How to make Google Behave

How to make Google behave: techniques for better results Wednesday, 8 th February 2012 University of Birmingham Karen Blakeman RBA Information Services Slides are available at http://www.rba.co.uk/as/ [email_address] Twitter: @karenblakeman http://www.rba.co.uk Google Doodle http://www.venganza.org/2008/04/google-doodle/ This presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

How it all started 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk 11 November 1998 The Internet Archive www.archive.org Links (citations) a major part of sorting search results http://www.seobook.com/learn-seo/collateral-damage.php

Where is Google now? 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk 2001 Revenues $86,426 thousands Net Income $10,964 thousands 2011 Revenues $37,905 millions Net Income $9,737 millions http://investor.google.com/financial/tables.html 2011 – 96% of revenues are from advertising Google is mass market consumer oriented. Serious researchers wanting reliable, structured search are a miniscule fraction of their customer base.

How Google collects and organises information
"Crawls" the internet looking for new and updated pages (follows links)
Adds copies of pages and documents to its database on thousands of servers around the world
Has a primary index of higher "quality" documents and a secondary index
Only primary index searched when running simple searches. Secondary index comes into play with more complex searches and if few results are returned
08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

How Google ranks and organises your results 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk Google personalizes and tailors your results depending on your location, computer/device, browser, past searches, what you have looked at in the past, your +1s, your blocked sites, your Google+ account, your android phone, what you had for breakfast...and anything else it can find by rummaging around in your Google dashboard To see what's in your dashboard log in to your Google account and go to http://www.google.com/dashboard/

All change
Gone are
Google Labs, Wonderwheel, Image Swirl, starred results, UK Maps property search, Google Squared, and lots more
The plus sign previously used to force an exact match search (Google suggested quotes around words but that doesn't always work!) But + sign still available in Google Scholar
Google no longer "ANDs" your search terms
New are
Google+, Search+, search side bars , Search+, Google+, Verbatim, Google+, Search+.....

What does Google think you’re interested in?
Get a rough idea from your ad preferences
do not need to be logged in to a Google account
browser and machine specific
http://www.google.com/ads/preferences

Opt out of targeted advertising
http://www.google.com/ads/preferences
Opt Out From Online Behavioral Advertising By Participating Companies (BETA) : http://www.aboutads.info/choices/
Network Advertising Initiative http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp

Web history
Google automatically tracks your searches and what you click on
results are “personalised” based on your searches and page views
you do not have to be logged in to a Google account
stored in a cookie on your computer - machine and browser specific
Web History link appears in drop down menu under the cog wheel in the upper right hand corner of the screen
click on the link for option to disable/enable Web History

Web history associated with your Google account
Signed in to your Google account?
Google account web history
stored on Google
Manage your web history from within your Google account

Google Instant
Tries to predict what you are searching for as you type and displays results as you type

Google Instant
Only displays 10 results at a time
Disable Google Instant in Search Settings under the cog wheel (upper right hand corner of your Google screen)

Google knows best 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk Hewish mild Google decided to change my search to Jewish mild without asking = Google decides that coots are lions. A search for coots mating behaviour becomes lions mating behaviour

Dear Google, stop messing with my search http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/11/08/dear-google-stop-messing-with-my-search/

Google introduces the “soft AND”
“ When you do a multi-term query on Google (even with quoted terms), the algorithm sometimes backs-off from hard ANDing all of the terms together.......it’s clear that people will often write long queries (with anywhere from 5 to 10 terms) for which there are no results. Google will then selectively remove the terms that are the lowest frequency to give you some results (rather than none)....Soft AND is a way to reduce the overall frustration and give the searcher something to examine (and with luck, a chance to reformulate their query).”
Dan Russell
http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/11/08/dear-google-stop-messing-with-my-search/#comments

Search Plus Your World (SPYW) referred to as Search+ forces Google+ onto all users (And the next Google killer is….Google! http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2012/01/30/and-the-next-google-killer-is-google/ )
Simplified privacy policies and information from all your Google services combined. Crossover of information e.g. YouTube/Web search = weird results

08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk Before After

What I see on my screen for a search is not what you’ll see on yours.
This affects how we advise users and clients on the best search strategy.

