Assistant University Librarian, Chris Nolan enlightened our class, discussing methods to accurately search the web, as well as techniques to determine the academic credibility of articles encountered. His focus was on utilizing popular search engines to find information on desired topics, and certain modifications one can make to a search to obtain the best possible results.
Specifically, something new I discovered during Mr. Nolan’s talk was that there is presence of an invisible web, which you cannot find using search engines. Thus, an example of something that would be a part of the invisible web would be any type of database. Another concept I learned was search engine optimization and how it is a serious issue that popular search engines have to confront. Basically, search engine optimization involves improving a web site’s ranking on a search engine with the intent of attracting more visitors. I really liked the example Mr. Nolan gave regarding this issue. He explained how JC Penny actually paid a company to make numerous fake websites so that it would appear more often on results pages and consequently make more sales. Although JC Penny was successful, Google immediately changed its algorithm so that JC Penny would no longer show up on recent result pages. Ultimately, what surprised me were the different ways you can limit your search, such as searching by “site: usgs.gov” or “site: trinity.edu”. There is also an advanced search tab that allows a person to limit the search by domain to avoid commercial sites. It is incredible how easily you can narrow your search results.
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