World Wide Web Treasure Hunt:
Finding Info on the Web

Module W13h

About this document... * Audienceand Objectives

Overview of the Exercise

What are we doing here?

It doesn't take much skill to type a few words in a text box and clickthe "Search" button. But if you're looking for some particular informationon the World Wide Web, it takes a lot more to find anything of value. Ittakes experience, critical thinking, and some understanding of how theInternet is put together. This exercise is intended to help you with these.
You'll practice finding information on the World Wide Web using "searchengines" - the computer programs which look through vast databases of availableinformation, and return links you can use to track the information down.Along with the instructions on what to do, you'll find a good deal of supplementaryinformation here to help you gain the understanding, the critical skills,and the experience you'll need to become proficient at Web research. So, take time to read through this carefully. More detailedbackground on searching for information on the Web is found in module W12c.

Here's a summary of what you'll be doing...

An example of finding information on a topic

Read it
Try it yourself
Save the address you find (URL)

Set up a file to save your treasures in

Read how
Do it

Your Turn: A topic to get started on

Read it, think about it, and write down some ideas
Do the search and see what you come up with
Save the address

The exercise: "Treasures" to hunt for

General topics
Business-oriented topics
Medical topics

Supplementary information about Search engines

Evaluating search engines
Some engines to try

What to turn in:

The address you saved from the example of finding information
The address from "Your Turn: a topic to get started on"
Several more addresses from the treasure hunt sections. What you look forand how many you need to complete the minimum for this exercise, dependson what class you're in. Ask your instructor for details.

If Larry Krieg is your instructor, here's what to do:

Class	From Which Category	*Treasures Needed for Full Credit, in addition to* thefirst two practice "Treasures"**	Points for Extra Treasures
CIS 100	Any	6	½
CIS 101	Medical	6	½ (may be from any category)
CIS 160	Any	14	½

How to turn it in:

Save the Internet addresses (URLs) in a text file, created by copying addressesand pasting them into a text file using Notepad, or any similar program.
A discussion of these is found in the section titled "Saving Web Addresses."Once you have saved all the addresses of your treasures in one file, youcan get them to your instructor in either of two ways:

Print a copy of the file
Attach the file to an email message and send it to your instructor. Thismethod will earn you two extra points.

Throughout this document, you can click on theseseparator bars to return to the Summary

An Example of Finding Information on a Topic

For this example, we'll try to find information about "Quinto Mining".Our goal is to evaluate the company as a possible investment.

Example Step 1: Frame your query (figure out the best way to ask your question)

It generally pays to give some thought to how best to frame a query - thatis, how to ask the search engine a question using the right words. Thiscan save time in the long run, by reducing the number of irrelevant suggestions.The name of the company, Quinto Mining, contains two words. Howshould we ask the search engine about this?

First, let's put the entire phrase in quotes. Some search engines (notall) treat quoted phrases as a unit that must be kept together. That cancut out a lot of irrelevant responses.

We'll also capitalize the two initials. Some search engines (not all)treat capitals as letters which must be capitalized in the result. Thatcan also eliminate a lot of unnecessary hits. Our search phrase will be:
"Quinto Mining"

Example Step 2: Choose a search engine

We'll do what many people do: click on the "Search" botton (Netscape toolbar). Netscape provides quick access to several search engines, any oneof which may receive your question at random. In this illustration, Netscapehas brought up Excite.

Example Step 3: Submit your query and wait for the response

The screen that appears has a rectangular area for entering queries. Wepoint to this with the mouse, click, and a standard word-processing "insertionpoint" cursor appears blinking at the left end. We type in:
"Quinto Mining"
click the Search button, and wait for a number of seconds whileExcite looks through its database.

