Search Engine Basics   «Prev 

Using Meta Search

On Your Own: what are you looking for?

Did any of the types of information or Web sites in the lesson match your own information needs and interests?
Did a need for information on a particular topic of interest to you lead you to take this course in searching on the Internet?
Take a minute or two to consider the topics of information you would like to find for yourself on the Internet.
  1. If you are new to searching on the Internet and do not yet know where or how to find the information you want, write a list of what you would look for today if you knew how and where. The items on your list will give you opportunities to practice the search techniques and explore the search engines and directories that you will learn about.
  2. If you have experience in searching for information on the Web, write down, or just reflect upon, what types of business-related information (industry salaries, for instance, alternative suppliers, or perhaps a professional or trade organization in your field) or personal-interest information has been most difficult to find.
After you complete an exercise that takes you to a new search engine or directory service, or one that demonstrates a new searching technique, try searching for a topic from your list.
If you are keeping a list, glance at it as you complete a module and add any new categories of information that you have discovered through the exercises and that interest you.

Metasearch Engine


Social bookmarking: Social bookmarking is one of the most widely used social-media techniques. These services allow you to tag news stories, blogs, videos, audio files, web sites, and other Internet-based services to share with friends. Tagged sites are then ranked (and searchable) according to the number of tags received.
Legacy bookmarking sites: del.icio.us, ma.gnolia.com, blinklist
Examples of more modern social bookmarking sites include 1) Twitter, 2) Pinterest, 3) StumbleUpon, 4) Digg, 5) Reddit, and 6) Slashdot.

Social network

Social networks have gotten so pervasive that much like metasearch social thing, aggregators engines, social network aggregators have begun to arise. The concept socialstream, is to log in to one place and see all your updates from various social profilactic networks, photo sharing, and presence applications.