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How to find necessary information in the Internet?
by Alexander O. (www.webskyguide.com)
The basic, and in most cases the only, way to find a necessary resource is to use searching browsers. Network searching systems are divided into word systems and
classifiers (or heading list). They have different principles of operation.
1. Types of searching systems and their operation
Heading list. The main page of the heading list is represented by a number of major headings, such as "Business", "Entertainment", "Computers and high technology",
"News and media" - as a rule, 10-20 headings.
In the heading list, the user must select a series of links, each time making a narrower choice from the list. Thus, the user's query becomes more and more narrow.
For example, the user may want to know the rules of soccer, and begins by selecting "Sports," then, the user selects "team games" from among several sub-sections, and,
finally, the user clicks on the link "Soccer," and finds a list of sites devoted to this kind of sport. Some of them are sure to have the rules.
Word searching systems. If you choose to use word search, it is necessary to understand what "keywords" are. Keywords are those words that a searching system robot
will search in the network. Then the robot will offer links to sites in an order that depends on the frequency of keywords, the level of their importance in the text,
and other factors.
The main principle of word searches on the network is based on the idea of the words used in the text content of a related site. If, for example, you want to know the
history of shoes, the query "I want to know about shoes" will be useless. It is unlikely that this phrase will be found on the sites discussing ancient sandals and the
development of boot fashion in the Middle Ages. On the other hand, if you type the word "shoes" in the search bar, you will be presented with sites that have a huge
number of offers of boots and shoes for sale. However, if you type the keywords "history of shoes," your search will likely be successful.
Once you have learnt the basic principles of the context search on the Internet, you can proceed to the study of the advanced search. It allows you to set additional
parameters, such as time (to find the latest news), word order (whether the words in the query should constitute an exact phrase or not).
Most of the famous searching browsers combine classification and context search, which allows a more flexible way of searching.
The most popular searching systems are Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) and Google (www.google.com), which is employed by almost half of net users.
2. Other search methods
You can find the required website or data with the help of the specialized catalogues or libraries that usually provides information about finded websites.
If you are looking for the site of some company, it is very likely that the company name will be used in its site address on the Internet. For example, if you want
to search for "Microsoft", you simply need to type www.microsoft.com in the browser bar and go to the required page.
3. Search difficulties
Search of files. Individual question of the Internet search is looking for special files: for example, audio, video, software or pictures.
At first sight, it is quite simple to find a picture. Most of the searching systems allow context search with additional criteria. For example, the user might search
news sites or, in our case, among pictures. But sometimes there are no search results. The point is that not all the files have a corresponding text name that is used
by the searching system robot.
In this case, you should first find a corresponding subject site. For example, you might want a picture of a Chinese helmet from the Middle Age, and a Google search
shows no satisfactory results. However, if you type "ancient weapons China" in the search bar, Google will present a list of sites where you can find text information
of corresponding subject, which is usually accompanied, by pictures and photos. Therefore, you will have no problem finding the picture of the helmet on page
http://www.ancient-weapons.com/chinese-helmets.html.
Lately, there are increasing numbers of specialized searching systems oriented to search for information about certain people or search files of a particular kind.
There are also services where the user can obtain the help of a human operator experienced in searching.
Mistakes of searching systems. Often, the owners of a site will use unethical means to increase the profile of the site. For example, the owner might publish popular
keywords on their pages (so that they cannot be seen) that have no connection to the actual subject of the site. As a result, a user's query results in the searching
robot sending the user to incorrect sites. And, instead of required recommendations concerning personal diet, for instance, the visitor might be offered the option of
downloading a porno movie. Companies that operate searching systems are actively struggling to prevent such cases, but, alas, this struggle is ongoing.
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