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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
Pointing to any link (press the TAB
key to jump to the next link on the page).
Holding down the SHIFT key while you
click on the link (if you use Internet Explorer).
or
Pressing the right button of your mouse, and then selecting
"Open a New Window" (or the middle button if you use
Mozilla or Netscape).
After viewing the results, close the window and you will
return to the tutorial. On Microsoft Windows, you can kill the top
window by pressing the ALT and F4 keys simultaneously. You can switch the
active window by pressing the ALT
and TAB keys simultaneously.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
When your query includes the "define:" operator, Google displays all
the definitions it finds on the web, e.g.,
define:deipnosophist.
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.
All of the above.
How can you translate a word, sentence, webpage, or other material
into another language?
Ask a native speaker.
Type in define, colon, whatever word you want defined, e.g.,
define:suchmaschine.
Search for "gas" followed by your zip code in Yahoo's search box,
e.g., gas 94010, and click on the Gas Buddy link.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Instead of visiting an on-line map-providing
service, just enter a US address into Google. You can also copy and
paste addresses, even ones with embedded carriage returns, into
Google's search box. When Google recognizes your query as a location,
the results page includes links to map providers for that
location.
Click on either the Yahoo! Maps link or the MapQuest
link to view a map showing the Lucie Stern Community Center at 1305
Middlefield Road in Palo Alto, California and links to driving directions.
Just enter a company or
person's name and a city, state, or zip code in the standard web
search box.
If you have easy access to the web, Google's phonebook
feature can be more convenient than your local phonebook and more
extensive.
On the results page, phonebook listings are next to a telephone
icon.
Google's phonebook feature recognizes inputs in
the following formats.
To find a US residence, enter either ...
Examples
First name (or first initial), last name, city
(state is optional)
If Google finds any dictionary definitions
for your search terms, it shows those words as underlined links or
includes a definition link in the statistics bar section of the
results page (located below the search box showing your query). For
example, learn what co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and CEO
Eric Schmidt mean when they say they run Google as a
triumvirate.
Click on the underlined terms or the definition link in the statistics
bar to link to their dictionary definition, which also may include
information on pronunciation, part of speech, etymology, and usage.
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. In February of 2003,
Google acquired Pyra Labs, a company that makes it easy for you to
create your own blog. What's a blog? Let's ask Google to define the
term.
When your query includes the "define:" operator,
Google displays all the definitions it finds on the web.
But it's free and may be
good enough for your purposes. It can add up a list of numbers,
convert from miles to kilometers, and evaluate some other mathematical
expression. Simply enter the expression you'd like evaluated in
Google's web search box and hit the ENTER key or click the "Google
Search" button. For example, add up some receipts.
Calculate a tip for a meal that costs $93.45.
Calculate the cosine of 2π.
Convert from one set of units to another.
Many commonly used physical constants are built into Google's calculator.
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.
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.
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,
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.
Disable automatic stemming by preceding each
term that you want to be matched exactly with the + operator. For example, if you
want to see pages that only mention one favorite book rather
than lists of favorite books, precede the word
"book" by a + sign.
If you want to search for pages that contain a phrase or proper
name and not variations, enclose your search terms in
quotes (" ").
For example,
finds pages containing exactly the phrase "Dr. Phil." So this query
would find pages mentioning host of a popular television show about
parenting, but not pages containing "Dr. David Phil " or
"Phil Cahil Dr." The query
(without quotes) would find pages containing any of "Dr. Phil,"
"Dr. David Phil," or "Phil Cahil Dr."
I wish Google accepted regular expressions, i.e., a set of
symbols and syntactic elements used to match patterns of
text. Unfortunately Google doesn't. But you can fine-tune your search query and increase the accuracy of its results by using special characters
and operators, such as +, -, ~, .., OR, *, and quotation marks.
Force Google to include a term by preceding
the term with a "+"
sign.
The + operator is typically used
in front of stop words that Google would otherwise ignore
or when you want Google to return only those pages that match
your search terms exactly.
Precede each term you do not want to
appear in any result with a
"-" sign.
Find synonyms by preceding the term with a ~, which is known as the tilde or synonym
operator.
Specify synonyms or alternative forms with an uppercase
OR or | (vertical bar).
Use quotes ("
")
to group compound words and phrases together.
Specify that results contain numbers in a range by specifying two
numbers, separated by two periods, with no spaces.
Use an *, known as a wildcard,
to match any word in a phrase (enclosed in
quotes).
Let's look at other examples that use the * operator.
What are other verses to an army song I learned at camp.
with term
(The + operator is typically
used in front of stop words
that Google would otherwise ignore or when you want
Google to return only pages that match
your search terms exactly. However, the + operator can be used on any terms.)
By default, Google returns just 10 results for a search. You can
increase the number of results displayed per page to 20, 30, 50, or
100. The more results displayed per page, the more likely you are to
find what you want on the first page of results. The downside is that
the more results per page, the more slowly the page loads. How much
more time it takes depends on your connection to the Internet.
Web pages are available in languages other than English.
Google provides a translation link
to enable you to
get the gist of pages written in some languages.
Want to translate some text or a web page? Try the Translate feature available from the Language Tools link on Google's home page.
If you want to translate some text or a page into a language other
than those Google Language Translation Tool offers, check out Fagan Finder's Translation Wizard.
From the Preferences page, specify your global preferences, including
Interface Language:
the language in which Google will display tips,
messages, and buttons for you
Search Language:
the language of the pages Google should search for you
You can restrict your searches to those pages written in
the languages of your choice by setting the search language.
By default, Google Web search includes all pages on the Web.
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.
Click on the
Cached link to view Google's cached version of
the page with the query terms highlighted.
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.
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.
Ads must be relevant to your search.
Ads must not distract (no pop-up or flashy ads).
Sponsored links are clearly identified and kept separate from search results.
You can distinguish ads by their format and
the label "Sponsored Link." Ads contain a title, a short
description, and a web address (URL).
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
is easy to use
allows you to select or exclude
pages with more precision than by only specifying search terms and basic operators (+, -. OR, ~, ..) in Google's standard search box.
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.
Advanced operators allow more flexibility than the basic operators and the Advanced Search form.
Find a page by its title.
Find pages
whose titles contain the word "security," with the word "e-mail" on
the text of the page not on microsoft.com.
Find crime reports in California.
Find pdf documents with information about financial planning for a
child's college education.
Search non-commercial organizations, educational, and government sites.
Find every page on a site that is included in Google's index.
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.
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.
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:
http://www.google.com/ (the full web address for Google)
www.google.com (a common abbreviation for Google's web address)
google.com (for lazy typists)
google (works on some browsers for the laziest of typists)
(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:
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
These problems give you experience with entering a query.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
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's search box and then clicking the
"Google Search" button. Click on the link for Google Guide.
After completing the previous exercise, click the back button on your
browser twice to return to Google's home page and then search again for
[ google tutorial ] (without the square brackets).
Click on the I'm Feeling Lucky button.
What is the difference between the results of the previous two
exercises?
Point your browser to Boogle's home page by visiting www.boogle.com. In
addition to offering the same search capabilities as Google, Boogle
includes an interesting quote.
Find recipes for chocolate souffle by typing
[ chocolate souffle recipes ] (without the square brackets)
into Boogle's search box and then
clicking the "Google Search" button.
After completing the previous exercise,
go back to the Boogle home page.
(If you still have the same window open, use its back button to go back.
Otherwise, click on www.boogle.com.)
Then search again for
[ chocolate souffle recipes ] (without the square brackets).
Click on the I'm Feeling Lucky button.
The search terms you enter and the order in which you enter
them affect both the order and pages that appear in your
search results. In the examples below, click on the similar
ways of specifying various searches and note how the results
differ.
For simplicity sake, this tutorial uses square brackets to
denote Google's search box. For example, to search for a
cheap hotel in Mykonos, I'll put the words "cheap,"
"hotel," and "Mykonos" in square brackets,
[ cheap hotel Mykonos ], to indicate you should type
those three words in Google's search box. You should not type
the brackets, although Google will ignore them if you do type
them.
Furthermore, in the examples that follow, each
set of search terms is linked to the results of a Google search on
those terms. So clicking on [ cheap
Mykonos hotel ] returns the Google results page for a
search on those three words.
Avoid using a question as a query. For example, the query,
[ Does
Australia have Target ], instructs Google to
find pages containing all the terms. Such a query won't
necessarily find pages answering your question. A better
query might be [ Australia
Target store ].
When Google detects very common words such as
where, do, I, for, and a, known as stop words, it
ignores them so Google may return relevant
results. If you're
seeking pages that include a stop word, e.g., "how the
west was won," learn how to force Google to search for
a complete
phrase or a specific word in
the section Crafting Your Query.
Avoid using words that you might associate with your topic, but
you wouldn't expect to find on the designated page(s). For example,
queries that include "articles about," "discussion
of," "documentation on," and "pages about"
are likely to return fewer results since information on the web is
rarely labeled with such terms.
Suppose you want to know how old someone is, such as Nelson Mandela (the
former President of South Africa). Pages with "birthday" or "age"
might be more than a year old. Searching for pages that include
"Nelson Mandela" and "born" are likely to include either "Nelson
Mandela born" or "Nelson Mandela was born" followed by his birth date.
You can figure out his age from knowing when he was born.
Not sure what word or phrase is likely to appear on pages you want?
Consider running a word or phrase popularity contest with Google
Smackdown, which you can find at
www.onfocus.com/googlesmack/down.asp. This third-party application
reports which of two terms or phrases Google estimates to be more
prevalent on the web (actually on more web pages that Google has
included in its index).
Although not as popular according to Google Smackdown, in Google Guide
I use "screen shot" because it's in my online dictionary and
"screenshot" isn't.
Note: The section How Google
Works describes how Google finds web pages and constructs an
index.
It's better to use a more precise,
less ambiguous term
than a common one to "flesh out the
topic by including facets that interest
you," notes Ned Fielden in his book Internet
Research, Second Edition (McFarland & Company, 2001).
Does your query have enough specific information for
Google to determine unambiguously what you're seeking? If
your query is too vague, it's unlikely to return relevant
results. Consider, for example, the query [ java ].
What do you suppose Google includes in the first page of
results? An island in Indonesia? A beverage consisting of
an infusion of ground coffee beans? A computer
network-oriented platform-independent programming language
developed by Sun Microsystems?
How can you come up with more specific search terms? What do you
know about the topic? Consider answers to the questions,
who?, what?, where?, when?, why?, and how?
When you search for [ Tom
Watson ], on the first page of results you may
get references to a member of Parliament, the golfer, the
IBM executive, and a Populist Party candidate for
President in 1900 and 1904. If you're searching for
something that could return many different types of
results, you should add a term that distinguishes among
them. This way you'll get only results about the specific
Tom Watson you're interested in.
For best results, use a few precise words. For example, a program on
quitting smoking is more likely to include the terms
"quit smoking program" than the words
"program on quitting tobacco cigarette smoking addiction."
There's a good chance that Google will recognize your mistakes and
suggest an alternative more common spelling, usually faster than you
can look up the term in an online dictionary.
Note: Before clicking on Google's suggested spelling, consider
whether it's what you want. Spelling checkers, like people, make
mistakes.
For more information on Google's spelling correction system, see
the section Spelling Corrections.
Note: Even if you use the search tips described in Google
Guide, you won't be able to access authoritative information that's
available offline, e.g., old reference books, or is stored in
specialized databases. For such information is not currently
searchable with Google.
Next we'll look at how Google interprets your query.
These problems give you practice in selecting search terms.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Find a page with "Google doodle."
Find the Dilbert cartoon that Scott Adams developed by using Google's logo.
What's Google's history?
Find contact information for your representative(s), e.g.,
senator, congresswoman (or congressman), or member of Parliament.
How long did it take the first person to cross the United States by
car and in what year was it first done?
In the summer of 1997, an email message was widely circulated
featuring the text of a "commencement speech" purportedly
given by Kurt Vonnegut at MIT. The imaginary speech began "Wear
sunscreen." What's the story behind this email hoax? What did
this funny well-written fantasy "commencement
speech" say?
Learn about the recommended tours of the Hearst Castle.
A search for [ compact
fold-up bicycle ] finds pages
containing the words "compact"
and "fold-up"
and "bicycle." Because you don't need to
include the word AND between your terms, this notation is
called an implicit AND.
Note: If you want pages containing any
(instead of all) of your search terms, use the OR operator, which is
described in the next section Crafting Your Query.
Note: Google sometimes returns pages that don't
contain your query terms, as you can see in the example in the Cached
Pages section in Part II. Google returns pages in
which your query terms are included in the link text
(interpreted as a description) to another page
or place on the page, more commonly referred to as the anchor
text of a link pointing to the page.
In his book Internet Research, Second Edition (McFarland &
Company, 2001), Ned Fielden notes
"Google simply matches strings of characters together and doesn't
currently base inferences on uses of the language. Although this
searching method has some drawbacks, it harnesses one of the fabulous
powers of computers, [the ability] to sift through enormous heaps of
data quickly and accurately."
If you search for ...
Google won't find ...
cheap
inexpensive
tv
television
effects
influences
children
kids
car
automobile
Calif OR CA
California
Note: There are exceptions when Google finds pages that include synonyms of
your search terms, which are displayed in a boldface typeface
in Google's snippet.
The query [ 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. Stemming is a technique to search on the stem or root of
a word that can have multiple endings.
If you only want to search for pages that contain some term(s)
exactly, precede each such term with a plus sign
(+) or enclose more than one term in quotes (" ").
Google doesn't match variants when your query consists of a single
term.
Note: When you want synonyms or variants that Google doesn't
find, consider using either the OR or tilde operator, which is described in
the next section Crafting Your Query.
Google ignores some common words called "stop
words," e.g., the, on, where,
how, de, la, as well as certain
single digits and single letters.
