Web Searching Glossary

algorithm: the part of the search engine's program that performs tasks like identifying or ranking results

annotation: brief summary or description of a Web page written by a human

applet: small Java-based program used on a Web page

Boolean searching: Boolean searches allow you to combine words and phrases using the words (Boolean operators) AND, OR, NOT and NEAR to limit your search. Though most search tools use Boolean operators, they may express them in a variety of ways, through buttons, pull-down menus, or "+" and" --" signs.

AND is especially helpful in more complicated searches to narrow the scope of your search by insisting that all the words are considered in the search. (music AND censorship)

OR will help group synonyms or related words. (heart OR cardiac)

NOT helps eliminate "problem" words. (eagles NOT football)

browser: software that allows you to view Web pages by interpreting html code and translating it into understandable text, graphics and media.. Netscape and Internet Explorer are browsers.

case sensitivity: the ability of a search tool to distiguish between upper and lowercase letters. Some search tools are not case sensitive and will simply read all letters as lowercase. Others may distiguish between the word "aids" and the disease "AIDS," or the word "baker" and the name "Baker."

concept searching: Some search engines (Excite, for instance) automatically return results that have similar terms to the ones you entered as a query.

date limiting: Some search engines allow you to search for Web pages that were added between certain ranges of dates. Using this feature, you may find only those pages entered in the past month.

domain: the part of the URL that identifies the sponsoring organization (for instance cnn or espn) and the type of sponsor (.com for commercial or .edu for educational)

field: a specific piece of information that comprises a database record. A bibliographic record might be made up of author, title, date, publication, subject, and annotation fields.

field searching: allow you to search for Web pages by their components, or fields. Field searches allow you to search: titles, URLS, summaries, text, etc., to increase the relevance of your results. Seaching for documents with "civil war" in their title fields may increase the relevance of your results dramatically

file extension: in the name of the file, the suffix that describes the file type. .gif and .jpg are extensions for image files; .htm or .html are Web page extensions.

full text indexing: a feature of search engines in which every word of a Web document is indexed and retrievable through a search

hit (result) list: a list of results from a Web search. These lists may vary in the way they are organized, annotated, or evaluated.

listserv: a discussion list that sends messages directly to subscribers' email boxes

meta-search engine: Metasearch engines send your query to many search tools at the same time. Some metasearch engines allow you to select which tools you wish to search. Some translate the search commands into the specific language (syntax) of each search engine. Some sort the results and eliminate duplicate hits.

meta-tags: the part of html coding which allows the author to include text which describes the page

natural language: Searching using everyday language, full sentences or questions

nesting: using parentheses to group Boolean search terms to specify the order of operations e.g. (cat OR feline) and (health OR care)

newsgroup: a collection of Usenet articles arranged by topic

phrase searching: searching for a string of words that must appear next to each other and in exact order. ("global warming" or "blue suede shoes" or "bed and breakfast") Phrases are usually enclosed in quotation marks and may be effectively used to search for names. ("John Quincy Adams")

proximity searching: a feature that allows searchers to search for words that are near each other in a document.

record: a full unit of information in a database. Records are comprised of fields.

relevance: ranking of hits/items/results retrieved from a search. Relevance is a measure of how closely search results match the search request.Search engines vary in the way they determine relevance. In some a document is considered more relevant if the words appear in certain fields, perhaps the title or the summary field. In others relevance is establishedby a percentage determined simply by how many times the keywords appears in the document divided by the total number of words on the page. Some new search engines consider popularity and linkage in their relevance formulas.

results/hits: the list of sites resulting from a search

search engine: Search engines use spiders (computer programs also called robots) to match documents to a search expression and retrieve information from the Web.

sorting results: some search tools allow you to choose how your results are organized. Typical choices are: relevance, URL, location, or organization.

spamdexing tricky indexing which pushes a site higher up on relevance lists than it belongs.

spider/robot: a computer program that travels the Web in search of new or changed pages to add to a search engine's database.

stop words: small or frequently used words that are generally overlooked by the index of a search engine

subject directory: Subject directories are selected and organized by people into subject categories. If you have a general topic, browsing through a subject directory may be the best way to begin your research. Most subject directories now contain search engines which allow you to search their directories. The essential difference between search engines and subject directories is that directories involve humans in selecting, describing and organizing Web resources.

syntax: the language employed by a search tool which govern the rules for constructing a search

thesaurus: the controlled vocabulary used in a database. Thesauri allow users to identify synonyms and related words.

truncation: stemming or shortening a word to pick up variations. Most search tools allow you to use an asterisk (*) to pick up variant word forms. ("adolesc*" would pick up the words "adolescent," "adolescents" and "adolescence")

unified search interface: tools that allow you to search several search tools simultaneously

URL (Uniform Resource Locator): a description of the location of a Web site. The address of the Web site usually beginning with "http:// . . ."

webring: a group of websites linked together by topic or interest. Ringmaster have varying levels of criteria for inclusion in a ring

wildcard: a character that stands for another character or a group of characters in a search. Most search tools use an asterisk as a wildcard

World Wide Web: a variety of services and resources available across the Internet