Google

1. Google This presentation is meant to be a handy tool to help you in your web searches. There is much more in Google than I present here but I hope this will save you many hours of searching. The identification of recognized file types is taken from Patrick Crispen’s Google 201 presentation at netsquirrel.com.

2. Google - Phrase search tips When you are searching Google you are NOT searching the Internet. You are searching Google’s copy of the Internet. Google is constantly spidering – or searching – servers around the world and then archiving the contents of the those servers to its own server bank.

3. Google - Phrase search tips Google then ranks those pages.

4. Google - Phrase search tips By using quotation marks around a phrase Google is forced to look for exactly that phrase. So, a search for disneyland pirates will yield results that differ widely from “disneyland pirates”. In the first case pages with disneyland and pirates in the pages would receive an adjacency score. In the second case Google will look for the words disneyland and pirates, in that order, next to each other.

5. Google - Phrase search tips Google’s copying of web sites can be a tremendous advantages for Google users. Remember that Google copies everything that is public from a server. That includes pages, links, linked files – you name it. All of those items then become searchable according to page rank. Hot tip: ignore capitalization in Google. Google doesn’t care.

6. Google – Query modifiers In addition to modifying search phrases in order to narrow search results, Google also allows queries to be modified according to the types of files the user may want to find.

7. In almost all cases query types are accessed through a word followed immediately by a colon. The following slides will show several common examples. There is just one warning, however. These frame shots were taken on a Mac. Don’t be alarmed, they’re perfectly safe and will not harm you. In order to help distinguish them from the commentary, the queries and commands on the following pages will be shown in red and displayed in the font Courier. Google – query types

9. Google – query modifiers Remember that Google copies all the public contents of a server. Google copies spreadsheets, power points, pdf files – you name it. So, by combining a query modifier with a recognized type of file, a user can narrow their search to something much more useful. They may be sorted by the Google commandfiletype:

10. Google – query modifiers Here is an example of a search for power point files about Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia filetype:ppt

11. Google – query modifiers Here is a quick list of alternative query types filetype: intitle: inurl: site: synonyms: cache: link: related: info:

12. Google – query modifiers Google also recognizes several types of files: Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf) Adobe PostScript (ps) Lotus 1-2-3 (wk1, wk2, wk3, wk4, wk5, wki, wks, wku) Lotus WordPro (lwp) MacWrite (mw)

13. Google – query modifiers Microsoft Excel (xls) Microsoft PowerPoint (ppt) Microsoft Word (doc) Microsoft Works (wks, wps, wdb) Microsoft Write (wri) Rich Text Format (rtf) Shockwave Flash (swf) Text (ans, txt)

14. Google – query modifiers This will yield all the power point files with the word Mesopotamia associated with them according to the page ranking system I described previously.

15. Google also searches a collection of online dictionaries. These are accessed through the query type define: Google – query types

16. The process for other types of Google queries is much the same. For the next example I will show a weather search. Again, start at the Google search page. Type weather: at the beginning of the search bar. After weather:type in the zip codeor city namewith the stateabbreviationafterward. Google – query types

17. The results come up on the next screen. Google – query types

18. This is an illustration of the weather searched by city name and state abbreviation. Google – query types

19. Stocks are searched in pretty much the same way. In the Google search bar type stocks:followed by the abbreviation for the stock. Here is a screen shot of a query for Toyota stocks. Google – query types

20. Google also has a synonyms query type. By now the process should look somewhat familiar. Type synonyms:followed by the wordfor which you are seeking a synonym. Remember, no spaces. The following slide illustrates a synonym search for the word lope. Google – query types

21. Google – query types

22. Google has an embedded calculator that may be accessed with no query modifier. Simply type the equation in the search bar. For equations with squares and cubes in them type the word squared or cubed after the number to which it applies. Google – query types

23. Google has a handy unit converter. For unit conversions, type in the names of the units and the word “in” between them. Note: Google is pretty forgiving of grammar goofs in conversions. For instance if I wanted to convert 300 degrees to a measurement in Fahrenheit I would type 300 degrees Kelvin in Fahrenheit in the Google search bar. Google – query types

24. Comparisons between units of measure are essentially the same. If I wanted to learn how many centimeters are in a mile I would type in centimeters in a mile in the Google search bar. Google – query types