Internet/Web: Introduction to Searching

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Scope

• Various researchers and surveys suggest that the Internet/World Wide Web has between 8 billion and 100 billion Web pages. For a comparative perspective on the size of the Internet at the Internet Archive's "How Big Is 100 Terabytes?" web page (http://www.archive.org/xterabytes.html).
• Estimates of the number of documents on the "hidden" Internet range upwards of 1 trillion documents. The "hidden" Internet consists of files and documents in:
  • Databases that can only be reached through a query (database search-and-retrieval) interface ( Examples: Priodical articles in Infotrac databases as Magazine Index or Academic Index). Accessing these databases generally requires some kind of license and/or permission and, consequently, a login and a password.
  • Virtual corporate networks, some of which may have upwards of a 100,000 or more Web pages and other files intended for only employee, intra-company, or inter-company access.
  • Formats that can not be readily read or accessed across the Internet.

Size Doesn't Matter

• Whatever the size of the Internet/Web, it does not matter to most people. This is because most people who have access to the Internet are turning to it first for information. Not books. Not magazines. Not radio. Not even TV is the first choice for information. (Note: The latter two are usually the first choice for information on things happening right now, but that may not even continue, as news web sites sometimes provide information (even audio and video) before radio and television.)
• For example, a September 2002-announced survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project (http://www.pewinternet.org/) reveals that "73% use the Internet more than the library for research."
• A great site for getting a handle on how people are using the Internet/Web around the world is NUA (http://www.nua.com/surveys/),

Tools to Search the Internet/World Wide Web

• To find information on the Internet, you need tools that:
  • Collect information (generally the text and graphics from all types of files, including Web pages) from the Internet
  • Store that information in a database.
  • Index all the words and parts of the Web pages and other documents.
  • Provide a query interface that allows you to search those downloaded files, and
  • Provide active links to the original or other linked documents.
• Most tools for searching the Internet/WWW are are nothing more than databases of or indexes to Internet/Web files and pages.
• These tools offer varying levels of searching sophistication and functionality, though they are generally much less sophistcated than library catalogs, bibliographic utilities, and bibliographic databases.
• Remember, when you are "searching the Internet" through one of these databases you are actually searching their databases of downloaded and indexed Internet/Web pages and files and not the actual Internet itself.

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