In this essay, I will attempt to discuss the basics of Internet and Web research. There will be a wide range of topics that will be covered. One of these major topics will be about the types of search engines and how to use them. There will also be a discussion about the various search strategies, search tools and important search features. Next, I will focus on Invisible Web databases that a quality assurance analyst in the Information technology industry will use. There will also be a section in this essay devoted to discussion groups on the World Wide Web.

Evaluating the information that I find will be critical as not everything published on the Web can be trusted to be a reputable source. There will also be discussions about the legal and ethical use of sources, intellectual property, what plagiarism is and how to avoid it and how to keep track of and cite sources accurately. There will also be a section devoted to using books to conduct research on the Web. There will be examples of how to cite sources in both MLA and APA style. And lastly, a summary will explain what has been covered.

Search Strategy

As of 2009, the Regents of the University of California have devised a five step process on how to do a search on the Internet for your topic. The first step they suggest is to examine the subject of your essay or research paper and try to determine where to start. The second step is to choose from a variety of sources such as search engines, subject directories, and specialized databases. You also have the option of trying to locate an organization that provides information on your chosen topic.

The third step is to examine the search results of what you have discovered and think about which information you might want to use. The fourth step is to make sure to not use any one strategy that does not work. The Regents of the University of California suggest that you should “switch from search engines to directories and back.” And finally, for the final step of this process, you can use the other search methods because you now have a better idea of how an Internet search works (University of California Berkeley).[1]

Search Tools

According to the Regents of the University of California, internet search tools are a variety of resources used for searching the Web. They are search engines, subject directories, Meta search engines and the invisible web pages. (University of California Berkeley)[2]

Search Engines

Standard (Outline level 3)

I’m assuming that you want to know how they are used. But before we discuss that I would like to give a list of examples of some search engines. According to the University of Oregon Library web site, some examples of search engines are Yahoo, Google, AltaVista and Ask.com (Russell).[3] Obviously there are a huge number of different types of search engines that can’t be discussed in just one section. That is what part of the following paragraphs will be devoted to.

Meta-search (Outline level 3)

Meta search engines are very fascinating. “Meta search engines search multiple search engines simultaneously.” (Russell)[4] A few examples of Meta search engines are Dogpile, Ixquick and Query Server (Russell).[5]

Subject Directories

Subject directories are a series of websites collected and organized by humans. These directories are sometimes referred to as “subject trees” because they begin with a main category or categories and then branch out into topics and subtopics. Subject directories can be used if you don’t have an exact idea of the information that you are seeking. Many subject directories also allow you to use the option of a keyword search so that you don’t need to browse through topics and subtopics. (Flanagan)[6]

Invisible Web (Databases)

There are web pages which do not show up in the results if you do a standard search. One of these examples is when an Internet user conducts a search for information in a library catalog, article database, or statistical database, the results are generated "on the fly" in answer to your search. Because the search engines cannot type or think, they cannot enter passwords on a login screen or keywords in a search box. As a result, these databases must be searched separately. (University of California Berkeley)[7]

For example, a dynamically generated page of little value beyond single use is one situation. Each of these is created in response to a specific need. Search engines do not want all these pages in their web databases, since they generally are not of broad interest. Pages that are deliberately excluded by website owners are another example of what exists in the Invisible Web. A web page creator who does not want his or her page showing up in search engines can insert special "meta tags" that will not display on the screen, but will cause most search engines' crawlers to avoid the page. (University of California Berkeley)[8]

Invisible Web Database in Computer Science

In addition to the general invisible web databases discussed previously, there is also another large database that people interested in computer science can access. It is known as the Complete Planet website at www.completeplanet.com. You will see a wide range of topics listed that you can search from. The first step is to locate the words computing and internet and click on it with the left mouse button. From the list of several topics, you can start by clicking on the computer science sub topic. Then you will see a series of hits or search results with links to various web pages. The results are listed by the highest relevance and there are 10 results per page (BrightPlanet Corp.).