Example Step 4: Evalute the response

Excite returned 10 suggestions. To see the full response I got (but you'llprobably get different results - the Web is always changing!) clickhere. It starts by telling us what we asked about:
Search for "Quinto Mining"
Skipping over a couple of ads (whose presence allows us to search thenet for free) we see:

Top 10 matches.
Show: Titlesonly View by: Web site

71% TheAnswerSleuth's Quinto - Quinto,Quinto
http://www.find11.com/places/foreign/quinto.shtml

Take a look at this listing. Though not all search engines return informationin this format, we'll see many similar listings. this one has:

The title of the web page, formattted so you can click on it to visit thesite.
The URL (beginning http://) so you can copy the location directlyinto your own list.
How good a match in percentage 71% - based on how many keywords weresuccessfully matched against the document.
The first few lines of the contents, so you can get a better idea of what'son this page.
Some search engines (this one doesn't!) also list the size of the page(eg: 3K) to give you an idea of how long it will take to get it. Checkresultsfrom the Go search engine.

Here are the rest of the listings:

69% TheQuinto Mining Corporation - New! Download the Prospectus Subscribeto to the Quinto Shareholder Update The Quinto Mining Corporation #114U- 7350 72nd Street Delta, British Columbia V4G 1H9 Phone: (604) 952-0900(800) 786-6038 Fax: (604) 952-0901 E-Mail: info@quintomining.com
http://www.quintomining.com/

69% TheQuinto Mining Corporation - Company Profile - THE QUINTO MININGCORPORATION is poised to commence production at its large Industrial Mineralsand Precious Metals Property located In Lumby, British Columbia, Canada.
http://www.quintomining.com/profile.html

68% Quinto- Industrial Minerals - Pozzolan - POZZOLAN An Additive for ConcretePozzolan is naturally occurring rock mineral that is used to partiallysubstitute for cement in the concrete making process.
http://www.quintomining.com/pozzolan.html

68% SI:Quinto Mining QUITF and QU.V(#48/81) - To: Davey Stuart who wrote(47) From: banco$ Thanks for 'hard copy' details on the permit increase;that release is not on Quinto's internet site. Had separate confirmationtoday that Quinto's permit class is increased so it wasn't directed solelyat Quinto, although Quinto greatly benefits as a member of the upgradedpermit class -- 200 percent!
http://www3.techstocks.com/~wsapi/investor/reply-10587985

66% Untitled - What makes Quinto¹s property so unique? Quinto¹s property issingular due to the products that comprise the ore body, its location,and the managing of its finances.
http://www.lumonix.com/iwest/quinto/overview.html

66% SI:Quinto Mining QUITF and QU.V - Talk : Canadian: Quinto MiningQUITF and QU.V Subject (Replies: 82) Started By: David WigginsDate: Aug23 1998 2:38PM ET Quinto Mining recently won the lawsuit that has beenholding up their production for the past few years.
http://charts.techstocks.com/~wsapi/investor/Subject-22601

65% StockMasterChart for Quinto Mining - (C:QU) - Current Quotation and PriceChart for Quinto Mining (C:QU)
http://bert.stockmaster.com/sm/g/0/C:QU.html

65% Quinto- News - NEWS RELEASES RELATED ARTICLES George Cross News LetterPage 1 / Page 2 Microgrinding Systems Vibrokinetic Energy Grinding Millfor more information please contact: Tyrone Docherty - President The QuintoMining Corporation #114U - 7350 72nd Street Delta, British Columbia V4G1H9 Phone: (604) 952-0900 (800) 786-6038 Fax: (604) 952-0901 E-Mail: info@quintomining.com
http://www.quintomining.com/news.html

65% SI:Quinto Mining QUITF and QU.V (#62/82) - You don't have javascript,your SI experience won't be so grand. To: Davey Stuart who wrote (61) From:banco$ Not much of a wait though, in light of nearly a decade of work towardsthe production objective.
http://www3.techstocks.com/~wsapi/investor/reply-10720687

What do we do about this?

The top-ranked item, " TheAnswerSleuth's Quinto" looks like a pagethat has information about Quinto. This would not be a good placeto start gathering information, because it probably has irrelevant information.
The second item, "TheQuinto Mining Corporation" is the company's home page.This is a good bet for a place to start finding out about the company.
The third item, "TheQuinto Mining Corporation - Company Profile " looks apage in the company's website. As potential investors, we would probablywant to look at this.
The remaining items look like news and stock market information, so theywould probably be useful to us as investors.
For now, we'll ignore "Next Results" - we have plenty of informationto start with!

