Google searching techniques

Introduction
Searching information in the internet is time consuming and frustrating for those lacking the required skills.
11/11/11 Zanzibar University Library

We love Google
Many students love and rely on Google search engine but few of them know how to use full search capabilities.

Objectives
At the end of this session, participants should be able to:
Formulate search queries wisely
Use search operators
Use query modifiers
Filter search result
Use advance search
Utilize Google education apps

What is Google search?
Google Search is a full-text and most-used search engine which uses computerized spider/robot to index million of pages on the web.
The search results are generally presented in a list of results and the information may consist of web pages, images, videos and other types of files.

Examples of search engines
www.google.com
www.altavista.com
www.alltheweb.com
www.ask.com
www.mamma.com
www.yahoo.com
www.bing.com

Analysis of your topic/question is crucial before entering into the search exercise.
The analysis of your topic/question should lead you to obtain subject headings and terms to be searched.

Basic search…
In making the subject headings, terms and query try to think of:
Synonyms,
Variant spellings,
Plural and singular,
Broader and narrower,
Homonyms,
Acronyms.

Search is always cAsE insensitive.
Search operators are case sensitive:
Generally, all the words you put in the query will be used.
Words that are commonly used, like 'the' 'a' ‘which’ ‘when’ 'for’ ‘of’and alike are usually ignored (these are called stop words).
A search engine is not a human, it is a program that matches the words you give to pages on the web .

Describe what you need with as few terms as possible.
The broader the terms, the greater are the chances of getting both information relevant and irrelevant
Narrower terms usually give fewer result but most relevant

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.

The * or wildcard operator
If you include * within a query, it tells Google to try to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches.
For example, the search [ Google * ] will give you results about many of Google's products

~ tilde operator
The tilde functions as a synonym search, returning not only the search term you specified, but also terms that Google “thinks” are synonymous with the term.
For example, the search [ Google trics~ ] will give you following results google trics, tips.. techniques..guide..

Information searching in most database is based on the principle of Boolean logic (the logic of relationship among terms)
( AND, OR, NOT)
Boolean operators improve search result by broadening, narrowing and excluding search results

AND operator (+)
AND operator tends to narrow a search and make it focused. The more concepts combined in a search with AND logic, the fewer records will be retrieved.
Eg. search red AND picture cards
From this search you will find cards that contain both the given search terms.

OR operator
OR operator broadens search result.
Eg. Search black OR picture cards
As a result you will get cards that contain one of the given search term or both

NOT operator (-)
NOT operator exclude documents that contain the keywords a searcher would not like to appear in the documents.
Eg. Search black NOT picture cards
From this search you will exclude unwanted cards and find only not pictured black cards

Query modifiers are query words that have special meaning to Google. Typically these operators modify the search in some way, or even tell Google to do a totally different type of search.
Use the following commands in your search

allinurl:
If you start a query with [allinurl:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the url.
For instance, [allinurl:digital library] will return only documents that have both “digital" and “library" in the URL.

allintitle :
If you start a query with [allintitle:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the title. For instance, [allintitle: digital library] will return only documents that have both “digital" and “library" in the title.

define:
The query [define:] will provide a definition of the words you enter after it, gathered from various online sources. The definition will be for the entire phrase entered
(example [define:digital library]) Google will include all the words in the exact order you typed them)

filetype:
Specify a type of document to search.
Example; doc, pdf, ppt, mp3, mpg, mp4 etc

site:
If you include [site:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to the given domain.
For instance, [JK site:www.ippmedia.com] will find pages about JK within www.ippmedia.com.
[law site:edu] will find pages about law within .edu urls. [com, org, gov, net, ac.tz, etc]

related:
The query [related:] will list web pages that are "similar" to a specified web page.
For instance, [related:www.google.com] will list web pages that are similar to the Google homepage.

Search result components appear in font of deferent colors.
Page title (blue)
URL (green)
Page content (black)

Search results options...
If you want to filter and customize the search results you see, use the options along the side of the results page.
Click More to see all the available filters and views you can apply to that search.

Filter results by type of content
Everything : By default, your Google search will show unfiltered results that can include all the types of content below.
Images : See only results from Google Images .
News : See only results from Google News .
Books : See only results from Google Books including reviews, excerpts, and where you can buy the book.

Filter results by type of content
Videos : See only video results using Google's Video Search .
Blogs : See only results from Google Blog Search .
Discussions : See what people are saying in discussion groups, forums, and question-and-answer sites. Google Discussion

When you don’t find what you’re seeking, consider specifying more accurately what you want by using Google’s Advanced Search feature. Don’t be worried by the name “Advanced Search”; it’s easy to use, and it allows you to select or exclude pages with more precision than Google’s standard search box.

Advanced Search 11/11/11 Zanzibar University Library

11/11/11 Zanzibar University Library Google Books is a service from Google that searches the full text of books that Google has scanned, converted to text and stored in its digital database

11/11/11 Zanzibar University Library Google Scholar enable searches for scholarly materials such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and technical reports from broad areas of research. It includes a variety of academic publishers, professional societies, and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web. Google Scholar includes full text and citations.

11/11/11 Zanzibar University Library Google Docs is a free, Web-based office suite, and data storage service offered by Google. It allows users to upload file up to 1GB, create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users.

When you find a useful web site recording the document information for future so you can always easily return to the source.
Making a browser bookmark
Use social bookmark pages www.delicious.com
You can save web pages by coping and paste the web addresses

Things learnt
Basic Google search tips
Some basic facts about Google
Google search operators
Query modifiers
Filter search result options
Advanced search
Google books, scholar & docs
Bookmaking

Reference
Google Guide http://www.googleguide.com/

11/11/11 Zanzibar University Library Any Question?

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Google searching techniques

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