Searching - Soooo Much INFORMATION!...

Well after much trying, I am only able to post the link to my GoAnimate Video. Just couldn't seem to get the audio to work with a Jing capture. Another time... But here is the link any way - 

                Cathy's Web Search GoAnimate Video

So on to this week’s subject... SEARCHES!!!!

One of the most important things to consider is the validity or credibility of information you find floating through Cyber Space.

Here are a few points to consider in evaluating source:

·   Authority – Who’s writing this info? And who owns the site?

·   Objectivity – Do they present many view points or is there a clear bias?

·   Scope and Quality – Does it cover the topic well? Is the spelling accurate? Is the information up to date? How does it compare to other sites? Who does this site target?

·   Design and Functionality – Are links operative? Even though it has a professional appearance how does it stack up to other sites?

Here are some further parameters from the text book web site:

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

http://www.lesley.edu/library/guides/research/evaluating_web.html

Web directories were also something I had never really considered. When Internet use first exploded, there weren’t the scope and bread of searches available that are presently. Today, most popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing, incorporate directories in their searches.

But there are actually still human-edited directories. The major one – The Open Directory (http://www.dmoz.org/) is the “go to” place for the major search engines (and rightfully proud of it). It seems that there is STILL a need for much non-automated input on the Web.

Here is a list of some of the popular search engines:

Netscape Search                  AOL Search               Google                                  

Lycos                                      HotBot                        DirectHit

And just in case one search engine isn’t enough, a metasearch engine queries multiple search engines. Here are some:

Metacrawler               Dogpile                      KartOO

Mamma                      Ixquick

So go - go and search to your hearts content