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Section 5.1
Search Index/Google

This section will use the topic and keywords developed in Part 3 (my example: Civil War Generals, keywords are civil war, general, union, biography) to search with a Search Index. Search Indexes are large, organized collections of Web pages from around the world. The index grows larger every day as people submit addresses for web pages, and as special software, called search robots or spiders, roams the Web looking for links to new pages. When you use a search index, you search the entire collection using keywords or phrases.

Which index to use?

The search index is the most common type of searching site, and there are many different search indexes available. This section will discuss Google <http://www.google.com>, but the techniques you learn here can be applied to most indexes. Part 7 has a list of different search sites.

Google

Google is a new and powerful, yet easy to use Search Index. Background comes straight from the the Site:

" Google uses sophisticated next-generation technology to produce the right results fast with every query. Google returns relevant results because it responds to your query using an automated method that ranks relevant websites based on the link structure of the Internet itself.

The overwhelming amount of information of the web requires an excellent search service to render that information accessible and useful. Without a powerful search tool, finding a specific website can be as difficult as finding a book in a library that has no card catalogue and a completely random method of storing its books.

Google Brings Order to the Web

Google is designed to impose order on information chaos. It's what a search service should be; not an edited, limited directory or a list of results that have been auctioned to the highest bidder, but a thoughtful method of organizing the Internet according to its own structure. "

Google thinks a page is important because other people think it's important. It bases its rankings on how many other pages link to a paticular site. A search for "White House" will turn up the President's Home first, followed by information about the White House, and so forth and so on, until results turn up on White House Bed and Breakfast, White House Paint store, and other non-government-White House pages.

Google is very powerful and returns quality results. Let's see how to use Google.

 

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