Google is not the only search tool ARLG – ISG Wednesday, 9 th July 2014, CILIP, London

1. Google is not the only search tool ARLG – ISG Wednesday, 9th July 2014, CILIP, London Presenter: Karen Blakeman karen.blakeman@rba.co.uk, www.rba.co.uk www.twitter.com/karenblakeman Slides available at http://www.rba.co.uk/as/ Also available on authorSTREAM and Slideshare www.rba.co.uk This presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

2. All change! • Search engines - new algorithms, ranking and display, personalisation • EU ruling on “right to be forgotten”, how much is being censored/removed? • Free government and legal resources, official data and statistics, open data • Social media www.rba.co.uk

3. Things you need to know about Google search • Google personalises your search • Personalises search based on • location • device that you are using • past search history • past browsing activity • activity in other areas of Google e.g. YouTube, blogs, images www.rba.co.uk

4. Private browsing - quickest way “un-personalise”search • Chrome - New Incognito window Ctrl+Shift+N • FireFox Ctrl+Shift+P • Internet Explorer Ctrl+Shift+P • Opera Ctrl+Shift+N • Will not remove country/location personalisation • Not search engine specific, built into the browser

5. Things you need to know about Google search • Google automatically looks for variations on your search terms and sometimes drops terms from your search • Google may or may not tell you that it has ignored some of your terms • “..” around terms, phrases, names, titles of documents does not always work • To force an exact match and inclusion of a term prefix it with ‘intext:’ public transport intext:algalbiofuels • Use Verbatim for an exact match search

6. Google Verbatim

7. Google now showing missing search terms? • Not always shown – possibly still a live experiment? www.rba.co.uk

8. Things you need to know about Google search • Google web search does not search everything it has in its database • two indexes: main, default index and the supplemental index • supplemental index may contain less popular, unusual, specialist material • supplemental index comes into play when Google thinks your search has returned too few results • Verbatim and some advanced search commands seems to trigger a search in the supplemental index

9. Things you need to know about Google search • Google changes its algorithms several hundred times a year How Google makes improvements to its search algorithm - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5RZOU6vK4Q

10. Things you need to know about Google search • We are all Google’s lab rats Just Testing: Google Users May See Up To A Dozen Experiments http://searchengineland.com/just-testing-google-searchers-may-see-up-to-a-dozen-experiments-141570 Mostly minor effects on search but sometimes totally bizarre results

11. What I see on my screen will not be what you see on your screen, will not be what your colleagues see on theirs, will not be what your users see. www.rba.co.uk

12. Hummingbird • Not just an update but a completely new algorithm • Tries to make “sense” of your query and put it into context, natural language queries • Uses search history, your location, what other people have searched on and clicked on, device being used • Now difficult to predict how Google will handle your search and how results will be displayed • Layout of results and menu options depend on type of search www.rba.co.uk

13. EU - so called “right to be forgotten” ruling Edition of Monday, January 19, 1998, page 23 - Newspaper - Lavanguardia.es http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.com/preview/1998/01/19/pagina-23/33842001/pdf.html EU Court of Justice ruled that Google is a “data controller” under Data Protection legislation and must remove links to information that is “inadequate, irrelevant .... or excessive” from search results on a person’s name. www.rba.co.uk

14. Information is NOT removed from the web • Subject can apply to have links in search results that point to specific information removed from the results • Not just Google – all search engines with an EU presence • Only applies to searches conducted in the EU + Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Lichtenstein • Not automatic – subject has to apply and request will be assessed to see if the information is “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed.” • Google’s request form available at https://support.google.com/legal/contact/lr_eudpa?product=websearch# (Bing working on one) www.rba.co.uk

15. How to get around it? • Google now removing results (and also adding back in results) from searches in European country versions of Google • Indicates on the results page if information has been excluded • Google adds removal statement from all results for searches on personal names even if nothing has been removed (name generally has to be within double quotes in the search for this to happen) • Use non-European Google to see all results • e.g. Google.com, Google.ca - but will see country biased results www.rba.co.uk

16. Removal now started www.rba.co.uk

17. Other Google changes www.rba.co.uk

18. Google menu options change depending on your search www.rba.co.uk

19. Google rewrites page titles Google's Matt Cutts: Why Google Will Ignore Your Page Title Tag & Write Its Own http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-look-title-match-query-190039 www.rba.co.uk

20. Bing does it as well http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2352871/How-Bing-Chooses-Your-Webpage-Titles www.rba.co.uk

21. Google – right hand column www.rba.co.uk

22. http://googlesystem.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/google-knowledge-graph-gets-confused.htmlhttp://googlesystem.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/google-knowledge-graph-gets-confused.html www.rba.co.uk

