Welcome to Extreme Googling _

Googling Welcome !  While you are waiting, please…  find in your packet: “What Do You Want Google to Tell You?” Exercise 6 - Questions for the Final Exercise  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 • Which Google database used • Approx. # of hits • Terms actually searched on, as Dictionary links • Excerpt of page with your terms • Matched terms in bold • URL, size, date last crawled • Link to Cached copy • Pages supposedly like this one • 2nd page from same site • All Google pages from this site 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 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  Cached reveals the page as Google found it    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 PageRank combines many factors    Google ranking is a great mystery   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 20 or 30 is best   Number of results returned  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 ~facts ~help  recipes, nutrition, cooking information, statistics guide, tutorial, FAQ, manual hike, hikers, hiking, hikes Often: Terms appear in links pointing to a retrieved page  Take advantage of stemming 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 babe ruth 1921..1935 .. (no spaces) 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” "george bush" "george * bush" "george * * bush" "bush george" "bush * george"  Construct proximity searches Or try GAPS www.staggernation.com/cgi-bin/gaps.cgi 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 pancreatitis -cat -dog -"support group" 132,000 128,000  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 links to and from the target page major words in and ranking of related pages comparison shopping find more sites like a site related:www.econsumer.gov use to evaluate a suspect page  Sometimes hard to see how related    Possible uses    Googling Exercise 3  Taking Charge of Driving Google Googling Limiting to Find the Hard-to-Get Limiting: Words in