GOOGLECLEANING UP YOUR SEARCHES

HOW INSENSITIVE!

Google is not case sensitive. So, the following searches all yield exactly the same

results:

disney fantasyland piratesDisney Fantasyland PiratesDISNEY FANTASYLAND PIRATESDiSnEy FaNtAsYlAnD pIrAtEs

GOOGLE HELPSEvery word matters – change the wording aroundKeep it simple

Computers are not HUMAN ~ it is a program that matches the words you give it to pages on the web.

BEGINNINGAsk yourself, “What am I searching for?”

Brainstorming words that help focus your search.

List words are associated with your topic(like beads on a necklace)

Change a question to keywordsWho is the tallest man on earth?

Change to:tallest man earthman tallest earth

(Try different order of the words)

Use 10 or fewer words

GOOGLE HELPS #1• Be specific ... because if you aren’t specific,

you’ll end up with a bunch of garbage!

GOOGLE HELP #2

OR is always in all caps and goes between keywords. This is a very broad search.

• Oranges OR apples• Cats OR dogs• Men OR boys• Asia OR Europe

GOOGLE HELPS #3

Use quotes “ “ to search for phrases, names, anything you want together.

“Billy the Kid”“Miami Dolphins”“George Washington”“to be or not to be”

GOOGLE HELPS #4

Use the + sign to require the word on the web page

Like addition

No space between the + and the search term

“billy the kid” +gunfighters “world war II” +weapons

SEARCH ENGINE HELPS #5Use the - sign to exclude the subject, words

Like subtraction – removes pages containing that search term

No space between the –and the search term

“billy the kid” -gunfightersaturn -car -automobilevirus -computervirus -disease

GOOGLE HELPS #6

Combine Symbols ( “ “ + - )Yellow fever Colonial America epidemic

Add quotation marks“yellow fever’’ “Colonial America” epidemic

Not to be included; use the -“yellow fever’’ “Colonial America“ –South America epidemic

GOOGLE HELP #7For example, if you search Google for it’s a * world,

Google shows you all of the pages in its database that contain the phrase. This is called a WILDCARD.

• “it’s a small world”• “it’s a nano world”• “it’s a Linux world”• “it’s a wonderful world

ADVANCED SEARCH TERM

Use this term

site:

SITE SEARCHES• Using site: websites only in that domain

.gov

.edu

.org

• There can be no space between site: and the domain. site:domainname

“small pox” site:eduIraq site:gov

SITE

site:domain

pirates site:compirates site:disney.compirates site:edupirates site:gov

REMEMBER

• Be specific – use important keywords• Use quotes “ “ to search for phrases• Use the + sign to require, include• Use the - sign to exclude (subtract)• Use OR for a very broad search• Use the * when you can’t remember the exact

phrase• Use site: to select the domainThe above symbols may be combined

Summary• Capitalization does not matter.

• Google has a hard limit of 32 keywords but don’t use that many!

• Add, subtract, or substitute words.

• Try different order of the words. Different combinations bring up different results.

• Few results past the first 10 are worthwhile. Refine your search by using the symbols

• Ask for help!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Most of this presentation was created by Patrick Crispen. Google 101: Stop Searching and Start FINDING

Kathy Minson in Jordan School District created a powerpoint that was used.

• . Schneider, Fritz. How to Do Everything with

Google. New York: McGraw, c2004.