Advanced Google

Becoming a Power Googler

(c) Thomas T. Kaun 2005

How Google Works

PageRank: The number of pages link to any given page. “Importance” of the linking page matters too

“Sophisticated text-matching techniques”: Match not only number of times term(s) appear in page but also “all aspects of the page’s content”

(c) Thomas T. Kaun 2005

Essentials of Google Search I

Choosing search terms: choose search terms wisely -- more terms (up to 10) producer narrower results; order will affect search resultsAutomatic “and” queries: all terms are searchedExclusion of common words: in order to include words such as “the” being searched place a “+” sign in front of itStemming: Google searches on variations of the word, e.g. diet, dieting, dietary

(c) Thomas T. Kaun 2005

Essentials of Google Search II

Phrase searches: place phrases between quotation marksNegative terms: since many words in English have more that one meaning, e.g. bat the animal, bat the baseball equipment, placing a negative sign in front of a term (–baseball) will help narrow your search for the animalI’m Feeling Lucky: takes you to “the most relevant website … found for your query”

(c) Thomas T. Kaun 2005

Search Results Page I

(c) Thomas T. Kaun 2005

Search Results Page II

“SMCU” searchTop linksGoogle search buttonAdvanced searchSearch fieldPreferencesStatistics barTip

OneBox resultsPage titleText below the titleURL of resultSizeCachedSimilar pagesIndented resultsMore results

(c) Thomas T. Kaun 2005

Setting Preferences

Search preferencesSafeSearch filtering: can be done in general or by search

Language options: generally set to English but great to change for ESL and language classes; interface language (fun) and search language may be set separately

Number of results: generally set to 10 for speed but can be set for up to 100

New results window: if you want another window to come up with results change this

(c) Thomas T. Kaun 2005

Google Advanced Search

(c) Thomas T. Kaun 2005

Advanced Search Tips I

I try and use advanced search for all searching and encourage my kids to do so also

Some advantages:You can do exactly the same search you do on “naked” Google – just use the top search box since “all of the words” is what Google generally searches for

You can do a whole lot more!

(c) Thomas T. Kaun 2005

Advanced Search Tips II

With AS you can search only for pages:

by exact phrase (without using quotes)

with at least one of the words entered (same as using the “OR” operator

That don’t contain certain words (same as the “-” operator

(c) Thomas T. Kaun 2005

Advanced Search Tips III

You can also search only for pages:Written in a certain languageCreated in a certain file formatThat have been updated within a certain period of timeThat contain certain numbers within their rangeWithin a certain domain or websiteThat don’t contain “adult” material

(c) Thomas T. Kaun 2005

Google Cheat Sheet

All of the previous “advanced” operations and a lot more can be done from Google.com if you know and use the Google Cheat Sheet

For example: “+” before a word will find the word even if its automatically excluded“~” before a word will find synonymsTwo numbers separated by two periods will find results within a given range

(c) Thomas T. Kaun 2005

More Googles I

Above the general search box in Google are “top links”: Web – Images – Groups – News – Froogle – Local – more >>Clicking on one of these will take you a specific Google page where you can search for pictures, groups of users, news stories, consumer goods, and local businessesIt can really get interesting if you click on “more >>”!

(c) Thomas T. Kaun 2005

More Google II

Lets look at a few of the Google Services

Directory

Maps

Print

Scholar

University Search

Web Search Features

And a few of the Google Tools

Blogger

GoogleEarth

Translate

(c) Thomas T. Kaun 2005

Any Questions?

I hope you found this presentation helpful

You can find all of these materials online at Google.com