Ex from mod 3

One of the exercises, that I feel helped my research techniques, was in module three called learning how to understand search engines. This exercise was split in to three activities. The first was comparing different search engines, the second part was locating specific items, and for the third part I had to locate a picture of Bill Gates. I spent a lot of time reading all of the various links for this exercise because I felt, if I could use a search engine properly, then in the future I could save myself a lot of time.

From doing the activities I learnt, that to search for information, using a search engine and find what your looking for, is a skill, and instead of searching through hundreds of pages, that you can narrow your search down and find what you need, using the right techniques. For example: If I wanted to search the net, using a search engine such as Alta Vista for lets say a car, then instead of just typing in 'car', I would type the following: "ford dealerships" with the speech marks, as this helps to narrow down the search. Better still, if I wanted to find a car in my local town, I could type the following: "ford dealerships" AND "hameln". The 'AND' is called a Boolean; there are many and they all help to refine the search, so that you can find what you are looking for. The best way to develop this skill would to keep trying different search techniques using more Booleans and keywords.