Checklist Activity: Internet Searching Basics

Many good searching tutorials and other searching resources are available at  
Research-It!
http://www.itools.com/research-it/

_____I CAN USE MY BROWSER'S SEARCH BUTTON

Many browsers have two white bars to enter what you are looking for. Typically, one is for URLs you want to access, and the other is generally connected to a popular search engine. Be clear which white bar you want to use.

_____I CAN GO TO SPECIFIC SEARCH ENGINES                                                    

In the white bar of your browser, enter http://google.com   and press the "Enter or Return" key. You should see the search engine appear on the screen. (Don't be fooled by advertising banners with white bars attempting to mimic search engines.)

_____I CAN SEARCH USING A SINGLE KEYWORD

In thewhite bar near the middle of your screen enter a single word on a topic of interest to you, such as "dinosaurs" and either click the "Search" button to the right of, or below the white bar, or just press the "Enter or Return" key. Within a few seconds the results of your search will appear but you may not see them all until you scroll down the page.

_____I CAN SEARCH USING MULTIPLE KEYWORDS

Click the BACK button to return to your original search screen. Change your search to "dinosaurs AND birds" and search again. Notice the number of pages retrieved is fewer. The more key words you use, the fewer and more specific resources you'll retrieve. Using 'dinosaurs OR birds' will retrieve many MORE pages than using dinosaurs alone. (Memory trick: "OR IS MORE.")

_____I KNOW WHERE TO FIND TIPS ON EFFECTIVE
          SEARCH TECHNIQUES

Examine the main search engine screen for buttons labeled "HELP" "TIPS" or "Advanced Search" and you'll find short, helpful suggestions on how to conduct more targeted searches. Tutorials on searching are available at   Research-It! http://www.itools.com/search

_____I UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEARCH
          DIRECTORIES AND SEARCH ENGINES

Research about the differences at: http://www.kathyschrock.com/slideshows.htm Scroll down to "Effective Search Strategies, and Extreme Searching" (Directories like Yahoo are collections of links only, whereas search engines search the Internet. There are hundreds of different types of search engines.

_______ I CAN TRANSLATE ANY ENGLISH LANGUAGE WEB PAGE
             INTO FIVE DIFFERENT LANGUAGES

Go to http://translate.google.com and enter a URL for the web page to be translated into the white box. Select the language desired. Click on the help button for more tips.  For more language translation resources search for "language translation"as many new resources are appearing regularly. Many translation sites are listed in the Foreign Language Web Tour accessible via:   http://lone-eagles.com/webtours.htm