Stop words
tend to slow down your search without improving the
results. Google will indicate if a stop word has been
excluded on the results page below the search box.
Note: Use the + operator or
enclose more than one term in quotes
(" ") to force Google to include
terms it would otherwise ignore. I describe these basic
operators and others in the next section, Crafting Your Query.
If your query consists only of common words that Google
normally ignores, Google will search for pages that match all
the terms.
Note: Find more pages mentioning the rock band The Who
by entering [ "the
who" ], a notation you'll learn about in the next section Crafting Your
Query.
Google will indicate in a message below the query box at the
top of the page if your query exceeds the 32-word limit.
The 32-word limit applies to search terms and operators but not stop words.
The limit was previously 10 words, as shown in the following image.
Google considers the proximity of
your search terms within a page. So the query [ snake grass ] finds pages about a plant of that name,
while [ snake in the grass ] tends to emphasize pages about
sneaky people. Although Google ignores the words
"in" and "the," (these are stop words),
Google gives higher priority to pages in which
"snake" and "grass" are separated by
two words.
Consequently, you should enter search terms in the order
in which you would expect to find them on the pages you're
seeking. A search for [ New
York library ] gives priority to pages about New
York's libraries. While the query [ new
library of York ] gives priority to pages about
the new libraries in York.
Ignoring case distinctions increases the number of results Google
finds. A search for [ Red
Cross ] finds pages containing "Red
Cross," "red cross," or "RED
CROSS."
There is no way to instruct Google to pay attention to
case distinctions, e.g., you can't tell Google to find only
occurrences of "Red Cross" where the first letter of
each word is capitalized.
Note: The words "OR" and "AND" have special meanings if
entered in uppercase letters.
Because punctuation is typically not as important as the text
around it, Google ignores most punctuation in your search terms.
There are exceptions, e.g., C++ and $99. Mathematical symbols, such
as /, <, and >, are not ignored by Google's
calculator.
What if you're seeking information that includes
punctuation that Google ignores, e.g., an email address?
Just enter the whole thing including the punctuation.
Be aware that web pages sometimes camouflage email addresses to make
collecting such information difficult for spammers. For example, on
some sites you'll find the @ sign in an email address replaced with
the word "at."
Now we'll look at some special characters that Google doesn't ignore.
When Google encounters a hyphen (-) in a query term, e.g.,
[ part-time ], it searches for:
the term with the hyphen, e.g., part-time
the term without the hyphen, e.g., parttime
the term with the hyphen replaced by a space, e.g., part time
[ part-time
] matches "part-time," "part time," and "parttime"
[ part time
] matches "part-time" and "part time", but
[ "part time"
]
(with quotes)
is better for space-separated words
Note: Google may search for variations of your query terms that are
included in the online dictionary that Google uses.
[ non profit ] matches "non-profit," "nonprofit," and "non profit"
If you
aren't sure whether a word is hyphenated, go ahead and search for it
with a hyphen.
The following table summarizes how Google interprets your
query.
Search Behaviors
Descriptions
Implicit AND
Google returns pages that match all your search terms. Because
you don't need to include the logical operator AND between your terms, this
notation is called an implicit AND.
Exact Matching
Google returns pages that match your
search terms exactly.
Word Variation Automatic Stemming
Google returns pages that match variants of your
search terms.
Common-Word Exclusion
Google ignores some common words called "stop words," e.g., the, on,
where, and how. Stop words tend to slow down searches without
improving results.
32-Word Limit
Google limits queries to 32 words.
Term Proximity
Google gives more priority to pages that have search terms near
each other.
Term Order
Google gives more priority to pages that have search terms in the same order as the query.
Case Insensitivity
Google is case-insensitive; it shows both upper- and lowercase results.
Ignoring Punctuation
Google ignores most punctuation and special characters including , . ;
? [ ] ( ) @ / * < >
These problems are intended to help you understand how
Google interprets your search terms.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Indicate which queries would match a page containing
"GoogleGuide."
What is the usual percentage gratuity (tip) to give in a big
city in the United States to a person who provides take-out
service, i.e., gives you your orders and accepts payment for the
food?
Indicate which words the following queries will find:
[ year-end ]
year-end
year end
yearend
[ year end ]
year-end
year end
yearend
[ yearend ]
year-end
year end
yearend
Which queries would you predict to be most likely to find sites with
discounted designer linens?
[ discounted designer linens ]
[ discount designer linen ]
[ designer linen discount ]
[ linen designer discount ]
[ linen discounted design ]
With the following queries, is Google doing stemming, i.e., matching variations of the search terms?
By using special characters and operators, such as +, -, ~, ..,
OR, and
quotation marks, you can fine-tune your search query and increase
the accuracy of its results.
A query with terms in quotes finds pages containing the
exact quoted phrase. For example, [ "Larry Page" ] finds pages
containing exactly the phrase "Larry Page." So
this query would find pages mentioning Google's co-founder
Larry Page, but not pages containing "Larry has a home
page," "Larry E. Page," or "Congressional page Larry
Smith." The query [ Larry
Page ] (without quotes) would find pages containing
any of "Larry Page," "Larry has a home
page," or "Congressional page Larry Smith."
Google doesn't perform automatic stemming on
phrases, i.e., searching for pages that match variants of
any of your search terms, which I described in the previous
section Interpreting Your Query. For example, if you want to
see pages that mention only one favorite book rather than
lists of favorite books, enclose your search terms in
quotes.
Some teachers use quoted phrases to detectplagiarism.
They copy a few
unique and specific phrases into the Google search box, surround them
with quotes, and see if any results are too similar to their student's
supposedly original work.
Find ways to detect and prevent plagiarism.
You may include more than one quoted string in a query. All quoted
query phrases must appear on a result page; the implied AND works on
both individual words and quoted phrases.
The following search would find pages containing both of the phrases
"The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham":
To force Google to search for a particular term, put a + sign operator in front of the word in the
query. Note that you should not put a space between the + and the word. So, to search for the
satirical newspaper The Onion, use [ +The Onion ], not [ + The Onion ].
The + operator is typically used
in front of stop words that Google would otherwise ignore
or when you want Google to return only those pages that match
your search terms exactly. However, the + operator can be used on any term.
Want to learn about Star Wars Episode One?
"I" is a stop word and is not included in a search
unless you precede it with a
+ sign.
Google excludes common words in
English and in other languages, such as "la"
(which means "the" in Spanish) and
"de" (which means "of" in French,
Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese). So if Google ignores a term
critical to your search, e.g., LA (common abbreviation for
Los Angeles), put a + sign in front of it.
The query [
jobs in central LA California ] finds jobs in central California, since
the term "LA" is ignored because it's a stop word.
Central California
is at least a hundred miles (160 km) from central Los Angeles.
Disable automatic
stemming, i.e., searching for pages that match
variants of your search term(s), by preceding each term
that you want to be matched exactly with the + operator. For example, if you
want to see only pages mentioning one favorite book
rather than lists of favorite books, precede the word
"book" by a + sign.
To find pages without a particular term,
put a - sign operator in front of the
word in the query.
The - sign indicates that you
want to subtract or exclude pages that contain a specific term.
Do not put a space between the - and the word, i.e., use [ dolphins -football ] not
[ dolphins
- football ].
So, to search for a twins support group in Minnesota, but not return pages
relating to the Minnesota Twins baseball team:
The tilde (~) operator takes the
word immediately following it and searches both for that specific word
and for the word's synonyms. It also searches for the term with
alternative endings. The tilde operator works best when applied to
general terms and terms with many synonyms. As with the + and -
operators, put the ~ (tilde) next to the
word, with no spaces between the ~ and its
associated word, i.e.,
[ ~lightweight laptop ]
not
[ ~ lightweight laptop ].
Why did Google use tilde? In math, the "~" symbol means "is similar to". The
tilde tells Google to search for pages that are synonyms or similar to
the term that follows.
[ ~inexpensive ] matches "inexpensive," "cheap,"
"affordable," and "low cost"
[ ~run ] matches "run," "runner's," "running,"
as well as "marathon"
Looking for a guide, help, tutorial, or tips on using Google?
If you don't like the synonyms that Google suggests when you use the
~ operator, specify your own synonyms with
the OR operator, which I describe next.
The OR operator, for which you may
also use | (vertical bar),
applies to the search terms immediately adjacent to it. The first and
second examples will find pages that include either "Tahiti" or
"Hawaii" or both terms, but not pages that contain neither
"Tahiti" nor "Hawaii."
The third and fourth examples will find pages that contain any one, two,
or all three of the terms "blouse," "shirt," and
"chemise."
with term
(The + operator is typically
used in front of stop words
that Google would otherwise ignore or when you want
Google to return only pages that match
your search terms exactly. However, the + operator can be used on any terms.)
This problem set is designed to give you practice in refining
your queries and in using Google's commands with special notation.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Find the Google "cheat sheet" that lists search
operators and services.
Why does the query
[ "the who" ]
give more priority to results about the rock band The
Who than the query
[ the
who ] but return significantly fewer results?
When you don't find what you're seeking, consider
specifying more precisely what you want by using Google's Advanced
Search feature.
Don't be frightened by the name "Advanced
Search"; it's easy to use, and it allows you to select or exclude
pages with more precision than Google's standard search box.
Click on the
Advanced
Search
link at the right of Google's search box.
or visit www.google.com/advanced_search
and fill in the form. The Advanced Search form is
automatically filled in with appropriate information from your
previous query — if you entered a query just before you
clicked on the Advanced Search link. If you searched for a
phrase, the phrase appears in the phrase search box.
If you restricted your search to a specific site or domain,
the domain appears in the domain box.
Filling in the top portion of the Advanced Search form is an easy way
to write restricted queries without having to use the
" ," +, -, OR notation discussed in the previous
section Crafting Your Query.
Let's look at some examples. If you click on the screen shots in this section,
you'll be taken to the results of running the corresponding search.
To find tutorial introductions to Google, specify
[ google ] in the top field (find results with all the
words), and [ tutorial guide intro introduction ] in the
third field (find results with at least one of the words).
Note: Instead of specifying your own synonyms for tutorial, you
can instruct Google to suggest its own by using the tilde operator,
[ google
~tutorial ] or
[ google
~guide ].
See Crafting Your Query.
Find how to export addresses from a Palm address book
to print labels.
The next part of the Advanced Search page lets you restrict
the types of pages listed in your search results.
Next we'll look at each part of the form.
If you want to jump ahead to a particular part, though,
choose it from this list:
Now a detailed description of each part of the Advanced Search page:
Language: limit results to pages
written in a specific language.
For example, find pages in Spanish with recommendations for hotels in
Andalucía, Spain.
If you always want only results in a certain language or set
of languages, then change your search language in your Google preferences. See
the section Customizing Your Results by Using
Preferences to learn how to change your Google preferences to modify the
way your search results appear.
File Format: restrict your results to
a particular file format, or exclude a format from your
results. Choices include:
File Format
Suffix
Description
Adobe Acrobat PDF
.pdf
A publishing format commonly used for product manuals and documents of all sorts.
Adobe PostScript
.ps
A printing format often used for academic papers.
Microsoft Word
.doc
A common word processing format.
Microsoft Excel
.xls
A format for spreadsheets.
Microsoft Powerpoint
.ppt
A format for presentations and slides.
Rich Text Format
.rtf
A format used to exchange
documents between Microsoft Word and other formats.
Since documents in PDF format tend to be better written than web pages, let's search
for documents on estate planning in PDF format.
You can restrict your search to other file formats by using the filetype: search
operator, which I will discuss in the section
Using Search Operator (Advanced Operators).
Date: restrict your results to pages
that have been updated (created or modified), crawled, and added to
Google's index (indexed) in the past three, six, or twelve
months. Popular pages that are updated often are crawled and indexed
frequently. Note: Any change in the page counts as an
update, even a spelling correction.
This option is useful when searching for
timely information such as annual events, specifications for a new
model of car or appliance, or what people have been doing lately.
Recently, scientists reported new findings about the risks
and benefits of hormone therapy used by 40% of postmenopausal American
women to relieve menopause symptoms. We're more likely to find links to
this information by searching only for web pages updated in the last
three months.
Visit the Wayback
Machine if you want to see what a site looked like months or years
ago or if a site is currently inaccessible. The Wayback Machine, also known as the
Internet Archive, maintains a digital library of snapshots of many
Internet sites.
Numeric Range:
when you want pages containing numbers in a specified range.
Since I'm interested in a "half-bicycle" trailer for my young
twins, let's search for one
called Trail-a-Bike in the price range $50-$1000.
Occurrences:
specify where your search terms must occur on the page.
Choices are anywhere on the page, in the title, in the text, in the
URL, or in links to the page.
Find pages on Google whose URL contains FAQ, an abbreviation for
either Frequently Asked Questions or Frequently Answered Question.
In the solution below I look for
pages containing both Google and FAQ in the URL.
Domain: search only a specific
website (e.g., www.eff.org) or domain (e.g., .org) or
exclude that site or domain completely from your search. The
section Anatomy of a Web Address,
later in this page, explains
how to find the website or domain for a web
page if you know its address.
Let's look at a couple of examples. If you click on the screen shots
in this section, you'll be taken to the Advanced Search form
specifying the corresponding search.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google's founders, were graduate
students at Stanford when they wrote a paper describing their
prototype search engine. Let's search for it by entering their names
and restricting our search domain to Stanford University's site,
stanford.edu.
To find information on volunteering for an organization,
search for results with the word "volunteering" and restrict
the domain to ."org."
In general — unless a page states otherwise — it's
safe to assume that pages you find with Google cannot be freely used
in any way you like.
However, some pages have special marking
to tell search
engines such as Google that the page is covered by the Creative Commons
license — and what types of usage are permitted.
The Usage Rights search finds these specially-marked pages.
