Unit 8 - Types of Information: Focus on Search engines and Web SItes

Search Tools:
Alta Vista
I chose to work with Alta Vista becasue I did not have any awareness about it, it was something that was new to me. It allows you to type your search statement with a boolean strategies. This search engine is an advanced searching database and allows you to search with keyword or date. It is powered and run through yahoo which gives it credibility. It gathers results based on the main topics of the search statement. It also uses automatic phrase detection if you forget to put something in quotes, it wouldn't matter.

Metasearch Tools:
Surfwax
This is a search engine that gathers its results from many other common web databases. It tries to interpret the meaning of what you want to say. I can type oba and it will assume that I am going to reference Obama because that is what is so commonly searched. Also, it would let me type ro+ry and would result in Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan because that is what is commonly searched when using those words, or in that case letters. It allows you to sort by relevance, alphabetical, or by source. It is a browser that is specifically looking at RSS sites and covers the last seven days searching through 140 different sites. After searching, you receive a description as well as what is know as "SiteSnaps" which provide the authors metatag and key related topics.

Subject Directory:
INFOMINE
The results in a subject directory like this are predetirmined. You are researching subject as opposed to statements. Scholars, librarians, and other professionals have handpicked results for each subject and that is where you are directed to. It pulls from many types of publications and resources including databases, electronic journals, electronic books, bulletin boards, listservs, online library card catalogs, articles, and directories of  researchers. It uses quotation marks to direct specific phrases, and it uses +/- symbols to indicate adding to or excluding from the subject.