Figure 3- HP Laptop photo http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTZznuxK8VJpfZJn5BLer3kx0WyW0z-Qs-a3WeT4NBQETdR0fs&t=1&usg=__DzqZH_S2p2Ps-V3wQkPQ1NFVxQg=

Discussion Groups

Important Search Features

Advanced Searching

An advanced search can be conducted by going to a search engine such as Google. Then look for an advanced search option. Click on advanced search with the left mouse button. The first section of the web site allows a person to search by including all of the words of the search. For example, if a person is searching for the topic about US labor laws, all these words would be included in the search. The next option allows the person to search by that exact phrase. Also, the person can search by using the words US, labor or laws. Next, a person can narrow their search by the number of search results they want to see displayed on the page. That number ranges from 10 to 100 results per page. You can also filter search results by language, file type, or you can have Google search within a web site. Also, you can specify which words you don’t want the Google search engine to search for and type them in the appropriate box on the page. (Google)[10]

Scholarly Research (Google Scholar)

A scholarly search can be conducted by going to a search engine such as Google. Then you can type in the words Google scholarly search. You should see the web site about this somewhere in the search results. The first section of the web site allows a person to search by including all of the words of the search. For example, if a person is searching for the topic with the words famous celebrities, all these words would be included in the search. The next option allows the person to search by that exact phrase. Also, the person can search by using the words famous or celebrities. That means that either the word famous or celebrities will be searched and found in the results as hits. Next, a person can narrow their search by the number of search results they want to see displayed on the page. That number ranges from 10 to 100 results per page. However, the scholarly search differs from the advanced search in a few ways. First of all, the scholarly search option allows you to search for information in all subject areas. It also allows you to narrow your search by a specific subject area such as engineering, computer science, mathematics, medicine and many other areas. You can also search for legal court opinion documents from all countries of the world or narrow the search by looking for US legal court opinions. You can even narrow your search further by searching for legal opinions and journals from any of the 50 states by checking the box with that state’s name. (Google)[11]

Job Search (Monster/Yahoo Hot Jobs)

Here is a basic overview on how to conduct an effective online job search. There are more jobs listed online than just what a person can find at Monster, Yahoo Hot jobs, and Craigslist. Many industries have websites that have job forums and boards. A person can use those keywords when doing an internet search, such as accounting or payroll jobs rather than simply typing in "jobs." Many companies have jobs listed on their own website and they do not use job boards. You can do a local job search for companies in your area and then check their own site. Make sure you follow their directions exactly when it comes to responding. Make sure to keep a record of all the sites you visit along with your user I.D. and passwords. Never use the abbreviations you use when you send text messages to your friends but act as if you are composing a professional letter. Always start emails with "Dear Sir" or "Dear Ma’am" or more preferably, the person's name ("Dear Mr. Smith"). Make sure your signature on your email account is professional It is recommended that you should save your resume as a PDF file. Make sure you name the resume with your first and last name rather than just "resume." So, it should be named "Smith, Jane" or "Jane Smith (Ellison).[12]

Books Online (Google Books)

Google Book Search is similar to a search on the Internet. When Google finds a book with content that contains a match for your search terms, the search engine links to it in your search results. You can also browse for books online.
If the book is out of copyright, or the publisher has given Google permission, you'll be able to see a preview of the book and in some cases the entire text. If it's in the public domain, a person can download a copy of their chosen book in PDF format. (Google)[13]

Images, Maps, and Videos (Google/Yahoo)

For this search method, you can go onto a search engine such as Google. And then you can click on the Images section if you are searching for images. If you are searching for maps click on the Maps section. If you are searching for videos, click on the Videos section.

Evaluating the Information You Find

I have found a five step process on how to evaluate the information you find on the Web.

