Spark 001: Central Valley Stories (Trook)

We refer to any online content that is easily searchable as the "Open Web". This includes material found using search engines, news publications and all social media. 

The opposite of the Open Web is often called the Deep Web or Dark Web and is made up of networks that require special tools or encryption to access. 

For the purposes of this class, we'll refer to the Open Web as everything that is freely available or accessible online without hitting a paywall. You could also think about it as free online content or information. 

The video below explains more. 

Questions:

• What is a common problem in web searching? 
• What is the first strategy suggested for better web searching? 
• What are more specific strategies you can use to streamline your web searches?

You have probably already used Google countless times already. Below are some tips that may come in handy when you're trying to narrow down your search results. 

• Consider word order.  e.g. dog chow vs chow dog. Generally, put the most important search term first. Changing the word order of your search may change the results and surface different materials.
• Phrase searching is supported e.g. "body mass index" "jekyll and hyde". You can put quotation marks around known phrases. Indicating that you want to see results containing that exact phrase. 
• OR (in uppercase) is supported but not needed. Google will automatically look for synonyms, or words meaning the same thing ask your keywords.
• AND is not needed.  Google assumes that you want all of your keywords in every result. 

You can also limit by the type of file or site that you want to find. Take a look at the examples below:

• Limit to a filetype with filetype:PDF following your keywords e.g. media elections tampering filetype:pdf
• Limit to a domain with site:edu following your other keywords e.g. obesity trends site:gov
• Use a word such as data, stats, or statistics to locate this type of information.  Pair with other keywords and domain searching. e.g. stats inequities health care site:edu
• Remove items from your results using the hypen (-) on your keyboard. To find information about Apple, the company, and wanted to remove information about the fruit you would use: Apple -fruit