Medical Information on the Internet
Module 2: Web Search Engines
Terminology
- Boolean Logic
- Using the terms AND OR NOT NEAR to limit or expand the results of your search.
- Web Directory
- An organized tree/Yellow Pages of Websites. Site owners list their Website within the tree structure of the directory.
- Search Engine
- A Website specifically constructed to search the contents of Web pages. Some search the entire contents of a site; some search only specifically marked words (called metatags) within the page.
- Metasearch engine
- A site that searches a number of different search engines at the same time.
- Natural Language Searching
- The ability of a search engine to take a typed question (such as "Does diet affect Crohn's Disease") and adapt the question to maximize retrieval.
- Truncation
- Entering the root of a word, and using a symbol (often *) to search for all possible endings for the word.
- URL
- The address of a Web page.
