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. |
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:classic.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 classic.googleguide.com/quiz_answers.html to see the answers and tally your score.
When you have completed the quiz, click here or visit classic.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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Tools |
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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, classic.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.
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 ] Flight Tracking Information [ united 42 ] Vehicle Information [ JH4NA1157MT001832 ] Patent Search [ patent 5122313 ] FAA Airplane Registration Numbers [ 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 (classic.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 (classic.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.
Selecting Search Terms |
The search terms you enter and the order in which you enter them affect both the order and pages that appear in your search results. In the examples below, click on the similar ways of specifying various searches and note how the results differ.
For simplicity sake, this tutorial uses square brackets to denote Google's search box. For example, to search for a cheap hotel in Mykonos, I'll put the words "cheap," "hotel," and "Mykonos" in square brackets, [ cheap hotel Mykonos ], to indicate you should type those three words in Google's search box. You should not type the brackets, although Google will ignore them if you do type them.
Furthermore, in the examples that follow, each set of search terms is linked to the results of a Google search on those terms. So clicking on [ cheap Mykonos hotel ] returns the Google results page for a search on those three words.
Use words likely to appear on the pages you want.
Avoid using a question as a query. For example, the query, [ Does Australia have Target ], instructs Google to find pages containing all the terms. Such a query won't necessarily find pages answering your question. A better query might be [ Australia Target store ].
USE [ Australia
Target store ]
NOT [ Does
Australia have Target ]
When Google detects very common words such as where, do, I, for, and a, known as stop words, it ignores them so Google may return relevant results. If you're seeking pages that include a stop word, e.g., "how the west was won," learn how to force Google to search for a complete phrase or a specific word in the section Crafting Your Query.
Avoid using words that you might associate with your topic, but you wouldn't expect to find on the designated page(s). For example, queries that include "articles about," "discussion of," "documentation on," and "pages about" are likely to return fewer results since information on the web is rarely labeled with such terms.
USE [ lasik eye surgery ]
NOT [ documentation
on lasik eye surgery ]
USE [ jobs
product marketing Sunnyvale ]
NOT [ listings
of product marketing jobs in Sunnyvale ]
Suppose you want to know how old someone is, such as Nelson Mandela (the former President of South Africa). Pages with "birthday" or "age" might be more than a year old. Searching for pages that include "Nelson Mandela" and "born" are likely to include either "Nelson Mandela born" or "Nelson Mandela was born" followed by his birth date. You can figure out his age from knowing when he was born.
USE [ Nelson
Mandela born ]
NOT [ Nelson
Mandela birthday ] nor
[ Nelson
Mandela age ]
Not sure what word or phrase is likely to appear on pages you want? Consider running a word or phrase popularity contest with Google Smackdown, which you can find at www.onfocus.com/googlesmack/down.asp. This third-party application reports which of two terms or phrases Google estimates to be more prevalent on the web (actually on more web pages that Google has included in its index).
Although not as popular according to Google Smackdown, in Google Guide I use "screen shot" because it's in my online dictionary and "screenshot" isn't.
Note: The section How Google Works describes how Google finds web pages and constructs an index.
Be specific: Use more query terms to narrow your results.
It's better to use a more precise, less ambiguous term than a common one to "flesh out the topic by including facets that interest you," notes Ned Fielden in his book Internet Research, Second Edition (McFarland & Company, 2001).
Does your query have enough specific information for Google to determine unambiguously what you're seeking? If your query is too vague, it's unlikely to return relevant results. Consider, for example, the query [ java ]. What do you suppose Google includes in the first page of results? An island in Indonesia? A beverage consisting of an infusion of ground coffee beans? A computer network-oriented platform-independent programming language developed by Sun Microsystems?
USE [ Java Indonesia ],
[ java coffee ], or
[ java
programming language ]
NOT [ java ]
How can you come up with more specific search terms? What do you know about the topic? Consider answers to the questions, who?, what?, where?, when?, why?, and how?
When you search for [ Tom Watson ], on the first page of results you may get references to a member of Parliament, the golfer, the IBM executive, and a Populist Party candidate for President in 1900 and 1904. If you're searching for something that could return many different types of results, you should add a term that distinguishes among them. This way you'll get only results about the specific Tom Watson you're interested in.
USE [ Tom
Watson MP ],
[ Tom
Watson golf ], or
[ Tom
Watson IBM ]
NOT [ Tom Watson ]
USE [ baby
development ] or [ baby
milestones ]
NOT [ babies ]
USE [ Betty
Ford Center drug addiction ]
NOT [ Ford Center ]
USE [ quit smoking program ]
NOT [ program on quitting tobacco cigarette smoking addiction ]
You don't have to correct your spelling.
When you enter: [ Anna Kornikova tennis ]
Google responds: Did you mean: Anna Kournikova tennis
Note: Before clicking on Google's suggested spelling, consider whether it's what you want. Spelling checkers, like people, make mistakes.
For more information on Google's spelling correction system, see the section Spelling Corrections.
Note: Even if you use the search tips described in Google Guide, you won't be able to access authoritative information that's available offline, e.g., old reference books, or is stored in specialized databases. For such information is not currently searchable with Google.
Next we'll look at how Google interprets your query.
For more information on the basics of Google search, visit www.google.com/help/basics.html.
Interpreting Your Query |
Understanding how Google treats your search terms will help you devise effective queries and revise ineffective ones.
Google returns only pages that match all your search terms.
A search for [ compact fold-up bicycle ] finds pages containing the words "compact" and "fold-up" and "bicycle." Because you don't need to include the word AND between your terms, this notation is called an implicit AND.
Because of implicit AND, you can focus your query by adding more terms.