Your choices are:
Usage Rights
Description
not filtered by license
standard, unfiltered Google results
free to use or share
results you can copy or redistribute
free to use or share, even commercially
results you can copy or redistribute for profit
free to use share or modify
results you can copy or adapt, as well as redistribute
free to use, share or modify, even commercially
results you can copy or adapt, as well as redistribute,
for profit
Note that simply finding pages with the Usage Rights search doesn't
guarantee your rights.
You should check each page to be sure about its usage terms.
Let's say that you want to build a website with recipes for vegetables.
We'll find pages on Google with Usage Rights
"free to use, share or modify, even commercially"
SafeSearch:
specify whether to filter out sites that
contain pornography or explicit sexual content and eliminate them
from search results. Be aware that Google's automated filtering
doesn't guarantee that you won't be shown offensive content.
When you turn off SafeSearch filtering and search for non-pornographic
content, Google will order your results in a way that adult sites
won't be listed prominently. For example, searching for
[ breast
cancer treatment ] with SafeSearch turned off, you're
unlikely to run across sites with provocative images of breasts.
In an
effort to return as many useful results as possible, SafeSearch
doesn't currently filter out hate speech, anarchy, criminal activity,
crude and tasteless material, illegal weapons, bomb making, etc.,
content that other filtering systems attempt to exclude.
The Advanced Search form also offers page-specific searches for
finding pages similar to
a page for which you have a web address (URL) and for finding out what
pages link to a particular page.
Web pages link from one to another. Links are
unidirectional; you can follow links from one page to another.
You cannot traverse the link the other way around, i.e., go from a
page to the pages that link to it. However, Google keeps track of
this information and makes it available. When you want to know
who links to your website or to someone else's, fill in a web
address (URL) in the links page-specific search section of the Advanced Search
form. Let's find who links to the Doctors without Borders, aka
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), website
www.doctorswithoutborders.org.
The most common users of backward links are webmasters and website
publishers who are curious to know what sites link to theirs. People
also use them to find out who links to competitors' sites.
Unlike the other fields in the Advanced Search form, the
page-specific searches can't be combined with other query
terms. Consequently each has its own Search button.
You can easily run these page-specific searches from Google's
Toolbar, which is described in the section Making Google Easier
with Google Tools.
Once you've refined your Advanced Search, you can watch for changes in the
top 20 results by setting up
Google Alerts.
Google will find and deliver links to
new web pages once a week, once a day, or as soon as Google finds them.
Simply copy and paste your advanced search query into the search box on
the Google Alerts page.
If you want to specify what you're looking for with more precision
than Google's Advanced Search form offers, try the Google Ultimate
Interface, a third-party application available at
www.faganfinder.com/google.html. With the Ultimate Interface you
can:
Search with any of Google's search engines, i.e., Web Search or some
of the tools in Part III Special Tools.
Find pages that have been updated between any two specific dates
Select letters with practically every different kind of
diacritical marking, such as umlauts or accent marks,
from the keyboard near the bottom of the page.
Michael Fagan developed Google Ultimate Interface when he
was a teenager.
If you're not sure of all the types of information that you can search
for with Google, check out Soople, www.soople.com/soople_int.php.
Refining a query means changing or adding to the set of
search terms to do a better job of returning the pages you're
seeking.
Successful researchers frequently enter several queries to find
what they're seeking.
The search boxes at the top and bottom of the results page show the
query for the current results page. If the query uses special
operators that you entered either directly or indirectly through the
advanced search form, they will appear in the search box as well. To
refine your query, edit what's in the search box and then click the
"Google Search" button or hit the ENTER
key.
Let's look at a few examples.
Get ideas for subsequent searches by reviewing your results,
including the snippets that Google returns and the pages they came from.
Should you get a flu shot this winter?
TRY [ flu
shot ]
Exploit successful queries: look deeper within your results.
Scroll to the search box at
the bottom of your results page and click on the link "Search
within results." This causes Google to run a new search using
your newly specified terms (those in the search box) only on
the pages it found from your initial query, rather than a search over
the entire web.
You can get the same
results in one step fewer by simply specifying additional terms to your
previous query.
On Internet Explorer and on some other browsers, you can change a term
or an entire query easily.
First, highlight the part you want to change by double-clicking a word,
or triple-clicking to highlight the entire query. Then either press
the DELETE key to remove the highlighted text or
type new text to replace it.
For example, to change "great vacation spots" to
"great vacation areas," double-click on the word
"spots" below and type "areas."
Instead of searching for related topics with a
single query, divide the query into several parts. Looking for a job?
By searching for tips on each aspect, you'll find more sites than by
searching for sites that describe all the aspects of a job search.
If you already know how to read a web address or URL (Universal Resource
Locator, pronounced "you are ell"), skip this section.
Otherwise, consider the web address
http://www.googleguide.com/searchEngines/google/searchLeader.html.
(This page lists reasons why Google is a search leader.)
Here's what it all means:
http
transfer protocol (type of information being transferred)
www.googleguide.com
website name, host name
googleguide
second-level
domain name
com
top-level domain name
searchEngines
directory name (major category)
google
sub-directory
name (sub-category)
searchLeader
file
name (a file within the directory)
html
file format
Here's a list of some common top-level domain names.
Note that some sites don't follow these conventions:
.edu
educational site (usually a university or college)
.com
commercial business site
.gov
U.S. government/non-military site
.mil
U.S. military sites or agencies
.net
networks, Internet service providers, organizations
.org
non-profit organizations and others
Because the Internet was created in the United States,
"US" was not originally assigned to U.S. domain
names; however, it's used to designate American state and local
government hosts, including many public schools, and commercial
entities, e.g., well.sf.ca.us. The domain .ca
represents Canada,
unless it's followed by .us, in which case it represents California.
Domain Codes
State
.ca.us
California
.nv.us
Nevada
.tx.us
Texas
Other countries have their own two letter codes as the top level
of their domain names — although many non-US sites use other top-level
domains (such as .com):
Domain Codes
Country
.ca
Canada
.de
Germany
.dk
Denmark
.jp
Japan
.il
Israel
.uk
United Kingdom
.za
South Africa
To limit results to a single site or domain,
specify the site name (e.g., www.googleguide.com or
googleguide.com) or a top-level domain name (e.g., .com or .edu)
in Google's domain selector.
This problem set is designed to give you practice with specifying more precisely what you're seeking by using the Advanced Search form.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
What are some home remedies for getting rid of ants?
Find facts about declawing cats.
What is Google's privacy policy? How do I stop my previous
queries from appearing when I type in a new search term?
Some movie stars attend Botox parties. What goes on at
such parties and why do they attend? Which stars have used Botox?
You can use most of the options we discussed in the
previous page (the
Advanced Search Page options) in a regular search box query.
If you're a frequent searcher or a "power searcher,"
this can save time because you don't need to open the Advanced
Search page and fill in various boxes; instead, you can
enter the refined query in almost any Google search box.
You'll use advanced operators, query words that have special
meaning to Google. Since the advanced operators are
convenient for searching, Google Guide calls them "search
operators."
Note: We recommend that you skip ahead to
Part II: Understanding
Search Results unless you're an experienced Google user or you want
to know how to use Google's advanced operators.
Here are three places you can find examples of search operators.
Fill in Google's Advanced
Search form.
Then look at the search box on the results
page; you may see that Google has added search operators
to your query.
For instance, if you fill in the Advanced Search page, asking
Google to "find results with all of the words"
[ detect plagiarism ] and to "return results where my terms
occur: in the title of the page", your results page should
look like the one shown here.
Notice the "allintitle:" search operator that Google
added before your query:
Read through the descriptions below and try the examples.
Here are more examples of search operators.
Note: The colon (:) after the operator name is required.
The following table lists the search operators that work with each
Google search service.
Click on an operator to jump to its description — or, to
read about all of the operators, simply scroll down and read
all of this page.
Each entry typically includes the syntax, the capabilities, and an
example. Some of the search operators won't work as intended if you
put a space between the ":" and the subsequent query word.
If you don't care to check which search operators require no space
after the colon, always place the keyword immediately next to the
colon. Many search operators can appear anywhere in your query. In our
examples, we place the search operator as far to the right as possible. We
do this because the Advanced Search form writes queries in this way. Also,
such a convention makes it clearer as to which operators are associated with
which terms.
If you start your query with allinanchor:, Google restricts results
to pages containing all query terms you specify in the anchor text on
links to the page. For example, [ allinanchor:
best museums sydney ]
will return only pages in which the anchor text on links to the pages
contain the words "best," "museums," and "sydney."
If you start your query with allintext:, Google restricts
results to those containing all the query terms you specify in the
text of the page. For example, [ allintext:
travel packing list ] will return only pages in which the
words "travel," "packing," and "list" appear in the text of the page.
This functionality can also be obtained through the Advanced Web
Search page, under Occurrences.
If you start your query with allintitle:, Google restricts results to
those containing all the query terms you specify in the title. For
example,
[ allintitle: detect plagiarism ] will return only
documents that contain the words "detect" and
"plagiarism" in the title. This functionality can also be obtained
through the Advanced Web Search page, under Occurrences.
If you start your query with allinurl:, Google restricts results to
those containing all the query terms you specify in the URL. For
example, [ allinurl: google faq ]
will return only documents that contain the words "google" and "faq"
in the URL, such as
www.google.com/help/faq.html. This
functionality can also be obtained through the Advanced Web Search page,
under Occurrences.
In URLs, words are often run together. They need not be run together
when you're using allinurl:.
In Google News, the operator allinurl: will return articles whose
titles include the terms you specify.
If you include author: in your query, Google will restrict your
Google Groups results to include newsgroup articles by the author you
specify. The author can be a full or partial name or email address.
For example, [ children author:john author:doe ] or [ children
author:doe@someaddress.com ] return articles that contain the word
"children" written by John Doe or doe@someaddress.com.
Google will search for exactly what you specify. If your query
contains [ author:"John Doe" ]
(with quotes),
Google won't find articles where the
author is specified as "Doe, John."
The query cache:URL will display Google's cached version
of a web page, instead of the current version of the page. For
example,
[ cache:www.eff.org ] will show Google's cached
version of the Electronic Frontier Foundation home page.
Note: Do not put a space between cache: and the URL (web
address).
On the cached version of a page, Google will highlight terms in your
query that appear after the cache: search operator.
For example, [ cache:www.pandemonia.com/flying/
fly diary ]
will show Google's cached version of Flight Diary in which Hamish Reid's
documents what's involved in learning how to fly
with the terms "fly" and "diary" highlighted.
If you start your query with define:, Google shows definitions
from pages on the web for the term that follows. This advanced search
operator is useful for finding definitions of words, phrases, and
acronyms. For example, [ define:
blog ] will show definitions for
"Blog" (weB LOG).
If you include filetype:suffix in your query, Google will restrict
the results to pages whose names end in suffix. For example, [ web page evaluation checklist filetype:pdf ] will return Adobe Acrobat pdf files that
match the terms "web," "page," "evaluation," and "checklist." You can
restrict the results to pages whose names end with pdf and doc by
using the OR operator, e.g.
[
email security filetype:pdf OR
filetype:doc ].
If you include group: in your query, Google will restrict your
Google Groups results to newsgroup articles from certain
groups or subareas. For example, [ sleep group:misc.kids.moderated ]
will return articles in the group misc.kids.moderated that contain the
word "sleep" and [ sleep group:misc.kids ] will return articles in the
subarea misc.kids that contain the word "sleep."
If you include inanchor: in your query, Google will restrict the
results to pages containing the query terms you specify in the anchor text or
links to the page. For example, [ restaurants inanchor:gourmet ]
will return pages in which the anchor text on links to the pages
contain the word "gourmet" and the page contains the word "restaurants."
The query info:URL will
present some information about the corresponding web page. For
instance, [ info:gothotel.com ]
will show information about the national hotel directory GotHotel.com
home page. Note: There must be no space between the info:
and the web page URL.
This functionality can also be obtained by typing the web page URL
directly into a Google search box.
If you include insubject: in your query, Google will restrict
articles in Google Groups to those that contain the terms you
specify in the subject. For example, [ insubject:"falling asleep" ]
will return Google Group articles that contain the phrase
"falling asleep" in the subject.
The query intext:term restricts results to documents
containing term in the text. For instance, [ Hamish Reid intext:pandemonia ]
will return documents that mention the word "pandemonia" in the text, and
mention the names "Hamish" and "Reid" anywhere in the document (text or not). Note:
There must be no space between the intext: and the following word.
The query intitle:term restricts results to documents
containing term in the title. For instance, [ flu shot
intitle:help ] will return documents that mention the word "help" in
their titles, and mention the words "flu" and "shot" anywhere in the
document (title or not). Note: There must be no space between the
intitle: and the following word.
Putting intitle: in front of every word in your query is equivalent
to putting allintitle: at the front of your query, e.g., [ allintitle: google search ].
If you include inurl: in your query, Google will restrict the results
to documents containing that word in the URL. For instance,
[ inurl:print site:www.googleguide.com]
searches for pages on Google Guide in which the URL contains the word
"print." It finds pdf files that are in the
directory or folder that I named "print" on the Google Guide website.
The query [ inurl:healthy eating ] will return documents that mention the words
"healthy" in their URL, and mention the word "eating" anywhere in the
document.
Note: There must be no space between the inurl:
and the following word.
Note: According to Google's documentation,
"you cannot combine a link: search with a regular keyword search."
Also note that when you combine link: with another advanced operator, Google may not return all the pages that match.
The following queries should return lots of results, as you can see if you remove the -site: term in each of these queries.
Find links to the Google home page not on Google's own site.
If you include location: in your query on Google News, only articles
from the location you specify will be returned. For example, [ queen location:canada ] will show articles that match the term "queen" from
sites in Canada.
Two-letter US
state abbreviations match individual US states.