23. Google Knowledge Graph and carousel www.rba.co.uk

24. Google gets it wrong again www.rba.co.uk

25. Logo in knowledge graph links to.... www.rba.co.uk

26. Google gets it wrong yet again! Google "Henry VIII wives": Jane Seymour reveals search engine's blind spots http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/09/23/google_henry_viii_wives_jane_seymour_reveals_search_engine_s_blind_spots.html Image courtesy of Will Oremus www.rba.co.uk

27. Nutrition facts Information from Wikipedia and USDA www.rba.co.uk

28. Compare • compare spinach with cabbage Do not always need ‘with’ Can only compare two similar entities www.rba.co.uk

29. Compare www.rba.co.uk

30. Search commands that are still around • PDF for legislation, consultation documents, research documents, government reports, industry papers • ppt or pptx for presentations, tracking down an expert on a topic • xls or xlsx for spreadsheets containing data • Use the advanced search screen or the filetype: command "control of dogs (wales) bill" filetype:pdf organ donation wales opt out filetype:ppt organ donation wales opt out filetype:pptx organ donation wales filetype:xls organ donation wales filetype:xlsx • Combine with site command organ donation filetype:xls site:nhs.uk www.rba.co.uk

31. Search commands that are still around (2) • site: to search within a site or type of site • housing regeneration swanseasite:wales.gov.uk • housing regeneration swanseasite:gov.uk • Also site:ac.uksite:nhs.uk • Can exclude sites using –site: • housing regeneration swanseasite:gov.uk-site:wales.gov.uk • organ donation statisticswales -site:au • Does NOT search inside databases or protected areas www.rba.co.uk

32. Date • Restrict your results to information that has been published within the last hour, day, week, month, year or your own date range • Search tools, Any time and select an option  www.rba.co.uk

33. Bing/Yahoo Yahoo now uses Bing’s database, commands and ranking algorithms Yahoo Finance still available No advanced search screen on Bing - use commands List at Advanced Operator Reference http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff795620.aspx • filetype: site: • AND, NOT, OR parentheses for complex Boolean searches • NEAR:n where n is a number, specifies that the terms must be within that number of words of each other and in any order • banana NEAR:3 toffee • Date option only for US version www.rba.co.uk

34. Bing http://www.bing.com/ • Results seem to be more consumer/retail focused • more ‘shopping’ than research • results improve as soon as you start using the advanced search commands • Sometimes more up to date than Google • updates sites more frequently • adds new sites more quickly • useful if you are looking for information on a new company or organisation • BUT interesting features and options available to US users only • changing location and version of Bing does not always work • using anonymous proxy does not always work www.rba.co.uk

35. bingiton.com www.rba.co.uk

36. Bingiton www.rba.co.uk

37. DuckDuckGo – http://duckduckgo.com/ • Does not track, does not personalise, no EU presence so no “right to be forgotten” • Results are a compilation of about 50 sources including Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha, Bing, Blekko and its own Web crawler DuckDuckBot. “In partnership with Yandex” • Advanced search DuckDuckGo Syntax http://help.duckduckgo.com/customer/portal/articles/300304 • DuckDuckGo – silly name but a neat little search tool http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/11/07/duckduckgo-silly-name-but-a-neat-little-search-tool/ www.rba.co.uk

38. Millionshort http://millionshort.com • Million Short: unearthing information hidden in the dungeons of Google’s results • http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2012/10/04/million-short-unearthing-stuff-hidden-in-the-dungeons-of-googles-results/ • Uses Bing API plus other sources • Great for finding specialist articles that Google buries beyond reach • Removes top 10k sites from results - can change to top million, 100k, 1k, 100 • Can add sites back in, can block sites • Can “Boost!” sites so that they always appear at the top • Can use site: and filetype: commands • Country versions give different results (under Manage Settings and Country) www.rba.co.uk

39. Million Short www.rba.co.uk

40. Yandexhttp://www.yandex.com/ • for filetype use mime: diabetic retinopathy mime:pptx • has an advanced search screen at http://yandex.com/search/advanced • Blekkohttp://www.blekko.com/ • Ask http://www.ask.com/ • Teomahttp://www.teoma.com/ • all three support filetype: and site: www.rba.co.uk

41. eTools.ch www.rba.co.uk

42. Carrotsearch http://carrotsearch.com/ www.rba.co.uk

43. Carrotsearch circles www.rba.co.uk

44. Carrotsearch FoamTree www.rba.co.uk

45. Qwant http://www.qwant.com/ Media www.rba.co.uk

46. Qwant http://www.qwant.com/ People www.rba.co.uk

47. WolframAlpha • http://www.wolframalpha.com/ • Computational knowledge engine, curated data • Click Examples, Random, or an image in the homepage background to get an idea of what it covers www.rba.co.uk

48. WolframAlpha www.rba.co.uk

49. Facebook Graph Search • Change your language to English US under account settings www.rba.co.uk

50. Facebook Graph Search Pay for your message to go into recipients main Inbox www.rba.co.uk