[ compact lightweight fold-up bicycle ]
Note: If you want pages containing any (instead of all) of your search terms, use the OR operator, which is described in the next section Crafting Your Query.
Note: Google sometimes returns pages that don't contain your query terms, as you can see in the example in the Cached Pages section in Part II. Google returns pages in which your query terms are included in the link text (interpreted as a description) to another page or place on the page, more commonly referred to as the anchor text of a link pointing to the page.
Google returns pages that match your search terms exactly.
In his book Internet Research, Second Edition (McFarland & Company, 2001), Ned Fielden notes "Google simply matches strings of characters together and doesn't currently base inferences on uses of the language. Although this searching method has some drawbacks, it harnesses one of the fabulous powers of computers, [the ability] to sift through enormous heaps of data quickly and accurately."
Note: There are exceptions when Google finds pages that include synonyms of your search terms, which are displayed in a boldface typeface in Google's snippet.
If you search for ... Google won't find ... cheap inexpensive tv television effects influences children kids car automobile Calif OR CA California
If you search for ... Google finds ... NYC New York City SF San Francisco GNP Gross National Product
Google returns pages that match variants of your search terms.
The query [ child bicycle helmet ] finds pages that contain words that are similar to some or all of your search terms, e.g., "child," "children," or "children's," "bicycle," "bicycles," "bicycle's," "bicycling," or "bicyclists," and "helmet" or "helmets." Google calls this feature word variations or automatic stemming. Stemming is a technique to search on the stem or root of a word that can have multiple endings.
If you only want to search for pages that contain some term(s) exactly, precede each such term with a plus sign (+) or enclose more than one term in quotes (" ").
Google doesn't match variants when your query consists of a single term.
Note: When you want synonyms or variants that Google doesn't find, consider using either the OR or tilde operator, which is described in the next section Crafting Your Query.
Google ignores some common words called "stop words," e.g., the, on, where, how, de, la, as well as certain single digits and single letters.
[ lyrics to the Dixie Chicks' songs ]
Note: Use the + operator or enclose more than one term in quotes (" ") to force Google to include terms it would otherwise ignore. I describe these basic operators and others in the next section, Crafting Your Query.
If your query consists only of common words that Google normally ignores, Google will search for pages that match all the terms.
[ the who ]
Note: Find more pages mentioning the rock band The Who by entering [ "the who" ], a notation you'll learn about in the next section Crafting Your Query.
Google limits queries to 32 words.
The limit was previously 10 words, as shown in the following image.
The following query finds sites that have included Google Guide's description of how Google works.
Google favors results that have your search terms near each other.
Google considers the proximity of your search terms within a page. So the query [ snake grass ] finds pages about a plant of that name, while [ snake in the grass ] tends to emphasize pages about sneaky people. Although Google ignores the words "in" and "the," (these are stop words), Google gives higher priority to pages in which "snake" and "grass" are separated by two words.
[ snake grass ]
[ snake
in the grass ]
Google gives higher priority to pages that have the terms in the same order as in your query.
[ New
York library ]
[ new
library of York ]
Google is NOT case sensitive; it shows both upper- and lowercase results.
Ignoring case distinctions increases the number of results Google finds. A search for [ Red Cross ] finds pages containing "Red Cross," "red cross," or "RED CROSS."
[ Red Cross ], [ red cross ], and [ RED CROSS ] return the same results.
There is no way to instruct Google to pay attention to case distinctions, e.g., you can't tell Google to find only occurrences of "Red Cross" where the first letter of each word is capitalized.
Note: The words "OR" and "AND" have special meanings if entered in uppercase letters.
Google ignores some punctuation and special characters, including ! ? , . ; [ ] @ / # < > .
[ Dr. Ruth ] returns the same results as [ Dr Ruth ]
What if you're seeking information that includes punctuation that Google ignores, e.g., an email address? Just enter the whole thing including the punctuation.
[ info@amazon.com ]
Be aware that web pages sometimes camouflage email addresses to make collecting such information difficult for spammers. For example, on some sites you'll find the @ sign in an email address replaced with the word "at."
Now we'll look at some special characters that Google doesn't ignore.
[ part-time
] matches "part-time," "part time," and "parttime"
[ part time
] matches "part-time" and "part time", but
[ "part time"
]
(with quotes)
is better for space-separated words
[ e-mail ] matches
"e-mail," "email," and "e mail"
[ email ] matches
"email"
Note: Google may search for variations of your query terms that are included in the online dictionary that Google uses.
[ non profit ] matches "non-profit," "nonprofit," and "non profit"
If you aren't sure whether a word is hyphenated, go ahead and search for it with a hyphen.
The following table summarizes how Google interprets your query.
Search Behaviors Descriptions Implicit AND Google returns pages that match all your search terms. Because you don't need to include the logical operator AND between your terms, this notation is called an implicit AND. Exact Matching Google returns pages that match your search terms exactly. Word Variation
Automatic Stemming Google returns pages that match variants of your search terms. Common-Word Exclusion Google ignores some common words called "stop words," e.g., the, on, where, and how. Stop words tend to slow down searches without improving results. 32-Word Limit Google limits queries to 32 words. Term Proximity Google gives more priority to pages that have search terms near each other. Term Order Google gives more priority to pages that have search terms in the same order as the query. Case Insensitivity Google is case-insensitive; it shows both upper- and lowercase results. Ignoring Punctuation Google ignores most punctuation and special characters including , . ; ? [ ] ( ) @ / * < >
Next we'll look at how to fine-tune your query.
For more information on the basics of Google search, visit www.google.com/help/basics.html.
