Google search tips
Almost everything we need is out there, somewhere, on the Internet but how do we find what we want quickly and easily?
Using Google Search
For the “good oil” on Google searching visit http://support.google.com/websearch/?hl=en#topic=1221265 and http://www.google.com/help/features.html
Some tips using Google search
Phrase search ("")
By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change. Google already uses the order and the fact that the words are together as a very strong signal and will stray from it only for a good reason, so quotes are usually unnecessary. By insisting on phrase search you might be missing good results accidentally. For example, a search for [ "Alexander Bell" ] (with quotes) will miss the pages that refer to Alexander G. Bell.
Search within a specific website (site:)
Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website. For example, the query [ iraq site:nytimes.com ] will return pages about Iraq but only from nytimes.com. The simpler queries [ iraq nytimes.com ] or [ iraq New York Times ] will usually be just as good, though they might return results from other sites that mention the New York Times. You can also specify a whole class of sites, for example [ iraq site:.gov ] will return results only from a .gov domain and [ iraq site:.iq ] will return results only from Iraqi sites.
Terms you want to exclude (-)
Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages that contain this word to appear in your results. The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space. For example, in the query [ anti-virus software ], the minus sign is used as a hyphen and will not be interpreted as an exclusion symbol; whereas the query [ anti-virus -software ] will search for the words 'anti-virus' but exclude references to software. You can exclude as many words as you want by using the - sign in front of all of them, for example [ jaguar -cars -football -os ]. The - sign can be used to exclude more than just words. For example, place a hyphen before the 'site:' operator (without a space) to exclude a specific site from your search results.
Advanced search
To access the advanced search features enter your search word(s) into the search field and click search. Look for the “Advanced search” link at the bottom of the results page
Advanced Google search can also be accessed by going to http://www.google.co.nz/advanced_search?hl=en
Here is a video on using Google advanced searching
What Google search tips do you have to share with the VLN community?
Replies
- Jane Armstrong Bos (View all users posts) 30 Mar 2012 1:06pm ()
Finding good information, resources can definitely be very time consuming. I know too when I was teaching it took me ages as I was also considering how easy a site may have been to read, how easy to navigate etc as well as how it related to the learning occuring in the classroom.
When I found web pages and other online resources I want to use, revisit, and share I use Delicious. The stacks are really useful for sharing collections. Yesterday I was in a great webinar sharing Māori resources and there are some really useful Māori resource stacks at the bottom of the Māori resources page on the Digistore wiki.
- Māori NZ Education Docs & Resources
- Learning te reo Māori
- Māori dictionaries
- General Māori resources
- Waita, haka and kapahaka
I know I can sometimes spend ages hunting for resources and it is great to be able to access what other people have already done.
What are you using to organise and share? What great resources can you share publically? - Karen Spencer (View all users posts) 01 Apr 2012 3:45pm ()
Thanks for these thoughts, Jane and Nick. Fine-tuning searching is a useful information literacy skill that we are all developing, along with our students:-)
I'd also suggest using search engines other than Google, for a different range of search results. I recently explored Duck Duck Go. Here's a link to the blog post I wrote as I tried to 'de-Google' my searches;-)
- Simon Evans (View all users posts) 17 Apr 2012 11:22am ()
I have created a Top tips for Google search resource for a cluster I'm working with. I'm hoping you can view and download if you have need.
Let me know if not and I'll repost.
- Janette Hoggard (View all users posts) 17 Apr 2012 12:46pm ()
Hi Simon - nothing there I'm afraid, would love to see it.
- Janette Hoggard (View all users posts) 17 Apr 2012 12:46pm ()
Hi Simon - nothing there I'm afraid, would love to see it.
- Nick Ford (View all users posts) 04 May 2012 9:24am ()
Simons link is working for me. Let me know if access to this document remains an issue.
- Nick Ford (View all users posts) 04 May 2012 9:44am ()
Wolfram| Alpha is an interesting search alternative to Google.
Wolfram|Alpha introduces a fundamentally new way to get knowledge and answers— not by searching the web, but by doing dynamic computations based on a vast collection of built-in data, algorithms, and methods.Check it out at http://www.wolframalpha.com/
- Jane Armstrong Bos (View all users posts) 04 May 2012 2:50pm ()
Simon Evans has shared a package put together by Google, designed to get students researching and asking the right questions in his blog post, A Google a Day. It looks like a great tool to teach searching techniques!
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