Searching the Internet

Chris Nolan, the University Assistant Librarian, came to speak to our class on Thursday about searching the Internet using a search engine. He started his presentation asking the class what search engine we most often use. I thought it was pretty crazy that EVERYONE in the class used Google. I knew it was popular, but I thought there would be at least a little bit of variety. I never knew how Google actually ranked the sites that came up when you searched for something. Apparently, Google ranks the sites not only by the number of hits the sites get or how often the search terms appear in the site, but also how many these sites are linked to other sites. Also, I did not know that “.com” stood for “commercial!” I really appreciate that Mr. Nolan showed us how to use the Advanced Search option on Google and taught us some helpful tricks to use, as well. For example, if you use quotation marks, only sites with that exact phrase will come up. Also, if you add “+” before a word it will make sure it is included in the sites, or if you add “-“ in front of a word, this will leave out sites with that word. This really helps you weed out websites that are not relevant to what you are searching. I knew the advanced search was there, but I’ve never really actually used it, but now I will!