Google Tutorial

Google: Tips, Tricks and More
Contents
1. Prerequisites .....................................................................................................................3
2. Course Overview...............................................................................................................3
3. Whos Behind Google?.....................................................................................................3
4. Why Use Google? (10 good reasons)..............................................................................4
5. Accessing Google.............................................................................................................5
6. Google Features and Help................................................................................................7
7. The Basics of Searching ..................................................................................................9
8. Interpreting Results ........................................................................................................11
9. More About Searching....................................................................................................15
10. Advanced Search Interface ............................................................................................21
11. Setting Search Preferences ...........................................................................................22
12. Google Tools ...................................................................................................................23
13. Google Directory.............................................................................................................27
14. Saving and Printing Web Pages ....................................................................................30
15. Summary..........................................................................................................................31
16. Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................32
17. More Free Database and Internet Courses ...................................................................33
Information Skills
Puumanawa Whakamoohitanga
Tel: 373-7599 ext. 86679 / 83797
Email: info.skills@auckland.ac.nz
Author: Rose Holley
Last Update: 21st January 2004
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Google: Tips, Tricks and More / University of Auckland Library, 2004
1. Prerequisites
Before undertaking this course it is necessary to:
Be able to use a mouse proficiently
Have good keyboarding skills
Familiarity with using a browser (Internet Explorer v 6 will be used in class)
Good understanding of written and oral English
Pre attendance on Information Literacy/IT basic skills course or similar
2. Course Overview
This 2-hour course will cover Google search operators in the simple and advanced interface and then apply
them to Web, Image, News and Groups (e-mail) searching. Also covered is interpreting results, Google Help,
Google Tools, Google Directory, setting search preferences and saving and printing websites.
3. Whos Behind Google?

Co-founders Larry Page (30), president of Products, and Sergey Brin (31), president of Technology, brought
Google to life in September 1998 in a garage. They met while both studying for a PhD in Computer Science at
Stanford University in 1998. Since then, the company has expanded to more than 1,000 employees worldwide,
with a management team that represents some of the most experienced technology professionals in the
industry, backed by funding from two leading venture capital firms. Dr. Eric E. Schmidt joined Google as
chairman and chief executive officer in 2001.
Staff Facts
Approximate number of employees: 1,000+
Ph.D.s on staff: 60+
Languages spoken: 34
Number of roller hockey players: 32
Number of offices worldwide: 21
Massage Therapists: 2
Neurosurgeons: 1
Funding
Google is a privately held company with primary financial backing from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and
Sequoia Capital, which together led an equity round of $25 million in June 1999. Google also has benefited from
several other high-profile investors, including Stanford University, Andy Bechtolsheim (co-founder of Sun
Microsystems and current vice president of engineering of the Gigabit Switching Group at Cisco Systems), and
Ram Shriram, an entrepreneur who previously held senior executive positions at Netscape, Junglee and
Amazon.com.
Sergey Brin: Co-Founder & President, Technology
Sergey Brin (30), a native of Moscow, received a Bachelor of Science degree with
honors in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Maryland at
College Park. He is currently on leave from the Ph.D. program in computer science at
Stanford University, where he received his master's degree. Brin is a recipient of a
National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. It was at Stanford where he met
Larry Page and worked on the project that became Google. Together they founded
Google Inc. in 1998, and Brin continues to share responsibility for day-to-day
operations with Larry Page and Eric Schmidt.
Brin's research interests include search engines, information extraction from
unstructured sources, and data mining of large text collections and scientific data. He
has published more than a dozen academic papers, including Extracting Patterns and
Relations from the World Wide Web; Dynamic Data Mining: A New Architecture for
Data with High Dimensionality, which he published with Larry Page; Scalable Techniques for Mining Casual
Structures; Dynamic Itemset Counting and Implication Rules for Market Basket Data; and Beyond Market
Baskets: Generalizing Association Rules to Correlations.
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Brin has been a featured speaker at several national and international academic, business and technology
forums, including the Academy of American Achievement; European Technology Forum; Technology,
Entertainment and Design; and Silicon Alley 2001. He has shared his views on the technology industry and the
future of search on the Charlie Rose Show, ABC World News Tonight, CNBC, and CNNfn as well as in
numerous newspaper articles. Brin was named a "Young Innovator Who Will Create the Future" by MIT's
Technology Review magazine in 2002.
Larry Page: Co-Founder & President, Products
Larry Page (31) was Google's founding CEO and grew the company to more than 200
employees and profitability before moving into his role as President, Products in April
2001. He continues to share responsibility for Google's day-to-day operations with Eric
Schmidt and Sergey Brin.
The son of Michigan State University Computer Science professor Dr. Carl Victor
Page, Page's love of computers began at age six. While following in his father's
footsteps in academics, Page became an honors graduate from cross-state rival the
University of Michigan, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering,
with a concentration on Computer Engineering. During his time in Ann Arbor, Page
received numerous leadership awards for his efforts toward improving the College of
Engineering, served as president of the University's Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society and
built a programmable plotter and inkjet printer out of Lego.
While in the Ph.D program in Computer Science at Stanford University, Page met Sergey Brin and together they
developed and ran Google, which began operating in 1998. Page went on leave from Stanford after earning his
master's degree. Prior to Google, Page was a software developer at Advanced Management Systems in
Washington, D.C., and CogniTek in Evanston, Ill.
Page has discussed business and technology on nationally broadcast programs including CNNfn and the Charlie
Rose Show and as a speaker at numerous national and international forums, including the Churchill Club, The
Wall Street Journal Technology Summit, the Commonwealth Club, Technologic Partners and PC Forum. He is a
member of the National Advisory Committee (NAC) for the University of Michigan College of Engineering and in
2002, was named a "Young Innovator Who Will Create the Future" by MIT's Technology Review magazine and a
World Economic Forum Global Leader for Tomorrow. Page has also been recognized as Research and
Development Magazine's Innovator of the Year and was the first recipient of the University of Michigan Alumni
Society Recent Engineering Graduate Award.
4. Why Use Google? (10 good reasons)