Why use Google at all?
Google is good at:
coverage for general web search
country versions give priority to local content
localisation at town/city level
may have to tell Google where you are based
don’t have to tell Google my town if I am looking for a local restaurant, taxi or plumber
especially useful when using a mobile device
personalisation? Varies from person to person as to whether it is useful
image search, Maps, Google Finance, Scholar (but know it's limitations)
rolling out features worldwide

Damage limitation
If you have a Google account check your dashboard at http://www.google.com/dashboard/ and remove stuff you don't need or want (won't be possible for everything)
Sign out of your account before you search
Turn your web history off, turn Instant off (under Search Settings)
Increase the number of results that are displayed per page from 10 to at least 30 (under Search Settings)
If you can, use Google Chrome as your browser and go "Incognito"

Use the results sidebars
These help you focus your search
Vary depending on type of search e.g. web, news, images
Open up the "more" options to see everything
Verbatim is now one of the most important options

Verbatim search
Forces Google to run an exact match search. Run your search first and then select Verbatim from the left hand menu on your results page
Appears that you can include advanced search commands in your strategy e.g. OR and the tilde (~) for synonyms
Cannot be combined with time options
Google: Verbatim for exact match search http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/11/18/google-verbatim-for-exact-match-search/

Location
Google uses your IP address to try and identify the country you are in and your town
Country versions of Google give priority to local content – change to different country Google for a different perspective
Specifying town useful for very local searching but may want to change location to just UK for general searches

Search tricks
Imagine what you would like to appear in your ideal document and include those terms in your strategy (you may have to use Verbatim)
Repeat important search terms in your search strategy
renewable energy biofuels wave wind wind wind
Change the order of your terms
renewable energy biofuels wave wind
wind renewable wave biofuels energy
Change one of your search terms
coots mating behaviour
coots courtship behaviour

Advanced search
Advanced Search screen (now hidden under cog wheel in upper right hand corner of the screen)

Advanced search
Can do more with commands
For example selecting file type ppt on the Advanced Search screen will only search for ppt and not include pptx
Use filetype command instead, for example
diabetic retinopathy filetype:ppt (2870 results)
diabetic retinopathy filetype:ppt OR filetype:pptx (3050 results)

Selected commands
filetype: for example pancreatic cancer filetype:xls OR filetype:xlsx
site: for example pancreatic cancer statistics site:nhs.uk OR site:gov.uk
inurl : or allinurl: for example diabetes inurl:retinopathy
intitle: or allintitle: for example allintitle:diabetic retinopathy
asterisk (*) to search for terms separated by 1-5 words (may have to use quotation marks)
macular * degeneration
"macular * degeneration"
Numeric range search
[search terms] [1 st number]..[2 nd number] [unit of measurement (optional)]
oil production forecasts 2013..2020

Synonyms
Google often looks for variations of your terms but you cannot rely on it always happening
Use the tilde ~ before a term to look for what Google considers are synonyms
~energy will pick up oil, fuel, gas, electricity
Synonyms not scientifically accurate
using ~aspartame adverse reactions will pick up articles on sucralose, which is a very different artificial sweetener
Can be used with Verbatim

Google sidebars 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk Images Videos News Books Blogs

Google Images – Sites with images 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk Useful if you want to describe the image, for example moth UK black cream spots

Related searches 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

Reading level
Does not use publishers’ meta data
Seems to base analysis on number of technical terms and industry specific jargon

Social 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

Translated pages for a different perspective
Google suggests languages from context of search but you can choose your own
Your search is translated and the results are translated into your original language

Cached and similar pages 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk Hover over a result and a "preview" of the page should appear to the right together with cached and similar links

Google Trends http://www.google.com/trends 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

Google Trends for websites 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

Google Insights for Search http://www.google.com/insights/search/ 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

Google Insights for Search 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

Google alternatives - Bing and Yahoo
Yahoo now uses Bing’s database and ranking algorithms for most country versions
Many of the Advanced Search commands are similar to Google’s
see Search Tools Summary and Comparison http://www.rba.co.uk/search/compare.shtml
Bing advanced search screen minimalist - use commands
detailed list at Advanced Operator Reference http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff795620.aspx (some no longer work)
Also beware – “Bing Adds Adaptive Search, Customized by Your Search History - Search Engine Watch”
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2109647/Bing-Adds-Adaptive-Search-Customized-by-Your-Search-History

Bing
Most of the interesting developments and features are only available in the US version
Results tend to be more consumer/retail focused unless using advanced search features
Coverage not identical to Google’s - sometimes yields important unique content, especially in research and business
Sometimes more up to date than Google

DuckDuckGo
http://duckduckgo.com/
DuckDuckGo – silly name but a neat little search tool : http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/11/07/duckduckgo-silly-name-but-a-neat-little-search-tool/
No tracking, no “filter bubble”
Commands
site: inbody: intitle: filetype:
sort:date to sort by date (uses results from Blekko)
region:cc (e.g. de) to boost a country
Syntax and keyboard shortcuts at http://duckduckgo.com/goodies.html

Blekko
http://blekko.com/
slashtags for sorting by date (/date), searching for images (/images) and videos (/videos)
Use public slashtags to search a group of web sites covering a particular topic or type of site e.g. /library or create your own to search your specified list of sites (similar to Google Custom Search Engines)
wind turbine electricity generation /karenblakeman/renewable
“ Musings about librarianship: Using Blekko to search across thousands of library sites” http://musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com/2010/11/using-blekko-to-search-across-thousands.html

