How to Search the World Wide Web

There are many useful home pages, or Web sites, designed for research but there are also many sites of little or no value. It is important to evaluate the information you find on the Web. Consult "Evaluating Web Resources" for a checklist of items to use when evaluating a Web site.

Browsers

There are two widely used browsers on the world wide web. Both have a graphical user interface, i.e., you can see text and pictures. With additional components such as a speaker, you can listen to home pages that have music, videos or speech. The University of Pittsburgh uses Netscape as its WWW browser. Netscape is available on all public devices in the Millstein Library.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

All Web sites have a unique address called a URL or Uniform Resource Locator. Netscape uses the URL to find a particular site. For example, the URL for the Millstein Library page is:

http://www.pitt.edu/~upg/library.html

This URL indicates that this site uses the HyperText Transfer Protocol (http). HTTP starts the transfer of Web documents. HTTP works when users click on hyperlinks with URLs that begin with "http://". The second part of this URL (www) signifies the host computer name, in this case, the world wide web. The next piece of information, "pitt" is called the second level domain name, the University of Pittsburgh. The "edu" designates an educational institution and is the top level domain name. Finally, the directory name, ~upg (Pitt Greensburg) and the file name, library.html (library home page) is listed.

How to Search the Web

Information is retrieved on the Web through HyperText. HyperText is a document made up of words, or links, that connect to other documents. One hypertext document can contain links to many other documents, and words or graphics may act as links to other documents.

There are several different ways to begin a search on the Web to find specific information. There are two basic ways to begin a search. First, you could look at a subject directory. A subject directory is a database of Internet files submitted by site creators or evaluators and organized into subject categories. Subject directories vary so it is best to try several different subject directories. Second, you could use a search engine. A search engine is software that allows you to search for relevant Web sites after entering a term or phrase. Search engines can be a part of a subject directory or exist alone. The distinction between subject trees and search engines are becoming blurred as the functions of both are being represented at some sites. Often these are called "portals." The University Library System's Digital Library has a site that lists useful subject directories and search engines. To find this site, use this URL address:

http://www.library.pitt.edu/

Listed below are several useful subject directories and search engines and their URL addresses. You can open these connections by clicking on the hypertext link (underlined) or by opening the site yourself by typing in the address. Make sure you type in the exact words and punctuation.

Subject Directories

Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com/
Magellan http://www.mckinley.com/
Lycos http://www.lycos.com/
The Argus Clearinghouse http://www.clearinghouse.net/
Excite http://www.excite.com/
INFOMINE: Scholarly Internet Resources http://lib-www.ucr.edu/
Infoseek http://www.infoseek.com/
The WWW Virtual Library http://vlib.stanford.edu/Overview.html

Search Engines

Alta Vista http://www.altavista.digital.com/
HotBot http://www.hotbot.com/
MetaCrawler http://www.metacrawler.com/
Northern Light http://www.nlsearch.com/
Open Text http://index.opentext.net/

For more information on searching the Web, try this Web site from the University of California at Berkeley Library.

http://library.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/

Return to "Library Guides"

Updated 8/21/98

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