Searching the Web

My Reflections

This is my second week in the course entitled: Web skills. I have read some articles about how to search for relevant information using different search portals. I learned how to personalize the search portal. Right now I can search for information using a well known portal such as Google or my personal portal: Mohammad Abdu Al-Mekhlafi. It is very attractive with multi- colors. I also learned how to narrow a topic down and to start writing the most important words in my search. Another way of looking for direct and relevant information is using quotation marks. For example, when I write my name and start searching, more than a thousand entries are found including all people who carry my first name and those who carry my last name. However, when I type my name using quotation marks,e.g., "Mohammad Abdu Al-Mekhlafi". The result is amazing. It displays only the entries that are related to my topic only leaving out all the unnecessary information that I do not need.

I came across new searching engines. What I like most is Free Book Search Net at www.FreeBookSearch.net. I used this portal to find out a book that I use in my class. The name of the book is How Languages are Learned. It is written by Pasty Lightbown.  Another site that interests me is called Great PDF. As its name indicates it is indeed a great search engine to look for PDF documents and e-books.  I recommend my students to try those portals. They are splendid. 

I have also learned that when we look for academic articles and theses, scholar.google.com comes first.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude and appreciation to our instructor, Sean, for his  directions and being always ready to help.