There are many search engines and web subject directories available to choose from e.g. AltaVista, Fast
Search, Alltheweb, Yahoo, Jeeves. You should not necessarily just use one since they all have different
coverage and results. Often it is a matter of personal preference. However over the last couple of years both
Google and AltaVista have been working competitively to make major improvements and developments to their
products in the hope that they will become the top and search engine. If you have learnt to use one, you will find
the other very similar and easy to pick up.
Google compares very favourably to other large search engines and along with Altavista is the preferred search
engine of librarians because:
1. Your search covers more than 3 billion URLs
Google's index, comprised of more than 3 billion URLs, is the first of its kind and represents the most
comprehensive collection of the most useful web pages on the Internet. While index size alone is not the key
determinant of quality results, it has an obvious effect on the likelihood of a relevant result being returned, and
has good coverage for NZ.
2. You'll see only pages that are relevant to the terms you type
Google only produces results that match all of your search terms or, through use of a proprietary technology,
results that match very close variations of the words you've entered (e.g., if you enter "comic book", the results
for "comic books" will be returned as well). The search terms or their variants must appear in the text of the page
or in the text of the links pointing to the page. This spares you the frustration of viewing a multitude of results that
have nothing to do with what you're looking to find.
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3. The position of your search terms is treated with respect

Google analyzes the proximity of your search terms within the page. Google prioritizes results according to how
closely your individual search terms appear and favors results that have your search terms near each other
(proximity searching). Because of this, the result is much more likely to be relevant to your query.
4. Results listed in PageRank order
PageRank, a system for ranking web pages developed by founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford
University. PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an
indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by
page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also
analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily
and help to make other pages "important."
Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a
search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines
PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your
search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the
page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.
5. You see what you're getting before you click
Instead of web page summaries that never change, Google shows an excerpt (or "snippet") of the text that
matches your query -- with your search terms in boldface -- right in the search results. This sneak preview gives
you a good idea if a page is going to be relevant before you visit it.
6. You can get it, even when it's gone
As Google crawls the web, it takes a snapshot of each page and analyzes it to determine the page's relevance.
You can access these cached pages if the original page is temporarily unavailable due to Internet congestion or
server problems. Though the information on cached pages is frequently not the most recent version of a site, it
usually contains useful information. Plus, your search terms will be highlighted in color on the cached page,
making it easy to find the section of the page relevant to your query.
7. Integrity
Google's complex, automated methods make human tampering with our results extremely difficult. And though
we do run relevant ads above and next to our results, Google does not sell placement within the results
themselves (i.e., no one can buy a higher PageRank). A Google search is an easy, honest and objective way to
find high-quality websites with information relevant to your search.
8. No pop up advertising
Google eliminates 99% of annoying pop up ads, by using some special software. If an ad does slip through the
net the pop up box will usually be blank and can be closed by using Ctrl + W keys on the keyboard.
9. Simple search interface
The search interface is clear and simple with no advertising or scrolling banner ads.
10. One stop shop
Google has a web search engine and an excellent web directory both the tools you need for effective Internet
searching. In addition separate image and news search. Google has also bought the Usenet archive and is the
only search engine to offer the Groups (e-mail search).
5. Accessing Google
1. Open Internet Explorer from your desktop.
2. In the address bar type www.google.com, or www.google.co.nz or one of the local domains below and press
the enter key on your keyboard.
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Visit Google's Site in Your Local Domain
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6. Google Features and Help

Web page search
Image Search
News Search
Groups (e-mails from listserv's and newsgroups) search
Web Directory
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To access the different search types click on the relevant tab above the main search box:
Comprehensive help and other information is available by clicking on the Jobs, Press and Help link from the
Google home page:
Search Help
Basics of Search
Interpreting Results
Customize Results
Advanced Search Tips
Web Search
Features
Cached Links
Calculator
Definitions - New!
File Types
I'm Feeling Lucky
Froogle - New!
News Headlines
PhoneBook
Search By Number - New!
Similar Pages
Site Search
Spell Checker
Stock Quotes
Street Maps
Travel Conditions - New!
Web Page Translation
Who links to you?
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Google Services & Tools Froogle

Google Answers
Google Browser Buttons
Google Catalogs
Google Groups
Google Image Search
Google
Google
Google
Google
Google
Google
Labs
in your Language
News
Special Searches
Toolbar
Translate Tool
Google
Google
Google
Google
Google
University Search
Web APIs
Web Directory
Web Search
Wireless
To get back to the homepage of Google, or to start a new search, or select a different search type just click on
the Google Image:
7. The Basics of Searching

Type of Search
Operator
Example
Boolean and
whales migration
Phrase/name searching
whale watching
Giant sperm whale
Helen Clark
Ngai Tahu
Force search on common