Example Step 5: Follow the links

We've decided to start with the second item, "TheQuinto Mining Corporation" and look at the corporatehome page. We point the mouse to the underlined words and click.

Example Step 6: Copy the address of usefullinks

After looking at the The QuintoMining Corporation home page, we decide it wouldbe worth finding it again, so we'll save the address (URL). Here's howwe start an address list using any browser under Windows 95. (For completeinformation about saving addresses on Windows or Macintosh computers, seemodule W08c "SavingWeb Addresses".)

With your mouse-pointer, click in the Location box in the controlpanel area of the browser's window. This should highlight the URL (usuallyit turns blue).
Copy the URL to the system "clipboard". Here are two ways to do it:

Using the menus: from the Edit menu, select Copy
Shortcut key: While holding down the <Ctrl> key, tap C (forCopy).

Open a text or word-processing file. To start a new text file in Wndows95:

Click the Start button to see Windows 95's start menu.
Select Run on the start menu
In the Run window, type:
notepad
and press the <Enter> key or click on the OK button. Ina moment, a next "notepad" should open up.

Put a title and some identification in the text document - for example,

Paste in the URL that you copied from the browser. Again, there are twoways:

Using the Edit menu, select Paste
Using the keyboard, hold down the <Ctrl> key and tap V

Save the file using the File menu's Save or Save Asoptions. Make sure the file is saved on your diskette, rather than on thehard drive of a lab computer.

This completes the example.

Your Turn: A Topic to Get Started On

OK. let's see if you can locate a picture of the Mona Lisa, by LeonardoDaVinci. Here are the steps:

Decide how to ask your question. Write it here: ________________________________________
Choose your search engine. Which one to use: _____________________________
Submit your search.
Evaluate your response. What are your top 2-3 choices of places to investigate?

Follow the links.
Add a bookmark to useful links.
Save the bookmark file.

The Exercise: "Treasures" to Hunt For

You have a wide variety of search engines available to you. Try several- especially if the results from one are not ideal. For details on searchengines, see the section below called "Tips:Search Engines".

If you are doing this for credit, each item you find is worth ½point. Save a bookmark to each page you find (not to the query-resultspage). Put all your bookmarks into one file. Print the file out(to print, open it as a regular Web document, using File...Open File),or for extra credit send it as a attachment with an e-mail message to theinstructor.

General Treasures
Business Treasures
Medical Treasures

General Treasures

Who is the Chair of the Visual Arts Technology Department at WashtenawCommunity College?: Hint: Find the "Washtenaw" web site
What's the first major tourist event in Hawaii next month?: Hint: The folks at the "Hawaii Visitor Bureau" might know.
What book is in the spotlight today at Amazon.com?
Who writes books about the Navajo Police?: Hint: Do a full-featured search at Amazon.com
When Bill Clinton was a Senior in highschool, he went to Washingtonas part of an program. What was that program?: Hint: Check out "family life at the Whitehouse"
What three things can a violin owner do to protect his/her instrument?: Hint: Ask "Hansi" (Hans Johannsson)
What is Venus de Milo doing on the Internet?: Hint: Check her out at "Treasures of the Louvre"
What country could the well-dressed dog-about-town visit to enhancehis/her wardrobe?: Hint: Ask "Fashion Dog"
Are there pictures of the great comet of 1997 somewhere on the Web?
Is there anyone out there on the web with your name?: Hint: Search on your last name, or first and last.

Business-Related Treasures

What's tops in today's business news?

Hint: Find out in "Yahoo! current business news"

Where can you search classified ads in hundreds of newspapers?: Hint: ask Ad Hound!
Business travellers usually fly.: Where can you compare airfares on many different airlines?
If you expect someone to arrive by air, where can you check the arrivaltime of their flight?: Hint: Several airlines have this service, but there's no guarantee theyall do! Try Northwest, United, Delta, TWA, or American
Doing some international travelling? How much will your dollars we worth?: Hint: There are several currency converters on the Web.
Have you ever thought of setting up a business of your own? Help andadvice are available, not far away!: Hint: Washtenaw County has a Small Business Development Center!
Where can you get professional tips for your small business computerplans?: Hint: Intel (the computer CPU chip manufacturer) has advice for "smallbusiness owners".