[ year-end ] | year-end | year end | yearend |
[ year end ] | year-end | year end | yearend |
[ yearend ] | year-end | year end | yearend |
[ discounted designer linens ] |
[ discount designer linen ] |
[ designer linen discount ] |
[ linen designer discount ] |
[ linen discounted design ] |
Crafting Your Query by using Special Characters |
By using special characters and operators, such as +, -, ~, .., OR, and quotation marks, you can fine-tune your search query and increase the accuracy of its results.
To search for a phrase, a proper name, or a set of words
in a specific order, put them in double quotes.
A query with terms in quotes finds pages containing the
exact quoted phrase. For example, [ "Larry Page" ] finds pages
containing exactly the phrase "Larry Page." So
this query would find pages mentioning Google's co-founder
Larry Page, but not pages containing "Larry has a home
page," "Larry E. Page," or "Congressional page Larry
Smith." The query [ Larry
Page ] (without quotes) would find pages containing
any of "Larry Page," "Larry has a home
page," or "Congressional page Larry Smith."
[ "Larry
Page" ]
A quoted phrase is the most widely used type of special search syntax.
[ "close your eyes and I'll kiss you" ]
Use quotes to enter proper names.
[ "Julia Robinson" ]
Find recommendations by searching for pages containing lists.
[ "favorite
movies" ]
Google will search for common words (stop
words) included in quotes, which it would
otherwise ignore.
[ Larry
Page ]
[ "what
you're looking for is already inside you" Anne Lamott
speech ]
[ "Rio de Janeiro" ]
[ "best non-fiction books" ]
USE [ "to
be or not to be" ]
NOT [ to
be or not to be ]
USE [ "how to change oil" ]
NOT [ how
to change oil ]
Google doesn't perform automatic stemming on phrases, i.e., searching for pages that match variants of any of your search terms, which I described in the previous section Interpreting Your Query. For example, if you want to see pages that mention only one favorite book rather than lists of favorite books, enclose your search terms in quotes.
[ "favorite book" ]
Some teachers use quoted phrases to detect plagiarism. They copy a few unique and specific phrases into the Google search box, surround them with quotes, and see if any results are too similar to their student's supposedly original work. Find ways to detect and prevent plagiarism.
[ "ways to detect plagiarism" ]
[ "how to detect plagiarism" ]
You may include more than one quoted string in a query. All quoted query phrases must appear on a result page; the implied AND works on both individual words and quoted phrases. The following search would find pages containing both of the phrases "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham":
[ "The Cat in the Hat" "Green Eggs and Ham" ]
Note: In the section Using Search Operators, you'll learn how to find a page by specifying its title.
Force Google to include a term by preceding the term with a "+" sign.
To force Google to search for a particular term, put a + sign operator in front of the word in the query. Note that you should not put a space between the + and the word. So, to search for the satirical newspaper The Onion, use [ +The Onion ], not [ + The Onion ].
The + operator is typically used in front of stop words that Google would otherwise ignore or when you want Google to return only those pages that match your search terms exactly. However, the + operator can be used on any term.
Want to learn about Star Wars Episode One? "I" is a stop word and is not included in a search unless you precede it with a + sign.
USE [ Star
Wars +I ]
NOT [
Star
Wars I ]
Google excludes common words in English and in other languages, such as "la" (which means "the" in Spanish) and "de" (which means "of" in French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese). So if Google ignores a term critical to your search, e.g., LA (common abbreviation for Los Angeles), put a + sign in front of it.
USE [ jobs
in central +LA California ]
NOT [
jobs in central LA California ]
The query [ jobs in central LA California ] finds jobs in central California, since the term "LA" is ignored because it's a stop word. Central California is at least a hundred miles (160 km) from central Los Angeles.
Disable automatic stemming, i.e., searching for pages that match variants of your search term(s), by preceding each term that you want to be matched exactly with the + operator. For example, if you want to see only pages mentioning one favorite book rather than lists of favorite books, precede the word "book" by a + sign.
[ favorite +book ]
Google will search for "favourite" as well as "favorite." To prevent this, precede the word "favorite" by a + sign.
[ +favorite +book ]
[ C++ ]
Precede each term you do not want to appear in any result with a "-" sign.
So, to search for a twins support group in Minnesota, but not return pages relating to the Minnesota Twins baseball team:
USE [ twins support group Minnesota -baseball ]
NOT [ twins support group Minnesota ]
No pages containing the word "baseball" will be returned by the first query.
Find pages on "salsa" but not the dance nor dance classes.
USE [ salsa -dance -class ]
NOT [ salsa ]
Find synonyms by preceding the term with a ~, which is known as the tilde or synonym operator.
The tilde (~) operator takes the word immediately following it and searches both for that specific word and for the word's synonyms. It also searches for the term with alternative endings. The tilde operator works best when applied to general terms and terms with many synonyms. As with the + and - operators, put the ~ (tilde) next to the word, with no spaces between the ~ and its associated word, i.e., [ ~lightweight laptop ] not [ ~ lightweight laptop ].
Why did Google use tilde? In math, the "~" symbol means "is similar to". The tilde tells Google to search for pages that are synonyms or similar to the term that follows.
[ ~inexpensive ] matches "inexpensive," "cheap,"
"affordable," and "low cost"
[ ~run ] matches "run," "runner's," "running,"
as well as "marathon"
Looking for a guide, help, tutorial, or tips on using Google?
[ google ~guide ]
Interested in food facts as well as nutrition and cooking information?
[ ~food ~facts ]
The tilde operator works best when applied to general terms and terms with many synonyms.
[ ~cockroach ]
If you don't like the synonyms that Google suggests when you use the ~ operator, specify your own synonyms with the OR operator, which I describe next.
Specify synonyms or alternative forms with an uppercase OR or | (vertical bar).
