Google Guide -- Making Searching Even Easier
The absolutely best tutorial on how to use all of Google's potential. Easy to use, simple to navigate, this is a little jewel for both the novice and advanced search user. The definitive up-to-date guide on how to best leverage the Google search engine and all of its features in a simple and easy to access format. Recommended.
-- Robin Good, Master New Media: What Communication Experts Need to Know, February 21, 2004

Nancy Blachman's Google Guide is by far the best guide to using Google, for beginners & more intermediate users, that I've seen so far. I see great potential here for plopping patrons down with this self-guided tutorial, instead of the 20 minute "This is Google, this is how you search" lecture.
--LibrarianInBlack: resources and discussions for the "tech-librarians-by-default" among us..., Feb 4, 2004
Next PagePrevious Page


Want to Get Started Immediately?

If you're a novice, get a tour of my favorite features or go straight to Part I: Query Input.

If you're an experienced user, start with one of the following links. These pages may appear to describe basic concepts, but if you read carefully, you'll discover helpful insights into how Google works and how to use it more effectively.

Favorite Features

Part I: Query Input

• Interpreting Your Query
• Crafting Your Query
  (Using Special Characters)
 

• Sharpening Your Query 
  (Advanced Search)
• Using Search Operators 
  (Advanced Operators)

 

Part II: Understanding
Results

• How Google Works

Part III: Special Tools

• Google Answers
• Feature History
 

• Prototypes & Demos
  (Google Labs)

 

Part IV: Developing a Website

• Linking to Search Results  

What Google Guide Explains

In this tutorial, you can learn

Why Take the Google Guide Tutorial?

Google is so easy to use, why take this online tutorial? If you're like many people, you use only a small number of Google's services and features. The more you know about how Google works, its features and capabilities, the better it can serve your needs.

How to Use the Google Guide Tutorial

If you have time, read all of Google Guide and work through the examples and exercises. Otherwise, look at the Table of Contents or use the search box at the bottom of each page to find the pages or sections that are likely to be most helpful to you.

Just as the best way to learn how to sail is to sail, the best way to learn how to search with Google is to search with Google. Consequently this Google tutorial contains many examples and exercises designed to give you practice with the material presented and to inspire you to find amusing or useful information.

Try the examples, work the exercises, and click on the links (usually underlined) to see Google in action and to learn more about a topic.

Since the web and Google's algorithms and features constantly evolve, your results may be different from those shown in this tutorial.

In this tutorial, clicking the left mouse button on an example or a link to a page not in Google Guide, will display the results in a new window. Clicking on a link that points to another section in this tutorial, will display the contents of the associated page in the same window. You can make the contents of the linked page appear in a new window by:

Although this tutorial is for people new to Google, it contains information of interest to those who have experience with Google or another search engine. Unless you're familiar with all of Google's features, you'll learn something by taking this tutorial.

Who will Benefit from Google Guide?

Practically anyone who uses Google.

How Much Time Will the Google Guide Tutorial Take?

This online Google tutorial will occupy you from 0.5 to 8 hours, depending on how many sections you elect to skip, and how many of the examples and problems you work through. Most people spend about half an hour at a time, and two hours total.

Navigation Bar

Near the top of each page is a navigation bar. The current section and its subsections are displayed in blue.

Screen shot of Google Guide's navigation bar.
Click on any name in the navigation bar to be taken to the corresponding section.

Searching Google Guide

If you want to restrict your search to just pages on Google Guide's web site, follow your query with site:www.googleguide.com.

Why the Name Google ~Guide?

Why did I first name this tutorial Google ~Guide? Putting a tilde in front of a search term (with no space in between) effectively turns that term into any of its synonyms. The tilde is known as synonym operator. So, if you search for "Google ~Guide," Google will find Google Guide as well as other Google tutorials.

History of Google Guide

Jerry Peek, author of Unix Power Tools, gave me the idea of writing a book about using Google. I found the idea appealing because I was a fan of Google, was interested in learning how to use it better, there were no other books about Google when I started writing, and with such a job, I could work flexible hours. I created Google Guide and gave seminars on searching with Google to get feedback from users.