excluded words
Lord +of +the rings
Word proximity
(automatic)
Stemming
(automatic sometimes)
Case sensitivity
(no all letters treated as lower case)
To enter a query into Google, just type in a few descriptive words and hit the 'enter' key (or click on the Google
Search button) for a list of relevant web pages. Since Google only returns web pages that contain all the words
in your query, refining or narrowing your search is as simple as adding more words to the search terms you have
already entered. Your new query will return a smaller subset of the pages Google found for your original "toobroad" query.
7.1
Choosing Keywords
For best results, it's important to choose your keywords wisely. Keep these tips in mind:
Try the obvious first. If you're looking for information on Picasso, enter "Picasso" rather than "painters".
Use words likely to appear on a site with the information you want. "Luxury hotel dubuque" gets better
results than "really nice places to spend the night in Dubuque".
Make keywords as specific as possible. "Antique lead soldiers" gets more relevant results than "old metal
toys".
If keywords include hyphens use them e.g. americas cup, rather than americas cup.
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7.2
Automatic "AND" Queries
By default, Google only returns pages that include all of your search terms. There is no need to include "and"
between terms. Keep in mind that the order in which the terms are typed will affect the search results. To restrict
a search further, just include more terms
7.3
Capitalization
Google searches are NOT case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you type them, will be understood as
lower case. For example, searches for "george washington", "George Washington", and "gEoRgE wAsHiNgToN"
will all return the same results.
7.4
Word Variations (Stemming/Truncation)
Google uses stemming technology. Sometimes it will search not only for your search terms, but also for words
that are similar to some or all of those terms. If you search for "pet lemur dietary needs", Google will also search
for "pet lemur diet needs", and other related variations of your terms. Any variants of your terms that were
searched for will be highlighted in the snippet of text accompanying each result.
*Google still does not support full truncation, so it is advisable to include all variants of your word with the OR
operator e.g. library OR libraries OR librarian.
7.5
Automatic Exclusion of Common Words (Stop Words)
Google ignores common words and characters such as the of an "where" and "how", as well as certain
single digits and single letters, because they tend to slow down your search without improving the results.
Google will indicate if a common word has been excluded by displaying details on the results page below the
search box.
If a common word is essential to getting the results you want, you can include it by putting a "+" sign in front of it.
Put a space in front of + but no space after, e.g. lord +of +the rings
Alternatively you can perform a phrase search, e.g. lord of the rings
7.6
Phrase Searching
To search for phrases or names enclose the words in speech marks. All words (including stopwords) inside the
speech marks will be searched for as an exact string, e.g. The Treaty of Waitangi Winston Peters Cancer of
the colon
Exercise 1: Entering web search terms
1. From the Web Search Screen click your cursor in the search box
2. Enter the terms yacht race 2004
3. Click on
The results will show web pages mentioning yacht and race and 2004.
Exercise 2: Phrase searching
1. Click your cursor in the search box
2. Enter the term bledisloe cup
3. Click on
Results will show web pages with Bledisloe Cup as a phrase in them
Exercise 3: Phrase searching
2. Enter the term new zealand barbarians
3. Click on
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10
Results will show web pages with new Zealand barbarians as a phrase in them.
Exercise 4: Name searching
2. Enter the term helen clark prime minister
3. Click on
Results will show web pages about Helen Clark the Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Exercise 5: Name searching
2. Enter the term ngai tahu
3. Click on
Results will show web pages about the ngai tahu iwi
Exercise 6: Forcing searches on excluded common words
2. Enter the terms lord of the rings
3. Click on Google search.
4. Note the message on the screen that of and the have been excluded from your search.
5. Now repeat the search or alter your terms by putting a + before of and the. e.g. lord +of +the rings.
These words will now be searched on.
Note for this example you could do a phrase search instead.
8. Interpreting Results
Each letter is a link to that element's definition:
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A.
Advanced Search
Links to a page that enables you to restrict your search if necessary.
B.
Preferences
Links to a page that enables you to set search preferences, including the default number of
results per page, the interface language, and whether to screen results using our SafeSearch
filter.
C.
Language Tools
Tools for setting language preferences for pages to be searched, interface language and
translation of results.
D.
Search Tips
Links to information that will help you search more effectively. Tells you how Google differs
from other search engines--from the way we handle basic queries to the special features that
set us apart.
E.
Search Field
To enter a query into Google, just type in a few descriptive keywords. Hit enter or click on the
Google Search button for your list of relevant results.
F.
Google Search Button

Click on this button to submit another search query. You can also submit a query by hitting
the 'enter' key.
G.
Tabs
Click the tab for the kind of search you want to conduct. Choose from a full web search,
images only, Google Groups (Usenet discussion archive) or the Google Directory (the web
organized into browseable categories).
H.
Statistics Bar
This line describes your search and indicates the number of results returned as well as the
amount of time it took to complete your search.
I.
Category
If your search terms also appear in the web directory, these suggested categories may help
you find more information related to your query. Click on them to browse for other links.
J.
Page Title
The first line of the result is the title of the web page found. Sometimes, instead of a title there
will be a URL, meaning that either the page has no title, or Google has not indexed the full
content of that page. We still know it's a good match because of other web pages -- which we
have indexed -- that have links to this returned page. If the text associated with these links
matches your query, we may return the page as a result even though its full text has not been
indexed.
K.
Text Below the Title

