Googling

Googling

Welcome !



 While you are waiting, please…

 find in your packet:

Exercise 6 - Questions for the Final Exercise

“What Do You Want Google to Tell You?”

 begin writing down your questions in

three or more categories

Googling

Instructor: Joe Barker

jbarker@library.berkeley.edu

An Infopeople Workshop

2005

Googling

This Workshop is Brought to You By the

Infopeople Project



Infopeople is a federally-funded grant project supported

by the California State Library. It provides a wide

variety of training to California libraries. Infopeople

workshops are offered around the state and are open

registration on a first-come, first-served basis.



For a complete list of workshops, and for other

information about the Project, go to the Infopeople Web

site at infopeople.org.

Introductions



 Name

 Library

 Position

 How do you use Google?

Workshop Overview

 Google’s way of “thinking”



 Taking charge of the driving



 Using limits to find the hard-to-get



 Finding information on a subject



 Special Google databases and tools



 What to do when Google doesn’t work

Go to:

bookmarks.infopeople.org

 Click on extreme_googling_bk.htm

 Make a bookmark of this page

 Add to Favorites

Exercise 1

How does Google “think” about your

searches?



Please pause and wait for discussion when

you reach a

A Close Look at Google

Search Results • Excerpt of page with your terms

• Matched terms in bold

• Which Google database used

• Approx. # of hits

• Terms actually searched on, as Dictionary links









• 2nd page from

same site

• URL, size, date last crawled • All Google pages

• Link to Cached copy from this site

• Pages supposedly like this one

Don’t believe the number of Results

They are approximate, changing, and not comprehensive

Default Matching on Search Terms



 Default AND between terms

 Google takes a FUZZY approach

 only some of the words if a page is “important”

 words may occur only in pages that link to the page

 words occur somewhere on the site a page belongs to

 Cached reveals the page as Google found it

 may differ from the current page

 Cached exists if a page is full-text indexed

 About 1 billion pages in Google are not cached



 Not fully searchable



 no Cached if a page owner requests not to be cached

How Can You Know

Why Google Found a Page ?

 Click Cache link toward end of results

 top area often explains what was matched

Stemming

 Google stems “when appropriate”

 automatically detects word stem or root

 retrieves with various endings

kite flying gets kite kites kiting

fly flying, flyers, flyer’s, flyers’

 to turn off

+kite +flying

“kite flying”

 single word searches not stemmed

Words Google Does Not Search



 Common or “stop” words ignored

to be or not to be



 no list of “common” terms

 Google tells you below search box in results

 to turn off

+to +be +or not +to +be

“to be or not to be”

 single word searches possible on common words

Ranking of Results

 Word order matters

 favoring phrases (words together)

 looks for phrases with something in place of

stop words

 word repetition and proximity also count

 Google ranking is a great mystery

 PageRank combines many factors

 popularity - links to a page and their importance

 “importance” - a value of 0 (low) to 10 (high)

 term placement - phrases, proximity, repetition



See Cheat Sheet #1

Google Preferences

 Interface language

 Selected languages for pages

 SafeSearch filtering

 “moderate” is default

 Number of results returned

 20 or 30 is best

 Open new browser window for search

results



Back of Cheat Sheet #1

The Google Toolbar

 Search any Google databases

 Search within a site

 Pop-up blocker

 Search history list

 Set Google preferences quickly

 Customizable in Options

 download from

toolbar.google.com

 Other browsers toolbar

 download from

googlebar.mozdev.org

Googling





Exercise 2



 Installing the Google Toolbar

 Customizing Preferences

Taking Charge of Driving Google

OR

Getting the Most

from Google’s FUZZY Thinking

Improving Google’s

“FUZZY” Default AND

 Problems with AND default:

 words can occur anywhere in results pages

 may have different meanings or contexts

 some pages may not contain all of your words

 some may not have any of your words

 Use quotation marks to require words together

 turns common words into unique search terms

“working mothers” 145,000 5% of

working mothers 2,680,000

“dry cells” 11,500 1% of

dry cells 1,010,000

 Hyphen makes phrases and searches with and

without hyphens

bite-sized retrieves bite-sized, bite sized, bitesized

Force “FUZZY” with OR Searches



 Singulars and plurals not covered by

stemming

parent OR parents

 Equivalent or synonymous terms

parent OR guardian

 Misspellings

libarian OR librarian

 Apostrophes and their misuse

april's OR aprils OR april "fools day"

