Rutgers University Libraries Accessing Information
on the Web 		 Ka-Neng Au
Outline
Search Tools
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   Searching
Strategies
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Evaluation

Searching

If you are searching for specifics - sites designed to provide a particular type of information - search services are your best bet. The search service you use depends upon what you need to find. If you are searching for a specific topic or word or phrase, indexers offer access to millions of WWW documents at once. Some of the issues that a search service can help find resources for are:
  • the issue of ethical behavior in the workplace
  • a bibliography on a specific management theory
  • current economic conditions of Azerbaijan
There are many different search engines available but here are some general characteristics to keep in mind:
* SIZE & STYLE
Search engines vary in database size and manner of searching. Reading the available help information will help you to become more familiar with how an individual search engine works.
* RANKING SYSTEMS
Most search engines will rank the output of searches but not all engines rank the same.
* LAG TIME
Search engines are not generally the best way to find current news
* APPROPRIATENESS
The database size for search engines ranges from hundreds of millions to over 4 billion, which can make finding that one specific document difficult.
a. Indexers

Search engines allow you to search an indexed database (not the actual Internet) for specific keywords or phrases appearing on various places within the Websites. The best individual search engine is Google. Other excellent search engines are:

b. Parallel Search Engines

If you have a more ambiguous or general query, use a parallel search engine which will organize search results into clusters of concepts and subtopics. Parallel search engines send searches to several search engines automatically, and often consolidates the results before displaying them. Three of the better known sites are:

http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/workshops/websearch2.htm
This page was last updated 2 March 2004.
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