This text is an excerpt from the returned result page showing your query terms bolded. These
excerpts let you see the context in which your search terms appear on the page, before you
click on the result. If Google expanded your search using its stemming technology to include
variations of your search terms, those words will also be bolded.
L.
Description
If your search query is listed in the web directory, the description filed by the open directory
author is displayed.
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M.
Category
If a site found by your search query is listed in the web directory, the category in which it
appears is displayed below its description.
N.
URL of Result
This is the web address of the returned result.
O.
Size
This number is the size of the text portion of the found web page. It is omitted for sites we
have not yet indexed.
P.
Supplemental Result
Google augments results for difficult queries by searching a supplemental collection of web
pages. Results from this index are marked in green as "Supplemental."
Q.
Cached
Clicking the cached link will enable you to see the contents of the web page as of the time we
indexed it. If for some reason the site link does not connect you to the current page, you can
still retrieve the cached version and may find the information you need there. Your search
terms are highlighted on the cached version.
R.
Similar Pages
When you select the Similar Pages link for a particular result, Google automatically scouts
the web for pages that are related to this result.
S.
Indented Result
When Google finds multiple results from the same web site, the most relevant result is listed
first with the other relevant pages from that same site indented below it.
T.
More Results
If there are more than two results from the same site, the remaining results can be accessed
by clicking on "More results from..." link.
Other things to look for in results:
8.1
Spell Checker
Google's spell checking software automatically looks at your query and checks to see if you are using the most
common version of a word's spelling. If it calculates that you're likely to generate more relevant search results
with an alternative spelling, it will ask "Did you mean: (more common spelling)?". Clicking on the suggested
spelling will launch a Google search for that term. Because Google's spell check is based on occurrences of all
words on the Internet, it is able to suggest common spellings for proper nouns (names and places) that might not
appear in a standard spell check program or dictionary. If you mistyped a word e.g. sailing it will suggest the
correct spelling
Exercise 7: Spellchecker
1. Type the word saiiling into the box (deliberately misspelling it).
2. Click Google Search
3. Click on the did you mean- sailing link to perform a search on the correct spelling of the word.
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8.2
Web Page Translation
Google breaks the language barrier with this translation feature. Using machine translation technology, Google
now gives English speakers access to a variety of non-English web pages. This feature is currently available for
pages published in Italian, French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese. If your search has non-English results,
there will be a link to a version of that page translated into English.
Exercise 8: Using Translation
1. Search for barcelona
2. Scan down the results list to see which sites have translations from Spanish. (the country extension for
Spain is .es)
8.3
News Headlines
When searching on Google you may see links at the top of your results marked "News". These links connect you
to reports culled from numerous news services Google continuously monitors. The links appear if the terms you
enter are words currently in the news and clicking on them will take you directly to the service supplying them.
Exercise 9: Results linked to news
1. Search for lord of the rings
2. Look for any links to news items appearing before the official web pages
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8.4
Sponsored Links
Google does not put paid listings into the top search results like other engines do. It uses the PageRanking
system for results. However occasionally you may see sponsored results appearing in a green box to the right
of your search results. These sponsored links are related to your search term.
Exercise 10: Sponsored Links
1. Search for americas cup
2. Are there any sponsored links appearing?
9. More About Searching

9.1
Boolean Operators
Google supports Boolean search operators. The three Boolean operators are:
AND whales and migration
(narrows the search)
OR
protection or conservation
(broadens the search)
NOT whales not killer
(narrows the search)
9.1.1 "OR" Searches
Google supports the logical OR operator. To retrieve pages that include either word A or word B, use an
uppercase OR between terms. For example, to search for a vacation in either London or Paris, just type:
vacation london OR paris
Google Search
Also the OR operator is useful to search for synonyms (two words with the same meaning)
e.g. conservation OR preservation
And to search for words with different spellings
e.g. digitization OR digitisation
9.1.2 " NOT " Searches

Sometimes what you're searching for has more than one meaning, eg. "bass" can refer to fishing or music. You
can exclude a word from your search by putting a minus sign ("-") immediately in front of the term you want to
avoid. Be sure to include a space before the minus sign. For example, to find web pages about bass that do
not contain the word "music", type:
bass -music
Google Search
This is also useful for refining your search for example sites on cats but not Persian cats [cats persian]
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*Note: Google does not support the use of brackets for long Boolean search strings
e.g. (dolphins OR porpoises) not bottlenose and zealand.
Without brackets the order of search is:
Not
And
Or
Google does not support truncation.
Alta Vista advanced search is the recommended search engine for full Boolean searching to advanced level and
this has both these features.
9.2
Restricting by Domain / Country / Site Type
You can limit your search to part of the web address.

The web address is made up as follows:
World wide web name of site type of site country of site
e.g. www.yellowpages.co.nz
Types of Organisations
.com
Commercial companies in US
.co
Commercial companies in all countries except US
.org
Non-profit making organisation
.edu
Educational establishment in US
.ac
Educational establishment in all countries except US
.gov
Government site in all countries except NZ
.govt
Government site in NZ
.iwi
iwi
Country of Origin
All countries except the United States have a two-letter extension.
.nz
.au
.hk
.uk
.ck
New Zealand
Australia
Hong Kong
United Kingdom
Cook Islands
Site:
You can limit your search to part of the web address by using the site: operator.
To search a specific domain or site, use the "site:sampledomain.com" syntax in the Google search box. No
space after colon.
For example to search for genetically modified crops in commercial US sites only type:
genetically modified crops site:.com
To search for this in New Zealand only type
genetically modified crops site:.nz
To search for this in Massey University website only type
genetically modified crops site:www.massey.ac.nz
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*Note this searching is sometimes not 100% effective. This functionality is also available through the
Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Domain.
If you are in a local Google domain, e.g. www.google.co.nz, there will also be an option on the home page
search screen to limit to the local domain or the entire world web.
9.3
Restricting by Searching in Metadata Title Info of Website
allintitle:
If you start a query with [allintitle:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the title.
For instance, [allintitle: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the
title.
*Note this functionality is also available through the Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search >
Occurrences.
intitle:
If you include [intitle:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the title.
For instance, [intitle:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their title, and
mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (title or no). Note there can 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:
[intitle:google intitle:search] is the same as [allintitle: google search].
9.4
Restricting by Searching in URL
allinurl:
If you start a query with [allinurl:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the url. For
instance, [allinurl: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the url.
Note that [allinurl:] works on words, not url components. In particular, it ignores punctuation. Thus, [allinurl:
foo/bar] will restrict the results to page with the words "foo" and "bar" in the url, but won't require that they be
separated by a slash within that url, that they be adjacent, or that they be in that particular word order. There is
currently no way to enforce these constraints.
This functionality is also available through the Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search >
Occurrences.
inurl:
If you include [inurl:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the url.
For instance, [inurl:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their url, and mention
the word "search" anywhere in the document (url or no). Note there can be no space between the "inurl:" and the
following word.
Putting "inurl:" in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting "allinurl:" at the front of your query:
[inurl:google inurl:search] is the same as [allinurl: google search].
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Type of search
Operator
Boolean and
whales migration
Boolean or
OR
Boolean not

excluded words
Restricting to
domain/country/type
Example
dolphins OR porpoises
protection OR conservation
whales -killer
Site:
whale watching
Giant sperm whale
Helen Clark
Ngai Tahu
Lord +of +the rings
GM crops site:www.massey.ac.nz
GM crops site:.ac
GM crops site:.nz
Restrict search to metadata title

of page
allintitle:
intitle:
allintitle:google search
(=all words in title)
intitle:google jobs
(=only first word in title)
Restrict search to web address