Blekko
Cannot do filetype, inurl, intitle searches
Drop down menu next to page in results list for
site search (or use /site)
similar pages (or use /similar)
inbound links to the page (or use /links)

Google Scholar
A useful place to start your research or if you are looking for a specific paper but no source list, not comprehensive and omits many key scientific publications
Both peer-reviewed and un-reviewed articles, pre-prints, institutional repositories, references to books, citations
Does not use publishers’ meta data
Author search unreliable, search on year of publication unreliable
Sometimes does strange things with your search terms
Peter Jasco - Google Scholar's Ghost Authors, Lost Authors, and Other Problems http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6698580.html

Authors encouraged to "claim papers" 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

Scholar author profile 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

Mendeley.com 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

Images - copyright
Always, always check and double check the copyright - images may have a digital watermark and be tracked e.g. Digimarc
Creative Commons does not mean you can do what you like with an image
six licences http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
“ Open-licencing your images. What it means and how to do it.” Andy Mabbett aka pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk/open-licencing-images-what-how/
Karen Blakeman's Blog “Free-to-use images might not be”
http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2009/07/16/free-to-use-images-might-not-be/

Google images
Make use of search options in the side bar or on the advanced search screen

Google Images 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk “ More sizes” “ Similar images”

Google Images – use an existing image 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk Click on the camera icon in the search box and then either enter the URL of an image or upload it. On the results page you can add keywords to refine the search

Google images - creative commons, public domain
Google advanced image search - use the usage rights, but always double check the licence on the web site
Public domain
carry out your search in the image search bar and when the results appear on screen add &as_rights=cc_publicdomain to the end of the string in the URL/address bar of your browser
but public domain may refer to another photo – check the web site hosting the photo

Flickr
Flickr Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons or advanced search screen http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/

Images - other sources for Creative Commons and public domain images
Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ (check the licence information towards the bottom of the page e.g. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Beach_by_Thomas_Beach.jpg )
MorgueFile.com http://www.morguefile.com/ - public domain
Geograph http://www.geograph.org.uk/ Creative Commons 2.0
Most of the images on US government web sites are public domain (but do check)
NASA http://www.nasa.gov/ - public domain
8 February 2012 Karen Blakeman www.rba.co.uk

Google maps
maps.google.co.uk
Public transport option under 'Directions' at last includes trains as well as the underground and buses
Estimated petrol cost for 'Directions' using a car
Now shows approximate location of post codes

Google street view
As well as for personal use, useful for assessing location of a business (but remember out of date images)

Google Videos
NOT the same as YouTube

Video
Bing Videos
YouTube, Vimeo.com, DailyMotion.com
iTunes, iTunes U
Blinkx - http://www.blinkx.com/
- good for catching up with news
Zuula - http://www.zuula.com/
- click on the video tab
Browsys Finder http://www.browsys.com/finder/
- click on the video tab

Google News http://news.google.co.uk 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

books.google.com
Or use the Books option in the menu on the left hand side of the screen
Includes magazines, journals, newspapers

Google Blogs
Use the blog option in the results page left hand menu or go to http://www.google.com/blogsearch/

Discussions
Forums and Q&As

Google Art Project
http://www.googleartproject.com/
“ A unique collaboration with some of the world’s most acclaimed art museums to enable people to discover and view more than a thousand artworks online in extraordinary detail.”

Google Finance
http://www.google.co.uk/finance
http://www.google.com/finance

Google Public Data Explorer
http://www.google.com/publicdata/

Google Public Data Explorer 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

Google Internet Stats
http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/landing/internetstats/

Fusion tables http://www.google.com/fusiontables/ http://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?snapid=S199717WCd8 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

Voices for the Library Closures map : http://www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/wordpress/?page_id=765 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

Design your own search engine
For
regularly searched sites
selected sites on a topic
searching sites on a reading list
Google Custom Search Engines
http://www.google.com/cse /
at least hundreds of sites, maybe thousands!
can import lists of sites
Need a Google account to set one up
Cannot search password protected sources or sites where you have to fill in a form to access the information

Want to explore other stuff? Zuula.com
Type in your search once and work your way through the search tools

Keeping up to date
Inside Search http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/
Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Search Engine Land http://searchengineland.com/
Search Engine Watch http://searchenginewatch.com/
Boolean Black Belt-Sourcing/Recruiting http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/
Karen Blakeman’s Blog http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/
Phil Bradley's weblog http://philbradley.typepad.com/

YouTube - Goggle Vision: using electronic resources http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5slpJMRWKA8 08/02/12 www.rba.co.uk

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How to make Google Behave

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