O'Callaghan Middle School

Doing a Better Search

"But teacher I found it on the internet using Google."

Ever heard your students say that? Well, Google is not the only search engine.
There are others out there, too. Some are better than others. It depends what
topic one is researching.

A few of them are:

• Ask.com
• Lycos
• Altavista

Anatomy of a Search PDF

Using Boolean Operators

Search engines are more than just pretty pictures and clicking on a link. By
adding specific words to your search, you can narrow your topics & find
websites that are more appropriate for your paper, topic, etc.

Words such as and, or, near & not are boolean operators that specify the
relationships between the terms you are listing in your search. Enclosing
certain words with quotes, " ", or parentheses, ( ), also help to narrow your
search even further.

Tips and tricks PDF

Be a Google Scholar PDF

Generic searches will yield lots of information but narrowing your search
by using these special words and enclosing tools will help you get excellent
resources when you pair it with all the other information on how to use the internet.

Generic search: Earth (394 millions sites)


Narrow: earth rainforest and animals (1.21 millions sites)


Narrowing even further: earth rainforest and endangered animals (550 thousand sites)


Narrowing even more: rainforest and "endangered animals" jaguar (38 thousand sites
and really good links with direct information). NOTE: you will also get advertisements
near your links. Stay away from them unless they contain information that you might
need such as pricing for trips to see a jaguar in the wild.


Better Searches 2 (Page 6)