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Google : More Than Words

Google : More Than Words. How can I use Google better?. References: Patrick Crispen: Google 101, Google 201 (web); 2003. Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest: Google hacks (O'Reilly); 2003. The PageRank Algorithm. Where PR(A) is the PageRank of Page A PR(T1) is the PageRank of page T1

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Google : More Than Words

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  1. Google: More Than Words How can I use Google better? References: Patrick Crispen: Google 101, Google 201 (web); 2003. Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest: Google hacks (O'Reilly); 2003. S. Dekeyser

  2. The PageRank Algorithm • Where • PR(A) is the PageRank of Page A • PR(T1) is the PageRank of page T1 • C(T1) is the number of outgoing links from the page T1 • d is a damping factor in the range of 0 < d < 1, usually set to 0.85 Source: Google Hacks, p. 295 S. Dekeyser

  3. The Biggest Mistake Typing URLs in the wrong box S. Dekeyser

  4. britney spears victoria gotti kelly blue book doom 3 howard stern dallas cowboys paris hilton ebay google yahoo anastasia myskina anime mapquest carmen electra yahoo.com ashlee simpson games lindsay lohan nudist+image jokes Top 20 search terms -- Courtesy WordTracker.com S. Dekeyser

  5. britney spears victoria gotti kelly blue book doom 3 howard stern dallas cowboys paris hilton ebay google yahoo anastasia myskina anime mapquest carmen electra yahoo.com ashlee simpson games lindsay lohan nudist+image jokes What most people notice -- Courtesy WordTracker.com S. Dekeyser

  6. britney spears victoria gotti kelly blue book doom 3 howard stern dallas cowboys paris hilton ebay google yahoo anastasia myskina anime mapquest carmen electra yahoo.com ashlee simpson games lindsay lohan nudist+image jokes What *I* notice -- Courtesy WordTracker.com S. Dekeyser

  7. The Second Biggest Mistake Using the wrong tool at the wrong time S. Dekeyser

  8. Three questions • Where would you find the telephone number or address of the Bama Six theatre? • Where you would find the definition of the word “pestilence?” • Where would you find the name of the war that the Treaty of Westphalia ended? S. Dekeyser

  9. What would happen if you tried to look up the definition of the word “pestilence” in the telephone book? S. Dekeyser

  10. YAHOO ISN’T A SEARCH ENGINE! ... it is a directory. S. Dekeyser

  11. Directories • Usually human-compiled guides to the web, where sites are organized by category • Major directories: • MSN • Yahoo • Netscape ODP S. Dekeyser

  12. What directories are good for • “What is the Web page address for some company, organization, or entity?” (or “who makes product X?”) • “Where can I find a list of Web pages that focus on a particular, ‘universal’ topic?” • In other words, directories are GREAT for “telephone book” searches. S. Dekeyser

  13. What directories AREN’T good for • Directories are horrible for “encyclopedia” or “dictionary” searches. • The only exception is if the topic is so universal that the directories have no choice but to link to a page or two that discuss that topic (and even then the selection will be slim.) S. Dekeyser

  14. Directories v Search Engines • Directories are • human-compiled and • have a small number of pages in their databases (usually in the low millions) • Search engines are • machine-compiled and • have a HUGE number of pages in their databases (usually in the hundreds of millions or even the billions) S. Dekeyser

  15. The Third Biggest Mistake Not knowing how to use directories or search engines to actually FIND stuff S. Dekeyser

  16. Search engine rule #1 Be specific ... because if you aren’t specific, you’ll end up with a bunch of garbage! S. Dekeyser

  17. Search engine rule #2 Use quotes to search for phrases. “the tide is rising” S. Dekeyser

  18. Search engine rule #3 Use the + sign torequire. “the tide is rising” +book S. Dekeyser

  19. Search engine rule #4 Use the - sign toexclude. “the tide is rising” +book -drugs S. Dekeyser

  20. Search engine rule #5 Combine symbols as often as possible (see rule #1). “the tide is rising” +book –drugs +climate S. Dekeyser

  21. The five rules • Be specific ... because if you aren’t specific, you’ll end up with a bunch of garbage! • Use quotes to search for phrases. • Use the + sign to require. • Use the - sign to exclude. • Combine symbols as often as possible (see rule #1). S. Dekeyser

  22. Part Two:More Stuff No One Tells You Google’s shocking secrets revealed! S. Dekeyser

  23. Part Two: Contents • Google’s Boolean default is AND. • Capitalization does not matter. • Google has a hard limit of 10 keywords. • Google ignores a BUNCH of common words. • Google does support wildcard searches … sort of. • The order of your keywords matters. S. Dekeyser

  24. Google’s Boolean Default is AND But there are ways to get around that. S. Dekeyser

  25. Boolean Default is AND • If you search for more than one keyword at a time, Google will automatically search for pages that contain ALL of your keywords. • A search for disney fantasyland pirates is the same as searching for disney AND fantasyland AND pirates • But, if you try to use AND on your own, Google yells at you. Source: http://www.google.com/help/basics.html S. Dekeyser

  26. Boolean OR • Sometimes the default AND gets in the way. That’s where OR comes in. • The Boolean operator OR is always in all caps and goes between keywords. • For example, an improvement over our earlier search would be disney fantasyland OR “pirates of the caribbean” • This would show you all the pages in Google’s index that contain the word disney AND the word fantasyland OR the phrase pirates of the caribbean (without the quotes) Source: http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html S. Dekeyser

