ELT CONFERENCE 2007

Searching for and Evaluating
Web Sites Effectively

Christine Bauer-Ramazani
Saint Michael's College
Colchester, Vermont, U.S.A.

URL for this presentation: http://academics.smcvt.edu/cbauer-ramazani/present/ELT-Conf-Bogota-07/WebSites/search_eval.htm
See a translation of this page in Swedish.
View this page in Romanian courtesy of azoft

Bookmarks: Effective Internet Searching | Evaluating Web Pages

1. Effective Internet Searching

• Search Engine Math using the + operator:

  • seach string: +video+clip+last+of+the+mohicans, for example.   or +solar+system. 

  • Google: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-us&q=video+clip+the+last+of+the+mohicans

  • Yahoo: http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=video+clip+the+last+of+the+mohicans&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8

• Search Engine Math using the - operator: -DVD

  • Google: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-us&as_qdr=all&q=video+clip+the+last+of+the+mohicans+-dvd&btnG=Search

  • Yahoo: http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGkkXgDyBGmWEA5i1XNyoA?p=video+clip+the+last+of+the+mohicans+-DVD&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-501&x=wrt

• Using Quotations Marks for exact phrases or strings of sentences

  • effective tool for detecting plagiarism

    • need to teach the use of quotations marks, proper in-text citation, and referencing of sources

    • need to teach paraphrasing and source citations

• Using Google Advanced Search to narrow your search:

  • I want a video clip of The Last of the Mohicans but no DVD and no book

    • http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=video+clip+%22the+last+of+the+mohicans%22+-dvd+-book&hl=en&lr=&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&as_qdr=all

  • Search in any language

  • different formats

  • Specify Domain, e.g. com, org, edu

  • Find pages that link to a specific Web page (e.g your own)

• Google Book Search: http://books.google.com/

• Google Scholar Search to search for scholarly papers: http://scholar.google.com/

• Google Earth: http://earth.google.com

• Google Images: for images (pictures/graphics but source must be cited)– http://images.google.com

• Video (search, view, upload): http://video.google.com/ or YouTube Video

  • Google accepts AVI, MPEG, Quicktime, Real, and Windows Media. Learn more. If your video file is over 100 MB, please use the desktop uploader. No copyrighted or obscene material.

• Google Maps (Maps & directions)-- http://maps.google.com/

• Google Docs & Spreadsheets (look and work just like Word and Excel): http://www.google.com/google-d-s/intl/en/tour1.html

For more information on search engines, see Types of Search Tools. Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Showdown.

For effective searches on Google, see Nancy Blachman's Google Guide: http://www.googleguide.com/.

2. Evaluating Web Pages