Medical Treasures

A major hospital near you has a wealth of medical information on theWeb.: Hint: look for the University of Michigan Medical Center.
Where on the web can you go to find out about positions in nursing?: Hint: try the Nursing Career Information Center.
Where can nurses leave a copy of their electronic resume?: Hint: Medsearch knows!
What types of support are available for Nurse Practitioners?: Hint: Nurse Practitioner Support Services will tell you.
Where's the nearest electronic medical library?: Hint: Taubmann funded it.
What is the National Library of Medicine?: What services does it offer on the Web?
What is the Health Web: and what's available on it?
The United Nations sponsors a public health agency with world-widescope.: What is that agency called, and where is its headquarters?
A patient has chronic dry eyes and a dry mouth. What is his conditioncalled?: Hint: It's not eyestrain!
A patient with Fibromyalgia is scheduled for admission to the hospital.: What are her symptoms likely to be?
You are working with a Scleroderma patient.: Are there any support groups to which you could refer him?
Lyme Disease is a condition caused by a highly specialized bacterium.: What is the vector that transports these bacteria?
Chagas Disease is also transported by a vector, but is not causedby bacterial infection.: What is the organism that causes it?
What is the current danger of Bubonic Plague in America?: You may be surprised!
A patient with Schistosomiasis has been admitted.: What part of the world is this person likely to have visited?
A child is diagnosed with Batten Disease.: How did the child contract this condition?

When you have found and saved as many "treasures" asyou have time for, get them to your instructor.
The following sections have information to help you with your search,but there is nothing further that you have to do.

Tips: Search Engines

There are many search engines to use. Some are specialized, but most aregeneral. You will need to try several search engines to get a feelingfor the difference between them.

Evaluating Search Engines

When you use a search engine, you are testing its ability to meet yourresearch needs. The answers to questions like these will help you evaluateeach engine:

How easy is it to get the query form (does it take a long time? is theserver busy?)
How clear are the directions for use?
How much control does it give you over your query - for example, does itallow boolean operators or provide alternatives?
How quickly does it respond to your query?
Are the search results clear and easy to evaluate, or are they confusingand cluttered?
Does the results-list include enough detail for you to make a meaningfulevaluation of the pages listed?
Does it list a convenient number of entries on each page?
Does it find the results you want, or fail to get appropriate materials?

Some Engines to Try

Module W12b hasa description of several search engines.

Here is a compact, clickable list:

Multiple Search Engines	Individual Search Engines
Dogpile http://www.dogpile.com/ Inference Find http://www.infind.com/ MetaCrawler http://www.metacrawler.com/ Metafind http://www.metafind.com/ Northern Light http://www.nlsearch.com/	Alta Vista http://www.altavista.com/ HotBot http://www.hotbot.com/ InfoSeek http://www.infoseek.com/ Lycos http://www.lycos.com/ Yahoo! http://www.yahoo.com/

Audience:

People who want to practice finding information on the World Wide Web usingsearch engines. Participants should be familiar with basic use of a WorldWide Web browser (see mdoule W02h),and understand the principles of search engines (see module W12c).Inthis version, instructions specific to Netscape Navigator 1.2 will be given.

Objectives

When you successfully complete this lesson, you will be able to...

Find and use a WWW search engine
Interpret the results of a typcial search engine
Follow links provided by a search engine
Create and maintian a file of bookmarks on your own disk

Return to Contents of this document

About this document...

Module W13h: Finding World Wide Web Sites

This document is part of a modular instruction series inComputer Information Systems.
Closely related:

How to Find World Wide Web Sites (W12c)
Web Search Engines: Module (W12b)

For more information, see the overviewor the list of modules in this series, W- (WorldWide Web). This document has been used in the following classes: CIS100, CIS 101, CIS 160, INP 159, INP 160

Author:: LaurenceJ. Krieg and Lalitha Natarajan
Institution:: Departmentof Computer Information Systems, WashtenawCommunity College
Dates:: Preliminary versions: October, 1995; This version: 16 March 2000

World Wide Web Treasure Hunt:Finding Info on the Web