Week13 key concepts_googlesearchtechniques

A D V A N C E D S E A R C H T E C H N I Q U E S F O R
G O O G L E
Week 13

Google Advanced Search
 Review Chap 3; in particular p. 46-50 in the
textbook.
See link for advanced search operators we will cover
below:
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/246
6433?hl=en&ref_topic=3081620

Differences in Web Searching Versus Database Searching
 Web Searches
 Can draw up many more records than a database search
 Are mainly keyword searches:
 A search for drug abuse will search entire web sites and pages
for the term:

Google Search
over 2 million results
Google helps searchers out by
placing more relevant sites at the top
[like .gov and .edu sites]
Google searches by keywords
in the entire website text

Compare to Database Search
ProQuest keyword search –
here we searched all fields
Keywords from citations/abstracts
[NOT full text of article
Other ways to narrow a search

Some Important Basic Search Tips for Google
 Add relevant words if your search doesn’t bring up
results you want:
 First try: [ puppy ]
More precise: [ puppy training ]
Even more precise: [ dalmatian puppy training class ]
 Use only the important words rather than a full
sentence or question:
 Not ideal: [ country where bats are an omen of good luck ]
Better: [ bats good luck ]

Basics of Searching Google
 Stop Words: Common words like "the," "a," and
"for," are usually ignored
 However, they might not be if they're integral to your search
phrase.
 For example, the word "the" differentiates a search for
 [ the who ] (likely referring to the band)
 and [ WHO ] (likely referring to the World Health Organization).

Boolean Operators in Google
 AND is implied
Drug
AND
abuse

AND searching in Google
AND is implied between
words in Google
This means you do not
have to add the operator

OR
 OR must be added
Drug
OR
abuse

OR searching in Google
OR is not added
automatically
It’s greatly
expanded our search
and probably
added unrelated
or too broad sites

Using OR with synonyms
Sites with both
terms
Synonym searching is a
powerful way to draw up
similar terms in a search
AND between terms
by default Add OR to link synonyms

NOT
 NOT is not often used in Google searches (other
search limiters work better in Google, as we will see
later)
Drug
NOT
abuse

Google - Other Advanced Search Techniques
 Google features several other search limiters, some
of which are similar to databases [like ProQuest or
Ebsco] and some of which are not

Google – Some Common Search Limiters
 Phrase Searching “ “
 Exclude a term -
 Link two terms _ [underscore]
 Site, domain and related search :
 Fill in the Blank Query *
 Search for non-HTML files filetype:
See Google Operators for example searches
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/136861

Phrase Searching
This allows searches
for specific phrases
within websites and
pages
Phrase Searching is
a useful technique to
search the texts of
entire websites for a
phrase.

Exclude a Term
Use of –
require exclusion of
term
NO space between
symbol and word

Link two terms underscore
Use of _
links two terms.
This finds quicksort
or terms linked by
underscore
This finds
quicksort or terms
linked by
underscore
This is a new Google operator,
and really seems to replicate
searching by Boolean operator
AND! We will see how long this
one sticks around.

Google Operators Change Every so Often
 As an aside, advanced operators change periodically
with Google. Two that recently were ‘deprecated’
[discontinued] are + [required term in search] and
tilde~ [found related words in a search.
 According to Google:
 The + was discontinued in 2011 [possibly due to
Google+ and confusion with new newwork]
 http://webscripts.softpedia.com/blog/Google-Search-Drops-the-Operator-May-Be-
Linked-to-Google-229458.shtml
 The tilde was discontinued due to decreasing use:
 http://searchengineland.com/google-drops-another-search-operator-tilde-for-
synonyms-164403

Site Search
Site search:
Olympic site:.gov
Use : for site search
NO space between :
and .gov

Domain Search
Domain search:
Olympics: nytimes.com
Use : for domain search

Related search
Related search:
related:newsweek.com
Use : for related search

"fill in the blank" query * query
Use * to replace
words in a query [*
replaces word
‘penny’ in search]
This is a useful search not
well-known to beginning users
– good for finding facts and
historical dates, names etc.

Search for filetype:
Example search:
global warming filetype:pdf
Non-HTML file types:
http://www.google.com/supp
ort/webmasters/bin/answer.p
y?hl=en&answer=35287
Some examples of documents
to search on Google are .pdf,
PowerPoint, video, Microsoft
Office files, Flash .swf files

Google - Advanced Search Techniques
 Links for Search Techniques [refer to the below for
the following slides]:
 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en&ref_to
pic=3081620 [Google support for search techniques]
 http://www.internetseer.com/services/article.xtp?id=8472
 [another page for Google Search Techniques]
 http://www.amplify-interactive.com/blog/search-engines/advanced-
google-search-tips/ [good summary of search techniques]

Week13 key concepts_googlesearchtechniques

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