Searching and Finding Information on the Internet

Often, the best thing to do in searching is to sit back a moment and try to analyze your question. For example, you may need statistics on how many people smoked marijuana last year. Before you begin searching, consider whether you are looking for national, state or local statistics. Also decide if you are interested in a particular age or socioeconomic group. Considering such factors should help you narrow the question, making it more manageable and increasing your chances of being satisfied with your search results. After you’ve read the following descriptions of various types of search tools, you will be better equipped to choose the best tool for your search.

If your subject is broad, like substance abuse, it is likely that someone has already done much of the work for you. Since the advent of the Web, subject specialists have been putting together sites that are a treasure trove of all of the links to organizations that deal with your topic. If you are new to prevention or the Web, a subject list is definitely the tool of choice for a broad question. At these sites you will know that the information has been filtered, analyzed and organized by human intervention. Some examples of this type of tool include:

Be sure to also review our Prevention Starting Points section on page 10.

Think of these sites or tools as collections of subject lists on many topics that are carefully organized by human intervention. Because of this, these indexes generally don’t get as large as the keyword search tools. The first part of the "subject tree" you click on is the broadest in nature; then as you navigate down through the layers, the information gets more specific. Indexes and directories are best for broad questions when you are not familiar with any subject list for your topic. They are also very good for information that is specific, but not unusual. An example might be, "Can I get the train schedules (specific information) for Amtrak (a well known company) on the Net?" Some examples of indexes and directories include:

Keyword Search Engines or Search Tools

Rather than having a human being organizing and collecting links, search engines have a "robot," "spider" or "crawler" continuously combing the Web and adding material to their databases. These little assistants can be told to look for specific things like words in the title, major headings on the page or all words in a document. This information is then dumped into the database without further processing.

When you are ready to search, you can try terms that occur to you, then see what happens. The powerful advanced search options within these tools allow you to carefully refine your search or search for very specific bits of information or phrases. It is a good idea to pick two search engines that you feel comfortable using. Use them and get to know their features well. After you are comfortable with them, you may want to graduate to the advanced search options, which usually have their own help screens to guide you through the process. Generally, the advanced options have more efficient ways of narrowing your search results.

The keyword search engine is an excellent choice for an uncommon question. An example might be, "This Internet thing is growing fast. What is the exponential growth rate of the Internet?" (Type "growth rate of the Internet" into a search tool that allows you to search by phrase.) Some examples of these tools include:

Meta-Search Engines

One way to search many search engines at one time is to use a meta-search engine. Type in your terms, and you will receive a collection of results containing matches from all of the search engines queried. This does not eliminate the need to learn to search well in at least two search engines. The better you understand how they work, the better you can judge the reliability of your results. A few examples of meta-search engines include:

Usenet Newsgroups

See page 3 for a description of newsgroups. Keep in mind that when you are searching newsgroups, you are searching people’s discussions. Participants in these discussions can be anyone from a child to a research scientist. When you look at your Usenet search results, keep in mind that the first part of the name indicates the general category of the group with each further element in the name defining the newsgroup more fully. So, a newsgroup name titled alt.subabuse.research would indicate a group of people discussing the latest research on substance abuse. Two tools that offer access to the Usenet newsgroups include:

Click the advanced search link on Yahoo’s opening page, and then click the Usenet radio button.

Special Tools for Finding E-mail Addresses

As mentioned earlier, the best way to get some-one’s e-mail address is to ask him or her for it or send a message to the postmaster at their domain. If this fails, try one of these tools:

In conclusion, entire books have been written on Web searching, but lots of good advice exists elsewhere–you guessed it, on the Internet! Visit the following two sites to get good advice about the Internet, analyzing your question, building a search strategy, and choosing the best tool to locate your information:

Helpful Search Tips

These tips have proven useful for "information mining" activities on the Web.

• The quickest, easiest way to get an e-mail address is to ask the person for it, even though special search tools exist for searching for these addresses. In many cases, this may also be true for locating an organization’s Web site.
• If you type in a URL (Web address), then get an error message saying the document could not be found, begin doing "surgery" on the URL. Try chopping off parts of the URL, starting on the right-hand side and stopping at every forward slash. For example, in this address: www.health.org/pubs/com/pff/marij.html first remove the "marij.html" portion and then hit return to see what you get. If you still get nothing, remove "pff" and see what you get. You will most likely find a back way into the wanted document with this method.
• Choose one or two search engines, get to know them well and consistently use them. Print out, read and save their help screen information for a handy cheat sheet the next time you are doing a search.
• If you are new to a subject area and want a broad overview, use a directory search tool such as Yahoo. If you can locate a subject-specific Web site, it is possible they have compiled an extensive links section on your topic.
• When using a keyword search engine like AltaVista, put your phrase in quotes to increase the precision of the results. Many other search engines use this same convention.
• Also learn to use + or — signs in front of your search terms. This, too, will improve the precision of your search results.
• Use specific keywords to get the best results. The strength of your search relies on effective terms in your search statement. Example: Use "methadone treatment" as a phrase rather than just the word "treatment."
• If you do a search and get a huge set of hits, recognize that using a meta-search engine will only get you more results. Instead, look at the search terms you used and try to refine them.
• Be respectful of your own time. Sit back a moment and analyze what you really need before firing off a search that leads you down multiple paths and several precious hours spent online.

CAPT assumes no responsiblity with regard to the content of sites listed on these pages. We have made every effort to verify the accuracy, relevance and appropriateness of the references included, but cannot guarantee that they will meet your needs. We encourage your visiting these sites prior to recommending their use to others. We also welcome your comments and suggestions.