Searching the English-Language Internet

Russian version (Поиск информации в англоязычных ресурсах Интернета) translated by Nadya Dich.

This page explains some strategies for searching for information on the English-language Internet. It focuses on freely available sources in English, especially the USA. There are some online tutorials on searching the web that you might want to consult in addition to this page—for example, Learning About Searching.

When searching the Internet, you should use many of the same strategies you would use when searching a library or bookstore. I would group your likely information needs into four categories:

Bibliographic searches (searching for a book, film, or other work by author/creator, title, or possibly other information)
Linguistic reference queries
General subject searches
Specific queries

Bibliographic searches

If you know information about a particular item and want to locate it or learn more about it, there are a number of options:

Search the website of a major online bookseller such as Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. These contain at least basic bibliographic information on basically every item published with an ISBN, and for many you'll find one or more summaries or reviews, plus reader reviews. If you're concerned about the accuracy of the bibliographic information, especially if you need to distinguish different editions of the same title, use a library catalog instead. Bookseller databases do not always clearly distinguish different editions of a work. There are many other websites listing books besides these two, including some with only used books.
Search online library catalogs. This way you can track down bibliographic information and see the subject headings (subject terms) attached to a particular item by the cataloger, but if you are in Russia and can't get access to the item, you unfortunately won't be able to find out any more information.
- Most English-language libraries now have catalogs that can be searched over the Internet. If you think an item might be available in a particular library, use a search engine to find that library's website, or consult one of the many directories of library catalogs.
- There are also many freely available virtual union catalogs that let you search more than one library's catalog at a time. Consult International Union Catalogs for a listing of union catalogs, but note that this list includes those that are not freely available but are still online.
- If you are looking for a work published in a particular country, you might try searching the catalog of the national library in which the work was published. Try searching National Library Catalogues Worldwide, a directory of them. Note that unlike most countries, the US does not have a legal deposit requirement, so just because a work was published in the US, there is no guarantee it will be found in the Library of Congress. Most, however, are there.
If your work can't be found in a national library catalog, there are a couple of methods for gaining free access to some abbreviated records in OCLC WorldCat, the largest union catalog:
- Put a couple of words from the title into Google or Yahoo! followed by site:worldcatlibraries.org .
- Download and install one of the free Open WorldCat-enabled Web tools and search using it.
Try typing the title into Google and Yahoo!. Portions or full-text of the work might be available online.
If you search in Google Print, you'll find books provided by publishers and libraries working with Google. You can only read excerpts of works under copyright, but works in the public domain are available in their entirety for free.

Linguistic reference queries

There are some Russian-English and English-Russian dictionaries available online for free. See the listing at yourdictionary.com and listing at Google Directory, for example. Мультитран is the best, but it contains many errors. When using an online dictionary, try to determine what, if any, print version it's based on. Remember that since language is constantly changing, dictionaries are always outdated. A dictionary that's a decade or two old is especially outdated!
There are lots of English dictionaries available for free online:
- Cambridge Dictionary of American English: This dictionary is aimed at non-native speakers. Unfortunately, it only searches on the first word you type in, so you can't search for whole phrases.
- Merriam-Webster Online: Based on the print version of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition (1998).
- Bartleby.com: Especially useful is the American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition (2000).
- Try Wiktionary. This resource will improve over time.
- By way of Google: Type define:your term (ex: define:housing starts). If you don't find it, you might try typing the word directly into Google. If it's a phrase, be sure to put double quotation marks around it (ex: "housing starts"). This feature of Google does not search any of the above dictionaries, but it searches a number of other very good ones.
- Others are listed at LII and IPL.
There are many other types of linguistic reference works available online. See listings from LII and IPL, which include links to non-linguistic reference works as well.

General subject searches

When broadly interested in a topic, it's often helpful to start with an encyclopedia. See listings from LII and IPL.
If you are looking for more information beyond what you can find in an encyclopedia, consult a hierarchical directory of web resources, such as those listed at Internet Subject Directories. One site not mentioned is the Internet Public Library. Note that the Google Directory is based on the Open Directory Project but includes little green bars that show you how highly a page is ranked in the Google search engine.
If you're looking for books on a particular subject, try browsing a bookseller's website. For example, Barnes & Noble offers a "Book Browser", and Amazon.com lets you browse books as well as other media that they sell.

Specific queries

For any more specific query, you'll want to type words directly into a search engine.

How to choose and use search engines:
Consult Google and Yahoo!'s pages which tell you how to use their advanced features:
When searching, keep in mind:
- Only include words you are sure will occur on the page. Some search engines will automatically handle variant spellings (catalog vs. catalogue) or various morphological forms, but it's difficult to determine which engines handle which. To simultaneously search more than one spelling, use OR and surround the search words by parentheses.
- Google can automatically search for synonyms of a word. Use a tilde (~) before a word for which you would like to include synonyms in the search results. Read the Review of Google on Search Engine Showdown for more information.

You might also consider submitting your question to an Internet "question and answer" service.

Internet Public Library: Ask a Question
AskA+ Locator: By Subject is a directory of quality services.
New York Public Library: Ask Librarians Online
Ask a librarian... at the Library of Congress.