Katie Conley, an editor at Osborne/McGraw Hill, approached Fritz Schneider about writing a book about Google. He had written JavaScript: The Complete Reference for Katie. Because of my having mentioned I was writing a book and creating an online tutorial to some Google engineers, Fritz learned of my Google projects. We teamed up so that we could divide the work and write a book more quickly. Eric Fredericksen, a co-worker of Fritz's, joined us. How to Do Everything with Google was published in November of 2003.

How to Do Everything with Google book cover How is Google Guide Different from How to Do Everything with Google?

The book How to Do Everything with Google covers material similar to Google Guide, but it's a reference book while Google Guide is a tutorial, with exercises at the end of nearly every section.

About the Authors: Nancy Blachman and Jerry Peek

To get ideas of what to include in Google Guide, Nancy Blachman gives free seminars on searching with Google. Nancy has been using Google since the spring of 1999, when Google was less than one year old. She has written over a half dozen tutorial and reference books, including How to Do Everything with Google, Mathematica: A Practical Approach, Mathematica Graphics Guidebook, Mathematica Quick Reference, Maple V Quick Reference, and Putting Your Heart Online. Nancy is president and founder of Variable Symbols, a company that specializes in software training and consulting. Nancy obtained a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Birmingham, U.K., an M.S. in Operations Research from the University of California at Berkeley, and an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, where she taught for eight years.

Jerry Peek is author/co-author of seven books; he's been a technical writer, instructor, and course developer for more than twenty years. Jerry has a B.S. in Electronic Engineering Technology from California Polytechnic State University and an M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of London, Birkbeck College. He currently writes the Power Tools column in Linux Magazine.

If you want to meet the authors, consider attending Nancy's birthday party/conference.

Table of Contents

Home

• Quick Tips
  • Google Search Box
Introduction
• What Google Guide Explains
• Start Immediately
• Why take Google Guide?
• Who will Benefit?
• How Much Time Will it Take?
• Google Guide's Home Page
  • Navigation Bar
• Radio Buttons
• Why Google ~Guide?
• History of Google Guide
• Google Guide vs. my Google Book
• About the Authors

Contents

• Getting Started Immediately
• Quiz
  • Power Googling
• Quiz Answers

Printable Versions

• Cheat Sheet (pdf 1/2 page)
• Adv. Op. Reference (pdf 2 pages)
• Calculator Reference (pdf 2 pages)
• Sact State's QuikRef (pdf 1 page)
• Google Guide (pdf over 100 pages)
• Quick Reference (pdf)
• Favorite Features (pdf)
• Power Googling (pdf)
• I: Query Input (pdf)
• II: Understanding Results (pdf)
• III: Special Tools (pdf)
• IV: Website Development (pdf)
 

• Cheat Sheet (html 1/2 page)
• Adv. Op. Reference (html 3 pages)
• Calculator Reference (html 3 pages)
• Google Guide (html)
• Cheat Sheet (html)
• Favorite Features (html)
• Power Googling (html)
• I: Query Input (html)
• II: Understanding Results (html)
• III: Special Tools (html)
• IV: Website Development (html)
• Nancy Blachman's Speaking Schedule (html)

 
Favorite Features
• Tools
• Shortcuts
• Keeping Abreast of the News
• More Relevant Results
• Special Notation
• Preferences Setting
• Translation & Language Tools
  • Highlighting Terms
• Sets
• Advertising
• Power and Control
• Links to Other Useful Information
• Printable Version
• Quick Tips

Part I:
Query Input

• Entering a Query
• Going Directly to the 1st Result
• Selecting Search Terms
• Interpreting Your Query
• Crafting Your Query by using
  Special Characters
 

• Sharpening Your Query by using 
  Google's Advanced Search Form
• Using Search Operators 
  (Advanced Operators)

 