Ask Google to be “FUZZY”

 Synonym search

~ immediately before a word

 sometimes “thinks” of very broad, related terms

~food recipes, nutrition, cooking

~facts information, statistics

~help guide, tutorial, FAQ, manual

 Often: Terms appear in links pointing to a retrieved page



 Take advantage of stemming hike, hikers,

hiking, hikes

Let stemming handle variant endings:

“wild flowers” OR wildflowers hike “point reyes”

april OR may OR spring

Ask for “FUZZY” Number Ranges



 Numrange search uses .. (no spaces)

babe ruth 1921..1935

results have highlighted dates within this range



3..6 megapixels digital camera

most numbers will be associated with megapixels



DVD player $250..

can be open-ended -- any number above starting number

 The Whole-Word Wildcard:

Allowing FUZZY within “ ”

 Can’t remember the exact wording in a phrase?

Who wrote something like, “The stag at night drank his

fill”?

Try searching:

“the stag * * * his fill” OR “the stag * * * * his fill”

ANSWER: “The stag at eve had drunk his fill” - in most sources

--Sir Walter Scott, “Lady of the Lake”



 Construct proximity searches "george bush"

"george * bush"

Ortry GAPS

"george * * bush"

www.staggernation.com/cgi-bin/gaps.cgi "bush george"

"bush * george"

Excluding to Control “FUZZIness”



You want: Medical info about a pancreatitis

diet

 Start with: pancreatitis diet 172,000

 Eliminate undesirable words in results:

pancreatitis diet -cat -dog 132,000

pancreatitis -cat -dog -"support group" 128,000



 Select exclusions carefully

Ask Google to be Very “FUZZY”:

Related & Similar

 Two commands for the same function

 click Similar at end of result

 search related:www.infopeople.org

 Sometimes hard to see how related

 links to and from the target page

 major words in and ranking of related pages

 Possible uses

 comparison shopping

 find more sites like a site

related:www.econsumer.gov

 use to evaluate a suspect page

Googling



Exercise 3

 Taking Charge of Driving

Google

Googling



Limiting to Find

the Hard-to-Get

Limiting: Words in

 intitle:

 finds pages concentrated on your term

hybrid cars intitle:mileage 7,060

hybrid cars mileage 296,000

 with quotes:

intitle:”cuban embargo” 581

“cuban embargo” 28,000

 with OR:

intitle:”global warming” OR intitle:”greenhouse effect”



 Use allintitle: to require all words in title

allintitle: hybrid cars mileage 86

 can combine only with site:

allintitle: hybrid cars mileage –site:com 11

Exploiting a Page’s URL

 Limiting to domain (edu, gov, etc):

site:edu OR site:gov OR site:ca.us

 complete list at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_TLDs

 Searching within a Site

 site:

site:memory.loc.gov lincoln “sheet music”

 works only in top/first part of URL

 omit http:// and final /

 makes Google into a search engine for pages that are indexed

in Google

 inurl: less specific

 term may be anywhere in URLs

inurl:lincoln “sheet music”

 finds “lincoln” anywhere in any URL and “sheet music”

somewhere in the pages

Limiting to Types of Documents

 filetype:

 OR to find more than one

form 1040 filetype:pdf - finds forms

 -filetype:

 exclude certain filetypes

form 1040 -filetype:pdf - finds help with forms

 View as HTML link can be useful

 avoids viruses a document might carry if opened

 allows viewing without the software or reader

Caveats for Limit Commands

 Cannot always be combined

 link: similar: must stand alone

 allintitle: allintext: allinanchor: allinurl: with site: only

 You can mix all other limit commands, usually:

inurl:ucla intitle:admissions statistics

intitle:”thyroid disease” site:edu OR site:com

 Be careful not to ask for the impossible:

site:ucla.edu -inurl:edu

site:com site:edu site:gov

 Some require understanding HTML hypertext links:

 inanchor:links looks for text in link tags in the HTML code:

