Ecommerse

Chapter 1: E-Commerce

Internet Searching Tactics

Course Online Site: http://www.course.com/downloads/mis/ecommerce5/index.cfm

Internet Searching

 Why bother? Finding resources for class (to make supplementary handout materials, to present additional info online)

 Finding answers to questions

Search Engine Types and functions

Search engines vary in size, scope, format, state of currency, breadth of searching, how results are displayed, whether or not they use ranking, and whether or not the search is conducted on one database or multiple.

Subject Directory Services, AKA Categories or Subject Guides:

Think tree structure!

Definition: Human arrangement of topical content, linked to a database of web page images; user clicks their way down a chain of topics and sub-topics.

Examples: Yahoo.com, AltaVista.com, About.com, Academicinfo.net, Infomine.com

Computers and Internet > Internet > World Wide Web > Searching the Web > Search Engines and Directories

Look at the http://www.lii.org/ directory. What would you search on to find articles on teaching in your area of expertise?

 Online Directories and Resources - Examples:

(See Course Online Companion вЂ" Subject Guides, White Pages, Yellow Pages, Online References)

www.webopedia.com - The only online dictionary and search engine you need for computer and Internet technology

http://www.m-w.com/ - online dictionary and thesaurus, complete with audio files and limited graphics to help with word pronunciation and comprehension

www.lii.org - Librarian’s Index to the Internet

http://www.acronymdictionary.co.uk/index.html - want to know all the acronyms used on the web? Here’s the source!

http://www.acronymfinder.com - source for “normal” acronyms

Text-Based Searches:

Example: Yahoo’s text search textbox and access to advanced search options

Definition: text or keywords, typed in by user are matched against the contents of a database, resulting in a list of URLs of web pages; not organized by a human, but gathered usually by spiders/bots.

Objective: to return as small an answer set as possible (less than 20)

Variant: meta-search engines - use multiple search databases to return an answer set. Examples Metacrawler.com,

Basic mode options:

“quoted text” вЂ" treated as phrases; words contiguous; case observed in some engines

wildcard characters - *, % (dependent on search engine software) вЂ" “keyword morphing”

+(and) - placed before the search word; means the word MUST be on page

-(not) - means that the page is not to be in the answer set if the word is on the page

title: / t: / allintitle: - means that the word can be found in the title of the web page

url: / u: / allinurl: - means that the word can be found in the url of the web page

text: - means that the word will be found in the body of the page’s text

Class Exercise: use Yahoo.com first, then Google.com

Yahoo Criteria Result Google Criteria Result

+search +engine +search +engine

T: search engine Allintitle: search engine

T: “search engine” Allintitle: “search engine”

U: “search engine” Allinurl: “search engine”

U: “search engine” -submit Allinurl: “search engine”

вЂ"submit

In advanced mode:

U: “search engine” вЂ"submit

Select Language = English “search engine”

WITHOUT submit

Language = English

“search word density” “search word density”

Boolean Logic Searches

Just as in algebra, the Boolean operators can be used with parentheses to construct a query phrase that includes and excludes exactly what you want.

• The object of a search is to construct a very well defined query

• Booleans are not available with all search engines

• Basic Boolean operators: And, Not, Or, (see Venn diagrams),

• Examples of non-standard operators: Near,