Search Engines & Tools

Searching For Web Addresses & URL's

With billions of documents at billions of web sites all over the world, how do you find out about the web sites that are out there? And, how do you find the URLs or web addresses of those sites? 

Easy, we use a search engine. To use a search, you tell the service what you are looking for by typing in keywords, phrases, or questions into the search box and press Enter. Be specific – you are more likely to find what you are looking for this way. The result will be a list of links to pages on the web that, in some way, relates to the keywords you entered. Don’t worry about having to sift through a large number of results – the sites with the most relevant content will appear at the top. You can click on these links to load a page from another site, read the information there, and then press the browser’s "back" button to return to the list of search results.

There are books about the Internet full of web addresses and many web sites contain links to many other sites, but, the best solution is often to use a search engine. This is a site that provides a database of URLs and their page's contents. You search the database using keywords. To visit one of the search tools, enter its URL in the web browser’s location field and press Enter.

Popular Search Engines

Some of the most popular search engines on the internet are:

• Google
• Yahoo!
• Bing (Windows Live)
• AOL
• Ask.com

Alternatively, there are many more search engines out there, some of which focus primarily on certain topics of interest. These are alternate search engines that may relate to your studies.

• AltaVista (general search)
• Google Scholar (scholarly articles and literature)
• Government of Canada Search
• The Internet Archive (library of website histories, live audio archives, public domain film, and literature/texts)
• Internet Movie Database (film information search)
• Internet Public Library (educational search)
• Wikipedia (collaborative encyclopedia)
• Yahoo! Answers (direct questions and answers)

Search Tips

The following is a list of general suggestions on how you can receive more precise results when searching on the Internet.
**Note: Methods of searching vary considerably from engine to engine.

The tips listed here will all work with Google and Yahoo.

1. Try natural language queries
   Type a phrase or a question such as Where can I find a schedule for the Toronto Maple Leafs?
   
   
2. Use exact phrases
   A phrase is a group of words of numbers linked together. If you know an exact phrase, put the phrase in quotes, for example, "Ryerson University." Exact phrase searches are useful for locating titles of books, music or names of people and places
   
   
3. Include or exclude words
   If you want a word to always be included in your search, place a plus sign (+) immediately before the keyword (no spaces) in the search box. If you want to ensure that a word is excluded from your search, use a minus sign (-) instead. For example, to find recipes for chocolate cookies without chips, try searching with the keywords +recipe +cookie +chocolate –chip.
   
   
4. Use wildcards
   By typing an asterisk (*) at the end of a keyword, you can search for multiple forms of the word. For example, try typing big* to find big, bigger, biggest, and bigwig.
   
   
5. Search Results
   As an additional feature, Google stores a back-up copy of most web pages in case the original page is unavailable. This is known as the "cached" link and it will show you some web pages that are no longer available. This link will also highlight the words, throughout the document, that you entered in your search. Click on Cached at the end of the each search results in the list, if available, to view the cached web page.

Search Engines Within Your Browser

All current browsers integrate search engines within their own framework. This feature allows you to use a search engine without having to first navigate to the search engine website, you can just do it from the browser. Most browsers will have a smaller address bar to the right of the main address bar where your URL is entered. This is your "Search Bar" and entering keywords in it performs the same action as entering those keywords on the search engine page. The Search Bar is a quick and efficient way to make use of search engines.

Using the Search Bar in Internet Explorer

Fig. 1 - Internet Explorer Search Bar & Menu

	To utilize the search bar in Internet Explorer, first locate the bar in the top right hand corner of the browser window. Before performing a search, it is important to set the default search provider to whichever engine you are most comfortable with. To bring up a menu of providers, click the Down Arrow beside the Magnifying Glass icon.
	You can select one of the predefined providers from the list, which will replace the default engine used in the Search Bar.
	If you do not see your preferred search engine, you may manually choose it, and in the future it will appear in the list. To do this, select Find More Providers... which will open a new tab and give you a more expansive option of providers.

Using the Search Bar in Mozilla Firefox

Fig. 2 - Mozilla Search Bar & Menu

	To begin searching, you will type in your search term into the Search Bar and press Enter. However, if you wish to first change search engines clicking the down arrow on the left-hand side of the Search Bar will open up a Search Provider menu.
	From the list you may select an engine which range from general search engines like Google or Yahoo! to specific types of searches provided by Amazon, eBay, or Wikipedia
	If you don't see any search engine you are interested in from this list, you may add a new one by selecting Manage Search Engines... at the bottom of the menu. This option will also allow you to remove search engines or re-arrange them as you see fit.

For more information on Search Engines, please visit http://www.searchenginewatch.com.