Part II:
Understanding
Results

• How Google Works
• Results Page
• Links Included with Your Results
• Spelling Corrections (Suggestions)
• Definitions
• Cached Pages
• Similar Pages
• News Headlines

 

• Product Search
• File Type
• Translation
• Preferences
• Last Results Page
• Advertising
• Evaluating Results

 

Part III:
Special Tools

• Google Tools
• Shortcuts
• Calculator
• Phonebook
• Street Maps
• Stock Quotes
• Definitions (Google Glossary)
• Travel Conditions
• Search by Number
• Images
• Groups
• News
 

• Alerts
• Froogle
• More »
• Catalogs
• Local Google (Search by Location)
• Directory
• Special Searches
• Google Answers
• Prototypes & Demos
  (Google Labs)
• Feature History by date, alphabetic order, by category

 

Part IV:
Developing a Website

• Creating Content 
• Linking to Search Results
• Getting Listed
• What's PageRank?
 

• Improving Your PageRank
• Advertising Your Website
• Generating Revenue by Running Ads

 

Talks

• Developing a Website
  • Power Googling

Appendix

• Summary
• Tracking
• Useful Links
• Search Leader
• Solutions to Selected Exercises
• Testimonials
• Google Guide Press
 

• Press Releases
• Submitting Feedback
• Link to Google Guide
• Creative Commons License
• Acknowledgments
• Translation Advice
• For the Press

 

Quiz

Take this quiz and find out how well you know Google. If you want a hint, click on the link(s) in the question. When you have completed the quiz, click here or visit www.googleguide.com/quiz_answers.html to see the answers and tally your score.

  1. What's on Google's homepage?
    1. Just Google's logo.
    2. Google's logo, a search box, and two banner ads.
    3. Google's logo, a search box, a link to job openings at Google, and a copyright notice.
    4. Google's logo, a search box, some links, a copyright notice, and perhaps a weather report, news headlines, or stock quotes if you personalized Google's homepage.

  2. What happens if you enter a query such as google tutorial on Google's homepage and then click the I'm Feeling Lucky button?
    1. You're shown one of the Google's holiday logos.
    2. You're taken directly to the first result for your query instead of Google's results page.
    3. Google donates $1 to the charity of your choice.
    4. Google displays your fortune along with a cookie.

  3. Is Google case sensitive, i.e., does Google return different results for Red Cross than for red cross?
    1. Yes, use capitalization to fine-tune your results.
    2. No, ignoring case distinctions increases the number of results Google finds.
    3. Yes, but Google ignores capitalized query terms, such as OR and AND, which are special operators.
    4. All of the above.

  4. Does Google care if you misspell one or more of your query terms?
    1. Yes, Google will not find any results.
    2. No, there's a good chance that Google will recognize your spelling mistakes and suggest an alternative more common spelling.
    3. Yes, but you can run a spelling checker on your query before you submit it to Google.
    4. No, Google will figure out what you want even if you just enter the first letter of each query term.

  5. What results does Google favor?
    1. Pages that have your search terms near each other.
    2. Pages that have the terms in the same order as in your query.
    3. Pages that match your search terms exactly.
    4. All of the above.

  6. How can you use Google to find the meaning of a word?
    1. When you include "define," "what is," or "what are" in your query in front of a word, phrase, or acronym, Google displays one Glossary definition above your search results, e.g., define phishing.
    2. When your query includes the "define:" operator, Google displays all the definitions it finds on the web, e.g., define:deipnosophist.
    3. Search for the word and then click on the definition link in the statistics bar that appears below the Google search box and above your search results.
    4. All of the above.

  7. How can you translate a word, sentence, webpage, or other material into another language?
    1. Ask a native speaker.
    2. Type in define, colon, whatever word you want defined, e.g., define:suchmaschine.
    3. Go to Google Language Tools and enter the text or webpage you want translated.
    4. A or C.