Two-letter Canadian province abbreviations don't work (at least, not at
the time we wrote this page).
Some other two-letter abbreviations — such as UK for the United
Kingdom — are also available.
If you start your query with phonebook:, Google shows all U.S. white page
listings for the query terms you specify. For example, [ phonebook: Krispy Kreme Mountain
View ] will show the phonebook listing of Krispy
Kreme donut shops in Mountain View.
The query related:URL will list web pages that are similar
to the web page you specify. For instance,
[ related:www.consumerreports.org ] will list web pages that are similar
to the Consumer Reports home page. Note: Don't include a space between
the related: and the web page url. You can also find similar pages
from the Similar pages link on Google's main results page, and from
the similar selector in the Page-Specific Search area of the Advanced
Search page. If you expect to search frequently for similar
pages, consider installing a GoogleScout browser button, which scouts
for similar pages.
If you start your query with rphonebook:, Google shows U.S. residential
white page listings for the query terms you specify. For
example, [ rphonebook: John Doe New York ]
will show the phonebook listings for John Doe in New York (city or state).
Abbreviations like [ rphonebook: John Doe NY ] generally also work.
If you include site: in your query, Google will restrict your
search results to the site or domain you specify. For example,
[ admissions
site:www.lse.ac.uk ]
will show admissions information from London School of Economics'
site and
[ peace site:gov ]
will find pages about peace within the .gov domain. You can
specify a domain with or without a period, e.g., either as .gov or gov.
Note: Do not include a space between the "site:" and
the domain.
You can use many of the search operators in conjunction with
the basic search operators +, -, OR, " ." For
example, to find information on Windows security from all sites
except Microsoft.com, enter:
If you include source: in your query, Google News will restrict your search
to articles from the news source with the ID you specify. For example,
[ election source:new_york_times ] will return articles with the word
"election" that appear in the New York Times.
To find a news source ID, enter a query that includes a term and the
name of the publication you're seeking. You can also specify the
publication name in the "news source" field in the Advanced News Search
form. You'll find the news source ID in the query box, following the
source: search operator. For example, let's say you enter the
publication name Ha'aretz in the News Source box, then you click the Google
Search button. The results page appears, and its search box
contains [ peace
source:ha_aretz__subscription_ ].
This means that the news source ID is
ha_aretz__subscription_. This
query will only return articles that include the word
"peace" from the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.
If you start your query with stocks:, Google will interpret the
rest of
the query terms as NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, or mutual fund stock
ticker symbols, and will open a page
showing stock information for the symbols you specify. For instance,
[ stocks:brcm brcd ] will show information about Broadcom Corporation
and Brocade Communications System.
Note: Specify ticker symbols not
company names. If you enter an invalid ticker symbol, you'll be told
so and given a link to a page where you can look up a valid ticker
symbol. You can also obtain stock information by entering one or more
ticker symbols in Google's query
box, e.g., [ brcm brcd ] and then clicking on the link
"Stock Quotes for BRCM, BRCD"
that appears near the top of the results page.
If you include store: in your query, Froogle will restrict your
search to the store ID you specify. For example, [ polo shirt
store:llbean ] will return listings that match the terms "polo" and
"shirt" from the store L. L. Bean.
To find a store ID, enter the name of the store and click on the
link "See all results from store." You'll find the store ID in the
query box, after the store: search operator.
If you enter a query with the word weather and a city or location name,
if Google recognizes the location, the forecast will appear at the top of
the results page.
Otherwise, your results will usually include links to sites with
the weather conditions and forecast for that location.
Since weather is not an advanced
operator, there is no need to include a colon after the word. For
example, [ weather
Sunnyvale CA ] will return the weather for Sunnyvale,
California and [ weather
94041 ] will return the weather for the city containing the
zip code (US postal code) 94041, which is Mountain View, California.
You may use many of the basic operators and search operators with each
other. However, there are some that must be used by themselves and
others that you should be careful about using together.
Search Operators that Can't Be Combined
There are about a dozen search operators that can't be combined with
any other. If you do, Google probably won't return any matching
documents. Search operators that shouldn't be mixed include:
All the search operators whose names begin with "allin," e.g.,
allinanchor:, allintext:, allintitle:, and allinurl:.
Syntaxes that request special information, e.g., define:,
phonebook, rphonebook, stocks:.
Be careful about the effects of a search operator when
you use more than one of them in a query. Here are some rules to follow:
Don't use search operators that will cancel each other. For
example, [ admission site:stanford.edu -inurl:stanford ] searches for
pages that are on the site stanford.edu that do not contain the string
"stanford" in their URL or web addresses.
No URL can possibly match both of those operators.
Take care not to exclude all results when using certain search
operators more than once in a query. For example, [ sleep
recommendations site:edu site:cdc.gov ] will not return any sleep
recommendation since the query looks for results appearing on both the
.edu domain and the cdc.gov sites simultaneously. If you want results
from both, include OR between the two site: specifications, i.e., [ sleep
recommendations site:edu OR site:cdc.gov ]. Search operators that
should either be used once in a query, or in combination with OR,
include filetype: site:, and group:.
Focus your search by using several search operators.
For example, [ intext:e-mail intitle:security -site:microsoft.com ] finds pages
whose titles contain the word "security," with the word "e-mail" on
the text of the page and not on the site microsoft.com.
This problem set is designed to give you experiences with
search operators and practice
with specifying more precisely what you're seeking by using
the Advanced Search form.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Use the site: operator to search for armchairs on IKEA's site,
www.ikea.com.
Use the Advanced Search form to find the page whose title is
"Some Ways to Detect Plagiarism." When the title is entered
in lowercase letters, the
query box on the results page contains [allintitle: "ways
to detect plagiarism" ].
Find all pages on google.com but not on
answers.google.com nor on directory.google.com whose titles include
the words "FAQ" or "help."
Use the link: operator to see who links to googleguide.com, your
company's website, or your favorite website.
Find pages whose titles include surfing that are not about
surfing the World Wide Web.
Find out where the upcoming international conference on AIDS is
being held.
Google strives to make it easy to find whatever you're seeking,
whether it's a web page, a news article, a definition, something to
buy, or text in a book. By understanding what appears on a results
page, you'll be better able to determine if a page includes the
information you're seeking or links to it.
After you enter a query, Google returns a results list ordered by what
it considers the items' relevance to your query, listing the best
match first. Sponsored links sometimes appear above to the right
of the search results.
Googlebot is Google's web crawling robot, which finds and retrieves
pages on the web and hands them off to the Google indexer. It's easy
to imagine Googlebot as a little spider scurrying across the strands
of cyberspace, but in reality Googlebot doesn't traverse the web at
all. It functions much like your web browser, by sending a request
to a web server for a web page, downloading the entire
page, then handing it off to Google's indexer.
Googlebot consists of many computers requesting and fetching pages
much more quickly than you can with your web browser. In fact,
Googlebot can request thousands of different pages simultaneously. To
avoid overwhelming web servers, or crowding out requests from human
users, Googlebot deliberately makes requests of each individual web
server more slowly than it's capable of doing.
Googlebot finds pages in two ways: through an add URL form, www.google.com/addurl.html,
and through finding links by crawling the web.
Unfortunately, spammers figured out how to create automated bots that
bombarded the add URL form with millions of URLs pointing to
commercial propaganda. Google rejects those URLs submitted through
its Add URL form that it suspects are trying to deceive users by
employing tactics such as including hidden text or links on a page,
stuffing a page with irrelevant words, cloaking (aka bait and
switch), using sneaky redirects, creating doorways, domains, or
sub-domains with substantially similar content, sending automated
queries to Google, and linking to bad neighbors.
So now the Add URL form also has a test: it displays some squiggly
letters designed to fool automated "letter-guessers";
it asks you to enter the letters you see — something like an
eye-chart test to stop spambots.
When Googlebot fetches a page, it culls all the links appearing on the
page and adds them to a queue for subsequent crawling. Googlebot
tends to encounter little spam because most web authors link only to
what they believe are high-quality pages.
By harvesting links from every page it encounters, Googlebot can
quickly build a list of links that can cover broad reaches of the web.
This technique, known as deep crawling, also allows Googlebot to probe
deep within individual sites. Because of their massive scale, deep
crawls can reach almost every page in the web. Because the web is
vast, this can take some time, so some pages may be crawled only once
a month.
Although its function is simple, Googlebot must be programmed to
handle several challenges. First, since Googlebot sends out
simultaneous requests for thousands of pages, the queue of "visit
soon" URLs must be constantly examined and compared with URLs
already in Google's index. Duplicates in the queue must be
eliminated to prevent Googlebot from fetching the same page again.
Googlebot must determine how often to revisit a page. On the
one hand, it's a waste of resources to re-index an unchanged page. On the
other hand, Google wants to re-index changed pages to deliver up-to-date
results.
Googlebot gives the indexer the full text of the pages it
finds. These pages are stored in Google's index database.
This index is sorted
alphabetically by search term, with each index entry storing a list of
documents in which the term appears and the location within the text
where it occurs.
This data structure allows rapid access to documents that
contain user query terms.
To improve search performance, Google ignores (doesn't index) common
words called
stop words (such as
the,
is,
on,
or,
of,
how,
why, as well as certain single digits and single letters). Stop
words are so common that they do little to narrow a search, and
therefore they can safely be discarded. The indexer also ignores
some punctuation and multiple spaces, as well as converting all
letters to lowercase, to improve Google's performance.
Google's Query Processor
The query processor has several parts, including the user
interface (search box), the "engine" that evaluates queries and matches them
to relevant documents, and the results formatter.
PageRank is Google's
system for ranking web pages. A page with a higher PageRank is deemed
more important and is more likely to be listed above a page with a
lower PageRank.
Google considers over a hundred factors in computing a PageRank and
determining which documents are most relevant to a query, including
the popularity of the page, the position and size of the search terms
within the page, and the proximity of the search terms to one another
on the page. A patent application discusses other factors that Google
considers when ranking a page. Visit SEOmoz.org's
report for an interpretation of the concepts and the practical
applications contained in Google's patent application.
Google also applies machine-learning techniques to improve its
performance automatically by learning relationships and associations
within the stored data. For example, the spelling-correcting
system uses such techniques to figure out likely alternative
spellings. Google closely guards the formulas it uses to calculate
relevance; they're tweaked to improve quality and performance, and to
outwit the latest devious techniques used by spammers.
Indexing the full text of the web allows Google to go beyond simply
matching single search terms. Google gives more priority to pages
that have search terms near each other and in the same order as the
query. Google can also match multi-word phrases and sentences. Since
Google indexes HTML code in addition to the text on the page, users
can restrict searches on the basis of where query words appear, e.g.,
in the title, in the URL, in the body, and in links to the page,
options offered by the
Advanced-Search page and
search operators.
Let's see how Google
processes a query.
3.
The search results
are returned to the user in a fraction of a second.
1.
The web server
sends the query to the index servers. The content inside the index
servers is similar to the index in the back of a book--it tells
which pages contain the words that match any particular
query term.
2.
The query
travels to the doc servers, which actually retrieve the stored documents.
Snippets are generated to describe each search result.
Every underlined term in the statistics bar is
linked to its dictionary
definition. Queries that are linked to just one
definition are followed by a definition link.
Tips: Sometimes Google displays a
tip in a box just below the statistics bar.
Search Results: Ordered by
relevance to your query, with the result that Google considers the
most relevant listed first. Consequently you are likely to find
what you're seeking quickly by looking at the results in the order
in which they appear. Google assesses relevance by considering
over a hundred factors, including how many other pages link to the
page, the positions of the search terms within the page, and the
proximity of the search terms to one another.
Below are descriptions of some search-result components. These
components appear in fonts of different colors on the result page
to make it easier to distinguish them from one another.
Snippets: (black) Each search result
usually includes one or more short excerpts
of the text that matches your query with your search terms in
boldface type. Each distinct excerpt or snippet is separated
by an ellipsis (...). These snippets, which appear in a black
font, may provide you with
The information you are seeking
What you might find on the linked page
Ideas of terms to use in your subsequent searches
When Google hasn't crawled a page, it doesn't include a snippet. A
page might not be crawled because its publisher requested no crawling,
or because the page was written in such a way that it was too
difficult to crawl.
URL of Result:
(green) Web address of the
search result. In the screen shot, the URL of the first result
is inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa042597.htm.
Large web pages are far less likely to be relevant to your query
than smaller pages. For the sake of efficiency, Google searches
only the first 101 kilobytes (approximately 17,000 words) of a
web page and the first 120 kilobytes of a pdf file. Assuming 15
words per line and 50 lines per page, Google searches the first
22 pages of a web page and the first 26 pages of a pdf file. If a page
is larger, Google will list the page as being 101 kilobytes or 120
kilobytes for a pdf file. This means that Google's results
won't reference any part of a web page beyond its first 101
kilobytes or any part of a pdf file beyond the first 120
kilobytes.
Indented Result: When Google finds
multiple results from the same website, it lists the most
relevant result first with the second most relevant page from
that same site indented below it. In the screen shot, the
indented result and the one above it are both from the site
inventors.about.com.
Limiting the number of
results from a given site to two ensures that pages from one
site will not dominate your search results and that Google provides
pages from a variety of sites.
More Results: When there are more than two results from the same
site, access the remaining results from the "More results from..."
link.
When Google returns more than one page of results, you can view
subsequent pages by clicking either a page number or one of the "o"s in
the whimsical "Gooooogle" that appears below the last search
result on the page.
In practice, however, if pages of interest to you aren't within the first
10 results, consider refining your query instead of sifting through pages of
irrelevant results. To simplify such refinements, Google includes a search
box at the bottom of the page you can use to enter your refined query.
Sponsored Links: Your
results may include some clearly identified sponsored links
(advertisements) relevant to your search.
If any of your search terms appear in the ads,
Google displays them in boldface type.