Pancreatitis links

Links



See Cheat Sheet #3

Advanced Web Search page

Restricted Opportunities



Useful if you want to: Not useful if you want to:

 Try limiting to pages  Construct complex

updated in 3 mos, 6 mos, searches

year  OR with phrases

 multiple phrases

 Change language of

 Use OR for more than one

results pages

limiter

 Select from list of filetype  site:

formats  filetype:

 Change content filtering  inurl:

(also in Preferences)  Use intitle: inurl:

 only the allin... commands

I almost never in Advanced Search

use it

Googling



Exercise 4



 Limiting

Googling



Finding Info on a Subject

Finding Directories & Link Lists

 EXAMPLE - looking for links or directories about:

“women’s history” “middle east”

 Use words likely to occur in link-list or directory pages

links OR "directory of" OR guide “women’s history” “middle east”

“what’s new” OR “what’s cool” “women’s history” “middle east”

 field limit to focus pages you want

intitle:links OR intitle:”directory of” OR intitle:”encyclopedia of”

“women’s history” “middle east”

intitle:”women’s history” intitle:directory “middle east”

 Are there agencies or organizations with links on this topic?

inanchor:links society OR association

"middle east" "women's studies"



Be creative. Substitute database for “directory” to find searchable databases

Google’s Directory



 1.5+ million pages (compare with 8+ billion in web search)

 DMOZ Open Directory

 Google “importance” ranking within directory

 EXAMPLE:

women's history middle east OR eastern

 Click on useful subject categories for more:

Science > Social Sciences > Area Studies > Middle Eastern Studies

Society > People > Women > Women's Studies > By Topic

Society > Issues > Human Rights and Liberties > Regional > Middle

East

Search Google for Weblogs

 Current commentary, opinions, misc. musings

 Google indexes “important” blogs frequently

 more than most web pages

 Thorough search impossible

blog OR weblog OR “web log” your subject words

inurl:blog OR inurl:weblog your subject words

 If you know the software a blog is using:

“powered by blogger” your subject words

site:blogspot.com your subject words

“powered by geeklog” your subject words

 Try searching the Google Directory

Search Google Groups for Info

 Usenet news groups back to 1981

 archive of UNevaluated public thoughts, advice &

opinions

 some not found elsewhere

 select threads with more than one article for context

 Search differences:

 search for a group by name

 search within a group

 + required for common words even in “ “

“hair loss” OR "loss +of hair" OR balding

group:alt.support.thyroid

 use Advanced Search to limit by group or date posted

 Create new mailing lists with registration

Google as Encyclopedic Glossary

 Use the command define:[no space]

 Google finds and ranks Web pages with definitions

define:internet

define:due diligence

 Or build searches for pages with definitions:

internet “what is”

“what is the internet”

“internet stands +for”

internet ~beginners

internet ~FAQ

 Also many common facts available:

population of japan

currency in algeria

birthplace of hitler

Exercise 5



Finding Info on a Subject

 Brainstorming

 How would you approach Google

7. Whatcanto find some goodfromand how and the

2. Where the Ibirthplace of Teddy wide good of

5. I wantiscan solve of California? a me to of links and

1. How to find websitesof the following range places

4.

3.

6. I currency ofdirecting

find blogs Nepal,

debates, collections

size each about California

much of it could $100 headaches?

for blogs in on migraineUS buy as of a

Roosevelt?

perspectives, about what constitutes

informationproblems?particularly blogsnear-death

use ofbird watching in Northern California. to keep in

libraries,

January 15, 2004?

experience? I'm interested in proofs that what people

touch with other librarians and libraries in the state

report can be believed.

and how they’re using blogs?

