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Web Searching Tips

Looking for information on the Web? The sites listed below are some of the IPL's favorite general Internet search engines and web directories. No search engine or catalog is comprehensive, so it's important to use a variety of tools.

• Ask
  • About Ask.com: Help Central
• Google
  • Google: Web Search Help Center
• Yahoo!
  • Yahoo! Help - Search

The University at Albany Libraries' Boolean Logic Primer shows you how to use AND, OR, NEAR, and NOT in your search strategies.

• the IPL's Search Engine collection
• the IPL's Web Directories collection
• SearchEngineWatch's Search Engines Worldwide page
• Online Education Database's Research Beyond Google page
• Yahoo Directory's Searching the Web
• the University at Albany Libraries' How to Choose a Search Engine
• Search engine addons for popular internet browser's search bars (best viewed in specified browser)
  • Firefox/Mozilla's Add-ons: Search Engines
  • Add Search Providers to Internet Explorer 7
• del.icio.us, a social bookmarks manager. Using bookmarklets, you can add bookmarks to your list, categorize them, share them, and get new bookmarks from others.

Search Engine Watch has search engine news, tips for searching, and comparisons of search engines' capabilities.

• American Library Association shows parents and kids How to Tell if You're Looking at a Great Website.
• College and Research Libraries News also gives criteria for web evaluation: accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage.

Selective web guides:

Internet Public Library http://www.ipl.org/ -- The IPL's own collections of over 40,000 Internet resources, hand picked, organized and described by librarians and library students.
Librarians' Internet Index http://www.lii.org/ -- From the Library of California, the site's motto is "Information You Can Trust." A directory of "Internet resources selected and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of public libraries."
About.com http://www.about.com/ -- Offers hundreds of Guides which contain original articles, selected websites, and community features like chat rooms. Each area is overseen by an "expert guide" trained by About.com.