Not sure how to spell something? Don't worry, try
gessing or
speling any
way you can. In
just the first few months on the job, Google engineer Noam
Shazeer developed a spelling correction (suggestion) system
based on what other users have entered. The system
automatically checks whether you are using the most common
spelling of each word in your query.
(We used to suggest that you search Google for phonitick
spewling.
But so many Web pages added the same example that now — or,
at least, when we last checked — Google no longer treats
those "words" as incorrectly spelled!
Google's system doesn't match words against an actual dictionary;
it compares them to commonly-used words.)
Want to know the approximate value of a used car? Check out its
"Blue Book" value.
Notice that Google suggests the
correct spelling if you fail to type the final "e"
in "blue."
Since an alternative spelling is more common, Google asks: Did you mean:
blue
book. Click the suggested
spelling link to launch a new search on the "blue
book" spelling instead of the original "blu
book."
Google's checker is particularly good at recognizing
frequently made typos, misspellings, and misconceptions. It
analyzes all terms in your query to recognize what you most
likely intended to enter. For example, when you search for [
untied
stats ], the spelling checker suggests Did you mean:
"united
states",
although each individual word is spelled correctly.
Regardless of whether it suggests an alternative spelling,
Google returns results that match your query if
there are any. If there aren't any that match your query,
Google may offer an alternative spelling, search tips, and a
link to Google Answers. The last is
a service that provides assistance from expert online
researchers for a fee.
Google figures out possible misspellings and their likely
correct spellings by using words it finds while searching the
web and processing user queries. So, unlike many spelling
correctors, Google can suggest common spellings for:
Proper nouns (names and places)
Words that may not appear in a dictionary
People searching for Britney Spears have clearly found the
spelling checker useful, as it has corrected spellings of
her first name ranging from "Brittany" to
"Prietny." Visit www.google.com/jobs/britney.html
to see hundreds of other ways people have misspelled her name.
Be aware that the spelling checker isn't able to distinguish between a
variant spelling and a word or name that is spelled similarly. So,
before clicking on what Google suggests, check that it's what you intended.
For example, when looking up the San Francisco Bay Area web designer
Mistrale,
Google asks: Did you mean:
Mistral,
though I spelled the name correctly.
The first problem gives you practice in using Google's
spelling-correction system.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
On National Public Radio (NPR), you heard a researcher at
Stanford University whose name sounded like Jeff Naumberg and want
to send him email. What is Jeff's email address?
From Google's home page,
www.google.com, search for "french military victories" and
then click on the I'm Feeling Lucky button to see
Albino Blacksheep's parody of a Google spelling correction result.
Note: Though the page looks like a Google page, if you enter
another query in the search box, it will be processed by the hosting
site, listed in your browser's address box.
Want a definition for your search terms? It's just a
click away.
Google looks for dictionary definitions for your search terms. If
it finds any definitions, it shows those words as underlined
links or includes a definition link in the statistics bar section of the
results page (located below the search box showing your
query). Google is able to find definitions for acronyms,
colloquialisms, and slang, as well as words that you would
expect to find in a dictionary.
Click on the underlined terms or the definition link in the statistics
bar to link to their dictionary definition, which also may include
information on pronunciation, part of speech, etymology, and usage.
For example, learn what co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and
CEO Eric Schmidt mean when they say they run Google as a triumvirate
by clicking on the link triumvirate.
Phrases with idiomatic meanings that aren't necessarily
implied by the definitions of the individual words will be
linked to their dictionary definitions, e.g.,
"happy hour," "put off,"
"greasy spoon," and "raise the roof."
These problems give you practice in
finding dictionary definitions.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
According to the dictionary, what is an "urban legend"?
Find the history of the word 'chivalry.' From which language does
it come and from what word?
Does Google provide a link to dictionary for definitions of terms
in languages other than English?
Google takes a snapshot of each page it examines and caches
(stores) that version as a back-up. The cached version is
what Google uses to judge if a page is a good match for your
query.
Practically every search result includes a Cached link. Clicking on that
link takes you to the Google cached version of that web page,
instead of the current version of the page. This is useful if
the original page is unavailable
because of:
Internet congestion
A down, overloaded, or just slow website
The owner's recently removing the page from the Web
Sometimes you can access the cached version from a site that
otherwise require registration or a subscription.
Note: Since Google's servers are typically faster than
many web servers, you can often access a page's cached version
faster than the page itself.
Let's search for pages on the Google help basic search operators.
Click on the
Cached link to view Google's cached version of
the page with the query terms highlighted. The cached version
also indicates terms that appear only on links pointing to the
page and not on the page itself.
Note: Internet Explorer users may view a page with any word(s)
highlighted, not just search terms, by using the highlight feature
of the Google Toolbar, which is mentioned in Part III.
When Google displays the cached page, a header at the top serves
as a reminder that what you see isn't necessarily the most
recent version of the page.
If the original page contains more than 101 kilobytes of text, the
cached version of the page will consist of the first 101 kbytes (120
kbytes for pdf files).
You can also retrieve Google's cached version of a page via the cache: search operator. For example, [ cache:www.pandemonia.com/flying/ ]
will show Google's cached version of Flight Diary in which Hamish
Reid documents what's involved in learning how to fly.
On the cached version of a page, Google will highlight terms in your
query that appear after the cache: search operator.
For example, in the snapshot of the page www.pandemonia.com/flying/,
Google highlights the terms "fly" and "diary" in
response to the query
[ cache:www.pandemonia.com/flying/
fly diary ].
Use the Wayback Machine
when you want to visit a version of a web page
that is older than Google's cached version.
These
problems give you practice accessing Google's cached version of a
page.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
After Nelson Blachman received
reprints of a paper he wrote for the June 2003 issue of The
Mathematical Scientist, he wanted to discover what other
sorts of papers appear in the same issue of this semiannual publication.
Find a table of contents for The Mathematical Scientist for Nelson.
Compare the dates on the current page with the dates on the cached
version for the following organizations:
CNN
New York Times
Linux Magazine
North Texas Food Bank
Note: Google indexes a page (adds it to its index and caches it) frequently if the
page is popular (has a high PageRank) and if the page is
updated regularly. The new cached version replaces any previous
cached versions of the page.
Check the dates that the Wayback Machine archived versions of Google Guide.
Here's how to find results similar to another Google
search result.
Let's say you're interested in finding sites
similar to that of Consumer Reports.
First, search for their site.
Click on the Similar pages link that appears on the bottom
line for the Consumer Reports result.
The link may be useful for finding more consumer resources, or
information on Consumer Reports' competitors.
By finding other sites listed on pages that link to the specified
page. Let's see how Google chooses sites similar to Google Guide. I
use the related: search operator,
which returns the same results as the Similar pages
link.
Now let's look at one of the sites that link to Google Guide, as it was
at the time we made the screen shot above. On the
Michigan State University (MSU) Libraries page,
www.lib.msu.edu/sowards/home/home5.htm (shown in the screen shot below),
Google Guide is listed near
the top of the page just after a link to
Google's Zeitgeist
page, www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html. The next three sites
listed as being similar to Google Guide (Metaspy, the MEL Internet
Myths and Hoaxes, and Web Characterization) are also listed on the MSU
page. Google automatically selected these sites by considering many
factors including the popularity of the pages containing links to
Google Guide, the positions, sizes, and proximities of other links to the
Google Guide link.
Another resource for similar results is the category link that may
appear just below the snippet or above your search results, which is
described next. If there isn't a category link, try using Google's Directory.
These problems give you practice in
using Google's Similar pages feature.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
When Google finds current news relating to your query,
Google includes up to three headlines that link to news
stories above your search results. Why at most three? So as
not to push the web search results off the page.
Of course, since news by definition reports recent events, you'll see the most
recent headlines about the United Nations (if there are any recent
headlines, that is) when you enter the query
[ United
Nations ].
For more news stories or to browse the latest headlines,
visit Google News Search at news.google.com, which we
describe in Part III.
When Google finds products relevant to your query, above your
search results, you may find up to three links to items that merchants
list in
Froogle, Google's product search service.
Google converts all file types it searches to either HTML
or text (unless, of course, they already are in one of these formats).
Google searches a variety of file formats including
File Format
Suffix
Description
Adobe Acrobat PDF
pdf
A publishing format commonly used for product manuals and documents of all sorts.
Adobe PostScript
ps
A printing format often used for academic papers.
Hypertext Markup Language
html or htm
The primary language for web pages.
Lotus 1-2-3
wk1, wk2, wk3, wk4, wk5, wki, wks, or wku
A spreadsheet format.
Lotus WordPro
lwp
A word processing format.
MacWrite
mw
A word processing format.
Microsoft Excel
xls
A spreadsheet format.
Microsoft PowerPoint
ppt
A format for presentations and slides.
Microsoft Word
doc
A common word processing format.
Microsoft Works
wks, wps, or wdb
A word processing format.
Microsoft Write
wri
A Macintosh word processing format.
Rich Text Format
rtf
A format used to exchange
documents between Microsoft Word and other formats.
Plain Text
ans or txt
Ordinary text with no special formating.
Clicking on a link to a non-HTML file will launch the associated
program for reading the file, provided it's installed on your system.
If you can't
view the page in the native format — for instance, if you
don't have Adobe Acrobat on your computer, or if
you want faster access to the file — click on either the
"View as HTML" or "View as Text" link.
Note: Portions of some files converted to HTML or text
may be difficult to read.
These problems give you practice viewing files of
different types.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Find a document with tips on job interviewing and salary
negotiation that is in PDF/Adobe Acrobat format. What differences in
the appearance of the document result from viewing it in its native
format, Adobe Acrobat versus HTML?
Find a Power Point slide presentation on first aid and
choking. View the presentation as HTML.
Find pdf or Postscript documents and course notes on symplectic
geometry that are on university and other educational sites.
As the web has spread across the world, more and more web
pages are available in languages other than English. Google
provides a translation link and language tools to enable you
to read pages written in unfamiliar languages.
Google translates pages by computer. Machine translation is
difficult to do well and tends not to be as clear as human
translation. But it can give you the gist of what's written
or suggestions for translating something into another language.
Your results may include a "Translate this page"
link when a results page is written in a language different
from your interface language (as specified by your Google Preferences, which
is described in the next section). Your interface language
is the language in which Google displays messages and
labels, buttons, and tips on Google's home page and
results page. You can translate pages written
in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and
Spanish into another language from that set.
or visit www.google.com/language_tools,
or select the Language Tools menu option in the Google Toolbar (in
Part III, section Making Google Search Easier with
Google Tools) to:
Search for pages written in specific languages
Search for pages located in specific countries
Use the Google interface in another language,
e.g., set Google's home page, messages and labels,
and buttons to
display in a specific language
Visit Google's site in a specific country, e.g.,
www.google.de in
Germany
Translate any text or web page from a limited set
of languages including English, French, German, Italian,
Portuguese, or Spanish into another language in that set.
If you want to translate some text or a page into a language other
than those Google Language Translation Tool offers, check out Fagan Finder's Translation Wizard.
These problems give you practice with translating words,
pages, and results, and with finding pages in specific countries.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Find out about municipal swimming pools that you can use when visiting Naples.
Hint: Find the Italian words for "municipal swimming pools Naples"
and then search for them on pages in Italy.
You can use your browser's Copy and Paste features to transfer the Italian
words from one screen to another.
Find the name of the mayor of Montpellier, France, by searching
the city website montpellier.fr.
It may help to know the French word for "mayor."
Translate "I wish to mail a package. Where is the nearest post
office? Thank you." into Spanish.
Find listings or photos of old books at the national library of Spain.
Hint: Translate the two unrelated phrases "old books" and
"national library Spain" separately; otherwise, the translation
software may try to make them into a sentence (and add "noise" words).
Restrict your search to France and search for pages in English on
the war in Iraq.
Whenever I run a new piece of software, ... I [first] ... look at the
program's 'preferences' panel. By clicking through the options, I
rapidly learn what a program can do and what its shortcomings are.
Google is no different. — Simson Garfinkel, Getting
More from Google, Technology Review, June 4, 2003
You can customize the way your search results appear by
configuring your Google global preferences, options that
apply across most Google search services. To change these
options, click on the Preferences
link, which is to the right of Google's search box,
or visit www.google.com/preferences.
From the Preferences page, specify your global preferences, including
Interface Language:
the language in which Google will display tips,
messages, and buttons for you
Search Language:
the language of the pages Google should search for you
SafeSearch:
automatic filtering and blocking of web pages
with explicit sexual content
Number of results: how many search results are to be displayed per page
Results window: when enabled, clicking on the main link
(typically the page title) for a result will open the
corresponding page in a new window
When you set your preferences, Google stores your settings in a
"cookie" on the computer you are using. Google doesn't
associate that cookie with any other computer you use. So, if you want
Google to work similarly on all the computers you use, you will need
to set these preferences on each one of them.
There's more about cookies and other user information in the section
called Accounts and Cookies.
The set of languages in which you want to allow
messages and labels, text on buttons, and tips to be
displayed. Your choice of interface languages is
much larger than the "translate" set of
languages (those that can be translated into your interface
language) and includes relatively obscure languages, such
as Catalan, Maltese, Occitan, and Welsh, and frivolous
languages, such as Bork, bork, bork!, Esperanto, Hacker,
Interlingua, and Pig Latin.
If you set your interface language to Greek,
message and text on links, tabs, and buttons will be displayed in
Greek.
The interface language is configured on the Preferences page.
The pull-down menu allows you to choose from over 80
languages.
If you select an interface language other than English, when using
Google Web search you will be given the option of searching the
entire web or just pages written in your interface language. For
example, with French as the interface language the search box looks
like this:
Note: Most non-English Google home pages have a "Google.com in English" link
in case you can't read the rest of the page.
