The World Wide Web - Searching the Web

Numerous resources exist on the web for searching for information. Most Internet users will be familiar with the larger search engines such as google, yahoo or altavista. However many specialist search engines are available including ones specifically for children (e.g. www.yahooligans.com).

A number of different search methods are available using these search engines typically through the use of keywords. Due to the high volume of results that are usually returned, the ability to discern the most useful keywords for the required search is crucial. Logical operators can be used to improve search performance, i.e. ‘AND’ (or ‘+’) can be used when BOTH keywords are required in the result when two keywords are used. The search engine ‘google’ provides a host of advanced search options including synonym searches (using the ‘~’ operator). More complete guides are available on google’s help section (www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html) and also on the reference website www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html.

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• The World Wide Web