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* Lets
A search for a single word may fetch a million sites. Obviously, its tough
and frustrating to check a million sites to find the best one for your needs.
*
*
do
Adding more words fetches fewer sites that are closer to what you need.
Adding too many words, such as an entire sentence orTHE question, causes the
search engine to fetch sites with any or all of those words.
some
QUE
STIO
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explor
ation
before
we
THE QUESTION: Is the element mercury toxic? Lets say your teacher tells you to find the
answer.
look
for the
answer
!
Choose a search engine: Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Dogpile, etc.
In your search engine, start by typing in mercury and hitting the enter key.
TYPE THE NUMBER OF WEB PAGES THE SEARCH ENGINE RETRIEVED:
283,000,000
Look over the description of the first ten sites in the list.
TELL WHAT THEY ARE ABOUT BY LOOKING AT THE SITE TITLES & MINI-
DESCRIPTIONS: Space, planets, insurance, newspaper, browser, elements
By now you may realize that the word mercury has more than one meaning. Try adding
an additional key word to tell what it is about mercury that really interests you. Type in mercury
element.
TYPE THE NUMBER OF WEB PAGES THE SEARCH ENGINE RETRIEVED:
28,600,000
Look over the description of the first few sites in the list.
TELL WHAT THEY ARE ABOUT BY LOOKING AT THE SITE TITLES & MINI-
DESCRIPTIONS: Chemical, periodic table, metal, toxic
Although these sites might have the answer to your question, they might not. Now try adding a
third word. Type in mercury element toxic.
NUMBER OF WEB PAGES RETRIEVED:
576,000
How many results do you get using each of these search terms
Search terms Results
ants 254,000,000
ants eggs 752,000
worker ants eggs 499,000
worker ants eggs 62,700
worker ants eggs k3 930