Search Language
By default, Google Web search includes all pages on the Web. You
can choose to restrict your searches to those pages written in
the languages of your choice by setting the search language.
If you want to restrict results to a single language for a few
queries, consider using Google's Advanced Search page.
Google's SafeSearch filters out sites with pornography and explicit
sexual content. Moderate filtering, the default, is set to exclude
most explicit images from Google Image search results but not Google
Web search or other Google search services.
Google's philosophy is to filter no more than necessary, i.e., as
little as possible. Google considered adding the capability to filter
other controversial content besides pornography, e.g., hate speech,
anarchy, bomb making, etc. But these are much more difficult
to filter automatically. For example, if you try to filter hate
speech, you may filter out sites that discuss hate speech.
The most important setting, located near the bottom of the page, is
"Number of Results." By default, Google returns just 10
results for a search. Since Google's search algorithms are so
accurate, this default saves Google both computer resources and
downloading time. But I always increase the default to 100. Although such
searches take a little longer to download (especially over a dial-up
connection), getting back 100 results saves me time when I'm searching
for anything out-of-the-ordinary; it's much faster to scroll through a
Web page than to manually click through 10 pages of intermediate
results. — Simson Garfinkel, Getting
More from Google, Technology Review, June 4, 2003 (MIT's Alumni
magazine)
You can increase the number of results displayed per page to 20, 30,
50, or 100. The more results displayed per page, the more likely you
are to find what you want on the first page of results. The downside
is that the more results per page, the more slowly the page loads. How
much more time it takes depends on your connection to the Internet.
The Number-of-Results setting applies to Google's Web, Groups, News,
Froogle,
and Directory search services. It does not apply to Images and Answers.
New Results Window
After you set the Results Window option on the Preferences page,
when you click on the main link (typically the page title) for a
result, Google will open the corresponding page in a new window.
You can display the contents of the associated page in a new window in
Internet Explorer by holding down the SHIFT key
while you click on the link or pressing the right button and selecting
"Open a New Window" after clicking on the link. In Firefox
or Netscape, simply click your mouse's middle button on the link that
you wish to display in a new window (this can be configured in the
browser's Preferences or Options section).
Google stores your preferences with a cookie in your computer.
Among other things, this means:
If you use more than one computer, you'll need to set your Google
preferences on each one.
If your browser is set to deny cookies, your preferences can't be
saved.
If you use "cleanup" software that removes cookies, it may
remove your Google preferences.
So, if Google seems to "forget" your preferences settings,
look into what's happening with your cookies.
As of this writing, the Mozilla and Firefox web browsers have especially
flexible cookie management — including site-by-site cookie preferences
and a scrollable list of all saved cookies.
These problems give you practice in changing
preferences. After you've changed your preferences, run a couple of
searches.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Change your preferences to display 20 results per page.
Change your preferences to use strict filtering, i.e., filter
both explicit text and explicit sexual content.
Set your preferences to open search results in a new browser
window.
Configure your preferences to suit your needs.
If you would like to have more than one set of preferences on
your computer, e.g., one of searching French language sites and to
search all sites, then find tools for enabling you to specify more
than one set of preferences using more than one cookie.
(For instance, the Mozilla browser allows you to have multiple
"profiles," each with its own set of cookies.
You can also install more than one type of browser on the same
computer.
Both of these methods let you have more than one "identity"
at the same time on the same computer.)
Some search engines sell their search results, in addition to showing
ads. A sold result means that a link to the buyer's page is put at or
near the top of the results page, just as if the search engine thought it
was one of the best results. Usually, there is no indication that the page's
result location was bought and paid for.
Google never sells its search results. If a web page appears
in Google's search results, it's because Google thought it was a relevant
result for your search, not because someone paid Google to put it there.
Google's approach to ads is similar to its approach to search
results: the ads must deliver useful links, or the ads are removed.
Ads must be relevant to your search.
Ads must not intrude, distract, or annoy (no pop-up or flashy ads).
Sponsored links are clearly identified and kept separate from search results.
At most, two sponsored links appear above Google's
search results.
Advertisers decide which queries their ads should match, and then
Google decides on placement, i.e., which ads to show and in what
order. Google determines placement by an auction; the auction not
only considers what the advertiser will pay for the ad, but also its
click-through rate, i.e., how often users click on the ad. If users
often click on an ad, Google will likely place the ad higher up on the
results page. If the click-through rate of an ad falls below a
certain level, indicating an ad isn't relevant to the query, Google
removes the ad.
For the most part, you'll find advertisements pertinent to your
query. However, Google's automatic matching to words on a page
sometimes places an ad inappropriately. For example, in September of
2003, adjacent to a New York Post article about a gruesome murder in
which the victim's body parts were stashed in a suitcase, Google
listed an ad for suitcases. Since that incident, Google has improved
its filters and automatically pulls ads from pages with disturbing
content. So Google is unlikely to make another faux pas on
a par with this one.
Some web pages display ads provided by Google's AdSense service.
The hosting website and Google share the amount an advertiser pays
when a user clicks on an ad, which varies between US$0.01 and
US$50.00. Web publishers typically place Google AdSense ads near the
top, on the right, or on the left side of a page to catch your
attention. We've included such an ad at the top of this page.
Google's web-page-ranking system, PageRank, tends to give
priority to better respected and trusted information. Well-respected
sites link to other well-respected sites. This linking boosts the
PageRank of high-quality sites. Consequently, more accurate pages are
typically listed before sites that include unreliable and erroneous
material.
(The various
browser toolbars can show you the
PageRank of the page you're currently browsing.)
Nevertheless, evaluate carefully whatever you find on the web
since anyone can
Create pages
Exchange ideas
Copy, falsify, or omit information intentionally or
accidentally
Many people publish pages to get you to buy something or accept a
point of view. Google makes no effort to discover or eliminate
unreliable and erroneous material. It's up to you to cultivate the
habit of healthy skepticism. When evaluating the credibility of a
page, consider the following
AAOCC (Authority, Accuracy, Objectivity, Currency, Coverage)
criteria and questions, which are adapted from www.lib.berkeley.edu/ENGI/eval_criteria.html.
Authority
Who are the authors? Are they qualified? Are they credible?
With whom are they affiliated? Do their affiliations affect their credibility?
Who is the publisher? What is the publisher's reputation?
Accuracy
Is the information accurate? Is it reliable and error-free?
Are the interpretations and implications reasonable?
Is there evidence to support conclusions? Is the evidence verifiable?
Do the authors properly list their sources, references or
citations with dates, page numbers or web addresses, etc.?
Objectivity
What is the purpose? What do the authors want to accomplish?
Does this purpose affect the presentation?
Is there an implicit or explicit bias?
Is the information fact, opinion, spoof, or satirical?
Currency
Is the information current? Is it still valid?
When was the site last updated?
Is the site well-maintained? Are there any broken links?
Coverage
Is the information relevant to your topic and assignment?
What is the intended audience?
Is the material presented at an appropriate level?
Find documents on the web that provide the answers to the
following questions. What's your level of comfort with the referring
site(s) and why?
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Google displays the current service link (the kind of search
that the current page will perform) in black.
Links for other services are
blue.
After running a search on one service, you can click on another
service's link to run a search on that service using the same terms.
For example, when you click on the News link, your search will be
repeated on Google's News service.
New! Local - Find local businesses and services
on the web Catalogs - Search and browse
mail-order catalogs online
Apple Macintosh - Search for all things Mac BSD Unix - Search web pages about the BSD operating
system Linux - Search all Linux-friendly
pages Microsoft - Search
Microsoft-related pages
U.S. Government - Search all .gov and .mil
sites Universities: Narrow your search to a
specific school's website, such as Stanford, Brown, BYU, etc.
Several nice summaries of some of Google's features and services are
available online:
Google's cheat
sheet (www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html) comes from Google itself.
The word "Beta" beside the name of a service means that Google
is testing and refining the service. Use the service, and if you are
so inclined, provide feedback to Google on how the service can be improved.
Next, we'll look at many of the special search tools listed above, as well as:
The search tips and behaviors described in Part I of Google Guide work with
Google's special search tools, except that the
synonym operator (~)
currently works only on Web and Directory searches.
Access Google from your Internet Explorer
toolbar. The following table lists just some of the
many wonderful features available through the Google Toolbar.
Feature
Allowing you to ...
Search Box
Access Google's search technology from your browser toolbar.
Search Site
Search only the pages of the site you're currently visiting.
Highlight
Highlight terms on the current page.
Word Find
Find your search terms on a page and navigate to them.
Pop-up Blocker
Stop annoying pop-up windows (new in version 2.0 of Toolbar).
AutoFill
Automatically fill in a form (new in version 2.0 of Toolbar).
Below are links to more information on Google's Toolbar:
If you use Mozilla or Netscape, try Googlebar, googlebar.mozdev.org,
which emulates all of the basic search functionality of Google's Toolbar,
allowing you to easily access almost all of Google's specialty
searches (some of which may not be supported by the Google Toolbar)
from one convenient toolbar. Googlebar works on recent versions of
Mozilla and Netscape, but may not work on older ones.
Access Google from your Windows desktop toolbar. The following table
lists the Deskbar key features.
Feature
Allowing you to ...
Search Box
Access Google's search technology even when your browser
isn't running.
Preview
Preview search results in a small inset window that closes
automatically.
Accessibility
Access Google from any application by pressing the CTRL, ALT, and the G keys
simultaneously (CTRL+ALT+G).
Search Selected Text
Select text within a Word document, e-mail, browser page, or
any other application, and then use that selected text as your
search query by pressing the CTRL, ALT, and the G keys
simultaneously (CTRL+ALT+G).
Keyboard Shortcuts
Access Google News by pressing the CTRL and the N keys
simultaneously (CTRL+N),
Google Images (CTRL+I),
Froogle (CTRL+F),
Web Search (CTRL+W),
Groups (CTRL+U),
I'm Feeling Lucky (CTRL+L),
Definitions (CTRL+D),
Stock Quotes (CTRL+Q),
and Thesaurus (CTRL+T).
There are several versions; the version for your
browser should be selected automatically when you click
on the link above.
The illustration below, and the rest of this section,
describe the Unix/Linux buttons; other versions may
not have all of the features described.
(When you click the link above, the page you get
should describe the features of your version.)
Built-in Browser Support
Several web browsers have built-in support for search engines
— including, of course, Google.
If you use Mac OS X, Apple's Safari web browser has
a Google search window in the Navigation bar next to the URL.
Type your Google search there.
Clicking on the icon shows a menu of your recent searches.
All recent versions of the
Opera and
Firefox browsers
have a feature like Safari's: Type your Google Web search in the special
search box next to the URL, then press the
ENTER or RETURN key.
A drop-down menu lets you choose other types of search.
The Mozilla
(not Mozilla Firefox) browser can show Google search results in
its Sidebar, to one side of the browser window.
Make Google Your Homepage To
have the Google home page appear whenever you
start your browser, click on the "Make Google Your
Homepage" link on Google's home page. If the link is
missing, follow the instructions listed on www.google.com/options/defaults.html.
Set up your system to make Google easier to access.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
If you use Windows 98/ME/2000/XP and Internet Explorer 5.5 or a
more recent version, install the Google Deskbar on
your system.
If you use a browser that supports the Google Toolbar, install it on
your system. If you use another browser, install Google Browser
Buttons on your system.
Google provides shortcuts for finding commonly sought utilities
and information, which you may have previously found offline or on
specialized sites.
The results of these shortcuts appear to the right of a tag or specialized
icon and above your search results.
To read about all of these shortcuts, one by one,
simply click the "Next" links at the top or bottom of this
page and the following Google Guide pages.
Or, to read about any one of them now, click on the item below:
Want to add up a list of numbers, convert from miles to kilometers, or
evaluate some other mathematical expression? Instead of using a piece
of paper, your calculator, or a computer math software program, you
can now solve mathematical problems with Google's built-in calculator
function.
Simply enter the expression you'd
like evaluated in Google's web search box and click the
ENTER key or click the "Google Search"
button.
Once you have a result, you can use your browser's Copy
feature (usually on its Edit menu) to copy the result.
Then you can paste it into another program, a box in a form
on another web page, and so on.
The calculator can evaluate mathematical expressions involving:
Basic Arithmetic
Compute expressions containing standard mathematical symbols.
The following table lists operators that come between the two
numbers on which they operate, e.g., to multiply 2 times 3, use 2 * 3.
Note: To do multiplication, you must
include the * symbol; [ 3 * 4 ] will be calculated, 3 4 won't.
Advanced Math
Compute results involving mathematical constants, such as
e, pi, i (the square root of -1), and
mathematical functions. The following table lists just some of the
functions built into Google's calculator.
Operator
Function
Example
sin, cos, tan, sec, csc, cot, etc.
Trigonometric functions (arguments are assumed
to be in radians)
Compute expressions involving different units. By
default, units are converted to and results expressed in
meter-kilogram-second (mks) units. Many units have both long and
short names. Use whichever name you prefer.
Type of Units
Examples
Currency
Australian Dollars (AUD),
British pounds (GBP), Euros, US Dollars (USD)
Mass
kilogram or kg, grams or g, grains, pounds or lbs,
carats, stones, tons, tonnes
Length
meters or m, miles, feet, Angstroms, cubits,
furlongs
Volume
gallons, liters or l, bushels, teaspoons, pints
Area
square kilometers, acres, hectares
Time
days, seconds or s, centuries, sidereal years,
fortnights
Electricity
volts, amps, ohms, henrys
Energy
Calories, British thermal units (BTU),
joules, ergs, foot-pounds
Power
watt, kilowatts, horsepower or hp
Information
bits, bytes, kbytes, etc.
Quantity
dozen, baker's dozen, percent, gross, great
gross, score, googol
Numbering systems
decimal, hexadecimal or hex, octal, binary, roman
numerals, etc. Prefix hexadecimal numbers with 0x, octal numbers with 0o and binary numbers with 0b. For example: 0x7f + 0b10010101.
