|
Google Web Search
| Google Search – the Essentials |
We all know that web search can be a remarkable research tool – but we've heard from teachers that students are sometimes unnecessarily wading through untargeted search results. This quick tutorial will help you teach how to search the web more effectively.
| Choosing Search Terms |
| Start with the obvious – if you're looking for general information on music, a search for music is fine. But it's often advisable to use multiple search terms; for instance, music theory. For even greater specificity, you could try searches like jazz music theory. There's no need to use full sentences here, such as What are the key theories in jazz music?; unlike in "real life," grammar doesn't count in Google searches, and our search engine typically ignores common or question-oriented words like a, an, the, and what. |
| Phrase Searches |
Sometimes you'll only want results that include an exact phrase. In this case, simply put quotation marks around your search terms.
Phrase searches are particularly effective if you're searching for proper names ("George Washington"), lyrics ("the long and winding road"), or other famous phrases ("This was their finest hour"). NOTE: Searching for quotes or proper nouns (e.g., for music group "The Bobs") is one of the few times in which it does make sense to use common, or "stop words" like a, an, the, and what. |
|
Negative and Positive Terms |
If your search term has more than one meaning (bass, for example, could refer to fishing or music) you can focus your search by putting a minus sign ("-") in front of words related to the meaning you want to avoid.
For example, to find pages about bass-heavy lakes but not bass-heavy music, search for bass lakes -music
Conversely, if you're searching for information on a topic in which some terms are particularly critical, you can add a plus (+) sign to that word or those words in your search. For instance, if your students are looking for pages that definitely includes a mention of lindy hop and ideally includes information on swing dancing legends Frankie Manning and Shorty George, a good search would be +"lindy hop" "frankie manning" "shorty george."
NOTE: When you include a negative or positive term in your search, be sure to include a space before the minus or plus sign. |
| And finally... "I'm Feeling Lucky" |
| After you've entered your search terms, you might want to try the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, which takes you straight to the most relevant website that Google found for your query. You won't see the search results page at all, but if you did, the "I'm Feeling Lucky" site would be listed on top. For example, if you're looking for the Northwestern University homepage, just enter Northwestern and click "I'm Feeling Lucky." Google will take you directly to "www.northwestern.edu." |
Return to top
Once you know the basics of Google search, you might want to try Advanced Search, which offers numerous options for making your searches more precise and getting more useful results.
You can reach this page by clicking (no surprise) the "Advanced Search" link on the Google.com home page.
Some of the special searches you can do from this page include results bounded by language, file format (e.g., PDF, Microsoft Word), domains (like pbs.org), and more.
If you prefer to do advanced searches directly from the main search bar on google.com, however, here are a few tricks:
| OR Search |
To find pages that include either of two search terms, add an uppercase OR between the terms.
For example… (istanbul OR constantinople) history
|
| Domain Search |
You can use Google to search only within one specific website by entering the search terms you're looking for, followed by the word "site" and a colon followed by the domain name.
For example… site:americanheart.org aspirin
|
| Numrange Search |
Feel like a number? Numrange searches for results containing numbers in a given range. Just add two numbers, separated by two periods, with no spaces, into the search box along with your search terms. You can use Numrange to set ranges for everything from dates (Willie Mays 1950..1960) to weights (5000..10000 kg truck).
|
| Other Advanced Search Features |
- Google Local: Find products and services in a specific U.S. town or zip code.
- Technology Search: Find information related to Apple Macintosh, BSD Unix, Linux or Microsoft.
- Occurrences: Specify where your search terms occur on the page - anywhere on the page, in the title, or in the url.
- SafeSearch: Eliminates adult sites from search results. [Learn more...]
|
Return to top
| Calculations and conversions |
|
Your students should be able to convert centimeters to meters fairly easily on their own, but when they need a bit more complex measurement or even currency conversion assistance, Google's here to help. Try the following queries:
- 42 square miles in acres
- liters in 99 gallons
- 360 lira in usd
In fact, Google can also replace even your students' trusty calculators:
- 1024*(314+180)
- square root of 55
- (15^3)+cosine(300 degrees)
|
| Translations |
The Internet is international, and so it shouldn't be surprising that many of the valuable documents your students may discover on the Web are not in English. Though understandably not capturing the nuances that a personal translation expert can offer, our
Translate service will immediately convert snippets or even entire Web pages between English and nine other languages. |
Return to top
|
 |