The OR operator, for which you may also use | (vertical bar), applies to the search terms immediately adjacent to it. The first and second examples will find pages that include either "Tahiti" or "Hawaii" or both terms, but not pages that contain neither "Tahiti" nor "Hawaii." The third and fourth examples will find pages that contain any one, two, or all three of the terms "blouse," "shirt," and "chemise."
[ Tahiti OR Hawaii ]
[ Tahiti | Hawaii ]
[ blouse OR shirt OR chemise ]
[ blouse | shirt | chemise ]
Note: If you write OR with a lowercase "o" or a lowercase "r," Google interprets the word as a search term instead of an operator.
Note: Unlike OR, a | (vertical bar) need not be surrounded by spaces.
[ bicycle|cycle ]
Use quotes (" ") to group compound words and phrases together.
[ filter OR stop "junk email" OR spam ]
[ "New Zealand" OR "Ivory Coast" holiday OR vacation package ]
For example, specify that you are searching in the price range $250 to $1000 using the number range specification $250..$1000.
[ recumbent bicycle $250..$1000 ]
Find the year the Russian Revolution took place.
[ Russian Revolution 1800..2000 ]
This table summarizes how to use the basic search operators, described on this page. You may include any of these operators multiple times in a query.
Notation Find result Example terms1 terms2 with both term1 and term2 [ carry-on luggage ] term1 OR term2
term1 |term2 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 [ twins minnesota -baseball ]~ 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
[ annual report 2000..2003 ] " phrase" with the exact phrase, a proper name, or a set of words in a specific order [ "I have a dream" ]
[ "Rio de Janeiro" ]
Queries that use this special notation may also be entered by using Google's Advanced Search, which we'll look at next.
See if there is any difference in your results if you type a period (.) between your names rather than enclosing your name in quotes and if you just enter the opening quote, i.e., compare the results from [ Nancy.Blachman ], [ "Nancy Blachman" ], and [ "Nancy Blachman ].
Sharpening Your Query by using Google's Advanced Search Form |
When you don't find what you're seeking, consider specifying more precisely what you want by using Google's Advanced Search feature. Don't be frightened by the name "Advanced Search"; it's easy to use, and it allows you to select or exclude pages with more precision than Google's standard search box. Click on the Advanced Search link at the right of Google's search box.
or visit www.google.com/advanced_search and fill in the form. The Advanced Search form is automatically filled in with appropriate information from your previous query — if you entered a query just before you clicked on the Advanced Search link. If you searched for a phrase, the phrase appears in the phrase search box. If you restricted your search to a specific site or domain, the domain appears in the domain box.
Filling in the top portion of the Advanced Search form is an easy way to write restricted queries without having to use the " ," +, -, OR notation discussed in the previous section Crafting Your Query.
Advanced Search
Find resultsBasic Search
ExampleBasic Search
Find resultswith all of the words [ tap dance ] with all search terms with the exact phrase [ "tap dance" ] with terms in quotes in the specified order only without the words [ tap -dance ]
[ -tap dance ]including none of the terms preceded by a - with at least one of the words [ tap OR ballet ]with at least one of the terms adjacent to OR
Let's look at some examples. If you click on the screen shots in this section, you'll be taken to the results of running the corresponding search.
Note: Instead of specifying your own synonyms for tutorial, you can instruct Google to suggest its own by using the tilde operator, [ google ~tutorial ] or [ google ~guide ]. See Crafting Your Query.
The next part of the Advanced Search page lets you restrict the types of pages listed in your search results.
Next we'll look at each part of the form. If you want to jump ahead to a particular part, though, choose it from this list:
Now a detailed description of each part of the Advanced Search page:
If you always want only results in a certain language or set of languages, then change your search language in your Google preferences. See the section Customizing Your Results by Using Preferences to learn how to change your Google preferences to modify the way your search results appear.
File Format | Suffix | Description |
Adobe Acrobat PDF | A publishing format commonly used for product manuals and documents of all sorts. | |
Adobe PostScript | .ps | A printing format often used for academic papers. |
Microsoft Word | .doc | A common word processing format. |
Microsoft Excel | .xls | A format for spreadsheets. |
Microsoft Powerpoint | .ppt | A format for presentations and slides. |
Rich Text Format | .rtf | A format used to exchange documents between Microsoft Word and other formats. |
Since documents in PDF format tend to be better written than web pages, let's search for documents on estate planning in PDF format.
You can restrict your search to other file formats by using the filetype: search operator, which I will discuss in the section Using Search Operator (Advanced Operators).
This option is useful when searching for timely information such as annual events, specifications for a new model of car or appliance, or what people have been doing lately.
Recently, scientists reported new findings about the risks and benefits of hormone therapy used by 40% of postmenopausal American women to relieve menopause symptoms. We're more likely to find links to this information by searching only for web pages updated in the last three months.
Visit the Wayback Machine if you want to see what a site looked like months or years ago or if a site is currently inaccessible. The Wayback Machine, also known as the Internet Archive, maintains a digital library of snapshots of many Internet sites.
Since I'm interested in a "half-bicycle" trailer for my young twins, let's search for one called Trail-a-Bike in the price range $50-$1000.
The title of a webpage is usually displayed at the top of the browser window and in the first line of Google's search results for a page. The author of a website specifies the title of a page with the HTML TITLE element. There's only one title in a webpage.
Find pages on Google whose URL contains FAQ, an abbreviation for either Frequently Asked Questions or Frequently Answered Question. In the solution below I look for pages containing both Google and FAQ in the URL.
Let's look at a couple of examples. If you click on the screen shots in this section, you'll be taken to the Advanced Search form specifying the corresponding search.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google's founders, were graduate students at Stanford when they wrote a paper describing their prototype search engine. Let's search for it by entering their names and restricting our search domain to Stanford University's site, stanford.edu.