Steps to evaluate information you find

How to interpret what you find

Document Accuracy

Who wrote the page(s)? Can you contact that person? Find the purpose of the source. Why was the source produced? Is the person qualified to write the source(s)?

(Kapoun)[14]

Accuracy

Make sure you can find the author’s contact information

Know the difference between the author and Webmaster (Kapoun)

Document Authority

Who published the source? Is it different from the Webmaster? What institution published the source? Does the author list his or her credentials? (Kapoun)[15]

Authority

Are the author’s credentials on the page?

Where is the document published? (Kapoun)

Document Objectivity

What are the goals of the source? How detailed is the source? Does the author list any opinions? (Kapoun)

Objectivity

You should determine if the page seems to be an advertisement. If it is, then the information may be biased.

When you view the document, ask yourself who was this written for and for what purpose? (Kapoun)

Document Date

When was the document published? When was the document last updated? How active are the links if there are any?[16] (Kapoun)

Currency of the documents

How many broken links are on the page?

Are the links current or updated regularly?

Is the information on the page outdated? (Kapoun)

Coverage of these documents

If there are any links, are they evaluated? Do they help to complement the page?

Is the page all images or is it both images and text?

Is the presented information correctly cited? (Kapoun)

Coverage

If the page you are viewing requires special software to view the information, how much are you missing if you don't have the software?

Is it free or is there a charge to obtain the information?

Is there an option for text only, or frames, or a suggested browser for better viewing? (Kapoun)

Principles of Ethical and Legal Use

There are both legal and ethical issues involved when using research sources. First, I will address the ethical aspect of this. Ethics has several definitions but it is generally defined as "the principles of conduct governing an individual or group" and "a theory or system of moral values." (Jorgensen)[17] From a legal perspective, plagiarism is against the law and morally wrong. In North Carolina for instance, if someone earns more than $2,500 from content that is plagiarized, the person who commits plagiarism can face up to ten years in prison with a $250,000 fine. Students that plagiarize can expect to deal with failing grades in the course or the assignment. Expulsion also can result from these actions (Jorgensen)

Intellectual Property

Intellectual property includes creations such as literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce. Intellectual Property is divided into two categories. The first of these categories is Industrial property. Industrial property includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source. It also includes Copyright, which includes various literary and artistic works. These literary works include novels, poems, plays, films, and musical works. Artistic works include drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs. Copyright includes those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and broadcasters in their radio and television programs (What is intellectual Property?)[18]

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is when a person who is writing a book or an article or a research paper and does not give proper credit to the source. Defined another way, I would say that plagiarism is when you use information in a research paper that is not common knowledge and you present these borrowed ideas as your own. The way to avoid plagiarism is to make sure to cite your sources using one of the citation styles such as MLA or APA which is discussed later in this essay.

Education Related Search Sites

This next section will be briefly about how you can conduct research on the Web to find information about sites that are related to the education field. First of all, higher education and career websites can use a CSE (Custom Search Engine) for searches within their own site, thus they can benefit from Google's crawling and indexing functionality and other features available from the tool. Next, organizations that want to provide customized search engines to help their users find information that is the most useful and valuable can create a CSE to do this. For instance, College Scholarships.org which limits the results for scholarship searches it returns from websites has one of these things. A number of job search websites produce job listings that come from many different job websites. And this makes it less time-consuming for job-seekers to find all relevant positions. Similarly, users might benefit from a search engine that looks at the websites of all public universities and colleges within a state, city, or even a country. A distributed organization that has many websites, such as a membership organization, could use a CSE. This would allow users to search across all of the websites associated with the organization. For example, The Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education uses a CSE in this way. A career specific membership organization that has local chapters would be another good use of this type of CSE. Searches can also be narrowed down to specific pages of various websites to allow users to see results that are limited to a specific topic. For instance, a CSE could limit searches to the financial aid pages of many colleges (FutureMeld LLC. ).

