Beyond Google: Advanced Search

Beyond Google: Advanced Search NGS FAMILY HISTORY CONFERENCECharleston, South Carolina, 2011 JORDAN JONESE-mail: jordan@genealogymedia.com

Roadmap1. Access: Search and Navigation2. How Search Engines Work3. Kinds of Searches4. Search Methodologies5. A Search Example: Jane Graham

1 – Access: Search andNavigation

The Librarian’sAccess is “The availability of or permissionto use records.” – Archives & Records Management Handbook, Oregon State U., http:// osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/archives/ handbook/definitions/

The Techie’s DefinitionFor web sites, access similarly describes thepermission and ability for people to “identify,locate, and use information.”

The Data ProblemIn July 2008, Google’s search bots hadreached 1 trillion unique URLs http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/ we-knew-web-was-big.html).

The Data Problem

Web Access Navigation - Clicking through a pre- defined path in a website to find the information you need. Search - Only helpful if you do not know how to navigate to the information.

Design for AccessA good web designer will focus on improvingcustomer access to information through bothpaths (search and navigation).

2 – How SearchEngines Work

How Search Engines1.“Web Spiders” 2.Caching The search engine Some web search has computer applications (such as programs “crawl” Google) store through all the links (cache) all the pages on the web they crawl

How Search Engines3.Indexing 4.Ranking - Links are The search engine ranked in terms of creates and manages relevance, an index of all the popularity, words found on the authoritativeness pages crawled and other criteria: The Secret Sauce.

The Search CycleCrawling CachingRanking Indexing

3 – Kinds of Searches

Word (implicit AND)If you list two words, such as Jane Graham,find pages that include “Jane” and “Graham”.Example: Jane Graham

Word (Overrides)All 3 major search engines include plurals andignore common words.Google includes synonyms.Use a plus sign (+) to: Ignore plurals and synonyms on Google Include common words Example: Jane Graham +genealogy

Phrase & Boolean ORPhrase searches are often used inconjunction with a Boolean OR.Examples:“Jane Graham”“Jane Graham” OR “Graham Jane”

Proximity SearchesProximity or wildcard searches can be used tofind pages where words are near one another.Example (Google):Jane * Graham OR Graham * JaneWhere * = one or two words.

Special Search PagesYahoo Shortcuts — help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/basics/Google Search Features — www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.htmlBing Advanced Search Keywords —onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-us/bing/ff808421.aspx

Some Shortcutsdefine [keyword] (all 3)Example: define tithablesfacts [keyword] (Yahoo) — encyclopediaentries, along with web resultsExample: facts south carolinaconvert [unit] to [unit] (all 3)

Location ShortcutsArea Code (all 3)Example: Charleston, SC area code or843Zip Code (all 3)Example: Charleston, SC zip codeLocal (all 3)Example: cemetery 29401 or cemetery

Advanced SearchesSynonym or Like (Google)Limit results to pages including synonyms ofyour search term or phrase.Example: “Jane Graham” OR “GrahamJane” ~genealogyWildcards (all 3)— The use of wildcardsvaries, but the characters (*_?) can replacewords or characters

Site SpecificLimit to a Site (all 3)Limit results to pages from a particular site.Example: “Jane Graham” site:usgenweb.orgSite Class-Specific (all 3)Example: “Jane Graham” site:.orgExclude a Site (all 3)Example: “Jane Graham” -site:usgenweb.org

Exclusion Exclude a Word — Limit results by excluding pages with a particular word. Exclude a Phrase — Limit results by excluding pages with a particular phrase.Examples (Google):“Jane Graham” -murder or

Numerical Range On Google, numerical ranges can be searched by putting two periods between numbers. This can be used to search a range of dates.Example: “Jane Graham” 1811..1854

Read the Search Tips Read the Tips

4 – Search MethodologyPlan Your Path toAchieve Predictable Results

Review Site GuidelinesRead the advanced search tips: Yahoo: help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/ Google: www.google.com/support/ websearch/

Learn the SiteRead the advanced search tips: Yahoo: search.yahoo.com/web/advanced Google: www.google.com/advanced_search Bing: Click “Advanced” after running a search

Google Advanced

Bing Advanced Search

Yahoo Advanced

MocavoA new genealogy-specific search website sitelaunched on March 16, 2011: www.mocavo.com Mocavo Search Tips: en.wordpress.com/ tag/mocavo-search-tips/ Capitalization does not matter Names inside quotation marks: “Jane

MocavoMocavo understands middle names, middleinitials, and that given names and surnamescan be reversed.“Jane Graham” searches for “Graham Jane”“Jane N. Graham” and “Graham, JaneNancy”

MocavoMocavo supports both OR [ | ] and NOT[−]Searches major public genealogy sites, and isstarting to search blogs

Google AlertsYou can have Google search in the backgroundand send results on a regular basis:www.google.com/alerts/Search News, Blogs, Realtime, Video,Discussions, or Everything

Google AlertsGet results when Google finds them (“as-it-happens”), daily or weekly Select “All” or “Only the best” results Choose to receive your results in your e-mail, or via an RSS feed

Google Alerts

5 – A Search Example:Jane Graham Using a Search engine to its Potential

Finding Jane GrahamFacts: Jane Graham, was born in 1811 and diedunmarried in 1854. She lived her life in MonroeCounty, VA (now WV).Q: How do I find her?A: By adjusting the specificity of the search.

Jane Graham (30 million)

“Jane Graham” (384K)

“Jane Graham” “MonroeCounty” (2,960)

“Jane Graham” “MonroeCounty” 1854 (958)

“Jane Graham” “MonroeCounty” 1811..1854

More Search Tools

Within the Past Year(160)

SummaryBy creating a more specific search, wenarrowed the results from nearly 30 million to160, or by a factor of 187,000!

A Caveat About PageStephen Morse points out that Google isreally tracking when they indexed a page, notwhen the page was last modified.Probably a better search for the age of a webpage is Stephen Morse’s:stevemorse.org/google/googledate.html

A Site-Specific SearchSay I want search the surname “Gregg” on theUS GenNet site for Nance County, NEI issue the search:Gregg site:www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/county/nance/

Steve Morse’s One-No discussion of Internet search forgenealogists would be complete without adiscussion of Stephen Morse’s One-StepWeb Pages at:www.stevemorse.orgMorse uses “deep linking” to get directly to thecontent.

A Morse ExampleThe One-Step site allows you to searchAncestry (if you have an account) with surnamesof fewer than 3 letters.It does this by sending 26 searches for eachletter you don’t specify.

Other Search SitesDogpile – www.dogpile.com Internet Archive (Way BackGoogle Book Search – Machine) – www.archive.org/books.google.com/ web/web.phpGoogle Scholar – Live Roots –scholar.google.com/ www.liveroots.com/Google Patent Search – WorldCat –www.google.com/patents? www.worldcat.org/hl=en

Contact Jordan Jones jordan@genealogymedia.comThese slides, and the handout, are available at: http://www.genealogymedia.com/talks/

Contact jordan@genealogymedia.com These slides will be posted atwww.genealogymedia.com/talks/

Beyond Google: Advanced Search

by GenealogyMedia.com on May 15, 2011

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Beyond Google: Advanced Search — Presentation Transcript