To find information on volunteering for an organization, search for results with the word "volunteering" and restrict the domain to ."org."
In general — unless a page states otherwise — it's safe to assume that pages you find with Google cannot be freely used in any way you like. However, some pages have special marking to tell search engines such as Google that the page is covered by the Creative Commons license — and what types of usage are permitted. The Usage Rights search finds these specially-marked pages.
Your choices are:
Usage Rights | Description |
not filtered by license | standard, unfiltered Google results |
free to use or share | results you can copy or redistribute |
free to use or share, even commercially | results you can copy or redistribute for profit |
free to use share or modify | results you can copy or adapt, as well as redistribute |
free to use, share or modify, even commercially | results you can copy or adapt, as well as redistribute, for profit |
Note that simply finding pages with the Usage Rights search doesn't guarantee your rights. You should check each page to be sure about its usage terms.
Let's say that you want to build a website with recipes for vegetables. We'll find pages on Google with Usage Rights "free to use, share or modify, even commercially"
When you turn off SafeSearch filtering and search for non-pornographic content, Google will order your results in a way that adult sites won't be listed prominently. For example, searching for [ breast cancer treatment ] with SafeSearch turned off, you're unlikely to run across sites with provocative images of breasts.
In an effort to return as many useful results as possible, SafeSearch doesn't currently filter out hate speech, anarchy, criminal activity, crude and tasteless material, illegal weapons, bomb making, etc., content that other filtering systems attempt to exclude.
The Advanced Search form also offers page-specific searches for finding pages similar to a page for which you have a web address (URL) and for finding out what pages link to a particular page.
The most common users of backward links are webmasters and website publishers who are curious to know what sites link to theirs. People also use them to find out who links to competitors' sites.
Unlike the other fields in the Advanced Search form, the page-specific searches can't be combined with other query terms. Consequently each has its own Search button.
You can easily run these page-specific searches from Google's Toolbar, which is described in the section Making Google Easier with Google Tools.
For example, to find out about the wonderful reference site www.refdesk.com, enter www.refdesk.com into Google's search box.
Once you've refined your Advanced Search, you can watch for changes in the top 20 results by setting up Google Alerts. Google will find and deliver links to new web pages once a week, once a day, or as soon as Google finds them. Simply copy and paste your advanced search query into the search box on the Google Alerts page.
If you want to specify what you're looking for with more precision than Google's Advanced Search form offers, try the Google Ultimate Interface, a third-party application available at www.faganfinder.com/google.html. With the Ultimate Interface you can:
Michael Fagan developed Google Ultimate Interface when he was a teenager.
If you're not sure of all the types of information that you can search for with Google, check out Soople, www.soople.com/soople_int.php.
I describe many of the capabilities included in Soople in Part II: Understanding Search Results and Part III: Special Tools.
Refining a query means changing or adding to the set of search terms to do a better job of returning the pages you're seeking. Successful researchers frequently enter several queries to find what they're seeking.
The search boxes at the top and bottom of the results page show the query for the current results page. If the query uses special operators that you entered either directly or indirectly through the advanced search form, they will appear in the search box as well. To refine your query, edit what's in the search box and then click the "Google Search" button or hit the ENTER key.
Let's look at a few examples.
You can get the same results in one step fewer by simply specifying additional terms to your previous query.
On Internet Explorer and on some other browsers, you can change a term or an entire query easily. First, highlight the part you want to change by double-clicking a word, or triple-clicking to highlight the entire query. Then either press the DELETE key to remove the highlighted text or type new text to replace it.
For example, to change "great vacation spots" to "great vacation areas," double-click on the word "spots" below and type "areas."
The following table presents suggestions to narrow or focus a search, as well as tips for broadening a search that has produced few useful results. Click on a link in the table to be taken to the section in Google Guide that describes features and ways to refine your query.
Too many results? Focus the search by... Too few results? Broaden the search by... adding a word or phrase removing a word or phrase specifying the order in which you want words to appear specifying words instead of phrases using a more specific term using more general terms identifying ineffective terms and removing them including synonyms or variant word forms or using a more common version of the word's spelling limiting to a domain or site broadening the domain or searching the entire web limiting to a date range or including a date removing a date range limiting where terms occur removing redundant terms or splitting a multi-part query restricting type of file searching any type of file limiting pages to a particular language translating your search terms into other languages and searching for the translated terms limiting pages to a particular country searching the entire web
For a tutorial on how to use Advanced Search, visit www.lib.monash.edu.au/vl/google/goog06.htm.
If you already know how to read a web address or URL (Universal Resource Locator, pronounced "you are ell"), skip this section. Otherwise, consider the hypothetical web address http://classic.googleguide.com/searchEngines/google/searchLeader.html (which might list reasons why Google is a search leader). Here's what it all means:
http transfer protocol (type of information being transferred) classic.googleguide.com website name, host name googleguide second-level domain name com top-level domain name searchEngines directory name (major category) sub-directory name (sub-category) searchLeader file name (a file within the directory) html file format
Here's a list of some common top-level domain names. Note that some sites don't follow these conventions:
.edu educational site (usually a university or college) .com commercial business site .gov U.S. government/non-military site .mil U.S. military sites or agencies .net networks, Internet service providers, organizations .org non-profit organizations and others
Because the Internet was created in the United States, "US" was not originally assigned to U.S. domain names; however, it's used to designate American state and local government hosts, including many public schools, and commercial entities, e.g., well.sf.ca.us. The domain .ca represents Canada, unless it's followed by .us, in which case it represents California.