California Assist

California Assist is an online information system that students can use. This system shows how course credits earned at one public California college or university can be applied when these credits are transferred to another institution. This database provides the most accurate and up-to-date information about student transfers in California. There are two ways to look up information in this database. If a student has already chosen their major, they can select which institution they are transferring from or to by clicking the drop down arrow under the heading titled Explore Transfer Information. This list lists the names of several colleges and universities throughout the state of California. The second way to look up information is to click the topic Explore Majors on the website (Welcome To Assist).[19]

CollegeBoard Inspiring Minds

The College Board web page is focused on helping prospective college students plan for their college careers. Students can search for the college of their choice by clicking in the box called search by college name. Students can also search for colleges by cost, location and majors. There is also a way for students to prepare for the SAT test by clicking on the link titled “Register for the SAT.” Or, you can also find information on how to practice for the test by clicking on the link called “SAT Practice”. This allows you to do practice tests in order to be prepared for the exam (College Board Inspiring Minds).

Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)

This website offers several resources to any writer. Some of these resources have to do with how to write, how to do a job search, how to improve grammar, how to do research and how to use the various style guides. Some of the most popular resources are listed on the right side of the site. They include resources such as how to write a basic business letter, how to avoid plagiarism, and also citation styles for the MLA and APA formats. The 2009 versions are the most current available as of this writing (Lab)[20].

Keeping Track of and Citing Resources

In general, there are many ways to cite sources when you are writing a research paper. One of the ways to do this is to create what is known as an in text citation. In this method, the citation is documented after the source is used. The source should be cited any time a direct quote is used. If an entire paragraph of one of the used sources is written in your own words, the citation should be at the end of the paragraph. If there is a direct quote in the middle of the paragraph that needs to be cited immediately (Keviin).

MLA (with some examples)

MLA Style which is also known as Modern Language Association Style is used by many people for properly citing research sources. In MLA style you must briefly give credit to sources with parenthetical citations in the text of the paper, and you must also give the complete description of each source in your Works Cited list. The Works Cited list, also known as a bibliography, is a list of all the sources that a person used in their research paper. These sources are arranged alphabetically by the author’s surname or when there is no author, the source is listed by the first word of the title. Here is an example of how to cite a source in the text of the paper. The first gambling Web site appeared in 1995, and online gambling has since become the most lucrative Internet business (Will 92).Another way to cite a source in the paper is to mention the author’s name at the beginning of the quote and then you can put the page number or numbers at the end of the paragraph. For example you can write something like this: George Will reported that in 2002 Internet gambling surpassed pornography to become the Internet's most lucrative business (92). Here is a way to cite the source in your Works cited list: You can write: Will, George F. "Electronic Morphine." Newsweek 25 Nov. 2002: 92 (Library)[21]

APA (with some examples)

APA is a style used by people to cite sources that they use in a research paper. It stands for the American Psychological Association.Here are some examples of how to do in text citations when using APA Style:

If the work you are trying to cite has one author, the last name of the author and the year of publication should be put in the text at the appropriate point: from theory on bounded rationality (Simon, 1945)”If the name of the author or the date are displayed as part of the narrative, you should cite only missing information in parentheses.

When a work that you are trying to cite has two authors, you should always cite both names every time the reference occurs in the text. In parenthetical material you must join the names with an ampersand (&).

as has been shown (Leiter & Maslach, 1998)

In the narrative text, join the names with the word "and."

as Leiter and Maslach (1998) demonstrated

When a work that you are trying to cite has three, four, or five authors, you should cite all authors the first time the reference occurs.

Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler (1991) found

In all subsequent citations per paragraph, include only the surname of the first author followed by "et al." (This the Latin word for "and others"). And then you must include year of publication of the source.

Kahneman et al. (1991) found (University)[22]

Summary

The objective of this essay was to address and define the various methods of Internet and Web research. The focus was on search strategies, search engines, ethical and legal use of research sources, education search web sites as well as MLA and APA style.