(URL)
allinurl:
inurl:
allinurl:auckland city
(=all words in URL)
inurl:auckland rates (=only first word in URL)
Word proximity
(automatic)
Stemming
Case sensitivity
Truncation
NOT SUPPORTED (Use Alta-Vista advanced)
Brackets to define order of

search string
NOT SUPPORTED
(use Alta-Vista advanced)
Exercise 11: OR searching

1. Search for tennis championships
2. How many results do you find?
3. Now add OR tennis tournaments OR tennis matches to your search string to get all other relevant
results back.
4. Do you find more results?
5. OR operator broadens your search.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
New Search for dolphins.

How many results do you get?
Now add OR porpoises to the search string (dolphins are also called porpoises).
How many results?
Perform a new search to find things on Genetic Modification, using all possible word variants you can think
of. (Answers at bottom of page)
___________________________________________________________________
18
Exercise 12: NOT searching

1. You want to find out everything about tennis but not lawn tennis.
2. Do a search for tennis
3. How many results?
4. Now add lawn to your search string (ie tennis lawn)
6. Not narrows your search down.
7. New search -you want to find out about dolphins but not bottlenose dolphins
8. dolphins bottlenose
9. New search look for accommodation in Auckland but not Sky City
10. accommodation auckland sky city
Exercise 13: Site: searching
1. You are interested in comparing how genetic modification of crops has been documented in the commercial,
academic and government fields. You want to search specific domains, countries and sites.
2. Search for GM across commercial sites in US
3. genetically modified crops site:.com
4. Search for GM in commercial sites in New Zealand
5. genetically modified crops site:.co.nz
6. Search for GM in UK sites
7. genetically modified crops site:.uk
8. Search for GE in the Greens Party site
9. genetic engineering site:.www.greens.org.nz
Answer: Genetic modification, genetically modified, genetic engineering, GE , GM
Exercise 14: allintitle: searching
1. You want to find training companies. Since these keywords are very common you only want to search for
the terms appearing in the metadata title of the page. This means the whole page will be about the training
company.
2. Search for training company
4. Search for allintitle:training company
6. Check to see they are in the title of the page by opening some of the sites and looking at the blue bar at the
very top of your browser (the title page header).
7. New search for Auckland and city appearing in the title: allintitle:auckland city
Exercise 15: allinurl: searching
1. You are struggling to remember a web address (URL) that someone gave you. You think the words training
and company appeared somewhere in the web address.
2. allinurl:training company
3. Check the results do have the words in the URL.
4. New Search you want to find the top websites for tourism in New Zealand, so you take a guess that these
words may appear in the URL. Search and see.
5. allinurl:tourist new zealand
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19
Exercise 16: Image Searching

1. Click on the Images tab
2. Type in the key term rabbit and click Google search.
3. Select one of the images by clicking on it.
4. A split screen will appear showing a thumbnail of the image and the web page that the image came from.
5. Look on the original web page and see if the image is copyrighted. If it is you should not download it or
use it for your own purposes because this is illegal.
6. If it is not copyrighted you can save the image by doing a right mouse click on the image and selecting save
as and saving it to disc or hard drive.
Exercise 17: News Searching
1. Click on the News tab.
2. Use the search techniques we have discussed to look for an item in last weeks news.
9.5
Google Groups
Google Groups contains the entire archive of Usenet discussion groups (e-mails sent to newsgroups and
listservs) dating back to 1981. These discussions cover the full range of human discourse and provide a
fascinating look at evolving viewpoints, debate and advice on every subject from politics to technology. Google's
search feature enables users to access this wealth of information with the speed and efficiency of a Google web
search, providing relevant results from a database containing more than 700 million posts.
Exercise 18: Groups Search

1. Access Google and click on the Groups tab.
2. In the search box enter Digital Librarian
3. Select a result from the list and view it.
4. Check the other messages in the threads.
Exercise 19: Searching for people in Groups, Web, Images
1. Find out if there is any information or discussion about Professor Peter Gluckman who works at the Liggins
Institute at the University of Auckland.
2. Enter the following keywords into the groups search box peter gluckman auckland
3. Scan through results how many are there?
___________________________________________________________________
20
4. Now click on the web tab. (Google will automatically perform the same search on the web).
6. Now click on the image tab to see if you can find a photo of Peter (Google will automatically perform the
search)
7. New Search for your own name in Images, web and groups.
Exercise 20: Groups Browse
1. From the Google groups interface select the sci link (below the search box).
2. Browse through sciences and pick a science group. (Those with a green bar will have recent messages and
those with a grey bar are archived old messages)
3. Browse through the messages.
10. Advanced Search Interface
Google advanced search screen is a guided search screen. This is sometimes helpful, and enables you to
easily limit by domain, language and date. However the guided boxes do place some restrictions on your
searching and on occasion you may need to go back to the basic screen to perform a more advanced free text
Boolean search. For example the search genetic engineering OR genetic modification cant be done in
guided but can in basic. In the guided screens it is not necessary to put operators between words. The web,
images, groups and news tab all have an advanced screen available (directory searching does not).
___________________________________________________________________
21
Date searching use this with caution. It may be the date the webmaster has revised the page look, rather than
the date the information itself was updated.
Exercise 21: Google Guided Searching
1. You want to search for genetic engineering in relation to horticulture or crops in New Zealand use the
advanced search screen for this search. Note you do not need to enter operators between the keywords or
around phrases.
2. In the exact phrase box enter genetic engineering.
3. In the at least one of the words box enter horticulture crops plants
4. In the without the words box enter the words sheep lambs cattle animals.
5. In the domain box select only and in the box to the right of this enter.nz
6. Click Google search.
Exercise 22: Google Guided Searching
1. Search for egg laying in fowls.
2. In the all of the words box enter eggs
3. In the exact phrase box enter egg laying
4. In the at least one of the words box enter ducks geese hens chooks fowls
5. Check that the results are relevant.
Exercise 23: Free Searching
Try some of the previous course search exercises in the advanced interface, or create some searches of your
own.
Exercise 24: Advanced Searching Image, News, Groups
Look at the advanced search screen in the other web engines (Image, News and Groups) and make up some of
your own searches using the features.
11. Setting Search Preferences

