GED/GSA 579                                      Instructor: Steven Burks

1. It's not there!!!! My search Engine can't find it.
---Solution: It might be copyrighted material that your looking for. Or the material is published in a journal or propitiatory database. Or the search engine you are using can't search the Deep or Invisible Web.

2. It's "there," but the Search Engine you are using didn't find the Web site, or the Web site doesn't want to be found, or the search engine indexes only so many pages in the Web site, or the Web site was created very recently, or or or or ad finium.
---Solution: Try another search engine.  Try a search engine that searches the deep web.  They all retrieve data differently.  

3. You found a promising Web site with a search engine, but the URL no longer exists.
---Solution: Though the address might no longer exist, it may have been renamed and exist somewhere else on the Web site. Click in the Address box of your browser, then delete part of the path of the URL. (A path is the section of the URL following a "slash" /

4. You are using a search engine to find information that exists in a library catalog, or ERIC, or UMI ProQuest.
---Solution: Go directly to the ERIC database or library catalog. Remember, a search engine generally will not retrieve the contents of a Computer Index independent of the hypertext markup language.  Choose the appropriate database for your search topic-then search that separate database.

5. You are finding too much information from a search engine search. There can be a number of solutions to this problem.
---Solution(s): If you want "quality," use a search engine that evaluates Web sites and only searches the best or ranks by popularity . Some examples are  Magellan (Click on Reviewed Sites Only) or EBlast
---Solution: SCAN the URL. If the information you want is government information, then look for .gov in the address. For education .edu, For nonprofit .org, and so on.
---Solution: SO WHAT that you get 2,000 hits. Most search engines rank your search. Only the first 20 or so will be relevant to your topic.
---Solution: Search more effectively.   Look for phrases that define your topic, combine words using boolean terms, and use "proximity" searching.

6. You are having trouble searching for some "obscure" information or you want to see how popular your web site is across various search engines.
---Solution: Use a "Mega-Search Engine" (also referred to as a "Meta-Search Engine") that searches many search engines at once. Some examples are Dogpile, MAMA (Mother of All Search Engines)

7. Your search term is coming up with only a few hits.
---Solution: Try synonyms terms or phrases. Until you search, it is very difficult to determine which search terms are used in a document. For example, if your looking for information on eating disorders, try other terms like bulimia.

8. Using a search engine to find information that logically resides at only a few "best sites."
---Solution: Why use a search engine to search for information that logically exists at a published site? For example, don't use a search engine to find Census information. Go to the Governments Census site. If you want a free fulltext article from a Time Warner publication, go to the Time Warner Web site.

9. Know your search engine.
---Solution: Evaluate the search engine for it's ability to: truncate terms, boolean search, phrase search, proximity search, ranking research results, and number of results retrieved.

10. Use the right tool for the right job.
---Solution: If you are looking for a something commonly found on the WWW, use an up to date index site like Yahoo.
---Solution: If you are looking for information broadly on an area of knowledge like education, business, literature, medicine, etc., use a subject directory site like The Argus Clearinghouse .