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An Innovation Grant funded by the Georgia Department of Education |
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Bill Jordan, Instructor |
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Searching: The Little Engine that Could |
Objective: The purpose of this assignment is to
provide you with background information about World Wide Web search engines. |
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Vocabulary: The only new vocabulary to be concerned
with is the search engine. Search engines are one of the most useful
features of the World Wide Web.
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| Background Information: In an earlier lesson you
explored some topic lists as a way of finding information. When you use
a topic list, you depend on someone else to find the information for you;
however, when you want information, you probably want to customize your
search--make it specific to your needs. Depending on your strategy, finding information on the Internet and World Wide Web can be challenging. Surfing and browsing tend to miss a lot of important information. In the early days of the Internet, finding what you wanted was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Typically, when there is a need, someone will find a way to fill it--and often make a lot of money in the process. When the people who had been keeping extensive topic lists developed ways to let other users search their lists, the search engine was born (not to mention several new millionaires!) You will come across a dozen or more search engines as you explore the World Wide Web. With a few exceptions, they all work pretty much the same way. You type in a word or phrase to search for, a database is scanned for matches with your word or phrase, and you get back a list of web sites that match your search instructions. Then, you scan the list, click on sites that look promising, and the web site is displayed on your computer. There is no guarantee that the information you read on any web site is reliable or accurate, so be sure to verify any information you receive. You might think that each search engine would return the same information, but that is definitely not the case. A later lesson will discuss the details of how search engines do their jobs. For now, just realize that search engines use different searching strategies and usually don't come up with exactly the same results. Consequently, when you start searching the World Wide Web, it is a good idea to become familiar with two or three different search engines to maximize the success of your search. |
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| Online Assignment: This assignmnent is pretty simple. You will
be getting prepared for future lessons by visiting several search engine
sites and setting bookmarks so that you can get back to them easily. In
the next lesson, you will actually begin doing some searches. Click on the the icon for each of the following search engines. Set a bookmark for each search engine you visit (refer to the previous lesson if you are unsure about how to set bookmarks). Feel free to explore each site on your own. You will get specific instructions on how to use search engines to conduct searches in future lessons.
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 Reading
Assignment: Please pages 58-59 in the PC Novice Guide to Netscape.
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| Homework Assignment: No real homework assignment for this lesson.
Just be sure to bookmark the seven search engine sites listed above. |
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| Competencies: After completing this assignment, you should realize
that search engines are designed to help you efficiently locate inforation
on the World Wide Web. Different search engines may not give the same results,
so it is important to become familiar with more than one. |
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Send comments to Bill Jordan Thomasville City Schools 915 East Jackson Street Thomasville, GA 31792 |
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