Basic Computer Notions Web searching

Next Introduction Quality control Quality control (cont'd) Subject directories Subject directories (cont'd) Search engines Search engines (cont'd) Effective searching Planning a search Planning a search (cont'd) Planning a search (cont'd) Planning a search (cont'd) Using the tools Know the engines Common methods 16 of 19 Keep track of your results Further information Safe surfing

Relevance ranking

Virtually all Web search engines attempt to rank hits by relevance. There are various methods for estimating relevance.

Look only at the first 20 or 30 hits to judge whether the search has succeeded.

If it hasn't, try different search words, or try a different search engine, or try a subject directory, or try Medline, or ...

A good search strategy for some search engines is to include several terms in your search, including synonyms.

Start Next
Bacon home page
R. Funnell
Last modified: Wed, 2007 Mar 7 13:41:03

Slide show generated from websearch.html by Weasel 2007 Mar 7