  8. Does Google return only pages that match all your search terms?
    1. Pretty much, so select your search terms carefully.
    2. No, Google also includes pages with variations of your search terms.
    3. No, Google ignores some common words, such as "a," "the," and "how."
    4. All of the above though they contradict each other.

  9. What variants of your search terms does Google include in your results?
    1. Google searches for your query words as well as each of their synonyms.
    2. None. Google only returns pages that match your search terms exactly.
    3. Google searches for your search terms as well as misspellings of each term.
    4. Google uses a technique called stemming to search on the stem or root of a word that can have multiple endings.

  10. Google limits query to how many words?
    1. There is no limit.
    2. 65 (because the design engineer wanted to impress her colleagues)
    3. 32 (naturally because it's 2^5 or 2*2*2*2*2, an easy number for a computer to compute)
    4. 8 (who needs more than 8 search terms)

  11. What's the quickest way to find driving directions using Google?
    1. Type the address in the Google search box, e.g., 1099 Lombard Street San Francisco CA, and then click on one of the map provider links.
    2. Type the address in the search box, e.g., 1 Broadway Ter, New York, NY, and Google will display a satellite view of the street.
    3. Use Froogle, Google's shopping tool, to buy a GPS system. Then install it in your car.
    4. Search Google Images for a map, e.g., 1900 Louis Road, Palo Alto, CA.

  12. What's the fastest way to find someone's phone number?
    1. Visit 411.info, and search for a person by last name and city or zip code.
    2. Enter a person's name and a city, state, or zip code into Google's search box, e.g., Barack Obama Chicago IL.
    3. Pull out your local phone book and look up the person.
    4. Buy a CD-ROM phone database and look up phone numbers without being connected to the Internet.

  13. What is the fastest way to find where a particular movie is playing at your local cinema?
    1. Look in the entertainment pages of your newspaper.
    2. Call 777-FILM if you are in the United States.
    3. Search Google for "movie" followed by your city or zip code, e.g., movie 10001.
    4. Search Google for "movie" followed by the name of the film you want to see, e.g., movie March of the Penguins.

  14. How can you add a list of numbers, convert from miles to kilometers, or evaluate some other mathematical expression?
    1. Use your cell phone or PDA, if it has a built-in calculator.
    2. Use a calculator.
    3. Enter the expression you want evaluated in Google's search box and hit the ENTER or RETURN key.
    4. All of the above.

  15. What's the fastest way to find the exchange rate between the US dollar and the Euro?
    1. Buy a newspaper and look in the financial section.
    2. Find a currency conversion site, such as XE.com and use their universal currency converter.
    3. Search Google for 1 Euro in USD. (USD for US Dollars)
    4. You can't find out because the rate is volatile.

  16. How would you find a weather forecast for where you live?
    1. Search Google for weather and your city or zip code, e.g., weather 94010.
    2. Read the weather report in your local newspaper, listen to or watch the weather report on the radio or on TV.
    3. Personalize Google's homepage to include a weather forecast for where you live.
    4. Any of the above.

  17. How can you read a page when the hosting website is down?
    1. You can't find a page if the hosting website is down.
    2. In Google's search results, click on the title of a webpage, and Google will provide the page even when the hosting website is down.
    3. In Google's search results, click on the cached link.
    4. Visit the Wayback Machine, a.k.a., Internet Archive, and search for several snapshots of the webpage.

  18. What is the fastest way to find flights between San Jose and Boston?
    1. Call your favorite travel agent before he loses his job.
    2. Go to Expedia.com or CheapTickets and specify the dates you want to fly.
    3. Search Google for sjc bos or San Jose Boston.
    4. Call United or Delta; they both need your business.

  19. Before going to the airport, what's a quick way to find out when your friend's flight will arrive?
    1. Search Google for your friend's flight to find out when it will arrive and at which gate, e.g. United 42.
    2. Call a taxi to pick up your friend at the airport and relax.
    3. Check the travel conditions at the airport by searching google for the 3-letter airport code followed by the word "airport," e.g., sfo airport.
    4. Call the airlines to find out about when the flight will arrive and where.

