1. Go Beyond Google How to Search the Deep Web Lia Vella, Special Project Librarian lia.vella@oit.edu
2. Question What are some examples of information you have been unable to find using a search engine like Google?
3. What is the Deep Web? Also called the hidden or invisible web, the deep web consists of content that cannot be found by standard search engines like Google.
4. How Much Information is Online? graph from Netcraft web server survey: http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html
5. Some Examples of Things that are Hard to Find with a Search Engine
6. What’s in the Deep Web? UW Digital Libraries Internal websites for companies or organizations Articles in research databases Blogs Links on social bookmarking sites UW Digital Libraries Dynamic content (such as search results) US government Images, music, video Full text articles and books
7. Where is the Deep Web? Schools, universities, corporations Intranets Restricted/password protected sites Database content Photo credits here
8. Where Else is the Deep Web? Non-webpage materials (such as pdf documents) Non-text content, such as images Content that changes often, such as posts on social websites and discussion boards
9. How Google & other search engines search Google is like a fishing trawler, dragging a net over the top few hundred feet of the world-wide web. Photo by Maciej Lewandowski It is not designed to catch deep-web resources. from Bergman, M. (2001). White Paper: The deep web: Surfacing hidden value. Journal of Electronic Publishing 7: 1. doi: 10.3998/3336451.0007.104
10. Use Special Google searches Many of the alternative Google search pages are designed to look in deep web sources. A visual representation of Google’s specialty searches can be found at: http://springfieldlibrary.wikispaces.com/Google+Search+Options
15. Try Specialty Search Engines Specialized search engines Surfwax: http://www.surfwax.com/ Hakia: http://www.hakia.com/ Complete Planet: http://aip.completeplanet.com Internet Scout: http://scout.wisc.edu/index.php Lists of specialty search engines Lim, H. (2009). 100+ alternative search engines you should know. Message posted to http://www.hongkiat.com/. Miller, A. (n.d.). 100 useful tips and tools to research the deep web. Article posted to http://www.online-college-blog.com.
16. Investigate Organizations That Specialize in your Topic Some examples: American Geological Institute Eating Disorder Referral and Information Ctr American Society of Civil Engineers Society for Technical Communication From Goode & Bean (1896), Oceanic Ichthyology. View it here.
17. Remember to evaluate the material you find! One easy way to remember what to look for in a web source is the acronym CRAAP C: Currency– is the information timely? R: Relevance– does the information suit your needs? A: Authority– who is responsible for this website? A: Accuracy– are sources cited? P: Purpose– why is the information there? From Goode & Bean, Ocean Ichthyology. View it here
18. More reading and some recommended sites He, B., et al. (2007). Accessing the deep web. Communications of the ACM 50:5, 95- 101. doi:10.1145/1230819.1241670 Perez, S. (2008, May 14). Digital Image Resources on the Deep Web. Article posted to http://www.readwriteweb.com. Wright, A. (2009, February 23). Exploring a ‘Deep Web’ that Google can’t grasp. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/technology/internet/23search.html. Online Resources Online Tutorials: several tutorials on searching the internet for scholarly content, multi-media, and more. http://www.internettutorials.net/ Internet Public Library: a directory of online resources selected by librarians, categorized by topic area. http://www.ipl.org Digital Resources from Libraries, Museums, and Archives: a list compiled by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. http://imlsdcc.grainger.uiuc.edu/
