KYVL: Information Skills Tutorial, Unit 1: Tips for Using Search Engines
Using Search Engines
Information Skills Tutorial
Unit 1: Web Basics
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Topic: Tips for Using Search Engines
Overview
Lesson
Example
Practice
Overview
Generally you have much more freedom in asking a web search engine to find something for you than you would in, say, a library catalog, where certain protocols have to be observed.
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Lesson
There are some ways to enter your search that will help you get the best results when you start using the Web. The 2 major techniques are:
the use of the plus sign (+)
enclosing phrases within quotation marks
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Example
Most Search Engines make use of the following:
Quotation Marks to search for phrases:
Enter the search statement
"gun control" crime
in the search box, then click
find
or
go
beside the box. Enclose any words that must be adjacent to each other in quotation marks.
The search engine will show you those pages with
gun control
as a phrase and the word
crime
in the same website.
Plus (+) sign to require a word or phrase be in the website:
Try
firearms +statistics
. Using the
+
sign ensures that the word following the sign
must
be included. There must be no space between the
+
sign and the word.
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Practice
Which is the most effective way to enter a search for reviews of the movie
A Star is Born
? Click on the blue letter to see if you are correct.
a.
"A Star is Born"
b.
a star is born and review
c.
"A Star is Born" +review
d.
+Star +is +Born
Unit 1
: 7 of 15
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Last Updated: 04/18/2000
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