Googling



Special Google Databases

and Tools

Shortcuts and Services

 Shortcuts:

 dictionaries and other definitions

 phonebooks - white and yellow

 movie showtimes

 stocks with recent news

 maps, weather

 converters, math problem calculators, physical constants

 number searches

 UPS, FedEx, USPS, VIN, UPC codes, area codes,

airplane reg. #, patents, more

http://www.googleguide.com/shortcuts.html

 Translate

 click [Translate this page] or URL or enter text at

www.google.com/language_tools

 Page Info - better to enter a URL @ alexa.com



Many search engines offer useful shortcuts & similar tools:

See Search Cheat Sheet #4 & Supplement

“Hacking” Google URLs

 Structure of a Google search result URL

 Your search is for: “web searching” tutorial

http://www.google.com/search? Google URL ? indicates query

num=20& Number of results per page

hl=en& Interface language

lr=& Search language blank (ALL)

safe=off& SafeSearch off

q=%22web+searching%22+tutorial Query search terms

%22 means quote mark

+ joins terms

 Will vary according to your Preferences setting



 You can modify results by changing values

A “Hack” for Country Searches

 Type the search: egypt history 1950..1970

http://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&

q=egypt+history+1950..1975 &restrict=countryEG

 Append in Address/URL box (no spaces):

&restrict=countryEG

 General format - capitalized country code:

&restrict=countryXX

 Complete country codes list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_TLDs



 More countries and pages than in Language Tools

search page

www.google.com/language_tools

Google’s Other Proprietary Databases

Besides Web, Directory, and Groups



 Images

 1.3+ billion

 SafeSearch filter only works in English language

 News Use Advanced Search forms

 4,500 news sources

Useful, specific limit settings

 30 days

 international versions - other news slants

 Froogle for shopping

 shopping sites from Google - a subset

 + merchant uploads of catalogs not on the web

 no fees, no pay for position

 Catalogs (Google Labs still)

 scanned mail-order catalogs (not web), text searchable

 to navigate within a catalog, click an image and use the

special catalogs navigation bar

Local Information

 local.google.com

 “businesses & services” from Google web database +

several yellow pages

 topic box

 address/location box

 restrict to 1, 5, 15, 45 miles away

 geographic proximity, maps

 EXAMPLE:

vegetarian restaurants

100 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA

 maps.google.com

 draggable images, satellite view

 local (yellow pages), driving directions

 earth.google.com

 requires download, 200 MB memory

 exotic toy or useful tool?

Google Labs

 More upcoming Google services (beta)

 Sets - create and explore sequences of things

 Suggest - browse possible search terms

 video.google.com – some TV programs

 My search history – registration and privacy

considerations

 Print.google.com – search only in Print

database

 project to make full text books available online

 Scholar.google.com – special page to search

from

 scholarly articles (mostly) on the web

 abstracts if full text not available

 integrated with OCLC for library holdings

 integrated with some college campuses

See Cheat Sheet #5

Exercise 6



Where would you look?

1. Choose ONE or TWO questions to answer

2. Write down what you did & learned

3. It’s O.K. to talk, ask questions, and help

each other as needed

Googling



When Google Doesn’t Work

Other Effective Search Engines

 Yahoo Search (3+ billion)

 no 10-word limit

 accepts ( ) around Boolean OR

(“global warming” OR “greenhouse effect”)

(site:edu OR site:gov OR site:uk)

 pay-for-position sites not identified



 Teoma (1+ billion)

 popularity within subjects

 sometimes finds link collections as Resources

Bookmarklets for Searching

 Java Script applications that reside in

your Bookmarks or Favorites (Favlets)

 Search engine tools:

 run a search in another search engine

@Teoma @Yahoo!

 search highlighted text in a search engine

 Information and more about them at

searchengineshowdown.com/bmlets

Recommended Directories

 By library people

 LII.ORG

 Academic Info

 Infomine



 Complement to searching

 when search engines do not seem to

work

 when you know or have a hunch there

is a site about your question

Thinking in Sync with Search Engines

 Search engine balancing act:

 Do we agree with Google’s “importance”?

 tyrannical or democratic?

 favors established more than new websites

 favors trendy, high-speed, consumer, vroom & zoom

 Are Google’s secretiveness & fuzziness trustable?

 Have search engines changed us?

 Do we accept “good enough” quicker?

 Have we given up “thorough” and “certain”?

 Will semantic & linguistic analysis help?

 Or bring in a new age of “whatever” thinking

Googling

Exercise 7



 Make your own Cheat Sheet



 Write down up to seven things you want to



remember to do or practice



 Circle the ONE you like most

Googling



Workshop Evaluation





infopeople.org/WS/eval