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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. |
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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. |
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| Want to Get Started Immediately? |
If you're a novice, get a tour of my favorite features or go straight to Part I: Query Input.
If you're an experienced user, start with one of the following links. These pages may appear to describe basic concepts, but if you read carefully, you'll discover helpful insights into how Google works and how to use it more effectively.
Part I: Query Input
• Interpreting Your Query
• Crafting Your Query
(Using Special Characters)
• Sharpening Your Query
(Advanced Search)
• Using Search Operators
(Advanced Operators)• How Google Works
• Google Answers
• Feature History
• Prototypes & Demos
(Google Labs)• Linking to Search Results
In this tutorial, you can learn
Why Take the Google Guide Tutorial?
Google is so easy to use, why take this online tutorial? If you're like many people, you use only a small number of Google's services and features. The more you know about how Google works, its features and capabilities, the better it can serve your needs.
How to Use the Google Guide Tutorial
If you have time, read all of Google Guide and work through the examples and exercises. Otherwise, look at the Table of Contents or use the search box at the bottom of each page to find the pages or sections that are likely to be most helpful to you.
Just as the best way to learn how to sail is to sail, the best way to learn how to search with Google is to search with Google. Consequently this Google tutorial contains many examples and exercises designed to give you practice with the material presented and to inspire you to find amusing or useful information.
Try the examples, work the exercises, and click on the links (usually underlined) to see Google in action and to learn more about a topic.
Since the web and Google's algorithms and features constantly evolve, your results may be different from those shown in this tutorial.
In this tutorial, clicking the left mouse button on an example or a link to a page not in Google Guide, will display the results in a new window. Clicking on a link that points to another section in this tutorial, will display the contents of the associated page in the same window. You can make the contents of the linked page appear in a new window by:
Although this tutorial is for people new to Google, it contains information of interest to those who have experience with Google or another search engine. Unless you're familiar with all of Google's features, you'll learn something by taking this tutorial.
Who will Benefit from Google Guide?
Practically anyone who uses Google.
How Much Time Will the Google Guide Tutorial Take?
This online Google tutorial will occupy you from 0.5 to 8 hours, depending on how many sections you elect to skip, and how many of the examples and problems you work through. Most people spend about half an hour at a time, and two hours total.
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.
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 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.
If you want to meet the authors, consider attending Nancy's birthday party/conference.
| Table of Contents |
| Quiz |
Take this quiz and find out how well you know Google. If you want a hint, click on the link(s) in the question. When you have completed the quiz, click here or visit www.googleguide.com/quiz_answers.html to see the answers and tally your score.
When you have completed the quiz, click here or visit www.googleguide.com/quiz_answers.html to see the answers and tally your score.
About.com's Google
Quiz inspired me to create this quiz.
| My Favorite Features |
In addition to searching the web, you can use Google to find specific information that is available offline or on specialized sites. In this page I describe how Google works and features that enable me to find more quickly things I want.
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To learn more about a particular service or feature, click on the title of a section, which links to a more detailed description in Google Guide, www.googleguide.com, or read How to Do Everything with Google.
Tools
Enter a query even if Google's home page isn't in your browser.
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). |
Browser Buttons - www.google.com/options/buttons.html
I often search using Google browser buttons when I don't have access to a Google Toolbar or Deskbar.
Copyright © 2003 Google Inc. Used with permission.
Google provides shortcuts that seem intuitively obvious once I've learned about them.
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)[ Monty Python Oakland ] First name (or first initial), last name, state [ Monty Python CA ] First name (or first initial), last name, area code [ M Python 510 ] First name (or first initial), last name, zip code [ Monty Python 94601 ] Phone number, including area code [ 510-555-1212 ] Last name, city, state [ Python Oakland CA ] Last name, zip code [ Python 94601 ]
Notice that Google supports reverse look up. You can enter a phone number with area code and learn to whom that number belongs.
To seek a US business, enter ... Examples Business name, city, state [ Trek Waterloo WI ] Business name, zip code [ Ben & Jerry's 05403 ] Phone number including area code [ (650) 930-3500 ]
Google lists up to three results that match your phonebook query.
To see other listings, click on the "results" link that's just above the phonebook entries.
![A screen shot of the links to phonebook entries for [ parents
Palo Alto CA ].](/images/localListings.gif)
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.
- The Google Calculator isn't Mathematica, Maple, or Matlab
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.
- Other Shortcuts
Special Searches Examples Stock Quotes
[ csco dell ] Travel Conditions
[ ewr airport ] Package Tracking
[ 999444666222 ] [ united 42 ] Vehicle Information
[ JH4NA1157MT001832 ] Patent Search
[ patent 5122313 ] [ n199ua ] UPC Codes
[ 036000250015 ] FCC Equipment IDs
[ fcc B4Z-34009-PIR ]
Keeping Abreast of the News - News Alerts
Rather than searching Google News every day to find out what's new, I set up Google News Alerts to send me email when news articles of interest to me appear on the web.
