Remember when searching for information was a lengthy process that included searching through many encyclopedias, phone books, or other types of reference books? I believe that this image about sums up how searching used to be:
Today, definitions, research, directions, phone numbers, and just about any kind of information you could need seems like it could be found on Google instantly. I know that I am lucky enough to have grown up in the "Google" generation, which has given me a huge advantage in the research department.
However, sometimes I just don’t feel like I’m searching for information in the best way possible. Luckily, in the Search Information section of Week One, we were provided with some tips from Google for more effective searching. I was unaware of the many advanced search feature to use while looking for information until this point.
We were provided with a document created by Google offering suggestions for better searching. You may find a full copy of that document here, http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861. I admit, my curiosity was piqued, and I tried these search techniques in order to see for myself what sort of results were found by Google. Below are three techniques that I found to be most useful.
TECHNIQUE 1:
To search within a specific website
This technique comes in handy If you are researching a topic, and want the results only to come from one source, or a class of sources, you can specify that in your search.
Let's say we are looking for articles on copyrights. We, of course, would only want information from a reputable source so we know it is correct. For this we could use government sponsored information. The search would look like so:
Copyright:.gov
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| http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1276&bih=627&q=copyright%3A.gov&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq= |
As you can see, the search only returned items from .gov websites. This is my new favorite feature!
TECHNIQUE 2:
Excluding terms you don’t want to appear in your results
Excluding terms in a query is an option that is very useful. If you are looking for a specific item, but its name has multiple meanings, this technique will help to narrow down the results. To show this, will use the term Fox, which is known to many as FOX the Broadcast Company, but is of course an animal as well. The search would look like this:
Fox -tv -news
The trick is to remember to put a space between the end of a word and the minus sign, otherwise Google considers it to be a hyphen.
This screenshot shows that when searching for "Fox" on its own, you are provided with results mostly pertaining to FOX Broadcasting Company.
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| http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1255&bih=627&q=fox&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq= |
This screenshot shows that using Technique 2 provides results pertaining to things other than FOX Broadcasting Company that has Fox included in the name.
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| http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1276&bih=627&q=fox+-tv+-news&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq= |
You can see the distinct differences in the results between the two searches.
TECHNIQUE 3:
Fill in the blank (also known as wild card)
When searching, if you include a * in the search, Google treats that * as a placeholder and tries to find the best match. This is very helpful if you are perhaps looking for a specific person but can't remember their whole name. For instance:
Chuck * biography
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| http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&biw=1276&bih=627&q=chuck+*+biography&aq=f&aqi=g-v1&aql=&oq= |
You can see that the search returns biographies of numerous people who have the first name of Chuck.
I hope that now you are able to use these techniques to modify your search habits when using Google so that you are able to search more effectively and efficiently. After using encyclopedias and numerous other reference books to find information, I'm sure everyone is looking for ways to search better than they have in the past!
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