GEOG 594A
Culminating Experiences in Geospatial Intelligence

Savvy Web Searching

Search vs. Discovery

What is the difference between search and discovery? Many feel they mean the same thing, but they are actually quite different. One way to contrast the two is to classify them by what you know and don't know. That is you search for what you know and discover what you don't know.
 

When you search, you have a target in mind. The task is to formulate a query to maximize the chances a match. Keywords in the query tend to be more descriptive so as to qualify exactly what I am looking for. Discovery is exploratory in nature driven by a goal. A search engine becomes a discovery engine when the query is used as a starting point from which to learn more about a particular topic. Just as hyperlinks within web documents facilitate the quick navigation through related topics of information, a discovery engine provides various facets of the result set in the form of navigational links. These links represent different dimensions of the result set and allow you to drill down or sideways depending on the facet. Discovery is best done with social software, directories, professional organizations, libraries, wikis, or clustering search engines such as Clusty (http://clusty.com/).

Searches in General

First, searches only cover 1/1000 of the Internet. They do not include:

  • hidden or orphaned sites
  • text files
  • databases

Most people, when faced with searching in Google or any other search engine, will simply put in words describing what they are looking for and accept any and all results that appear. There are ways of telling Google what to do in order to obtain different, and hopefully more reliable, accurate, and relevant search results. To illustrate this, we will do some more activities.

Open up a web browser and go to Google. Google is used in this example because these tips work extremely well with that site. You can certainly try using these tips in other search engines, but I am not sure if it will change the results.

  1. Once at the Google site, execute the following search:
    site:.gov geospatial intelligence
  2. Open another tab or browser window.
  3. Go back to Google.
  4. Execute the following search: geospatial intelligence
  5. Compare the results.

By typing in the command "site:.gov" you were telling Google to search ONLY those sites which end in .gov. This tip will work with any website address suffix such as .edu, .org etcetera. Try out different searches and compare the results; it will change the way you use Google when you are searching for specific types of information or data.

Another tip for use in searching Google is that word order and word repetition matter. Try this:

  1. Go to Google.
  2. Search for "geospatial intelligence".
  3. Open another tab or browser window.
  4. Search for "intelligence geospatial".
  5. Compare.

While for this particular search the results did not change dramatically, they did change. What does this mean? It simply means that the algorithm used by Google 'reads' the words you enter and will 'think' you want more of whatever word you type first.

The same situation exists for word repetition. Try the above example again, but instead of rearranging the word order, double the words so you are doing a search first for 'geospatial geospatial intelligence' and then another for 'geospatial intelligence intelligence'. Again, the results in this particular search will not change dramatically but there will be a change and if you use this tip in other searches, the results will often be different and sometimes very different.

Another thing to keep in mind when doing searches online: Sure, the first page of results are usually the most clicked-on links, possibly the most relevant results for your search terms, but you should always look past the first page of results. At least go to the third page to make sure you are covering all of the ground you need to cover and are not leaving anything out.

This information is for your use when you are searching for information online, to let you know there are better ways of searching on the Internet than simply typing in the words for what you are searching and accepting the results that appear.

Searches for People, Social Networks, and Public Records

About.com provides a nice summary of how to go about this. Here they are in summary:

People: addresses, phone numbers, search for maps, and more.

Public Records: All the following sites related to the US.

Social Networks: A social network is a social structure made of individuals or organizations which are connected by friendship, kinship, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge, or prestige.