on the Web is generated from databases. It has been estimated that content on the deep Web may be 1,000 times larger than the fixed Web.
Of particular value in academic research are: Intute, and The Virtual LIbrary.
When do I use the Web and when do I use a database?
- It is important to realize that these databases are NOT part of the “free” Internet. Even though you access the databases using an Internet browser, you are not searching the "open" Internet.
To find the best databases for your topic check the Subject Guide for your subject area.
The Internet does have some excellent content - including some information that is not available anywhere else. You just have to evaluate the information and determine what is reliable. You can sometimes get the same article from the print source, but it might be easier for you to get it from an onlline database.
REMEMBER: It is important to evaluate what you find on the Web as anyone can publish online. Some web sites provide an up-to-date expert's knowledge, while others are outdated or just personal opinions. If you have to find web resources for your assignment, make sure you consider these evaluation criteria: author credentials, type of information, purpose, credibility of sources, and currency.
Use the Internet when you:Use databases when you want:
Are willing to evaluate the web site's content Scholarly journal articles online
Want to go to a specific web site
Newspaper or magazine articles
Want information on a unique topic
Encyclopedia articles
Want government information
Statistical information
Scholarly articles on the Web
To determine if an article found on the Web is scholarly, review the Library's Scholarly Publications chart. Searching Google Scholar is one option for finding scholarly articles on the internet.
Citing a web source
Check this Library Citation Styles page for more information on how to cite a web source in APA, MLA, Chicago and other citation styles.
Avoid plagiarism
Check the Library Plagiarism guide with tips on how to avoid cheating and plagiarism.
SK/MD 22/07/09
