Sian Aynsley Information Skills Trainer South London Healthcare NHS Trust Getting the Most Out of Google

Overview of session How Google works Advantages of Google Disadvantages of Google and the Invisible Web Google Search Google applications Books Documents Reader Scholar Practical and Q&A

Objective of session Gain a greater understanding of how Google works Learn more about the Invisible Web Get the most out of your Google search Discover some useful Google applications

What do you use Google for?

True or False? 1) Google searches the whole web 2) Unless a website is linked to from another websites, Google may not find it 3) The best information can be found in the first 10 results 4) Searching is easy 5) Google cannot retrieve information from databases 6) Everything important is free 7) A website can establish a “non-indexing protocol” to ensure the website cannot be found

What is Google? Public company founded in 1998 by two PhD students in California Mission: “to organise the world’s knowledge and make it universally accessible and useful”* Valued at over $170 billion** Search engine with a range of different applications and information tools * Source: ** Source:

How Google works Web crawlers Search engine sends out web spiders or crawlers to find websites to index Indexing program Indexing program captures, organises and stores material to make retrieval fast and easy Search program Search program allows users to enter queries into search box and supplies results based on index

Google: Advantages Simple interface Fast search Free service Available anywhere to anyone Uses PageRank™ and hypertext matching rather than a simple keyword search A range of Google-related applications designed to make searching for and organising information easier

Google: Disadvantages Google cannot search the whole web Databases or ‘dynamic content’ Websites protected with passwords or ‘non-indexing protocols’ Subscription / fee-based content Search is not as flexible Searchers rarely go beyond the first 10 results of a search A large proportion of the information found on Google is not free

Familiar?

The Invisible Web The web content beyond the reach of general search engines The fastest growing part of the web Rich in content and quality Databases Deep web sites New formats Forms to be completed Current material

The Invisible Web: an illustration SURFACE WEB DEEP WEB Source: BrightPlanet Corporation

How to search the Invisible Web Meta search engines Altavista Dogpile Vertical search portals Health (Athens required) Social Care Science Databases PubMed OAIster

Google Basic Search Every word matters Keep it simple but descriptive Think like a computer! Use search operators Phrase search (quote marks): “National Health Service” Excluding terms (minus sign): anti-virus -software Including terms (plus sign): peanut butter +and jelly More search tips at: Choose ‘More search help’

Other Google Search Tools Weather: weather woolwich london Time: time london Dictionary: define intravenous Calculator: 5 * for more calculator operators see Unit conversion: 12.4 cm in inches Fill in the blank: Marie Curie was born in * Related websites search: related: More search tools:

Google Advanced Search

More Google

Even more Google...

Google Books Find books available online Different ways of searching Simple search box Advanced search box By subject By category (Highly cited, Classics, Magazine etc) Some books available online Full view – freely available online Snippet view – bits of it available online No preview available – not available online

Google Scholar Helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research Searches for articles, theses, books, abstracts etc. Searches within academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities etc. Can restrict searches (author, date, publication etc) Use Advanced search option and operators

Google Docs http: //docs.google.com Allows you to create documents online Allows you to upload documents you have already created and save them online (Word, Excel, PDF, Powerpoint) Access your documents anytime, anywhere, on any PC Share your documents with anyone, anywhere

Google Reader News aggregator, RSS feed reader All the new content from your favourite websites in one place Find a website you want an RSS feed from Click on the button Copy and paste the web address into Google Reader You will start to receive new content in your Reader every time the website is updated!

True or False? 1) Google searches the whole web 2) Unless a website is linked to from another websites, Google may not find it 3) The best information can be found in the first 10 results 4) Searching is easy 5) Google cannot retrieve information from databases 6) Everything important is free 7) A website can establish a “non-indexing protocol” to ensure the website cannot be found FALSE TRUE FALSE TRUE FALSE TRUE

Points to remember Be realistic about web search Use operators and Advanced Search options Evaluate the resources you do find Take advantage of the various Google applications to access information on the go Use more than one tool for research Don’t give up!

Sian Aynsley Information Skills Trainer South London Healthcare NHS Trust Queen Elizabeth, Woolwich Tel: Any questions?

References 1. BrightPlanet (2010) BrightPlanet: Pioneer in Harvesting the Deep Web [Online] available at: [Accessed 8 Apr 2010] 2. Devine, J; Egger-Sider, F (2009) Going beyond Google: the invisible web in learning and teaching Facet Publishing, London 3. Healy, J (2010) Google Librarian Central [Online] available at [Accessed 8 Apr 2010] 4. Howland, J L et al (2009) How scholarly is Google Scholar? A comparison to library databases College and Research Libraries vol 70(3) p227-34