Better Internet Searches

Mary F. English Program

Northern Illinois University

Using

Search like an expert!

• The following tips in this presentation will help you make better searches using the Google search engine.

– Many of these tips may also work with Bing or Yahoo, but each definitely works with Google.

How to setup your Windows 7 split screen for this lesson

Explicit Phrase

• Put your search inside quotation marks “ ” to search for that exact phrase.

– For example, if you search for northern Illinois university “college of education” then the words northern, Illinois, and university will be independently searched for on the page, and the entire phrase college of education will be searched for on the page.

Exclude Words

• Put a – sign in front of a word in your search to exclude pages that include that word.

– For example, if you search for chicago white sox –cubs, then only pages which talk about the Chicago White Sox, without ever mentioning the Chicago Cubs, will be displayed.

Site Specific Search

• If you want to use a search engine to search only one specific website, then type in your search like normal, followed by site:www.insertnamehere.com.

– For example, if you search jay cutler site:www.chicagobears.com then only pages that talk about Jay Cutler on www.chicagobears.comwill be displayed.

Similar Words and Synonyms

• Put a ~ sign in front of a word in your search if you would like to see search results that include words related the word you put a ~ in front of.

– For example, if you search top 10 ~videos of all time, you would see search results that include the top 10 movies of all time and the top 10 filmsof all time.

Specific Document Types

• If instead of webpages you want to only search for specific file types, you can type the search as usual followed by filetype:extension

– For example, if you want to search for basic algebra PowerPoint presentations, you would search basic algebra filetype:ppt.

• Notice you need to type in the files extension, and not the name of the program you are using (try to search basic algebra filetype:powerpoint to see for yourself that the extension is needed)

This OR That

• If there you want to search for something that is often called by two different terms, you can use OR between both words to have Google search for both.

– For example, if you want to search for batman comic books, which are sometimes referred to as graphic novels, you could search batman “comic books” OR “graphic novels”.

Phone Listing

• Did you receive a call or text message from a phone number you don’t recognize? Google makes it easy to look up a phone number by typing phonebook:555-555-5555.

Numeric Ranges

• Do you want to find search results that relate only to a specific series of years? To do this, just type the first year, followed by …, and then the last year.

– For example, if you want to learn about the United States Vice President from 1960-1970, you would type in united states vice president 1960…1970.

Google Calculator

• Did you know Google offers a built-in calculator? Just type in the equation you want solved, and Google will give you the answer.

– For example, if you wanted to know what 352 times 65.03 is, you would type 352*65.03. If you wanted to know what 530 divided by 27.3 is, you would type 530/27.3. You can even do longer equations like 352*65.03/27.3+2000

Word Definitions

• One of the fastest ways to look up the definition of a word online is to type define followed by the word you want the definition of.

– For example, define obstreperous.

That does it for this presentation! You will need to complete the Better Internet Searches Using

Google Quiz on the MFE Moodle to earn credit for this lesson.

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Work Cited

• Shah, Darmesh. "12 Quick Tips To Search Google Like An Expert." 12 Quick Tips To Search Google Like An Expert. HubSpot, 5 Mar. 2007. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/1264/12-Quick-Tips-To-Search-Google-Like-An-Expert.aspx>.