GOOGLE CLEANING UP YOUR SEARCHES

HOW INSENSITIVE! Google is not case sensitive. So, the following searches all yield exactly the same results: disney fantasyland pirates Disney Fantasyland Pirates DISNEY FANTASYLAND PIRATES DiSnEy FaNtAsYlAnD pIrAtEs

GOOGLE HELPS Every word matters – change the wording around Keep it simple Computers are not HUMAN ~ it is a program that matches the words you give it to pages on the web.

BEGINNING Ask yourself, What am I searching for? Brainstorming words that help focus your search. List words are associated with your topic (like beads on a necklace) Change a question to keywords Who is the tallest man on earth? Change to: tallest man earth man tallest earth (Try different order of the words) Use 10 or fewer words

GOOGLE HELPS #1 Be specific... because if you arent specific, youll end up with a bunch of garbage!

GOOGLE HELP #2 OR is always in all caps and goes between keywords. This is a very broad search. Oranges OR apples Cats OR dogs Men OR boys Asia OR Europe

GOOGLE HELPS #3 Use quotes to search for phrases, names, anything you want together. Billy the Kid Miami Dolphins George Washington to be or not to be

GOOGLE HELPS #4 Use the + sign to require the word on the web page Like addition No space between the + and the search term billy the kid +gunfighters world war II +weapons

SEARCH ENGINE HELPS #5 Use the - sign to exclude the subject, words Like subtraction – removes pages containing that search term No space between the –and the search term billy the kid -gunfighter saturn -car -automobile virus -computer virus -disease

GOOGLE HELPS # 6 Combine Symbols ( + - ) Yellow fever Colonial America epidemic Add quotation marks yellow fever Colonial America epidemic Not to be included; use the - yellow fever Colonial America –South America epidemic

GOOGLE HELP #7 For example, if you search Google for its a * world, Google shows you all of the pages in its database that contain the phrase. This is called a WILDCARD. its a small world its a nano world its a Linux world its a wonderful world

ADVANCED SEARCH TERM Use this term site:

SITE SEARCHES Using site: websites only in that domain.gov.edu.org There can be no space between site: and the domain. site:domainname small pox site:edu Iraq site:gov

SITE site:domain pirates site:com pirates site:disney.com pirates site:edu pirates site:gov

REMEMBER Be specific – use important keywords Use quotes to search for phrases Use the + sign to require, include Use the - sign to exclude (subtract) Use OR for a very broad search Use the * when you cant remember the exact phrase Use site: to select the domain The above symbols may be combined

Summary Capitalization does not matter. Google has a hard limit of 32 keywords but dont use that many! Add, subtract, or substitute words. Try different order of the words. Different combinations bring up different results. Few results past the first 10 are worthwhile. Refine your search by using the symbols Ask for help!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION Most of this presentation was created by Patrick Crispen. Google 101: Stop Searching and Start FINDING Kathy Minson in Jordan School District created a powerpoint that was used.. Schneider, Fritz. How to Do Everything with Google. New York: McGraw, c2004.