Power Searching Google and Google Scholar

Laura Wilson, Reference Librarian

Framingham State CollegeSeptember 23, 2009

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Advanced Google Search

Click here foradvanced search

The Advanced Search Page

Boolean and Phrase Search : AND, “ ”, OR, NOT

Puts AND between each keyword – broad search (default setting for basic Google search)

Example : American soccer teams retrievesAmerican AND soccer AND teams

any of these words anywhere on the page

Puts quotation marks around the keywords, search as a phrase – more narrow search

Example: “American Soccer Teams” retrievespages that have the phrase American Soccer Teams

Boolean and Phrase Search: AND, “ ”, OR, NOT

What your advanced search looks like in the basic search box

Phrase search“American Soccer Teams”

Boolean and Phrase Search: AND, “ ”, OR, NOT

Puts OR between your keywords – very broad searchAMERICAN OR SOCCER OR TEAMSany of these words anywhere on the page

Eliminates unwanted terms that are retrieved from the searchExample: “American Soccer Teams” –college

Retrieves pages that mention the phrase American Soccer Teams

and not the word college

More Tools

Here you can : • Increase the number of websites listed per page• Select websites written in a particular language• Select the type of file that your search retrieves

• PowerPoint presentations, PDF files, Excel Spreadsheets, and more!

• Example: filetype:pdf , filetype:ppt• Search within a particular website or type of website

• Example: site:cnn.com , site:.edu , site:.gov

Even More Features!

• Date will retrieve recently updated pages • Find the latest news on your topic

• Where your keywords show up• Anywhere in the page : very broad, may not be relevant • In the title of the page : Probably relevant to your search• In the text of the page: broad, may only mention your

keywords once• In the URL of the page: Probably relevant to your search,

but may not retrieve other useful sites• In links to the page: Find links to other websites related to

your keywords

Even More Features!

Find pages similar to the page: searches for websites related or similar to a specific URL

Example: related:www.framingham.edu Retrieves pages similar to www.framingham.edu

Find pages that link to the page: searches for websites that link to the URL you input

Example: link:www.framingham.edu Retrieves pages that link to www.framingham.edu

Synonyms ~◦ Use this symbol to retrieve synonyms for your keyword

Example : ~feminism , ~basketball Nesting ( )

◦ Use this to search for synonyms under a certain subject Example : cats (Persian OR Himalayan)

Retrieves sites that mention Persian cats or Himalayan cats

Wildcard *◦ Use this as a placeholder for unknown words in a

phrase Example: “Obama voted * on * bill”

Other cool advanced search tips

GOOGLE SCHOLAR

• Search scholarly literature using Google • peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, articles and abstracts• Information that generally is NOT free on the web and

NOT accessible through a regular Google search• Connects with our library• For example, if you find an article you need, there may be a

direct link to that article in one of our databases

Be certain to access Google Scholar through the Henry Whittemore Library◦ http://scholar.google.com.fscproxy.framingham.edu/◦ Connects directly with our holdings – saves you time in

finding articles and books!◦ Find the link in our A-Z list of databases on our homepage

GOOGLE SCHOLARClick here for advanced search

Advanced Search : Google Scholar

• This box is very similar to Advanced Google search• All words : AND between keywords• Exact phrase : “ ” • At least one word: OR between keywords• Without the words: -term

“American Soccer Teams” –college• Where my words occur:

• Anywhere in the article : broad search, results may or may not be relevant

• In the title of the article: more narrow, results may be more relevant but may also miss good sources

Advanced Search : Google Scholar

Search by AUTHOR of an article, book, theses, etc.

Search for articles published in a particular Journal• Results may be narrow and incomplete• There may be different ways to spell the name of a journal

Search for current information on your topic by Date• Search by year only

Advanced Search : Google Scholar

Search in a particular subject area

Google Scholar supports most of the same Advanced Search operators from the Google search engine◦ Synonyms ~◦ Nesting ( ) ◦ Wildcard *

Advanced Search : Google Scholar