Google Search Tips: Advanced Features

1. Google Search Tips:Advanced Features By Robin Hartman, Associate Librarian Darling Library – Hope International University Adapted from “A Google Gambol” (Internet Librarian 2003) Greg Notess, Creator, Search Engine Showdown & Reference Librarian, Montana State University Updated by Bethany Ahlberg 8/2/07

2. Advanced Features of Google • Fill in the Blanks – “*” • Diacritics • Query modifiers • GAPS (proximity search)

3. Fill in the Blanks – “*”

4. Fill in the Blanks – “*” You can replace unknown words with an asterisk - “*”. Google returns results substituting the “*” with words most frequently used in the context of the query.

5. Use “*” for:

6. Busted! Possible Uses for “*” Searching out suspected plagiarism.

7. Possible Uses for “*” Including results with common misspellings. All spellings of a word will be found.

8. Possible Uses for “*” Finding common variations.

9. Fun with “*” Finding parodies.

10. Do not use “*” for:

11. …Google will treat the characters on either side of the “*” like separate keywords. Fill in the Blanks – “*” Replacing a character. If you try to use “*” to fill in a letter, number, or symbol…

12. Diacritics

13. Diacritics If you search for a word with a diacritic (distinguishing mark) in it… …will Google return results with or without the diacritic?

14. Diacritics The answer is: both! A search for unité produces results for both unite and unité.

15. Diacritics To limit your search to only unité, add a “-” followed by unite.

16. Diacritics Notice how the number of results has decreased.

17. Query Modifiers

18. Query Modifiers • Use these commands in the search window. • intitle: Find sites with one search term in the title. • allintitle: Find sites with all search terms in the title. • inurl: Find sites with one search term in the URL. • allinurl: Find sites with all search terms in the URL. • site: Limit your search to a specific web site. • filetype: Specify a type of document to search.

19. Query Modifiers – intitle: Find sites with one search term in the title.

20. …and ingredient anywhere in the document. Query Modifiers – intitle: This search returns sites with the word shampooin the title… Find sites with one search term in the title.

21. Query Modifiers – allintitle: Find sites with ALL search terms in the title.

22. Query Modifiers – allintitle: Notice fewer “hits” when shampoo AND ingredient must be found in the title of the page. Find sites with all search terms in the title.

23. Query Modifiers – inurl: Find sites with one search term in the URL.

24. …and ingredient anywhere in the document. Query Modifiers – inurl: This search returns sites with the word shampooin the URL… Find sites with one search term in the URL.

25. Query Modifiers – allinurl: Find sites with ALL search terms in the URL.

26. Query Modifiers – allinurl: Notice fewer “hits” when shampoo AND ingredient must be found in the title of the page. Find sites with all search terms in the URL.

27. Query Modifiers – site: Limit your search to a specific web site.

28. Enter search terms, then qualifier. Finds elephant race on the Cal State Fullerton site. Query Modifiers – site: Example 1 Limit your search to a specific web site.

29. Enter search terms, then qualifier. Finds dinosaur on the Smithsonian Institute site. Query Modifiers – site: Example 2 Limit your search to a specific web site.

30. Enter search terms, then qualifier. Limits search of schwarzenegger to official California senate pages. Query Modifiers – site: Example 3 Limit your search to a specific web site.

31. Specify a type of document to search. Query Modifiers – filetype:

32. Query Modifiers – filetype: pdf – Adobe readable files Specify a type of document to search.

33. Query Modifiers – filetype: pdf – Adobe readable files doc – Microsoft Word documents Specify a type of document to search.

34. Query Modifiers – filetype: pdf – Adobe readable files doc – Microsoft Word documents mdb – Microsoft Access databases Specify a type of document to search.

35. D’oh! If you get no results from Google Web, try Google Images. Query Modifiers – filetype: pdf – Adobe readable files doc – Microsoft Word documents mdb – Microsoft Access databases jpg, gif, tif – graphics and photos Specify a type of document to search.

36. Query Modifiers – filetype: pdf – Adobe readable files doc – Microsoft Word documents mdb – Microsoft Access databases jpg, gif, tif – graphics and photos ppt – Microsoft PowerPoint presentations Specify a type of document to search.

37. Key words, plus… …site: modifier, plus… Voilà! Search of shampoo ingredient limited to find only PowerPoint files on official California government pages. …filetype: modifier… …equals… Using Multiple Query Modifiers

38. GAPS by staggernation.com Searching for all kinds of cookierecipes with chocolate – but not oatmeal?

39. http://www.staggernation.com This search will return: Chocolate chip cookierecipe Chocolate cookierecipe Chocolate covered cherry cookierecipe

40. GAPS by staggernation.com • Google API Proximity Search • A script that searches Google for two search terms that appear within a certain proximity of each other on a page. • Studies show that the closer search terms are in proximity, the better chance that the document is relevant to the searcher’s need. • For more info go to: http://www.staggernation.com/gaps/readme.html

41. Search Engine Showdown

42. Search Engine Showdown • For in depth information on how Google and other web search engines work, go to Greg Notess’ Search Engine Showdown: The User’s Guide to Web Searching at http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/

43. See More Google

44. See More Google • This is one of three presentations on Google Search Tips. Others include: • Lesser Used Features • Lesser Used Databases • Advanced Functions