HERB - researching with search engines

[Gaylin J. Walli]

Elewyiss posted a note asking for information:

>I am teaching a class in Nov. about doing research on the web and I need
>some h*lp. Does anybody have a fav search engine? How do you do your
>research? What key words do you use? How do you know what the right keyword
>is? Where do you know to look?

As much as we might favor using search engines to do our
online research, the use of them today can be quite limited.
Choosing any one search engine will be difficult at best.
Detailing why one search engine may be better than another
is also fraught with bias. Some people simply prefer one
method of searching to another. Some people prefer certain
features to another engine's features. Personally, I think the
most important thing to do is choose an engine that has the
following features:

(1) The search engine must work for you and your type of
research or searching method.

Try out several search engines and do some searching on
terminology and pages you know exist. Do a little research
on the research tools. Think about how you research. Do you
always search for something you've never looked up? When
you look these never-before-examined things, would you prefer
to receive as much information as possible or just a few select
things to get you started? Do you usually search for something
you know not at all or something you know very well? Which
engine gives you the best kind of response for each of these
situations? Each one will do better for you at different times
depending on the results you're expecting and the information
you can feed it. Trying out the various search engines
with a topic you know and have already looked up will give
you a good idea of what might be best for you in the future.

(2) The search engine must work quickly enough for your
connection speed.

Some search engines have the distinct advantage of having
much better machinery to back up their search capabilities.
Consider how often you have to wait for information from a
search engine and then think about how important a particular
query might be. Your favorite search engine for the type of query
you are performing may actually be slower to use than another
at a given time of the day. What time are you searching? Are you
searching during the major start of an hour? For example, it might
be 3 pm EST where you are, but in California, particularly Silicon
Valley, that means 12 pm PST. Lunch time, which is also prime
Web-surfing time for those people allowed to do it.

(3) The search engine must not annoy you.

Some search engines actually let people and websites pay them for
higher rankings in their queue of websites they bring up. How much
does that annoy you? Does it matter? Some search engines have
their pages littered with advertisements. How much will that annoy
you or hinder your search retrieval (ads usually contain graphics
and thus slow your search time)? Some search engines don't make
an effort to curb websites from "meta loading." Some websites and
website designers use a combination of very valid and somewhat
sneaky tricks to cause their websites to appear higher on the list
or closer to the beginning of a list that a search engine will return.
In fact, if a website designer is savvy enough to know who their
target audience is, they can use a variety of tricks in combination
to pump their website to the top of the list right away. How much
will THIS annoy you? By doing a little research, you should get a
pretty good idea of which search engines try to forestall these
practices and which ones either don't or don't do it well.

This is only a beginning few bits of comments. Only answering the
tip of the iceberg, to be honest. And doesn't at all address the key
words question or knowing where to look. If I get a chance later
today, I'll try to post some of my thoughts on those subjects too.

I hope this helps,

Jasmine

iasmin de cordoba
iasmin at home.com or gwalli at ptc.com
AOL IM: IasminDeCordoba
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