Learning to Use the Web
There are many websites whose function is to
search the Web. Such sites contain code, called search engines, which search the Web for sites or documents that
contain words that you enter. Several well-known ones are Google, Yahoo, and
MSN search. You are reading this in a window of a browser.
- Which browser are you using?
- Describe the bar that appears on the top of the
screen.
- Press the button that says "Search." If
such a button is not immediately visible, look on the View menu and
experiment until you get something that says "Search" that you
can press or click.
- Are you asked to choose which search engine you
wish to use or are you just presented with a window that asks you for the
key words for which you wish to search?
- If you are given a choice, what are the choices?
Go to http://www.google.com/
and make the following searches and list the number of references (hits)
returned and the time of the search (on top line).
- computer science
- computer engineering
- computer science OR computer engineering
- (computer science) OR (computer engineering)
Discuss the differences in the number of hits
in the four searches.
Can you draw a conclusion for these results?
Go to another search engine and make the same
searchers.
- What search engine did you use?
- Were you able to get the same information?
Explain.
- Which did you feel gave you the best information?
Explain.