Google enables you to save certain search preferences, including the number of results to show per page, the
interface language, and whether or not to use SafeSearch filtering. If you save your preferences they will be kept
in Google even when you close and open the browser.
11.1 Interface Language

Set the Google homepage, messages, and buttons to display in your native language (or Klingon, Elmer Fudd or
Bork). The following languages are currently offered:
Afrikaans
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic
Azerbaijani
Basque
Belarusian
Bengali
Bihari
Bork, bork, bork!
Bosnian
Bulgarian
Catalan
Estonian
Faroese
Finnish
French
Frisian
Galician
Georgian
German
Greek
Gujarati
Hacker
Hebrew
Hindi
Klingon
Korean
Latin
Latvian
Lithuanian
Macedonian
Malay
Malayalam
Maltese
Marathi
Nepali
Norwegian
Norwegian (Nynorsk)
Scots Gaelic
Serbian
Sinhalese
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish
Sundanese
Swahili
Swedish
Tagalog
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
___________________________________________________________________
22
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Elmer Fudd
English
Esperanto
Hungarian
Icelandic
Indonesian
Interlingua
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kannada
Occitan
Persian
Pig Latin
Polish
Portuguese
Portuguese (Portugal)
Punjabi
Romanian
Russian
Tigrinya
Turkish
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Welsh
Xhosa
Zulu
11.2 Search Language

Google's language search feature lets you restrict your searches to pages in the language(s) that you choose.
Because these language-restricted searches only look at pages from a small portion of the web, however,
Google recommends the "Search web pages written in any language" option as a default. Specifying a search
language can be quite useful, however, when you want to search for content that is specific to a particular
language or region.
11.3 Number of Results

Google's default setting of 10 provides the fastest results. However, you can increase the number or results
displayed per page to 20, 30, 50 or 100.
11.4 New Results Window

If you prefer to retain the main Google search page, check this preference box to open your results in a new
browser window.
11.5 SafeSearch Filtering

Many Google users prefer not to have adult sites included in their search results. Google's SafeSearch screens
for sites that contain pornography and explicit sexual content and eliminates them from search results. While no
filter is 100% accurate, Google's filter uses advanced proprietary technology that checks keywords and phrases,
URLs and Open Directory categories.
By default, moderate filtering is set to exclude most explicit images from Google Image Search results. To
apply Google's SafeSearch filtering to both web search and image search results, select the strict filtering
option on the web search preferences page and save your preferences. This will activate stricter filtering of
images, as well as filtering of adult content in regular Google search results. To turn off filtering completely,
select the "do not filter..." option. The filtering option you select on the Preferences page will remain on until you
change and resave your preferences. You can also adjust your SafeSearch settings on the Advanced Search
or the Advanced Image Search pages on a per search basis.
Google strives to keep the filtering information as current and comprehensive as possible through continual
crawling of the Web and by incorporating updates from user suggestions. If you find sites that contain offensive
content in your results, even with SafeSearch activated, send an email with the site's URL to
safesearch@google.com
12. Google Tools

Dictionary
Calculator
Translation
Definition
Links
___________________________________________________________________
23
12.1 Dictionary
Enter a word into the search box and click search or press the return key on keyboard.
The word you have searched for will appear on the blue bar above your results. If you click on the underlined
word in the blue bar you will be taken to a dictionary definition for that word. To return to your search use the
browser back button.
Exercise 25: Dictionary
1. Enter rabbit in the keyword search box and click the enter key
2. Click on the word rabbit in the blue bar to read a dictionary definition.
3. Use the back button to get back to your search results.
12.2 Calculator
Googles calculator tries to understand the problem you are attempting to solve without requiring you to use
special syntax. However, it may be helpful to know the most direct way to pose a question to get the best results.
Listed below are a few suggestions for the most common type of expressions (and a few more esoteric ones).
Most operators come between the two numbers they combine, such as the plus sign in the expression 1+1.
Operator
Function
Example
addition
3+44
subtraction
13-5
multiplication
7*8
division
12/3
exponentiation (raise to a power of)
8^2
modulo (finds the remainder after division)
8%7
choose
X choose Y determines the number of ways of choosing a set

of Y elements from a set of X elements
18 choose 4
th root of
calculates the nth root of a number
5th root of 32
% of
X % of Y computes X percent of Y
20% of 150
___________________________________________________________________
24
Some operators work on only one number and should come before that number. In these cases, it often helps to
put the number in parentheses.
Operator
sqrt
sin, cos, etc.
Function
square root
Example
sqrt(9)
trigonometric functions
(numbers are assumed to be radians)
sin(pi/3)
tan(45 degrees)
ln
logarithm base e
ln(17)
log
logarithm base 10
log(1,000)
A few operators come after the number.

