EFFECTIVE Web searches require conscious decisions made before the search. Think about where to look for information, where it should be found. Using a search engine, such as Google or Yahoo, is only one of the options—and not always the best one. Approach the search for information on the Web as you would approach this search in the world outside the Web. If you want to know the current price of gold, go to the business section of a newspaper. Using the Web, go to the online version. If you want to know where Pablo Picasso was born, go to an encyclopedia because this is a static fact. Using the Web, go to the Encyclopedia Britannica available from the B.U. Web site. Don't look for this kind of information using a search engine.  Also, know your sources. Just because you found information on the Web, doesn't mean it's accurate. Anyone can put anything on a Web page.

1. Find out where Ernest Hemingway, the writer, was born. Where will you look for this answer?

(Almost all students give "1899" as the answer. But the question is where, not when.) He was born in Oak Park, Illinois. Use Encyclopedia Britannica from the B.U. Web site (Tools and Resources) for this kind of static fact. There are other, free encyclopedias also, such as Columbia. Type his name into the search field and you will find a short biography. Other sites, such as A&E's Biography.com also offer short biographical information. Do not trust the information found on "fan" pages. Find a reputable, known source.

2. Find the meaning of etymology. Where will you look for this answer?

You're looking for the definition of a word. Use a dictionary. Several free online dictionaries are listed on the Dictionaries pop-up menu on the MLL Students' page. Etymology is the study of word origins. The best source for word origins is the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) from the B.U. Web site. Many other online dictionaries, such as Merriam-Webster, offer a short note, usually sufficient, on the origin as well. They also offer an audible option where you can hear the word pronounced. Click on the speaker icon .

3. Would you find the answer to either of the above questions using the Find on Page command or Find button?

No. The Find feature (at right) in Navigator and Explorer (Edit > Find) only searches the current page for the occurrence of the specified word, much as it would in a word processor. Using the Find command on this page would simply bring you to either of the above questions, where those words appear. This command does not perform an Internet search as a search engine does, but it's useful for finding a particular reference in text in a vary long text Web page, such as a paper.

4. What's an Internet domain?

The main (or "top level") categories of the World Wide Web. For example, .com is the commercial domain, .edu is the educational domain. *.info, .name, and .biz were added in the domain expansion to provide more addresses.

5. In which domains are you likely to find the following sites?

Internal Revenue Service	.gov
The U.S. Navy	.mil
Pepsi	.com
Harvard University	.edu
CNN	.com
NPR or PBS	.org
MLA	.org
Primus Internet service provider	.net

You might find the same domain name registered in more than one domain category. For example, there is www.navy.mil for the official U.S. Navy site, but www.navy.org is a commercial E-mail provider for Navy personnel. Often, an organization will also register the same domain name in several different domain categories simply to stake a larger claim.

6. What is a "search string" and is this an example (below)?

museum paris impressionist

Search strings are key words that define your search. You type them into a search field (below) on search engines (such as Google, Yahoo, etc.). Yes, above is an example of a search string. Generally, the above string would look for the occurrence of ANY of the words in Web pages, not all. To limit your results to pages that contain all of the words, type

museum AND paris AND impressionist

You can also put quotes around the string, which might be more effective for a search for pages having to do with "english as a second language" for example.

"Google Search," above, will give you results for your search. "I'm Feeling Lucky," will bring you directly to the page for the first listing in the results. The "Advanced Search" link to the right will help you narrow down your search results without getting into the use of boolean operators.

 

7. If you're currently using the Google search engine, how would you switch to Yahoo?

If you know the address (the URL) type it directly into the Location or Address field. Don't type it into a search field. As an analogy, if you know your friend's phone number, do you still call 411? No, you dial his number directly. Likewise with the Web. Simply type "yahoo" in the location field and the browser will autocomplete the syntax and assume that it is in the .com domain, since the vast majority of all pages on the Web are in that domain.

8. If you want to return to a site you visited 30 minutes ago, what is the best way to get back there?

Pull down the Go menu (in IE) or click and hold on the Back button (Nav) and find the site down the list, which is in reverse chronological order (most recent on top). Note that if you're using Netscape Navigator and a link opened in a new browser window (known as "spawning" a new window), then the new window may not have the page visit history of the referring page.

9. What are the problems (3) with typing the following URL in the Location field?

http;//www.itn

1. ; should be : 2. .com is missing. 3. http:// is not necessary. (In fact, nothing but the domain name, itn, is necessary since this is a .com site.)

www.itn.com is correct (simply itn will work in IE).

10. Without actually following the link, what do you think the following URL is for?

www.royal.gov.uk

uk is the country code for the United Kingdom (Great Britain); gov indicates a government site; royal suggest the monarchy. It's the British Monarchy's Web site. This question gets at the breakdown of a URL. Look at the 6 parts of a URL (uniform resource locator, or simply location) below.

 

11. What happens if you have visited 5 sites in a linear fashion then click the Forward button?

Nothing. The Forward button (at right, dimmed and unavailable) only moves forward to a visited site if you have moved backwards.

12. What's the easiest way to get to the main BU page if you are at the following page?

http://www.bu.edu/celop/mll/startup/index.html

Select and delete everything after the domain category (.edu) in the URL in the Location window. Press the Return key, which should bring you to

http://www.bu.edu/

13. What would be the most efficient way to find images of a raccoon?

Search engines, such as Google, have dedicated image searches where all of your results are thumbnail pictures. In Google, click on the Images tab to begin an image search and type in the keyword(s). Click on one to go to the source page. A dedicated image search gives only images as results, unlike a normal search, which produces text descriptions and links of HTML pages. Google probably looks at the alternative text tag information for images to match the names (pictures on Web pages can have a text description entered in the HTML code that will display only if the image does not, or while a slow-loading image downloads).

 

14. How do you save a copy of an image you like from a Web page?

On a Mac, place the pointer over the image and click and hold the mouse button. An options list will pop up (below). Choose, "Download Image to Disk" or "Save this image as..." or the like. Browse to the appropriate saving location on your computer. You can also choose "Copy image" and it will be copied to the clipboard so that you can paste it somewhere else, such as in a word processing document. On a PC, click the right mouse button on an image and save as above. Images that you can save or copy include .gif, .jpg, or .png formats. Some images are displayed using other technologies, such as Flash movies or Java applets. You can only capture these images through the use of a screen capture utility for your computer, which essentially allows you to draw a marquee box around any part of your screen and copy it to the clipboard or save it.