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| Information Management - GSC 6000 web search assignment - 17th May 2006 |
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The search tools I used to conduct this searching exercise are the following: Search Engines Meta Search Engines Subject Gateway General search engines allow searching for specific words and phrases. They tend to draw on classic information techniques and navigate the Web by following the links in the web pages that are already in the database of their parent search engine. They differ from the web directories like yahoo and subject gateways such as Artifacts in that they cover many million of web pages and search full text of web pages. They also allow for advanced search, phrase searching and use Boolean OR , and/or Field limiting . Metasearch engines submit queries simultaneously to multiple search engines and web directories and basically do nothing more because they are hampered by the same conditions as one single search engine. However ,they do provide other useful functionalities. As Sherman and Price (2001) advised "Use a meta search engine when you're just beginning a search on an unfamiliar topic, to get a sense of what keywords might be the most effective for specific engines". Subject gateways also known as information gateways or subject directories, are portals to web pages in a particular subject area. They are often annotated with descriptions and accessed via hierarchy of subject headings. They usually provide a search interface which allows you to find relevant web pages and search the broader concept of your search input. One disadvantage of this search tool is that of it's limited area of coverage, but combining it with the search engines to breakdown the topic into keywords and key phrases should overcome this problem. According to Sherman and Price (2001) subject gateways are often more reliable and stable, smaller and focused on specific categories and sources of information, enhance the capabilities of search engines and directories, and offer greater depth of coverage for a category than the search engines. Using a subject gateway, as opposed to a search engine, can normally result in the return of web pages which are more genuine and of reliable quality. For my research, i found the use of the advanced Google search and the Scholar Google very useful for the general understanding of the topic area. I also found the subject directory - Artifacts and The Journalism Resources very used for the background information for my literature review.
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