  20. In addition to the Web, what other things can you search using Google?
    1. Images, news, stores, dictionaries, books, parking spaces
    2. Images, news, products, books, recipes
    3. Images, news, products, Usenet (online discussions), Blogs (online journals), local businesses, books, movies
    4. Images, news, products, books, Blogs (online journals), genealogy charts

  21. How can you check gas prices in your area?
    1. Search for "gas" followed by your zip code in Yahoo's search box, e.g., gas 94010, and click on the Gas Buddy link.
    2. Although Google can handle volatile commodities, such as stocks and currency, Google doesn't currently provide a shortcut to gas prices. Given the rate at which Google is adding features, I expect Google will soon include capabilities for checking gas prices.
    3. Search for "gas" followed by your zip code in Google's search box, e.g., gas 94010, to find your local gas stations and then drive by them and see the prices they posted.
    4. All of the above.

  22. How does Google decide how to rank ads on a page?
    1. The advertiser that pays the most per click through gets the top spot.
    2. The ad that gets the most click throughs gets the top spot.
    3. The ad that generates the most revenue to Google gets the top spot, taking into consideration rate of click throughs and cost per click.
    4. The exact formula is proprietary information that Google doesn't divulge
    5. Google doesn't show ads on its website.

  23. What ads does Google display next to your search results?
    1. Ads from advertisers who pay the most for a given search term.
    2. Ads with the highest click-rate.
    3. Ads that are related to your present search terms.
    4. Ads that are related to your previous search terms.

  24. How can you improve the ranking of your website on Google?
    1. Place lots of ads on Google.
    2. Include useful high-quality information on your site and then publicize and get links to your website.
    3. Buy lots of Google stock and schmooze with Larry and Sergey at the shareholder's meeting.
    4. Don't worry about Google. Instead try to get your site included on Yahoo.

  25. How can you find the current price of Google shares?
    1. Search for goo on Google.
    2. Search for goog on Google.
    3. Search for google on Google.
    4. Don't bother looking it up. It will only make you sad that you didn't buy it at the IPO.

When you have completed the quiz, click here or visit www.googleguide.com/quiz_answers.html to see the answers and tally your score.

About.com's Google Quiz inspired me to create this quiz.
My Favorite Features

In addition to searching the web, you can use Google to find specific information that is available offline or on specialized sites. In this page I describe how Google works and features that enable me to find more quickly things I want.

Tools
Shortcuts





Special Searches


Other Features

To learn more about a particular service or feature, click on the title of a section, which links to a more detailed description in Google Guide, www.googleguide.com, or read How to Do Everything with Google.

Tools

Enter a query even if Google's home page isn't in your browser.

Toolbar - toolbar.google.com

A screen shot of Google's Toolbar

I often access Google from the Toolbar when I use Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP and Internet Explorer 5.0 or a more recent version or from Googlebar when I use Mozilla. For Mac OS X users, Apple's Safari web browser includes Google search and my other favorite Toolbar features.

A screen shot of the Mozilla's Googlebar

My favorite Toolbar features include

Feature What it can do
Search Box Access Google's search technology from your browser toolbar.
Highlight Highlight terms on the current page.
Pop-up Blocker Stop annoying pop-up windows (new in version 2.0 of Toolbar).

Browser Buttons - www.google.com/options/buttons.html

I often search using Google browser buttons when I don't have access to a Google Toolbar or Deskbar.

It's easy to install buttons for searching Google

Copyright © 2003 Google Inc. Used with permission.

Shortcuts

Google provides shortcuts that seem intuitively obvious once I've learned about them.

Keeping Abreast of the News - News Alerts

Rather than searching Google News every day to find out what's new, I set up Google News Alerts to send me email when news articles of interest to me appear on the web.

Screen shot of Google NewsAlerts.

I've also set up Google Alert, a third-party service available at www.googlealert.com, to keep up with the latest news about Google, How to Do Everything with Google, and Google Guide. Google Alert is more flexible and returns more results than Google's News Alerts.