Domain
CodesState .ca.us California .nv.us Nevada .tx.us Texas
Other countries have their own two letter codes as the top level of their domain names — although many non-US sites use other top-level domains (such as .com):
Domain
CodesCountry .ca Canada .de Germany .dk Denmark .jp Japan .il Israel .uk United Kingdom .za South Africa
To limit results to a single site or domain, specify the site name (e.g., classic.googleguide.com or googleguide.com) or a top-level domain name (e.g., .com or .edu) in Google's domain selector.
This problem set is designed to give you practice with specifying more precisely what you're seeking by using the Advanced Search form. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Using Search Operators (Advanced Operators) |
You can use most of the options we discussed in the previous page (the Advanced Search Page options) in a regular search box query. If you're a frequent searcher or a "power searcher," this can save time because you don't need to open the Advanced Search page and fill in various boxes; instead, you can enter the refined query in almost any Google search box. You'll use advanced operators, query words that have special meaning to Google. Since the advanced operators are convenient for searching, Google Guide calls them "search operators."
Note: We recommend that you skip ahead to Part II: Understanding Search Results unless you're an experienced Google user or you want to know how to use Google's advanced operators.
Here are three places you can find examples of search operators.
Here are more examples of search operators. Note: The colon (:) after the operator name is required.
The following table lists features available on the Advanced Search page that are accessible via search operators.
Advanced Search
FeaturesSearch
OperatorsFile Format filetype: Occurrences
in the title of the page
in the text of the page
in the URL of the page
in the links to the page
allintitle:
allintext:
allinurl:
allinanchor:
Domain site: Similar related: Links link:
The following table lists the search operators that work with each Google search service. Click on an operator to jump to its description — or, to read about all of the operators, simply scroll down and read all of this page.
Search Service Search Operators Web Search allinanchor:, allintext:, allintitle:, allinurl:, cache:, define:, filetype:, id:, inanchor:, info:, intext:, intitle:, inurl:, inlink:, phonebook:, related:, rphonebook:, site:, stocks:, Image Search allintitle:, allinurl:, filetype:, inurl:, intitle:, site: Groups allintext:, allintitle:, author:, group:, insubject:, intext:, intitle: Directory allintext:, allintitle:, allinurl:, ext:, filetype:, intext:, intitle:, inurl: News allintext:, allintitle:, allinurl:, intext:, intitle:, inurl:, location:, source: Froogle allintext:, allintitle:, store:
The following is an alphabetical list of the search operators. This list includes operators that are not officially supported by Google and not listed in Google's online help. Note that Google may change how undocumented operators work or may eliminate them completely.
Each entry typically includes the syntax, the capabilities, and an example. Some of the search operators won't work as intended if you put a space between the ":" and the subsequent query word. If you don't care to check which search operators require no space after the colon, always place the keyword immediately next to the colon. Many search operators can appear anywhere in your query. In our examples, we place the search operator as far to the right as possible. We do this because the Advanced Search form writes queries in this way. Also, such a convention makes it clearer as to which operators are associated with which terms.
The title of a webpage is usually displayed at the top of the browser window and in the first line of Google's search results for a page. The author of a website specifies the title of a page with the HTML TITLE element. There's only one title in a webpage. When using allintitle: in your query, do not include any other search operators. The functionality of allintitle: is also available through the Advanced Web Search page, under Occurrences.
In Image Search, the operator allintitle: will return images in files whose names contain the terms that you specify.
In Google News, the operator allintitle: will return articles whose titles include the terms you specify.
In URLs, words are often run together. They need not be run together when you're using allinurl:.
In Google News, the operator allinurl: will return articles whose titles include the terms you specify.
Google will search for exactly what you specify. If your query contains [ author:"John Doe" ] (with quotes), Google won't find articles where the author is specified as "Doe, John."
Note: Do not put a space between cache: and the URL (web address).
On the cached version of a page, Google will highlight terms in your query that appear after the cache: search operator. For example, [ cache:www.pandemonia.com/flying/ fly diary ] will show Google's cached version of Flight Diary in which Hamish Reid's documents what's involved in learning how to fly with the terms "fly" and "diary" highlighted.
When you don't specify a File Format in the Advanced Search Form or the filetype: operator, Google searches a variety of file formats; see the table in the File Type Conversion section.
This functionality can also be obtained by typing the web page URL directly into a Google search box.
Equivalent to intitle:.
Putting intext: in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting allintext: at the front of your query, e.g., [ intext:handsome intext:poets ] is the same as [ allintext: handsome poets ].
Putting intitle: in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting allintitle: at the front of your query, e.g., [ allintitle: google search ].
Putting inurl: in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting allinurl: at the front of your query, e.g., [ inurl:healthy inurl:eating ] is the same as [ allinurl: healthy eating ].
In URLs, words are often run together. They need not be run together when you're using inurl:.
[ link:classic.googleguide.com ]
Note: According to Google's documentation, "you cannot combine a link: search with a regular keyword search."
Also note that when you combine link: with another advanced operator, Google may not return all the pages that match. The following queries should return lots of results, as you can see if you remove the -site: term in each of these queries.
Find links to the Google home page not on Google's own site.
[ link:www.google.com -site:google.com ]
Find links to the UK Owners Direct home page not on its own site.
[ link:www.ownersdirect.co.uk -site:ownersdirect.co.uk ]
Note: Do not include a space between the "site:" and the domain.
You can use many of the search operators in conjunction with the basic search operators +, -, OR, " ." For example, to find information on Windows security from all sites except Microsoft.com, enter:
[ windows security -site:microsoft.com ]
You can also restrict your results to a site or domain through the domains selector on the Advanced Search page.