Operator
Function
Example
factorial
5!
Other good things to know

You can force the calculator to try and evaluate an expression by putting an equals sign (=) after it. This only
works if the expression is mathematically resolvable. For example, 1-800-555-1234= 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.
The in operator is used to specify what units you want used to express the answer. Put the word in followed by
the name of a unit at the end of your expression. This works well for unit conversions such as: 5 kilometers in
miles.
You can use hexadecimal, octal and binary numbers. Prefix hexadecimal numbers with 0x, octal numbers with
0o and binary numbers with 0b. For example: 0x7f + 0b10010101.
The calculator understands many different units, as well as many physical and mathematical constants. These
can be used in your expression. Many of these constants and units have both long and short names. You can
use either name in most cases. For example, km and kilometer both work, as do c and the speed of light.
Examples:
1 a.u./c
56*78
1.21 GW / 88 mph
e^(i pi)+1
100 miles in kilometers
sine(30 degrees)
G*(6e24 kg)/(4000 miles)^2
0x7d3 in roman numerals
0b1100101*0b1001
___________________________________________________________________
25
Exercise 26: Calculator

On the web directory tab use the operators described above to find the answers to the following sums:
1. 54 times 1154
2. 76% of 899
3. 345 divide by 6
4. 100 kilomoters in miles
12.3 Translation
To translate text click on the link to Language Tools from the Google search interface. You can type text into
the box and translate it to the language of your choice using the drop down box.
Exercise 27: Translate
1. Click on the language tools link from the Google search interface.
2. Type some English text into the translate text box.
3. Click on the drop down box to decide what language you would like it translated into.
4. Click on the translate button.
12.4 Definitions
To see a definition for a word or phrase, simply type the word "define:" with no space after the colon and
between the term you want defined. For example, the search [define:microbiology] will show you a list of
definitions for "microbiology" gathered from various online sources.
Exercise 28: Define
1. In the Google search box type define:microbiology (or a word of your choice)
2. Click Google Search
3. You will see definitions of the word listed.
___________________________________________________________________
26
12.5 Links
To find out who links to your website use the query link:URL to show you all the pages that point to that URL.
For example, link:www.auckland.ac.nz will show you all the pages that point to Aucklands homepage. You
cannot combine a link: search with a regular keyword search. You can also find who links to subpages within
your website.
Exercise 29: Link:

1. Think of a website (your own or someone elses) that you want to find who has linked to.
2. In the search box enter link:www.URLname (e.g. www.auckland.ac.nz)
3. Click the Google Search button.
4. How many people have linked to it in total (total number of results)?
5. Roughly how many of these links are from the same website? (Those indented)
13. Google Directory

The Google Web Directory integrates Google's sophisticated search technology with Open Directory pages. The
web directory can be used like a yellow pages. It is very useful if you want to browse for websites on a particular
topic without being overwhelmed with results. It is also useful if you dont have specific keywords to search on.
The Directory will find only a few sites for your topic but with high relevance. The Open Directory project has
20,000 volunteer editors reviewing websites and classifying them by topic. Google's search technology lets you
arrange those sites by their importance instead of alphabetically, which means you'll get the benefit of both
human judgment and a sophisticated ranking algorithm.
___________________________________________________________________
27
For example if you wanted to browse for some recipe ideas you may use the web directory and look up
home>cooking>recipe collections (or type recipes in the search box). You can then browse through some
sites containing recipes. However if you were looking for a specific recipe e.g. mushroom masala you would use
the web search engine and type mushroom masala in the search box.
The directory links through to the web search engine and when performing a keyword search in the web search
engine you will see in the results list the directory category it has been placed in. You can switch from directory
to web or web to directory by using the links on screen.
13.1 What is the World category?

The World category includes directory content for languages other than English. For example, in
World/Nederlands all the content is in Dutch and the directory descriptions are written in Dutch. The pages in this
section of the directory are usually not translations of English language pages, but a whole section of the Internet
exclusively in that language.
13.2 How do I get to the top level of the directory?

In the English language areas of the directory, click on "Go to Directory Home" above the blue bar on the righthand side of the page. Within the World category, click on "Directory Home (English)" to leave the World section
and return to the Directory's top level.
13.3 Web Pages Ordered by PageRank

Unlike other directories that can only list web pages alphabetically regardless of how good they are, the web
pages in the Google directory are ordered according to Google's patented PageRank technology. This means
that the most relevant and highly-regarded sites on any topic are listed first ... not buried deep within a list of
other pages. You can read more about PageRank and how it works by clicking here.
___________________________________________________________________
28
13.4 What do the horizontal green bars mean?

The green ratings bars are a measure of the importance of a web page, as determined by Google's patented
PageRank technology. These PageRank bars tell you at a glance whether other people on the web consider a
page to be a high-quality site worth checking out. Google itself does not evaluate or endorse websites. Rather,
we measure what others on the web feel is important enough to deserve a link. And because Google does not
accept payment for placement within our results, the information you see when you conduct a search is based
on totally objective criteria.
13.5 Category Search vs. Web Search

When you enter a search in the Google directory engine, only the category you are currently in will be searched.
This can be particularly useful in restricting your search to a particular topic or domain.
For example, a search over the entire web for 'lions' might return pages about lions (the animal), Lions (the
football team), Lions (the public service organization), or any number of other subjects. By searching for "Lions"
within the category "Sports > Football, American > Professional >", you will see only results related to the Detroit
Lions football team.
13.6 What are 'Related Categories'?

Related categories contain web pages that are similar to the ones in the category you are looking at, but in a
different part of the directory. For example, "Reference > Books" shows up as a related link to the category
"Business > Industries > Publishing" because books and publishing are related. "Books" has been put in the
"Reference" category and "Publishing" has been put in the "Business" section of the directory, but you can move
from one area to the other by clicking on the Related Categories link.
13.7 Why are some category names in boldface?

The largest subcategories on each page are listed in bold letters, helping you to find the most popular categories
in the directory more quickly.
13.8 How many web pages are in the directory?

The Google directory contains over 1.5 million URLs.
13.9 What is the Open Directory Project?