Screen shot of Google Alert.

More Relevant Results

When Google was first launched, it returned only pages that matched all your query terms exactly. To increase the number of results, Google now returns pages that match variants of your search terms. For example,

Google search box with [ child bicycle helmet ].  

finds pages that contain words that are similar to some or all of your search terms, e.g., "child," "children," or "children's," "bicycle," "bicycles," "bicycle's," "bicycling," or "bicyclists," and "helmet" or "helmets." Google calls this feature word variations or automatic stemming.

Where are your Search Terms on a Page?

When Google returns a link to a page that appears to have little to do with my query, or if I can't find the information I'm seeking on the current version of the page, I look at the cached version.

Screen shot showing cached link in a search result.

Click on the Cached link to view Google's cached version of the page with the query terms highlighted.

On the cached version, Google highlights search terms and indicates terms that appear only on links pointing to the page.

Note: Internet Explorer users may view results or a page with any word(s) highlighted, not just search terms, by using the highlight feature of the Google Toolbar, which I mentioned above.

Screen shot of results pages with terms highlighted.

Google Sets

Google showcases some prototypes and products in development on the Google Labs, the web site of Google's research group.

My favorite prototype is Google Sets.

Enter a few items from a set of things.
Google Sets will try to predict other items in the set.

Enter a few items from a set of things in Google sets. Enter a few items from a set of things in Google sets.

I've used Google sets to find

Advertising

I never would have imagined that I would be listing Google advertising among my favorite features. I'm both pleased as a user and as an advertiser. Ads have led me to useful information that I might not have otherwise found so easily and my ads have steered thousands of interested users to my Google tutorial for a minimal cost.

Google's approach to ads is similar to its approach to search results: the ads must deliver useful links, or the ads are removed.

You can distinguish ads by their format and the label "Sponsored Link." Ads contain a title, a short description, and a web address (URL).

A screen shot showing how Google's ads are identified and kept separate from search results

Want Power and Control?

Like a race car, there are special features if you want more control over your searches.

When you don't find what you're seeking, consider specifying more precisely what you want by using Google's Advanced Search feature, which

Screen shot pointing to the Advanced Search link on Google's home page.

You can specify most of the Advanced Search page options in a regular search box query by using advanced operators, i.e., query words that have special meaning to Google.

Want to see examples of advanced operators?

Note: The colon following the operator name is mandatory.

[ head OR hair lice site:edu ]
[ link:www.pampmothersclub.org ]
[ allintitle: child safety ]
[ swimming lessons -adult ]
[ wills estate planning filetype:pdf ]

Advanced operators allow more flexibility than the basic operators and the Advanced Search form.

Find a page by its title.

Google search box with [ allintitle: Wear Sunscreen ].  

Find pages whose titles contain the word "security," with the word "e-mail" on the text of the page not on microsoft.com.

Google search box with [ intext:e-mail intitle:security -site:microsoft.com].  

Find crime reports in California.

Google News search box with [ location:CA "crime reports" ].  

Find pdf documents with information about financial planning for a child's college education.

Google search box with [ filetype:pdf financial planning college education ].  

Search non-commercial organizations, educational, and government sites.

Google search box with [ site:.org OR site:.edu OR site:.gov googleguide ].  

Find every page on a site that is included in Google's index.

Google search box with [ site:www.googleguide.com googleguide ].  

Learn about techniques used by hackers to exploit targets and find sensitive data and how to defend your own websites in Johnny Long's Google Hacking Mini-Guide.

The Google Guide Advanced Operator Quick Reference (www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html) provides a nice two-page summary of the search operators grouped by type.

There is an alphabetical list of the search operators in the Using Search Operators (Advanced Operators) section of Google Guide.

For tips on using one or more search operators in a query, see the last section in Using Search Operators (Advanced Operators).

Links to Other Useful Information

Click on any of the following links for more on these topics.