That last conversion is a common joke among engineers — though, as
Jim Jardine points out, "There is no reason to denigrate neither
furlongs nor fortnights as they are both very easily defined
measurements." (See his page Furlongs Today.)
The following table lists just a few of the many commonly used
physical constants known to the calculator function.
Parts of this table were adapted from the table at the end of
David W. Ward's article Physics the Google Way.
Note:
Sometimes Google's calculator interprets lower case letters
different from upper case letters.
Parentheses (( ))
can be used whenever they'll serve to make complicated
expressions unambiguous, and also sets of parentheses can be used
within parentheses.
Don't use brackets ([ ]) for grouping.
You can force the calculator to try to evaluate an expression by
putting an equals sign (=) after it. This works only if the
expression is arithmetically computable. For example, 1-800-555-1234=
(a US phone number followed by an equals sign) will return a result,
but 1/0= will not.
Parentheses can be used to enclose the parts of your expression that you want evaluated first. For example, (1+2)*3 causes the addition to happen before the multiplication.
Feel free to experiment with the calculator as not all of its capabilities are listed here.
If you want a visual interface to some of the capabilities of Google's calculator,
visit Soople's Calculator page, www.soople.com/soople_intcalchome.php.
This problem set is designed to
give you practice in using
Google's new calculator function.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Convert 1 mile to meters.
Convert 1 kg (kilogram) to lbs (pounds).
Convert 0 degrees Kelvin to Fahrenheit or Celsius.
Compute the number of minutes in a 365-day year.
Which is larger pi^e or e^pi? The same relationship holds
between x^e and e^x for all non-negative values of
x except e. The exponential constant, e, is approximately
2.72 and the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a
circle, pi, is approximately 3.14.
How many lottery combinations are there if the
winning combination consists of 5 distinct integers between 1 and 99, i.e.,
there are 99 balls in an urn and once one is selected, it isn't returned
to the box.
Compute the probability of your winning the lottery if you buy
1,000 tickets each bearing five distinct independently randomly chosen
integers between 1 and 99.
Use Google if you want to look up a phonebook listing for someone who
lives in the United States. Just enter a person's name and a city, state,
or zip code in the standard web search box. Then hit the ENTER key or click the "Google Search" button.
If you have easy access to the web, Google's phonebook
feature can be more convenient than your local phonebook and more
extensive too.
On the results page, phonebook listings are next to a telephone
icon.
Google's residential phonebook feature recognizes inputs in
the following formats.
To find a US residence, enter either ...
Examples
First name (or first initial), last name, city
(state is optional)
Google lists up to three results that match your phonebook query.
To see other listings, click on the "Phonebook results" link
that's just above the phonebook icon.
Notice that when Google provides an address, it includes links
to map providers. In the next section, we'll look at how to obtain a map
and directions.
If Google doesn't return a phonebook link, try using the phonebook: search operator.
Need an email address? Though it would be a nice feature for
you and me, Google doesn't offer an email-lookup service,
since spammers could use it to get your address and send you
unsolicited spam email.
This problem set gives you practice with looking
up phone numbers and addresses.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
What is the address of the Empire State Building in New York City
in the state of New York (the two-letter state code is NY)?
Check whether Google knows your
phone number and address. If you wish to remove your listing from
Google's PhoneBook, complete the name removal form,
which you can find at
www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html
or by searching for [ remove phone number Google ].
Want to find where something is or how to get there?
Instead of visiting an online map-providing service, just
enter an address into Google. You can also copy and paste
addresses, even ones with embedded carriage returns, into
Google's search box. When Google recognizes your query as a
location, the results page includes links to map providers
for that location. Clicking on a map-provider link takes
you to a map showing the location result.
Enter a U.S.
street address, including zip code or city/state.
Often, the street
address and city name will be enough.
Beside an icon of a map are links to map providers, as shown below.
Click on either the Google
Maps link , Yahoo! Maps link, or the MapQuest
link to view a map showing 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy in Mountain View,
California.
Often the Google Local service
can find where
something is located without your providing an
address.
Click on the link to a map provider to obtain a map.
Click on the link "To this location" in Yahoo!Maps or
on the radio button "Driving Directions from this location" in
MapQuest and specify your starting location.
Then you'll get a nice set of directions that you can print out
and take with you when driving.
This problem set gives you practice with looking
up addresses and with getting directions.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Get a map showing the most crooked section of Lombard Street in
San Francisco, which is between 1000 and 1100 Lombard Street.
Get a map showing Japanese restaurants in Topeka, Kansas by
entering [ Japanese restaurants in Topeka KS ] in the Google Maps search box.
If you live in the United States, obtain
a map showing where you live by entering your address into Google and
clicking the link to a map provider.
If you live in the United States, get directions from your house to
either a good friend's place or a great restaurant.
Looking for Google's stock symbol? It's GOOG on Nasdaq. Click
here for Google's stock price or search for it on Google.
Want info on a publicly traded stock or mutual fund?
Enter one or more NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, or mutual fund ticker
symbols and Google will return the latest stock price (with a 15-minute
delay for NASDAQ or a 20-minute delay for AMEX and NYSE), along with
an intra-day chart, the daily high and low, the volume traded, the
company's market capitalization, as well
as a link to other financial information.
Click on the stock symbol link to see financial
information, which may include the price of the last trade, the range
of prices for the day and for the year, a one-year target price estimate,
the previous day's closing price, the opening price for the day, the
volume of shares traded during the day, the PE radio, dividends per
share, the dividend date, and a chart.
Note: Entering a ticker symbol in the search box and then
clicking on I'm Feeling Lucky will not take you to that symbol's
financial information page. Instead, Google displays the first search
results, whose link appears just below the box enclosing the stock
information link.
Click on the "Stock quotes" link to view a chart for each
stock symbol in your query.
You can also retrieve stock information via the stocks: search operator. For example, [ stock:brcm
brcd ] will return a link to stock information about Broadcom
Corporation and Brocade Communications System.
This problem set gives you practice
in obtaining financial information for US publicly traded companies.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Obtain a chart of Ebay's stock price for
the past 5 years by entering Ebay's stock symbol, ebay, clicking on the
link "EBAY" and then clicking on "5y" under today's
chart.
Find current financial information for Yahoo and Amazon.
Using the similar pages feature, find
competitors to google.com that are run by public companies. Check whether
their stock prices have been climbing or dropping in the past three
months.
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. Google Glossary provides definitions for
words, phrases, and acronyms that Google finds on web pages.
The Glossary is good for finding definitions for terms that
aren't in some dictionaries, e.g., slang words, technical
terms, ethnic words and other specialized terms.
In February of 2003, Google acquired Pyra Labs, a company that makes
it easy for you to create your own blog. What's a blog? Let's ask
Google to define the term.
You can search for blogs with Google, in the same way that you search
for other documents. You can easily create a weblog (blog) post
pointing to the web page you're visiting by pressing the
"BlogThis!" button on the Google
Toolbar and publish your thoughts on the web so others may find
them. You can learn more about this feature on toolbar.google.com/button_help.html.
Google Glossary can also find definitions of acronyms.
One definition appears to the right of the words "Web
Definition," below the statistics bar and above
Google's search results.
When your query includes the "define:" operator,
Google displays all the definitions it finds on the web.
or visit local.google.com
and then enter in the Google Local search box
a location
Anchorage
350 5th Ave, New York
a business
restaurants near the Metropolitan Museum of Art
cafes
directions
SJC to 886 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA
San Francisco to 94105
Google Local, aka Search by Location, local.google.com,
scouts the web for addresses and clues to pinpoint where things are
located.
Not only is Search by Location good for finding businesses
and landmarks, but it can find locations of places that aren't listed
in phonebooks. For example, you can find places that appeared in the
film Sleepless in Seattle.
See these results on a map by clicking on the link just above your
search results.
Google provides a shortcut for learning about delays and
weather conditions at a US airport. Just enter the airport's
three-letter code followed by the word "airport" into Google's search
box.
Note: This feature may not work if you search from any of
Google's non-US sites, e.g., google.de, google.com.co, google.ca nor
from a foreign-language site, e.g., Swahili or Latvian.
For example, find conditions at Honolulu International Airport. If
you don't know the airport code, look it up on Google. If your city
has more than one major airport, include the airport name as well as
the city in your query.
You don't need to click on the first result to see that the
airport code for one of Honolulu's airports is HNL, because you can
find that code in the first line of the snippet.
It's best not to trust this information, though, unless you know
it's the answer you need.
For instance, the first result for New York City may be JFK, but
there are several New York airports.
To check more closely — or if you find the snippet
difficult to read — just click on the title of one of the snippets.
Let's view the Honolulu
Airport entry from World-Airport-Codes.com.
Now let's request travel conditions at Honolulu International
Airport.
Click on the "View conditions" link to see the FAA's airport
status information.
"Parcel tracking IDs, patents, and other specialized numbers can be
entered into Google's search box for quick access to information about
them," according to the Google Web
Search Features page, www.google.com/help/features.html.
Enter your query and click on the "Google Search" button.
Alternatively, enter your query and then click on the
Images tab.
Google Image Search works best when there are many images
available to choose from, e.g., photos of Anna
Kournikova, the most photographed tennis player.
Click on the image that interests you. You'll go to a framed page
with two parts. On top, you'll see Google's image thumbnail. On
the bottom, you'll see the full page on which the image appears.
Clicking on the thumbnail image or on the "See full-size
image" link that appears just below the thumbnail image will
display the full-size image.
Save the image to your hard disk by
either selecting "Save As" or "Save Page As"
from the File menu of your browser or by clicking the mouse's right
button and selecting "Save As" or "Save Page
As" from the pop-up menu.
To view the page containing the image without the thumbnail image
on top, click on the page's URL, which appears between the
thumbnail image and the page itself following the text "Below
is the image in its original context on the page."
Notice that when you search for images of Google founders Larry
Page and Sergey Brin, Image Search returns some photographs of
Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
The words "Larry Page" and "Sergey Brin"
appear near images of Eric Schmidt, or in image captions, or in
links to those images. Google makes a guess that the
words are related to the image. Google technology isn't yet to the
point where it can tell what's in an image by looking at it
directly.
Focusing Your Image Search
As with text searches, you can focus your search when it finds too
many images. Restrict your results to images that are large,
medium, or small by clicking on one of the links that is in the
upper right corner on the Images results page.
image files whose names end with the specified suffix
jpg, gif, png
Coloration
images with the specified color depth
black and white, grayscale, full color
Domain
a specific site or domain (for a description of site and
domain names, see Anatomy of a Web
Address)
Domains such as .com, .edu, .nl, or sites such as pandemonia.com
SafeSearch
the specified level of filtering.
Be aware that Google's automatic filtering doesn't
guarantee that you won't be shown offensive content.
none, moderate, strict
The Size restriction refers to the height and width of the
image in pixels. The following table lists the approximate dimensions
for each relative size specification.
These problems give you practice with finding images.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
I used a color chart to select colors for this
tutorial. Find some color charts that show the HTML input to render at
least 100 colors.
Google displays special logos on its home page on holidays and
birthdays. Find some of these logos. Click on the link "repeat
the search with the omitted results included" to view more
amusing logos.
Find a photograph of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain to see whether
you want to take a vacation and visit the Alhambra.
Want advice, opinions, and recommendations that haven't
necessarily been edited?
Then consider using Google Groups, which provides access
(posting and reading) to thousands of discussion forums — an
enormous storehouse of discourse, including
Forums
on practically everything from aviation
to
zymurgy
(brewing
beer)
Flames (insulting criticism or remarks meant to
incite anger)
The Internet connects people from all over the world. When the
Internet was initially established, people used it to send email
messages to each other. As with physical mail, email must have the
address of the recipient. In 1979-1980, Steve Bellovin, Jim Ellis,
Tom Truscott, and Steve Daniel at Duke University and the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill implemented a distributed bulletin
board system supported mainly by UNIX computers. It became known as
Usenet, which was short for Users Network, and, because it was
free and non-proprietary, it swiftly became international in scope.
Usenet discussion forums became popular in the 1980s before the birth
of the World Wide Web. In 1995, a company named DejaNews began
archiving Usenet. In 1999, during the .com boom, DejaNews changed its
name to Deja.com. Like many .com companies, Deja.com didn't do well
financially. In February of 2001, Deja.com sold its Usenet archives
to Google for an undisclosed amount.
Google has Deja's entire
archive (dating back to 1995), as well as lots of material posted
earlier, available from the Google Groups home page.
Google Groups also tracks recent postings on Usenet and non-Usenet
groups.
Finally, Google allows you to post messages to these forums by
signing up for a free account.
or visit groups.google.com to
access this comprehensive archive of human conversation, dating back
to 1981.
Note: Particularly in the latter part of the 1980s, there
are some significant gaps in the archive. As traffic expanded, volunteers
who had been saving Usenet traffic at their own expense were overwhelmed,
and stopped archiving some groups. While the Google Groups archive is
the most complete Usenet Archive known to exist, it is not a complete
archive prior to the 1990s.
You can search and read public groups without identifying yourself to
Google.
To access private groups or to post a message to any group, you'll need a
Google Account.
(You may also be able to post to public Usenet groups through your Internet
provider's own news server — without needing a Google Account.
If this seems useful, ask your ISP whether they provide Usenet access.)
For a listing of groups organized by topic, region, language, activity
level, and (for non-Usenet groups) the number of people who belong to
the group, see the Group Directory.
Many of the Google Groups are part of Usenet.
Usenet newsgroups (forums) are grouped into several large areas,
each of which is broken into subareas. The different
parts are always separated by a "." (period). The first part
of a name is called its hierarchy. Consider, for instance, the
name rec.sport.tennis. The newsgroup is in the
rec or recreation area, in the sports subarea.