  27. Capitalization Does NOT Matter The old AltaVista trick of typing your keywords in lower case is no longer necessary. S. Dekeyser

  28. How Insensitive! • Google is not case sensitive. • So, the following searches all yield exactly the same results: disney fantasyland pirates Disney Fantasyland Pirates DISNEY FANTASYLAND PIRATES DiSnEy FaNtAsYlAnD pIrAtEs Source: http://www.google.com/help/basics.html S. Dekeyser

  29. Google Has a Hard Limit of 10 Keywords Bet you didn’t know THAT! Source: Google Hacks, p. 19 S. Dekeyser

  30. Google’s 10 Word Limit • Google won’t accept more than 10 keywords at a time. • Any keyword past 10 is simply ignored. • How can you get around this limit? Well, first you need to remember that … Source: Google Hacks, p. 19 S. Dekeyser

  31. Google Ignores a BUNCH of Common Words Words to avoid S. Dekeyser

  32. Stop Words To enhance the speed and relevancy of your Web search, Google routinely and automatically ignores common words and characters known as “stop words.” Source: http://www.google.com/press/guide/reviewguide_7.html S. Dekeyser

  33. Stop _ _ Name _ Love • This is certainly not a canonical list, but here are 28 stop words I know about. • a, about, an, and, are, as, at, be, by, from, how, i, in, is, it, of, on, or, that, the, this, to, we, what, when, where, which, with • You can force Google to search for a stop word by putting a + in front of it (for example pirates +of +the caribbean) Source: 10/23/02 post by Bill Todd to news:google.public.support.general S. Dekeyser

  34. Dealing with the Word Limit • Omit the stop words in your search terms and you’ll probably never run into the 10 word limit. • Another way around the limit is to use wildcards. Image source: http://www.alloyd.com/ S. Dekeyser

  35. Google DOES Support Wildcard Searches … Sort Of. When you wish upon a *. S. Dekeyser

  36. Wildcards • Wildcards are characters, usually asterisks (*), that represent other characters. • Google offers full-word wildcards. • For example, if you search Google for it’s +a * world, Google shows you all of the pages in its database that contain the phrase “it’s a small world” … and “it’s a nano world” … and “it’s a Linux world” … and so on. S. Dekeyser

  37. it’s +a * world • The + before a is required because it is a stop word and would otherwise be ignored. • Most of the hits are phrases because that’s what Google looks for first. • Oh, and I defy you to get that song out of your head! Image source: http://themeparksource.com/ S. Dekeyser

  38. Wildcards and the Word Limit • Remember when I said that one way to get around the 10 word limit was to use wildcards? • Google doesn’t count wildcards toward the limit. • For example, Google thinks that though * mountains divide * * oceans * wide it's * small world after all is exactly 10 words long. Source: Google Hacks, p. 19 S. Dekeyser

  39. The Order of Your Keywords Matters A me life for pirate’s? S. Dekeyser

  40. How Google Works • When you conduct a search at Google, it searches for • Phrases, then • Adjacency, then • Weights. • Because Google searches for phrases first, the order of your keywords matters. Image source: Google Source: Google Hacks, p. 20-22 S. Dekeyser

  41. For Example A search for disney fantasyland pirates yields the same number of hits as a search for fantasyland disney pirates, but the order of those hits – especially the first 10 – is noticeably different. S. Dekeyser

  42. Part Two: In Summary • Google’s Boolean default is AND. • Capitalization does not matter. • Google has a hard limit of 10 keywords. • Google ignores a BUNCH of common words. • Google does support wildcard searches … sort of. • The order of your keywords matters. S. Dekeyser

  43. Query modifiers daterange: filetype: inanchor: intext: intitle: inurl: site: Alternative query types cache: link: related: info: Other information needs phonebook: stocks: define: Google Calculator Advanced Operators S. Dekeyser

  44. Other Information Needs Did you know that Google can look up phone numbers, stock quotes, dictionary definitions, and even the answer to math problems? S. Dekeyser

  45. phonebook: • There are actually three different Google phonebook operators. • Using phonebook: searches the entire Google phonebook. • Using rphonebook: searches residential listings only. • Using bphonebook: searches business listings only. Source: http://www.google.com/help/operators.html S. Dekeyser

  46. How to Use the Phonebook • first name (or first initial), last name, city (state is optional) • first name (or first initial), last name, state • first name (or first initial), last name, area code • first name (or first initial), last name, zip code • phone number, including area code • last name, city, state • last name, zip code S. Dekeyser

  47. phonebook:Data phonebook:disneyland ca phonebook:(714) 956-6425 S. Dekeyser

  48. stocks: • If you begin a query with stocks: Google will treat the rest of the query terms as stock ticker symbols, and will link to a Yahoo finance page showing stock information for those symbols. • Go crazy with the spaces – Google ignores them! Source: http://www.google.com/help/operators.html S. Dekeyser

  49. stocks:Symbol1 Symbol2 … stocks: msft stocks: aapl intc msft macr S. Dekeyser

  50. define: • If you begin a query with define: Google will display definitions for the word or phrase that follows, if definitions are available. • There can be no space between define: and the word or phrase you wish to define. • You don’t need quotes around your phrases. Source: http://www.google.com/help/features.html#definitions S. Dekeyser

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