Helpful Links:

Www. Google.com, www.Altavista.com

Works Cited

Berkeley, University of California. Invisible or Deep Web: What it is, How to find it, and Its inherent ambiguity. 2010. <http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/InvisibleWeb.html>.

BrightPlanet Corp. Complete Planet The Deep Web Directory. 2000-2010. 8 October 2010 <http://websearch.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=websearch&cdn=compute&tm=10&f=00&su=p284.9.336.ip_p504.1.336.ip_&tt=2&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http://www.completeplanet.com/>.

College Board Inspiring Minds. 2010. 8 October 2010 <http://www.collegeboard.com/>.

Ellison, Linda. How to Conduct an Effective Online Job Search. 4 October 2010 <http://www.ehow.com/how_4713358_conduct-effective-online-job-search.html>.

Flanagan, Debbie. Subject Directories. 1999-2004. 27 September 2010 <http://www.learnwebskills.com/search/subject.html>.

FutureMeld LLC. . Using Custom Search Engines For Education And Career Planning. 1996-2010. 4 October 2010 <http://www.braintrack.com/career-planning-guide/articles/custom-search-engines-for-education-and-careers>.

Google. About Google Books. 2010. October 2010 <http://books.google.com/googlebooks/about.html>.

—. Google Advanced Search. October 2010 <http://www.google.com/advanced_search>.

—. Google Advanced Search. 2010 <www.google.com/advanced_search>.

—. Google Scholar Advanced Scholar Search. 2010. October 2010 <http://scholar.google.com/advanced_scholar_search>.

Jorgensen, Amy. Ethical Issues Regarding Plagiarism. 5 May 2010. 7 October 2010 <http://www.ehow.com/about_6464829_ethical-issues-regarding-plagiarism.html>.

Kapoun, Jim. "Teaching Undergrads WEB Evaluation: A guide for library instruction." C & RL News (1998): 522-523.

Keviin. How to correctly site sources in a research paper. 4 October 2010 <http://hubpages.com/hub/How_to_correctly_site_sources_in_a_research_paper>.

Lab, Purdue University English Department and Online writing. Purdue University Online Writing Lab. 1995-2008. 8 October 2010 <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/>.

Library, Honolulu Community College. MLA Citation Examples written by HCC Library. 20 September 2004. 4 October 2010 <http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/legacylib/mlahcc.html>.

Russell, John. Searching The Web. February 2007. 2010 <http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/searchweb/#standard>.

University of California Berkeley. Invisible or Deep Web: What it is, How to find it, and Its inherent ambiguity. 2010. 2010 <http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/InvisibleWeb.html>.

—. Recommended Search Strategy: Analyze your topic & Search with peripheral vision. 2009. 2010 <http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Strategies.html>.

University, Cornell. APA Citation Style. November 2002. October 2010 <http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/apa>.

Welcome To Assist. <http://www.assist.org/web-assist/welcome.html>.

What is intellectual Property? October 2010 <http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/>.

Wikipedia. Internet forum. 2010. 2010 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum>.

[1] University of California Berkeley library

[2] University of California Berkeley library

[3] University of Oregon library

[4] University of Oregon library

[5] University of Oregon library

[6] Using subject directories

[7] University of California Berkeley library

[8] University of California Berkeley library

[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum

[10] www.google.com/advanced_search

[11] http://scholar.google.com/advanced_scholar_search

[12] http://www.ehow.com/how_4713358_conduct-effective-online-job-search.html

[13] About Google Books

[14] http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/webcrit.html

[15]All the information in the table was reprinted by Cornell University with the author’s permission. Refer to previous footnote.

[17] http://www.ehow.com/about_6464829_ethical-issues-regarding-plagiarism.html

[18] http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/

[19] California Assist

[20] Purdue University English Department and Online writing Lab http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

[21] Honolulu Community College Library

[22] Cornell University Library

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