Searching the Web
Volume 30, Number 5, June 2003
Searching Within a Site
Holly Gunn
Searching within a site is a useful technique to find information on
a particular web site. Google and AlltheWeb are
capable of searching within a site as well as searching the Web. Both
search engines use the command site: to perform a site search
Example: “what works” site:www.teacherlibrarian.com
Using either search engine, this search locates Ken Haycock’s
What Works columns on the Teacher Librarian web site. Note that the
URL for Teacher Librarian has been trimmed for this site search. Trimming
a URL involves removing the http:// and everything after .com, .edu,
.org or .ca, whichever the domain may be.
Site searching is a useful way to locate specific items on your favorite
curriculum web sites or large portals. Try the following searches using
either Google or AlltheWeb.
Example: genetics site:www.explorescience.com
This search locates pages that contain the word genetics on the ExploreScience.com site.
Example : biography reading site:www.nlc-bnc.ca
This search locates pages that contain both the words biography and
reading within the National Library
of Canada’s web site.
High school students will find site searching a helpful technique when
seeking admission requirements, tuition costs and housing information
for a particular university.
Examples:
tuition site:www.dal.ca
residences site:www.dal.ca
These searches locate pages with the words tuition and residences
on the Dalhousie University web site.
Google provides a university search <http://www.google.ca/options/universities.html> that
performs a site search for universities that have submitted their URLs
for this purpose. Site searching can be used to locate information on
your own school board’s web site:
Example: “school libraries” site:www.tdsb.on.ca
This search locates pages containing the phrase “school libraries” on
the Toronto District School Board’s web site.
Be sure to add site searching to your power searching toolkit to increase
your Web searching effectiveness.
Holly Gunn is the teacher-librarian at Sackville High School, Nova
Scotia. She can be reached at hgunn@accesscable.net. |