To find a news source ID, enter a query that includes a term and the name of the publication you're seeking. You can also specify the publication name in the "news source" field in the Advanced News Search form. You'll find the news source ID in the query box, following the source: search operator. For example, let's say you enter the publication name Ha'aretz in the News Source box, then you click the Google Search button. The results page appears, and its search box contains [ peace source:ha_aretz__subscription_ ]. This means that the news source ID is ha_aretz__subscription_. This query will only return articles that include the word "peace" from the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.
Note: Specify ticker symbols not company names. If you enter an invalid ticker symbol, you'll be told so and given a link to a page where you can look up a valid ticker symbol. You can also obtain stock information by entering one or more ticker symbols in Google's query box, e.g., [ brcm brcd ] and then clicking on the link "Stock Quotes for BRCM, BRCD" that appears near the top of the results page.
To find a store ID, enter the name of the store and click on the link "See all results from store." You'll find the store ID in the query box, after the store: search operator.
Since weather is not an advanced operator, there is no need to include a colon after the word. For example, [ weather Sunnyvale CA ] will return the weather for Sunnyvale, California and [ weather 94041 ] will return the weather for the city containing the zip code (US postal code) 94041, which is Mountain View, California.
The Google Guide Advanced Operator Quick Reference (classic.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html) provides a nice summary of the search operators grouped by type. It includes search operators not yet documented by Google, e.g., allinanchor:, allintext:, author:, ext:, group:, id:, insubject:, intext:, intitle:, location:, phonebook:, source:, and store:. Be forewarned that Google may change how undocumented operators work or eliminate them completely.
Using More than One Search Operator
You may use many of the basic operators and search operators with each other. However, there are some that must be used by themselves and others that you should be careful about using together.
There are about a dozen search operators that can't be combined with any other. If you do, Google probably won't return any matching documents. Search operators that shouldn't be mixed include:
Be careful about the effects of a search operator when you use more than one of them in a query. Here are some rules to follow:
This problem set is designed to give you experiences with search operators and practice with specifying more precisely what you're seeking by using the Advanced Search form. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Part II: Understanding Search Results |
Google strives to make it easy to find whatever you're seeking, whether it's a web page, a news article, a definition, something to buy, or text in a book. By understanding what appears on a results page, you'll be better able to determine if a page includes the information you're seeking or links to it.
After you enter a query, Google returns a results list ordered by what it considers the items' relevance to your query, listing the best match first. Sponsored links sometimes appear above to the right of the search results.
In this course segment, you'll learn:
How Google Works |
If you aren't interested in learning how Google creates the index and the database of documents that it accesses when processing a query, skip this description. I adapted the following overview from Chris Sherman and Gary Price's wonderful description of How Search Engines Work in Chapter 2 of The Invisible Web (CyberAge Books, 2001).
Google runs on a distributed network of thousands of low-cost computers and can therefore carry out fast parallel processing. Parallel processing is a method of computation in which many calculations can be performed simultaneously, significantly speeding up data processing. Google has three distinct parts:
Let's take a closer look at each part.
Googlebot, Google's Web Crawler
Googlebot is Google's web crawling robot, which finds and retrieves pages on the web and hands them off to the Google indexer. It's easy to imagine Googlebot as a little spider scurrying across the strands of cyberspace, but in reality Googlebot doesn't traverse the web at all. It functions much like your web browser, by sending a request to a web server for a web page, downloading the entire page, then handing it off to Google's indexer.
Googlebot consists of many computers requesting and fetching pages much more quickly than you can with your web browser. In fact, Googlebot can request thousands of different pages simultaneously. To avoid overwhelming web servers, or crowding out requests from human users, Googlebot deliberately makes requests of each individual web server more slowly than it's capable of doing.
Googlebot finds pages in two ways: through an add URL form, www.google.com/addurl.html, and through finding links by crawling the web.
Unfortunately, spammers figured out how to create automated bots that bombarded the add URL form with millions of URLs pointing to commercial propaganda. Google rejects those URLs submitted through its Add URL form that it suspects are trying to deceive users by employing tactics such as including hidden text or links on a page, stuffing a page with irrelevant words, cloaking (aka bait and switch), using sneaky redirects, creating doorways, domains, or sub-domains with substantially similar content, sending automated queries to Google, and linking to bad neighbors. So now the Add URL form also has a test: it displays some squiggly letters designed to fool automated "letter-guessers"; it asks you to enter the letters you see — something like an eye-chart test to stop spambots.
When Googlebot fetches a page, it culls all the links appearing on the page and adds them to a queue for subsequent crawling. Googlebot tends to encounter little spam because most web authors link only to what they believe are high-quality pages. By harvesting links from every page it encounters, Googlebot can quickly build a list of links that can cover broad reaches of the web. This technique, known as deep crawling, also allows Googlebot to probe deep within individual sites. Because of their massive scale, deep crawls can reach almost every page in the web. Because the web is vast, this can take some time, so some pages may be crawled only once a month.
Although its function is simple, Googlebot must be programmed to handle several challenges. First, since Googlebot sends out simultaneous requests for thousands of pages, the queue of "visit soon" URLs must be constantly examined and compared with URLs already in Google's index. Duplicates in the queue must be eliminated to prevent Googlebot from fetching the same page again. Googlebot must determine how often to revisit a page. On the one hand, it's a waste of resources to re-index an unchanged page. On the other hand, Google wants to re-index changed pages to deliver up-to-date results.
To keep the index current, Google continuously recrawls popular frequently changing web pages at a rate roughly proportional to how often the pages change. Such crawls keep an index current and are known as fresh crawls. Newspaper pages are downloaded daily, pages with stock quotes are downloaded much more frequently. Of course, fresh crawls return fewer pages than the deep crawl. The combination of the two types of crawls allows Google to both make efficient use of its resources and keep its index reasonably current.