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."
Because some people spell hyphenated words with a hyphen and others with a space, Google searches for variations on any hyphenated terms.
When Google encounters a hyphen (-) in a query term, e.g., [ pre-school ], it searches for:
[ pre-school
] matches "pre-school," "pre school," and "preschool"
[ pre school
] matches "pre-school" and "pre school"
If you aren't sure whether a word is hyphenated, go ahead and search for it with a hyphen.
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.
Not sure how someone's name is written?
[ "Hillary Clinton" ]
[ "Hillary * Clinton" ]
[ "Clinton Hillary" ]
[ "Clinton * Hillary" ]
If you're interested in running proximity searches, try out GAPS, a third-party search tool available at http://www.staggernation.com/cgi-bin/gaps.cgi.
This table summarizes how to use basic search operators. You may include any of these operators multiple times in a query.
| Notation | Find result | Example |
| terms1 terms2 | with both term1 and term2 | |
| term1 OR term1 | | with either term1 or term2 or both |
[ Tahiti OR Hawaii ] [ Tahiti | Hawaii ] |
| +term | 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.) | [ +i spy ] |
| -term | without term | |
| ~ | with term or
one of its synonyms (currently supported on Web and Directory search) | [ google ~guide ] |
| number1..number2 | with a number in the
specified range | [ trail-a-bike $50..$350 ] |
| " | with the exact phrase, a proper name, or a set of words in a specific order |
[ "I have a dream" ] [ "Rio de Janeiro" ] |
| "terms1 *
| with the phrase (enclosed in quotes) and * replaced by any single word | [ "Google * my life" ] |
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
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.
If you want to restrict results to a single language for a few queries, consider using the Language Tools menu option in the Google Toolbar, the Advanced Search page, or Language Tools.
Where are your Search Terms on a Page?
When Google returns a link to a page that appears to have little to do with my query, or if I can't find the information I'm seeking on the current version of the page, I look at the cached version.
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.
Google showcases some prototypes and products in development on the Google Labs, the web site of Google's research group.
My favorite prototype is Google Sets.
Enter a few items from a set of things.
Google Sets will try to predict other items in the set.
I've used Google sets to find
I never would have imagined that I would be listing Google advertising among my favorite features. I'm both pleased as a user and as an advertiser. Ads have led me to useful information that I might not have otherwise found so easily and my ads have steered thousands of interested users to my Google tutorial for a minimal cost.
Google's approach to ads is similar to its approach to search results: the ads must deliver useful links, or the ads are removed.
You can distinguish ads by their format and the label "Sponsored Link." Ads contain a title, a short description, and a web address (URL).
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
You can specify most of the Advanced Search page options in a regular search box query by using advanced operators, i.e., query words that have special meaning to Google.
Want to see examples of advanced operators?
Note: The colon following the operator name is mandatory.
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.
The Google Guide Advanced Operator Quick Reference (www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html) provides a nice two-page summary of the search operators grouped by type.
There is an alphabetical list of the search operators in the Using Search Operators (Advanced Operators) section of Google Guide.
For tips on using one or more search operators in a query, see the last section in Using Search Operators (Advanced Operators).
Links to Other Useful Information
Click on any of the following links for more on these topics.
Selecting Search Terms
How Google Interprets a Query
Refining a Query
What Appears on the Results Page
Getting to the Last Result
When Google added features (Feature History)
How Google Works
For more features and services as well as how Google works, read Google Guide (www.googleguide.com) or How to Do Everything with Google.
| Part I: Query Input |
Google is easy to use, but the more you know about how it works, its features, its capabilities, and how it displays results, the better it can serve your needs.
In this segment, you will learn how to:
| Entering a Query |
If you have little or no experience with Google, read on. Otherwise, skip to the next section, titled "Go to the First Result."
If your browser isn't pointing to Google, visit Google's home page by entering one of the following web addresses into your browser:
(When we refer to a web address in this tutorial, we omit the "http://" prefix. For a description of web addresses, see the section "Anatomy of a Web Address."
You may also have a bookmark or favorites entry for Google or a "Google" button on your browser window. No matter how you do it, you should see the Google home page with a search box:
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.
| Going Directly to the First Result |
Click on the I'm Feeling Lucky button on Google's home page to go directly to the first result for your query. Instead of showing you a list of pages, Google sends you immediately to the result that may be most relevant to your query. For example, if you enter the query [ california driving ] (without the square brackets) and click the I'm Feeling Lucky button, Google may send you to the home page of Hamish Reid's wonderful California Driving Guide. (You may see another page if Google's first result has changed by the time you read this tutorial.) Then come back to this Google Guide page by clicking your browser's "back" button.
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.
