Searching the Internet: Recommended Sites and Search Techniques

This tutorial explores a variety of search tools to help you gain skills in conducting research on the Internet. For a broader view of the Internet as a research tool, see Conducting Research on the Internet.

Only a few examples of subject directories and search engines are covered in this tutorial.

Index to this tutorial

Remember...

Quick Tip!
When should I use a subject directory? When you have a broad topic or idea to research When you want to see a list of sites on your topic often recommended and annotated by experts When you want to retrieve a list of sites relevant to your topic, rather than numerous individual pages contained within these sites When you want to search for the site title, annotation and (if available) assigned keywords to retrieve relevant material rather than the full text of a document When you want to avoid viewing low-content documents that often turn up on search engines When should I use a search engine? When you have a narrow or obscure topic or idea to research When you are looking for a specific site When you want to search the full text of millions of pages When you want to retrieve a large number of documents on your topic When you want to search for particular types of documents, file types, source locations, languages, date last modified, etc. When you want to take advantage of newer retrieval technologies such as concept clustering, ranking by popularity, link ranking, and so on When should I use the deep Web? When you want dynamically changing content such as the latest news, job postings, available airline flights, etc. When you want to find information that is normally stored in a database, such as a phone book listing, listings of lawyers, doctors, etc. in a particular location, searchable collections of laws, geographical and company data, and so on.

Quick Tip!

When should I use a subject directory?

When you have a broad topic or idea to research
When you want to see a list of sites on your topic often recommended and annotated by experts
When you want to retrieve a list of sites relevant to your topic, rather than numerous individual pages contained within these sites
When you want to search for the site title, annotation and (if available) assigned keywords to retrieve relevant material rather than the full text of a document
When you want to avoid viewing low-content documents that often turn up on search engines

When should I use a search engine?

When you have a narrow or obscure topic or idea to research
When you are looking for a specific site
When you want to search the full text of millions of pages
When you want to retrieve a large number of documents on your topic
When you want to search for particular types of documents, file types, source locations, languages, date last modified, etc.
When you want to take advantage of newer retrieval technologies such as concept clustering, ranking by popularity, link ranking, and so on

When should I use the deep Web?

When you want dynamically changing content such as the latest news, job postings, available airline flights, etc.
When you want to find information that is normally stored in a database, such as a phone book listing, listings of lawyers, doctors, etc. in a particular location, searchable collections of laws, geographical and company data, and so on.

Here are sample topics and the tools you should use to retrieve information about them. This rule is not absolute, but should give you some general guidelines about how to approach subject directories and search engines as research tools.

Begin with a Subject Directory	Begin with a Search Engine
Disabilities	Americans With Disabilities Act
Civil War	Battle of Appomattix
Space exploration	Mars Pathfinder
British literature	Charles Dickens