Selecting Search Terms
How Google Interprets a Query
Refining a Query
What Appears on the Results Page
Getting to the Last Result
When Google added features (Feature History)
How Google Works

For more features and services as well as how Google works, read Google Guide (www.googleguide.com) or How to Do Everything with Google.

Part I: Query Input

Google is easy to use, but the more you know about how it works, its features, its capabilities, and how it displays results, the better it can serve your needs.

In this segment, you will learn how to:

Entering a Query

If you have little or no experience with Google, read on. Otherwise, skip to the next section, titled "Go to the First Result."

If your browser isn't pointing to Google, visit Google's home page by entering one of the following web addresses into your browser:

(When we refer to a web address in this tutorial, we omit the "http://" prefix. For a description of web addresses, see the section "Anatomy of a Web Address."

You may also have a bookmark or favorites entry for Google or a "Google" button on your browser window. No matter how you do it, you should see the Google home page with a search box:

Screen shot of Google's home page

What is a query? It's a request for information from a search engine. A query consists of one or more words, numbers, or phrases that you hope you will find in the search results listings. In Google Guide, I sometimes call a query search terms.

To enter a query, type descriptive words into Google's search box. You can use either the search box on Google's home page (shown above) or the search box that always appears at the top of a Google results page (shown in the next screen shot). And for now, you can also use the search box we've provided. For practice, point to this box, click in it, and type the words [ california driving ]:

  

The previous example isn't just a picture of a search box. Now press the ENTER key or click on the "Google Search" button to view your search results. You'll get the Google results page for a search on the words "california" and "driving." The results include links to pages that match your query as well as relevant snippets (excerpts) with your search terms in boldface.

Feel free to change what's in the search box and run other searches. To come back to this tutorial, click your browser's "back" button (more than once, if needed).

Screen shot of Google search results for "california driving"

The results page is full of information and links, most of which relate to your query. Results Google considers to be most relevant to your query are shown first. To the right of Google's search results appear sponsored links, which are paid advertisements.

The first line in each result is the page title. The title will be underlined, i.e., it's a link to the web page. You can click on the title to view that page. (The URL of the page is shown in green at the start of a line, near the end of the result.) Under the title are often excerpts, called snippets. Snippets include one or more of your query words shown in boldface. In our example, click on the link California Driving — A Survival Guide to view the corresponding California Driving Guide web page.

Your results for a search on "california driving" may be different from this screen shot because Google constantly searches the Web for new pages and adjusts its results algorithms.

Going Directly to the First Result

Click on the I'm Feeling Lucky button on Google's home page to go directly to the first result for your query. Instead of showing you a list of pages, Google sends you immediately to the result that may be most relevant to your query. For example, if you enter the query [ california driving ] (without the square brackets) and click the I'm Feeling Lucky button, Google may send you to the home page of Hamish Reid's wonderful California Driving Guide. (You may see another page if Google's first result has changed by the time you read this tutorial.) Then come back to this Google Guide page by clicking your browser's "back" button.

Google search box with [ california driving ].  

This example isn't just a picture of what a search box and the I'm Feeling Lucky button look like. In this example and in others like it throughout this tutorial, you can edit what's in the search box and run different searches.

Screen shot of the top result from search for "california driving"

The I'm Feeling Lucky button can save you the time it takes to review your results and then click on the first one. Use it when you're confident the page you want is the best fit for your query, which is usually the case when you're seeking very popular pages. For example, it's a safe bet that an I'm Feeling Lucky search for "Paul McCartney" (one of The Beatles) will send you to his home page www.paulmccartney.com.

Note: I'm Feeling Lucky doesn't consider the various sponsored links on the first results page, which are paid advertisements, when deciding where to take you. In other words, the I'm Feeling Lucky button will send you to what Google considers the most relevant result that is not a paid advertisement.

In the Section after the Exercises, we'll look at how to select search terms.

Exercises

These problems give you experience with entering a query. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.

  1. Point your browser to Google's home page by visiting www.google.com. Find Google tutorials by typing [ google tutorial ] (without the square brackets) into Google'