6.3 SEARCHING THE WEB

Search Engines are tools that help you find specific information and websites on the internet. There are many search engines available, but we will consider Google‟s search engine for our reference. 

6.3.1 Basic Search

1.     Go to www.google.co.in. The site opens as shown in Figure 6.2. You may change the language and see how all the labels change. We will use English for our purposes. 

2.     You can also change your search preferences through the link „Search Setting‟. 

3.     Type whatever you want to search for in the Search Box and hit Enter or click Google Search button. All the words that you have typed will be used for the search. For example type printer.

4.     A list of all the web pages that have printer in it will be displayed with links to their websites.

5.     Also it gives the number of results below the search box.

6.     The more words you use for your search, the more restrictive it becomes. For example of you use color printer, it gives less number of results. And if you use color inkjet printer, it gives still lesser number of results. 

7. You may also check that the search is case insensitive.

Figure 6.2 : Google India Search Engine


6.3.2 Advanced Basic Search 

1.     Phrase Search(“”): By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change. For example search for Mohandas K. Gandhi and for “Mohandas K. Gandhi”. See the difference in number if results.
 
2.     Search within a specific website (site:): Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a specific website. Search on gurgaon site:timesofindia will return pages on gurgaon but only from timesofindia.com. 

3.     Term to exclude (-):Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages that contain this word to appear in your results. The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space. Example, search on color printer –inkjet lists all color printers that are not inkjet.

4.     Fill in the blanks (*): The * is a wild card character. For example if you search on Google *, it will give you results about many of Google‟s products.

5.     Search as is (+): By adding + immediately before the word, you tell the search engine to match that word as is, and not to look for its synonym in the search. 

6.     The OR operator: Used to search for either of several words, instead of all the words.

6.3.3 Advanced Search 

With Advanced Search, you can search for pages that...
  • contain ALL the search terms you type in
  • contain the exact phrase you type in
  • contain at least one of the words you type in
  • do NOT contain any of the words you type in
  • is written in a certain language
  • is created in a certain file format
  • was updated within a certain period of time
  • contain numbers within a certain range
  • within a certain domain, or website
  • don't contain "adult" material.