The Open Directory Project is a large public directory managed by Netscape. The ODP is maintained by a group
of volunteer editors from around the world who evaluate sites for inclusion in the directory. The web pages
selected by these editors are organized into a number of broad categories under which are many more specific
subcategories. Google uses this hierarchy as the basis for its directory.
___________________________________________________________________
29
Exercise 30: Directory Searching

1. In Google pick the directory tab from the main search screen.
2. In the search box enter sailing
3. View the results and you will be able to see the general category topic that these have been put into.
4. To view the sub categories for sailing click on the link Recreation>Boating>Sailing at the top of the screen.
5. Select a category e.g. Associations
6. You will now see a brief list of everything in that category in the order that Google think is most relevant
(PageRank order). Change the display to view it in alphabetical order.
Exercise 31: Directory Browsing
1. From the Directory home page click on the recreation category
2. Browse through the categories and pick something that interests you
3. How many web page results do you get for your category?
4. Is it easy to quickly look through them?
5. Use the navigation at the top of the screen (below the search box) to get back to the main recreation
category.
6. Pick another category and browse through that.
14. Saving and Printing Web Pages

14.1 Saving
To save an entire website use the file menu. File > Save as
Save to your hard drive or disc and save the file type as:
Web page complete (for the whole website including all graphics), OR
Web page html only (for just the text on the page, not the graphics)
The first option will save the page e.g. Example.html and also create a folder of associated files that contain
graphics. You are able to open the html file later off line (without a connection to the Internet).
___________________________________________________________________
30
14.2 Printing
If you are using IE5.5 or later version of the browser you will be able to preview before you print pages and make
selections for printing.
From the File Menu select File-Print Preview (to see what the page will look like before printing). Then FilePrint.
To print a selection first use your cursor to highlight the part of the web page you want to print and then select
File > Print > Print Selection (you can change the paper size and orientation as you normally would for
printing).
Using Word
Sometimes (usually with frames) it is not possible to print the whole page as is on the screen. One way to get
around this it to highlight the page you need then copy and paste it into a word document. Then print the word
document. This works very effectively.
To copy Ctrl + C
To paste Ctrl + V
15. Summary
Searching Functionality in Google homepage interface
(Some functionality is also duplicated in advanced guided search interface)
Type of Search
Operator
Boolean and
whales migration
Boolean or
OR
Boolean not

excluded words
Restricting to
domain/country/type
Example
dolphins OR porpoises
protection OR conservation
whales -killer
Site:
whale watching
Giant sperm whale
Helen Clark
Ngai Tahu
Lord +of +the rings
GM crops site:www.massey.ac.nz
GM crops site:.ac
GM crops site:.nz
Restrict search to metadata title

of page
allintitle:
intitle:
allintitle:google search
(=all words in title)
intitle:google jobs
(=only first word in title)
Restrict search to web address

(URL)
allinurl:
inurl:
allinurl:auckland city
(=all words in URL)
inurl:auckland rates (=only first word in URL)
Definitions
define:
define:microbiology
___________________________________________________________________
31
Who links to your website
link:
link:www.auckland.ac.nz/lbr
Calculator
+
*
/
% of
Addition
Subtraction
Multiply
Divide
Percentage of
(automatic)
NOT SUPPORTED (Use Alta-Vista advanced)
NOT SUPPORTED (use Alta-Vista advanced)
Word proximity
Stemming
Case sensitivity
Truncation
Brackets to define order of
search string
SEARCH TIPS - SUMMARY

Use Web tab for keyword specific searches
Use relevant specific keywords
Use the web Directory for general subject searches
Use the News tab for finding up to date news
Use the Image search for finding pictures
Use the Groups search to look for helpful e-mails
If you get stuck use the Help
All searches have guided advanced search interface
Limit your search to domain (country, type) and language to refine the search
Use speech marks for phrase searching
16. Acknowledgements
This handout has been compiled and written by Rose Holley using help and information from the Google
website (www.google.com). It was updated on the date shown at the bottom of the Contents page.
Information Skills
January 2004
___________________________________________________________________
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Google: Tips, Tricks and More

3. Whos Behind Google?

4. Why Use Google? (10 good reasons)

3. The position of your search terms is treated with respect

Visit Google's Site in Your Local Domain

6. Google Features and Help

Advanced Search Tips

Google Services & Tools Froogle

7. The Basics of Searching

Force search on common

Lord +of +the rings

(no all letters treated as lower case)

Automatic "AND" Queries

Word Variations (Stemming/Truncation)

Automatic Exclusion of Common Words (Stop Words)

Google Search Button

Text Below the Title

Other things to look for in results:

Web Page Translation

9. More About Searching

9.1.2 " NOT " Searches

Restricting by Domain / Country / Site Type

You can limit your search to part of the web address.

Restricting by Searching in Metadata Title Info of Website

Restricting by Searching in URL

Force search on common

Restrict search to metadata title

Restrict search to web address

(no all letters treated as lower case)

NOT SUPPORTED (Use Alta-Vista advanced)

Brackets to define order of

(use Alta-Vista advanced)

Exercise 11: OR searching

New Search for dolphins.

Exercise 12: NOT searching

Exercise 16: Image Searching

Exercise 18: Groups Search

10. Advanced Search Interface

11. Setting Search Preferences

11.1 Interface Language

11.2 Search Language

11.3 Number of Results

11.4 New Results Window

11.5 SafeSearch Filtering

12. Google Tools

exponentiation (raise to a power of)

modulo (finds the remainder after division)

X choose Y determines the number of ways of choosing a set

calculates the nth root of a number

A few operators come after the number.

Other good things to know

Exercise 26: Calculator

Exercise 29: Link:

13. Google Directory

13.1 What is the World category?

13.2 How do I get to the top level of the directory?

13.3 Web Pages Ordered by PageRank

13.4 What do the horizontal green bars mean?

13.5 Category Search vs. Web Search

13.6 What are 'Related Categories'?

13.7 Why are some category names in boldface?

13.8 How many web pages are in the directory?

13.9 What is the Open Directory Project?

Exercise 30: Directory Searching