1. Tech Tuesday September 28, 2010 Savvy Searching:Strategies for more effective Web searching Lisa J.M. LinfieldTechnology Education SpecialistCooperative Extension Technology Services

2. Why be savvy? “Recently…our systems that process links on the web to find new content hit a milestone: 1 trillion (as in 1,000,000,000,000) unique URLs on the web at once!” - The Official Google Blog2008

3. Today we will explore… Web search tools Strategies to make Web searches more effective Clues to look for when evaluating Websites for credibility

4. Search Engine Sampler

5. …plus a few hundred more!

6. Search process

7. Strategy Be as specific as you can with keywords Synonyms? Try to put main keyword first Learn one or two search engines well Know some advanced searching features (Look for the HELP tool) Boolean searching (AND, NOT, OR) Exact phrase, exclude/include words, site specific searching, specific doc types, etc.

8. ABCs of Savvy Searching Authorityand Accuracy Bias or Balance Currency andCompleteness

9. Authority and Accuracy Clues Links to biographical statements Copyright symbol © Tilde ~ in URL Contact info for author or organization Parody or satire? Grammatical or spelling errors

10. Bias or Balance Clues Type of site (blog, scholarly journal, etc.) URL (.edu, .gov, etc.) “About This Site” Requests for money, time, registration Evidence/documentation Ads

11. Currency and Completeness Clues Relevant hyperlinks Links to outside sources Page revision or creation dates Dated materials “Under construction”

12. For further learning Web Search Strategies in Plain Englishhttp://www.commoncraft.com/search Research Help from Steenbock Libraryhttp://steenbock.library.wisc.edu/instruct/research-help.html Google Search Cheat Sheethttp://www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html Bing Search Tipshttp://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/ff524480.aspx Comprehensive List of Search Engines (descriptions)http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/ Choose the best search engine for your information needshttp://www.noodletools.com