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Internet Search Tips

Each search engine has it's own helpful hints on usage and how to better your search capabilities. Look for links that say "help", "options", or search syntax". The following are general search tips that will assist you in narrowing down your searches and decrease your search time. They may be used for just about any search engine.

Most search engines look for articles about the information you are seeking and rate the articles on a scale from 0-100% in importance. If your search only consists of one word, it may be as simple as typing in that word and clicking search to find what you need. However, there is so much information on the Internet and there are a variety of ways to better find what you need.

If your search consists of using a phrase or just more than one word, put quotations around the phrase or words. This will tell the search engine that you want to find these words in articles together. For instance, if you just type Search Internet, the search will bring up articles which consist of the words "search" and "Internet" but not necessarily both together. "Search Internet" would bring up articles that contain these words together as a phrase.

To find words that appear in titles of articles, put a"t:" or the word "title:" in front of the search words.

Example: t: "Internet search" or title:"Internet Search"

To find URL's (Uniform Resource Locators) also known as web pages for your search criteria type in a "u:" or "url:" before the search words.

Example: u: "Internet search" or url: "Internet search"

To learn more about searching the Internet, click the following link and check out this web page, it is chock full of useful information about this topic:

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Strategies.html

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Common Internet Terms

ActiveX - A technology that facilitates information sharing among applications. Primarily used for developing interactive applications and Web content.

Applet - A computer program written in a Web language known as "Java "™. Used quiet frequently for animations on Web pages.

ARPANet - ARPA is the acronym for Advanced Research Project Agency, the U.S. Department of Defense agency that funded the development of the first computers that linked networks across great distances. The ARPAnet was the forerunner of the Internet.

Bandwidth - The amount of data that can be sent through a connection before the carrier becomes full. Usually measured in bits of data per second (bps).

Browser - A client software program used to search networks and retrieve and display copies of files in an easy to read format. Browsers can also draw upon associated programs (plug-ins) to play audio and video files.

CERN - Conseil Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, Switzerland, where in the late 1980's a team of pioneering engineers under the leadership of Timothy Berners-Lee developed the World Wide Web technology.

Chat - A networked software program that enables multiple users to carry on real time "conversations" with each other by typing messages on their computers and sending them over a local network or the Internet.

Cookies - A file stored on your hard disk and used to identify your computer or your preferences to a remote computer. Cookies are frequently used to identify visitors to Web Sites.

Downloading - The process of requesting and transferring a file from a remote computer to a local computer and saving the file on the local computer, usually via a modem or network.

Encryption - The process of scrambling transmitted information.

Firewall - Software intended to prevent unauthorized access to a computer network.

Home Page - The main page of a Web site, which generally contains links to additional locations within the site, ore external sites.

HTTP - Short for hypertext transfer protocol, the protocol that's the basis of World Wide Web technology. HTTP is the set of rules governing the software that transports HTML documents along the Internet.

HTML - Short for hypertext markup language, the language web pages are created in, comprised of text and "tags" that are interpreted by browsers so we can view them.

Hypertext - Electronic text in a format that provides instant access, via links, to other hypertext within a document or in another document.

IP Address - The Internet protocol address of a computer connected to the Internet, usually represented in dot/decimal notation, as in 128.121.4.5

ISP - Short for Internet Service Provider, a service that provides organizations an home users with access, via the ISP's servers to the Internet.

Java™ - An object oriented programming language used to create applets, or programs that can be distributed as attachments to Web documents.

Link - Short for hyperlink. Refers to a hot spot in a Web document usually highlighted in a different color than the surrounding text. Links are clicked to open an object in the same or another database, a different document, or an HTML page on the Web or local Intranet.

Modem - Acronym for modulator / demodulator, a hardware device that connects one computer to other computers, or to the Internet, over a standard telephone or ISDN line.

Multimedia - Term for any content that combines text, sound, graphics, and/or video.

Netiquette - The combination of net and etiquette, and unwritten code of rules for preserving civility on, and efficient use of, the Internet.

Online Service - A paid service subscription that provides an easy way to connect to the Internet.

Plug-In - A software component or module that extends the capabilities of an application, usually to enable it to read or display files of a specific type. In the case of Web browsers, plug-ins enable the display of audio, video, and animation.

Search Engine - A software application or service used to locate files on an intranet or the Web.

Shareware - Software that is available for a free tryout, but for which the author or developer requests payment if you decide to keep the software.

URL - Short for Uniform Resource Locator, the address that specifies the electronic location of an Internet resource or file.

Virus - In computers, a malicious, human-created program that searches out other programs and infects them by embedding a copy of itself. Some viruses can do irreparable harm to a computer system.

World Wide Web - A collection of multimedia content, connected by hyperlinks and providing an easy, graphical interface for navigating the Internet.

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