BHCSD Bunker Hill High School Meissner Junior High School Wolf Ridge Educational Center
Choosing the Best Search Engine
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Information need |
Search strategy |
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I need a few good hits fast. |
Google returns important, relevant hits quickly with bold terms;
pages cached in case the site's down. Weights importance and value on
others' links. |
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I have a general broad academic subject and need to explore or focus it. |
Infomine - high-quality subject tree; librarian-selected |
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I have a general popular or commercial topic and need to explore or focus it. |
Yahoo a "tree" with sites submitted by users |
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I have general keyword(s) and need help refining my search strategy. |
HotBot SuperSearch's template helps you create a Boolean or phrase
search, or limit by media type, date, domain, etc. |
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I bet this search has been done before. |
Ask Jeeves! prepares answers to common questions asked in natural language. |
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I need quality, evaluated pathfinder guides prepared by a subject expert. |
WWW Virtual Library search or browse subject-organized full-text
documents, databases and gateways |
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I need balanced information from verified sources for a school research project to take home. |
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I want to search on often-ignored words in a phrase (e.g. "Vitamin A" or "to be or not to be"). |
Infoseek includes little words (such as a, to, be, not )in the search |
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I need a pinpoint search using a unique phrase or word. |
AltaVista works best for needle-in-the-haystack search for unique word or phrase (Himalayan cat not cat) |
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I need information on a proper name (a place, person, or object). |
Infoseek search with capital letters to force an exact case match on
the entire word (e.g. Al Gore and NeXT) |
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I need biographical information. |
Biographical Dictionary - quick identification of a name |
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I need a company's Web site. |
1Jump direct to company's Web site using company or brand name, stock ticker symbols, name of an executive or employee, geographic terms (ZIP, postal, area code, city name) |
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I need US government information. |
FedWorld browse government databases or Web sites, keyword searches on government Web pages or reports |
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I need hard-to-find or late-breaking information. |
YahooNews updates continuously from newswires; with full coverage" of hot topics |
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I need current information from magazine or newspaper articles. |
ProQuest Direct has full text of over 450 magazines and newspapers
and can be searched from school or home. (Get password from Library) |
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I need accurate, objective information on hot topics. |
Social Issues - Multnomah County Library's Homework Center |
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I need statistical data. |
Statistical Information help page at Nueva |
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Is there almanac-type information on the Internet? |
Information Please (almanac facts) CIA World Factbook (country facts) |
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I need primary sources. |
US focus:
American Memory,
U.S. History,
California Heritage |
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I need images and sounds (photos, art, designs, logos, videos, music, noises), media types (Java, VRML) or file extensions (.gif) |
Amazing Picture Machine (NCREL) small, education-appropriate
pictures |
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I need a map. |
TIGER Map Service maps for Web pages from U.S.Census |
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I need a quotation. |
The Quotations Page Quoteland Quotations Archive, Search Creative Quotations, Bartlett (1901) |
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I want to get advice and opinions from others. |
Ask Kids' Connect question answering and referral by librarians |
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I need a virtual librarian. |
KidsConnect, Internet Public Library Reference, Debbie, Marilyn |
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I want notice of new sites as they're announced. |
Scout Report Signpost reviews of new sites not yet listed on expert sites |
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I've got a good search to rerun automatically. |
Excite's NewsTracker tracks your news topic, refining search based on results |
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I want to see sites just for kids. |