Lesson 1: Tool Type Primer
Do you Google more than you Yahoo!? Do you LookSmart more than you AskJeeves? Ever wonder why one tool seems to work better for you than another? This lesson introduces you to the various categories of search tools available on the Internet and provides you with a basis of understanding for when to use each type of tool.
Lesson 1 Overview
Objectives
In this lesson you will learn to:
- Distinguish between the various categories of search tools
- Determine when to use each type of search tool
Introduction
Most of us don’t spend a whole lot of time pondering why we use one search tool more than another. Many of us just use whatever search tool appears on our web browser home page or on our company’s Intranet home page, while others repeatedly reply upon one or two favorite search tools that they’ve bookmarked.
This “one size fits all” approach to Internet searching works about as poorly as the concept does it the retail garment world. If you wanted a high quality business suit, you wouldn’t buy one off a “one size fits all” rack, right? Likewise, if you want high quality search results, you shouldn’t use just any old tool; instead, you should choose the tool that is best suited for the type of search you are doing.
A Tool by any Other Name...
Many of us like to think of the Internet as a huge online library, but anybody with even a basic understanding of library skills knows that the Internet is not nearly as well organized as your typical hometown library. The Internet is a somewhat chaotic digital depository containing everything from significant research papers, books, and financial reports to insignificant personal diaries, recipe collections and family photos. On our very democratic net, pages of vast importance share space with pages of little or no value to the general public.
New methods for organizing the chaos of information that is the Internet are being developed every day, but so far no single source for searching its entire contents has been developed. As such, the average Internet researcher needs a variety of tools to meet a variety of search needs.
Most search tools fit into one of the following categories:
- General Directory
- Specialized Directory
- Search Engine
- Metasearch Engine
Some tools fit into more than one of the above categories, and are therefore considered hybrid tools.
If you’ve ever tried to bang a nail into a wall using something other than a hammer, you know how important having the right tool can be. An overview of each tool category listed above is found in the next few sections of this lesson. In future lessons, each category will be explored more completely and you will have the opportunity to visit some of the best tools in each category and do some practice research.
Supplemental Reading
For each of the sections in this lesson (as well as all of the other lessons in this course), you will be required to do some supplemental reading in The Extreme Searcher’s Internet Handbook, by Randolph Hock (CyberAge Books). The reading pages have been carefully chosen to compliment the online lesson materials.
If you have any questions about the supplemental reading or the posted lesson text, post a message on the classroom message board. Likewise, if you have comments or feedback about the supplemental reading, or resources that you would like to share with your classmates, be sure to post a message on the classroom message board.
