Seeking:

Seeking:Accurate, truthful and

relevant information to form useful arguments and

positions

Why do grocery stores put milk in the back of the

store?

Why are doggie treats often on lower shelves in a

grocery store?

Why do Staples stores have low shelves and hanging signs?

Why do books have indexes and tables of

contents, but newspapers don’t?

Organizing physical spaceSome things are closer than othersPhysical objects can only be in one place at one

timePhysical space is sharedHuman physical abilities are limitedShared physical spaces must be orderly and

neat for people to find things

Organizing digital spaceEverything is only a few clicks awayEverything can be personalizedSupply is nearly infiniteThings can be classified in multiple ways at the

same timeInformation can be stored in random ways and

organized instantly when needed

Example: Finding musicFrom buying albums to buying songsFrom DJs to iPodsFrom browsing in a record store to find artists to

listening to Pandora etc.

Unbundled InformationFrom newspapers to separate sites for news,

comics, weather, sports, crossword puzzles, food, classifieds, advertisements

From broadcast news programs to YouTubeFrom a handful of general interest magazines to

millions of niche sites

The number of digital things is vastly greater than the number of physical things

We need new forms of organization, searching and

finding:Everything is miscellaneous

(book by David Weinberger)

A topic is just the beginning

1. Make a hypothesis or state an assumption about your topic:

We believe clean energy is the key to Nevada’s economic future

We believe that child abuse increases when the economy gets worse

We believe more people should use bicycles in Reno

2. Ask questionsWhat percentage of Nevada’s energy is currently

provided by alternative energy? How has that changed over the past 20 years?

What is the incidence of reported child abuse in Nevada? How do we compare to other countries? OR, how are children treated? OR, what happens to abusers?

3. Translate those questions into Web search language

A search query starts with the words most likely to appear on the page you’re looking for

Nevada child abuse recordsChild abuse worldwideChildren testify abuse

TipsNouns are better than adjectives, verbs and

other parts of speechSearch engines ignore common words (the, it,

she, etc.)The more specific your term, the most specific

the resultsKeep revising to narrow or broaden your search

until you have what you need

More advanced searchingPhrase search ("")Search within a specific website (site:)Terms you want to exclude (-)

Search engines: “There is no best”

Google (more than 72% of all searches: worth more than $150 billion)

YahooBingAskAOL(Phil Bradley’s Web site:

Which search engine when?)

Keyword searchesGoogle is always a good bet, since it has the

largest indexYahoo Search is the second most popular

keyword search engineBing may provide results if the other two don't

work

Directory based search engines

These search engines arrange data in hierarchies from broad to narrow. Good if you need an overview of a subject or you're not entirely sure of what you want.

Yahoo Directory provides 14 main categoriesGoogle Directory provides access to 16 main

categoriesThe Open Directory Project provides access

to 16 main categories

Meta search engines These search engines are useful if you need to run a comprehensive search quickly

across a number of different engines, to compare results or to suggest search engines that you may not have tried before.

Browsys 18 search engine options. Formerly intelwaysFasteagle dozens of resourcesIxquick has a nunber of UK based engines in its collectionIzito 6+ standard free text search engines usedJoongel 10 engines in multiple categoriesKedrix GYMA search engineMamma been around for ever, good reputationNginer covers various types of search and engines. Framed resultsScour GYM search, + vote and comment on resultsSearch!o wide variety of different enginesSearchboth Compare 2 search engines at once, eight optionsSputtr has 9 different optionsSymbaloo visual and multi engine, add your own engines as well.Trovando is a first rate choice and a personal favourite. 33 optionsWhonu? Wide variety of resources, lots of options, impressiveZuula 11 different search engine options

The Deep WebSearch engines include far less than half of all

the information on the total Web. The Deep Web includes information in databases that is only displayed when specifically searched, and information that is intentionally kept private.

Also remember that the Web doesn’t include vast amounts of historical data, information in libraries, government centers and corporations that has never been digitized

How Google works

Searching on GoogleMaps (food 89503)Books (magazine archives)Images (colors, shapes, faces)Videos (Google owns YouTube)BlogsScholarly workShopping

Google’s constant tweaking

New interface on left hand columnEnter locationWonder WheelGoogle insights for searches

Search engine tipsEvery word matters. Search is always case insensitive. A search for

[ new york times ] is the same as a search for [ New York Times ].

Generally, punctuation is ignored, including @#$%^&*()=+[]\ and other special characters.

Sorting the answersFirst, look at the category of the listing: Is it

news, scholarly work, a commercial site, a non-profit or advocacy group?

Can often (not always) tell by the URL -- .edu,.com., gov., org., it., uk.

Choose the most credibleUse the credibility criteria we’ve talked about in

class: Who authored the site? For what purpose? When?

How does this source of information compare with the others you’ve found?

Look for the sites that others are referencing. Find the most authoritative sources.

Social bookmarking in Plain English

Use tags on DeliciousWhen you save a Web site to Delicious, write a

short description and be sure to use the “tag” feature to identify what the site is about.

Use the key words from your initial questions to help categorize the information

Today, meet in your groups to:

1. Focus your topic by stating a set of hypotheses or assumptions. Post it on your Ning group page.

2. Develop a list of questions to test your hypotheses/assumptions

3. Identify key words and categories for searching 4. Assign each group member a focus

For Wednesday1. Revise your group description as necessary:

“We want to find out…” OR “We believe…”2. Post a link to your delicious account and be

sure to have a minimum 50 sites saved and tagged (more for larger groups)

3. Include a mix of news sites, government sites, commercial sites (if appropriate), non profits, geographically diverse (if appropriate). Use tags to sort by category as well as topic.

If you do not have a groupWe will go through the groups one by one to

identify which ones are full (four is the ideal size; five if you must).

Please join a group that is focused on a topic that you’re interested in

Groups Teen pregnancy Child abuse Conspiracies Medical marijuana (uses) Children in Africa Sex trafficking Body image in media Animal cruelty Oppression in Tibet

Genocide and slavery Obesity in America The road unknown: biking What is beauty UNR Medical marijuana Driving and texting (2) Clean energy Marijuana legalization BCS ranking system