Within each newsgroup, there are messages (also referred to as
articles or postings) that look like email from one user to
another. But instead of just being exchanged between two people, these
messages are available to everyone who accesses the Usenet or Google Groups. The top level
Usenet hierarchies are:
alt.
Alternative discussions (any conceivable topic)
biz.
Business products, services, reviews, etc.
comp.
Relating to computers
humanities.
Fine art, literature, philosophy, etc.
misc.
Miscellaneous topics, e.g., employment,
health, etc.
news.
Relating to Usenet netnews itself
rec.
Relating to recreation, e.g., games,
hobbies, sports
sci.
Relating to the sciences
soc.
Relating to social issues, culture
talk.
Long arguments, current issues and debates,
frequently political
Below are some examples of Usenet newsgroup names.
alt.graphics.photoshop
misc.jobs.offered
alt.atheism.moderated
rec.aviation.soaring
alt.fan.letterman
rec.food.recipes
alt.personal.ads
rec.music.classical.guitar
biz.books.technical
soc.feminism
misc.invest.real-estate
talk.politics.misc
Discussion groups can be unmoderated (anyone can post) or moderated
(submissions are automatically directed to a moderator, who edits and
filters out inappropriate and irrelevant material). Some discussion
groups have parallel mailing lists, with postings to a group
automatically propagated to its mailing list and vice versa. Some
moderated groups are even distributed as digests, groups of
postings periodically being collected into a single large posting with an
index. The names of some moderated groups include the suffix
.moderated, e.g., rec.martial-arts.moderated.
Click on a topic (hierarchy) or enter your query.
Note that the results are sorted by relevance — that is, how
closely they match your query — rather than by the date they
were posted.
Each result includes the date it was posted, shown in green next to
the group name.
To sort results by date, click "Sort by date" above the Sponsored
Links.
Click the title to view the original article with your search terms highlighted.
The article may be part of a discussion thread or topic —
the original article together with any preceding and followup articles —
as this example shows.
Want to participate in a discussion? For information on how to post
messages, click on the "Groups Help" link above or to the
right of the Google Groups' search box or visit the Google Groups
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about posting at groups.google.com/googlegroups/posting_faq.html.
Also be sure to read the first answer in
Google Groups Posting Style Guide. Usenet has a very strong culture, and well-established
ways of doing things. In order to get the best responses to your post, you
should try to conform to Usenet standards.
If you post to Usenet via Google Groups, your email address will be
distributed widely and you may receive lots of spam as a result.
(Google Groups will make your email address difficult for spammers to
find, but other Usenet servers may not.)
Consider getting another email address from
Gmail,
Yahoo, or some
other free service to use for your public postings.
If you get a separate email address, though, do remember to check it
periodically: some Usenet readers may send you a question or other
private reply.
After the tragedies of September 11, 2001, Krishna Bharat, a
Google engineer, built a tool to crawl news sites and organize
news into ranked clusters. Because of its popularity, Google
expanded the demo into Google News.
Google News:
Presents information culled from thousands of news
sources worldwide.
Updates entries continuously throughout the day.
Groups together related headlines and photos.
By default, automatically displays the latest headlines.
Google news indicates how fresh a story is by listing how long ago it
was posted, e.g., 30 minutes ago for the top story on the left in the
screen shot above. Click on the title to display the article. Notice
the "and 1007 related" link at the bottom of the entry of the story on
the left of the above screen shot. If you click an entry's "and XXX
related" link, you'll see a page listing all articles related to the
same topic.
Search news by entering your query and clicking on the "Google
Search" button.
By default, results are sorted by relevance to your search terms.
When you wish to see articles ordered chronologically, click on
the "Sort by date" link, located in the upper right
corner of the results window.
Advanced News
Search, accessible from the Advanced Search link on the News page,
lets you search by news source, location, date range, and other
criteria. It's also available at
news.google.com/advanced_news_search.
If you like keeping up with the latest news, consider making Google
News your home page and/or setting up Google Alerts.
Make Google News your home page by following the instructions listed on
www.google.com/options/defaults.html,
changing http://www.google.com/ to http://news.google.com/ (or copying
the URL from one of the non-US versions that we just mentioned).
If these instructions don't work for your browser, check your Options
or Preferences settings for a "home page" box; paste the
URL into that box.
If you're a news junkie, check out
Topix.net, which you can
find at http://www.topix.net/ and
Columbia Newsblaster,
which you can find at http://newsblaster.cs.columbia.edu/. Like
Google News, Topix.net and Newsblaster are systems that automatically track the
day's news. Why are we including non-Google sites in a tutorial on
Google? To make you aware of sites offering capabilities different
from Google News's and to publicize a friend's site.
According to the About Columbia
Newsblaster page, which you can find at
http://newsblaster.cs.columbia.edu/faq.html, "There are no human
editors involved — everything you see on the Newsblaster main page is
generated automatically, drawing on the sources listed on the left
side of the screen." Unlike Google News, Newsblaster summarizes
clusters of articles about the same topic. "The end result is a
Web page that gives you a sense of what the major stories of the day
are, so you don't have to visit the pages of dozens of
publications," according to About Newsblaster page.
or visit froogle.google.com.
Search results include price, brand,
description, and, if available, a photograph. Note that unlike other
online shopping services, Froogle doesn't actually sell things.
Froogle obtains listings for products from vendors and by scouring
the web. When Google finds a page that appears to sell
something, it feeds the information it collects to Froogle. Vendors
don't pay to have their products included in Froogle's search
results. However, they can purchase sponsored links, which appear
along the right side of Froogle's results pages.
You'll find a link to Froogle on the Google home page. Or go to
froogle.google.com.
You can browse products by clicking on a category or you can search by
entering your query in Froogle's search box.
Interested in buying a watch for a child? Try searching on Froogle
for [ watches
children ].
The results included the verb
"watch" and pages selling children's jewelry. Study
results to get ideas for more effective search
terms. Consider searching for specific brands.
Search for specific types of watches.
When Froogle finds more than one product from a site, it includes the link
"See all results from vendor." Limiting the number
of results from a given site to just one ensures products from a
single vendor won't dominate your search results and that Froogle
provides pages from a variety of sites.
Want products with prices in a specified range?
Enter a price range just above the results or fill in a field
in Froogle's advanced search form. Access the advanced search
form by clicking on the Advanced Froogle Search link next
to the search box on a Froogle page or visiting
froogle.google.com/froogle_advanced_search.
These problems give you practice with shopping on
Froogle and Google Catalogs.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Find 100% cotton comforter covers on Froogle.
Find unbreakable 8 oz. drinking glasses in the price range $10 - $30.
Tired of putting on sun screen? Find sun-protective clothing with
Froogle.
After acquiring a fancy scanner, Larry Page, co-founder of Google,
encouraged engineers to come up with a search service that would take
advantage of its speed and flexibility. Lauren Baptist started by
developing a service around mail-order catalogs because they posed the
least copyright issues. Some vendors have better pictures in their
catalogs than on the websites. Now you can throw out your mail-order
catalogs and browse or search for their contents online, even if the
company hasn't listed them on the web. Visit catalogs.google.com. But, if you
don't have a high speed connection, the catalog pages load slowwwwwly.
Google tries a lot of things.
Some projects succeed and are supported; others fade away.
As of this writing (late 2005), Google Catalogs seems to be one that
may fade away.
For instance, most catalogs in the Computer category are from 2002
or 2003 — an eternity in that fast-paced market.
Another interesting point about a not-so-developed service like Catalogs
is that not all search features may be supported.
For instance, searching by price with the
numeric range operator,
like $250..$1000, would be useful in a catalog search.
But that operator was developed after Catalogs, which may explain
why it doesn't work.
Still, the service is interesting — and some of the catalogs
are fairly up-to-date.
Since IKEA gives out their catalogs sparingly, check out their catalog online.
Like Froogle,
Catalogs doesn't sell things. Instead, use this service to browse
and/or search print page catalogs.
For example, search for a sun hat.
As with other Google services, the
Advanced
Catalog Search gives you more search choices.
Advanced search lets you choose
the latest issue of a catalog or all issues.
You can also name a certain merchant
These
problems give you practice with shopping with Google Catalogs.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Find 100% cotton comforter covers.
Find radios at a consumer electronics store.
Then try a general search and notice that merchants in other
categories may also have radios.
Tired of putting on sun screen? Find sun-protective clothing.
There are two basic ways to find information systematically on the
Web: browsing and searching. Chris Sherman and Gary Price offer the
following description of browsing versus searching in their book
The Invisible Web.
... think of how you use a library. If you're familiar
with a subject it's often more useful to
browse in the section where books [on that] subject are
shelved. Because of the way the library is organized, often
using either the Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress
Classification system, you know that all of the titles in the
section are related, and serendipity often leads to unexpected
discoveries that prove quite valuable.
If you're unfamiliar with a subject, however, browsing is both
inefficient and potentially futile if you fail to locate the
section of the library where the material you're interested in
is shelved. Searching, [with the aid of] specialized tools
offered by a library's catalog, is far more likely to provide
satisfactory results.
Using the web to find information has much in common with
using the library. Sometimes browsing provides good
results, while other information needs require nothing less
than sophisticated, powerful searching to achieve the best
results.
Up until now, we've shown you how to choose search terms and craft
your queries to locate the information you seek. This section
describes how to browse by following links on Google's Directory.
Google organizes the Directory into categories that are classifications of
pages by subjects. The Directory is similar to the table of contents
in a book. Browsing a book's table of contents, which includes the
titles of chapters and sections, allows a reader to quickly find
interesting sections of the book. Similarly, browsing a
subject-oriented directory, enables a user to quickly locate
categories containing related documents. However, there's no assurance
that what you're seeking will be in the book or web page.
Google's web-search index is built automatically by computers that
crawl the web. On the other hand, Google's Directory is created by volunteer
human-subject matter experts who contribute to the Open Directory Project
(www.dmoz.org). The raw open-source
directory is used not just by Google, but also by Netscape Search, AOL
Search, Lycos, HotBot, and DirectHit. The volunteers evaluate,
classify, and annotate each entry. The entries are then ranked by
Google's PageRank
algorithms.
(If you sort the results by their PageRank, you'll notice a bar
scale to the left of each result.
The wider the bar, the higher the PageRank.
See the next screen shot for two examples.)
Consider using the Directory instead of Google's web search
whenever you want to:
Familiarize yourself with a topic.
Get suggestions for ways to narrow your search.
Find ideas for query terms.
Figure out the scope of a given category, e.g.,
the number of newspapers in California.
View only pages that have been evaluated by a human editor.
Fewer sites are included in the Directory than in Google's web search but those that are included
tend to be of high quality.
Use Google's Directory when you want to explore by clicking on topics,
i.e., browse. For example, learn about travel by clicking on the
Travel category, which is included in the top-level category
Recreation, which in the future we'll abbreviate as Recreation >
Travel.
To broaden your search, consider browsing subcategories or related
categories, which the Directory includes on your results page. Next
to each subcategory is a number in parentheses (), which is the number
of links included in that category. Names of categories with lots of
entries are shown in boldface.
With Google's Directory, you can browse and/or search to find pages of
interest to you. If you're unfamiliar with a topic, browse through a
few levels of categories and then restrict your search to a particular
branch of the Directory by selecting the "Search only in
..." radio button before entering your query in the search box.
If you're familiar with a topic, search the Directory by entering your
query and clicking on the "Google Search" button. Then you
can either refine your search by changing your search query or
entering additional terms or browse by clicking on a subcategory or a
related category.
Directory drawbacks include size, timeliness, and coverage. Since
computers can crawl the web and add index entries much faster than
humans can travel the web and evaluate pages, most directories,
including Google's, have significantly fewer entries than searchable
indices. Since directory links are maintained by hand, upkeep and
maintenance are time-consuming. It's difficult for editors to keep up
with the dynamic nature of the web. Because different people edit,
annotate, and add entries, some categories in a directory are
well-populated and others are sparse.
The specialized searches let you find information about a topic
without getting completely unrelated results.
For instance, if you want only official information from US governments
about taxes, you can search all federal and state government websites
from this one search box.
Why these topics? Early on in Google history, some engineers created
these specialized search engines to serve their own interests.
They've remained part of the site though Google has turned its
attention to other types of search services and features.
You can find links to these specialized search engines, as well as
Google Book Search and Google Scholar, on the Advanced Web Search form.
This problem set gives you practice in using
Google's specialized search engines.
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
What was special about the Apple Lisa computer, and why did it
fail?
What are the advantages of Linux over Windows and vice versa?
Having trouble creating a query to find the information
you seek? Don't have time to research the topic yourself?
Consider asking a reference librarian, an experienced online
researcher, or Google Answers, which, for a fee of your
choosing, provides assistance from researchers with expertise
in online searching.
If your query returns few results or none, there may be a link to
Google Answers on the results page. Otherwise, visit answers.google.com.
Reluctant to use Google Answers? Think you can find the information
you want if you search a bit longer? If you feel that way, you're not
alone. Nevertheless, many people who have asked questions of Google
Answers are now fans of the service. Not only does it save them time,
but the answers they get are packed with useful information and links.
It's a wonderful service that's well worth your checking out, whether
you're a novice or an experienced searcher.
Here's how it works:
Enter a question.
Specify an amount between US$2 and US$200 that you're
willing to pay for an answer. Google adds on a US$.50 listing
fee, which you are charged regardless of whether your question
is answered or not.
A Google Answers researcher will search for the information you
want and post an answer. The researchers are screened and approved
independent contractors who get paid for posting
"answers" to the site.
You will be notified via email when any responses are
posted to your question, unless you specify in your Google
Answers' Profile that you would rather not receive status
information on your questions.
How is Google Guide Different from How to Do
Everything with Google?
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.
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