Professional organizations provide many educational resources on their Web sites. There will be times when these resources do not meet your needs, so you will want to conduct your own efficient and productive searches on the Web.

     One Web site that you can use to begin your exploration with search tools is the WOW Search Techniques page:

www.uswestwow.org/nwow/neducation/nsearch/

     Here you will find names and URLs of the latest search tools, an explanation of WWW search theory, and tips on how to efficiently use search tools to find the information you need. This site is updated often.

     There are many ways to help you search effectively for information. A first step is for you to compare search tools with the same request. We are going to compare Infoseek and Northernlight.

     To do this you need to know how to open and keep active two or more browser windows.

     Choose File | New | Navigator Window.

     This will open a second browser window. To move between the two windows so you can interact with each, simply click on the browser buttons on Windows' bottom menu bar or use Alt-TAB.

     In the new browser window, find the location box and type the URL for Infoseek: infoseek.go.com

     In the second browser window, find the location box and type the URL for Northern Light: www.northernlight.com

     Perform the following tasks:

     In each search engine's search box, type the search request just as you see it below, click on the Search button, and then write down the number of hits you receive in the space provided. Finally make a summary statement about your observations.

Task 1:

     When both search engines search for 'education grants' what is the default operator (OR or AND) used in each?

Task 2:

     Which search engine(s) reduce(s) the number of hits when you use capital letters?

Task 3:

     Which search engine(s) reduce(s) the number of hits when you use quotation marks around a phrase to search for a string of words?

     It is very important to understand how a search tool works. You may substitute any search tool in place of Infoseek or Northern Light and explore how it works with the identical search requests. Also, it never hurts to read the Help, Tips, Options, or FAQ's that appear as a link on every search tool's home page.

Review: Earlier in this Section , you were asked to locate professional organizations that you may belong to or which you know about. What did you learn in this activity that may allow you to more quickly find the organisation(s) you searched for previously?