Google's Indexer
Googlebot gives the indexer the full text of the pages it finds. These pages are stored in Google's index database. This index is sorted alphabetically by search term, with each index entry storing a list of documents in which the term appears and the location within the text where it occurs. This data structure allows rapid access to documents that contain user query terms.
To improve search performance, Google ignores (doesn't index) common words called stop words (such as the, is, on, or, of, how, why, as well as certain single digits and single letters). Stop words are so common that they do little to narrow a search, and therefore they can safely be discarded. The indexer also ignores some punctuation and multiple spaces, as well as converting all letters to lowercase, to improve Google's performance.
Google's Query Processor
The query processor has several parts, including the user interface (search box), the "engine" that evaluates queries and matches them to relevant documents, and the results formatter.
PageRank is Google's system for ranking web pages. A page with a higher PageRank is deemed more important and is more likely to be listed above a page with a lower PageRank.
Google considers over a hundred factors in computing a PageRank and determining which documents are most relevant to a query, including the popularity of the page, the position and size of the search terms within the page, and the proximity of the search terms to one another on the page. A patent application discusses other factors that Google considers when ranking a page. Visit SEOmoz.org's report for an interpretation of the concepts and the practical applications contained in Google's patent application.
Google also applies machine-learning techniques to improve its performance automatically by learning relationships and associations within the stored data. For example, the spelling-correcting system uses such techniques to figure out likely alternative spellings. Google closely guards the formulas it uses to calculate relevance; they're tweaked to improve quality and performance, and to outwit the latest devious techniques used by spammers.
Indexing the full text of the web allows Google to go beyond simply matching single search terms. Google gives more priority to pages that have search terms near each other and in the same order as the query. Google can also match multi-word phrases and sentences. Since Google indexes HTML code in addition to the text on the page, users can restrict searches on the basis of where query words appear, e.g., in the title, in the URL, in the body, and in links to the page, options offered by the Advanced-Search page and search operators.
Let's see how Google processes a query.
3. The search results are returned to the user in a fraction of a second. 1. The web server sends the query to the index servers. The content inside the index servers is similar to the index in the back of a book--it tells which pages contain the words that match any particular query term.
2. The query travels to the doc servers, which actually retrieve the stored documents. Snippets are generated to describe each search result. Copyright © 2003 Google Inc. Used with permission.
For more information on how Google works, take a look at the following articles.
What Appears on the Results Page |
The results page is filled with information and links, most of which relate to your query.
Google Logo: Click on the Google logo to go to Google's home page.
Statistics Bar: Describes your search, includes the number of results on the current results page and an estimate of the total number of results, as well as the time your search took. For the sake of efficiency, Google estimates the number of results; it would take considerably longer to compute the exact number. This estimate is unreliable.
Every underlined term in the statistics bar is linked to its dictionary definition. Queries that are linked to just one definition are followed by a definition link.
Tips: Sometimes Google displays a tip in a box just below the statistics bar.
Search Results: Ordered by relevance to your query, with the result that Google considers the most relevant listed first. Consequently you are likely to find what you're seeking quickly by looking at the results in the order in which they appear. Google assesses relevance by considering over a hundred factors, including how many other pages link to the page, the positions of the search terms within the page, and the proximity of the search terms to one another.
Below are descriptions of some search-result components. These components appear in fonts of different colors on the result page to make it easier to distinguish them from one another.
Snippets: (black) Each search result
usually includes one or more short excerpts
of the text that matches your query with your search terms in
boldface type. Each distinct excerpt or snippet is separated
by an ellipsis (...). These snippets, which appear in a black
font, may provide you with
When Google hasn't crawled a page, it doesn't include a snippet. A page might not be crawled because its publisher requested no crawling, or because the page was written in such a way that it was too difficult to crawl.
URL of Result: (green) Web address of the search result. In the screen shot, the URL of the first result is inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa042597.htm.
Size: (green) The size of the text portion of the web page. It is omitted for sites not yet indexed. In the screen shot, "5k" means that the text portion of the web page is 5 kilobytes. One kilobyte is 1,024 (210) bytes. One byte typically holds one character. In general, the average size of a word is six characters. So each 1k of text is about 170 words. A page containing 5K characters thus is about 850 words long.
Large web pages are far less likely to be relevant to your query than smaller pages. For the sake of efficiency, Google searches only the first 101 kilobytes (approximately 17,000 words) of a web page and the first 120 kilobytes of a pdf file. Assuming 15 words per line and 50 lines per page, Google searches the first 22 pages of a web page and the first 26 pages of a pdf file. If a page is larger, Google will list the page as being 101 kilobytes or 120 kilobytes for a pdf file. This means that Google's results won't reference any part of a web page beyond its first 101 kilobytes or any part of a pdf file beyond the first 120 kilobytes.
Date: (green) Sometimes the date Google crawled a page appears just after the size of the page. The date tells you the freshness of Google's copy of the page. Dates are included for pages that have recently had a fresh crawl.
Limiting the number of results from a given site to two ensures that pages from one site will not dominate your search results and that Google provides pages from a variety of sites.
More Results: When there are more than two results from the same site, access the remaining results from the "More results from..." link.
When Google returns more than one page of results, you can view subsequent pages by clicking either a page number or one of the "o"s in the whimsical "Gooooogle" that appears below the last search result on the page.
If you find yourself scrolling through pages of results, consider increasing the number of results Google displays on each results page by changing your global preferences (see the section Changing Your Global Preferences).
In practice, however, if pages of interest to you aren't within the first 10 results, consider refining your query instead of sifting through pages of irrelevant results. To simplify such refinements, Google includes a search box at the bottom of the page you can use to enter your refined query.
Sponsored Links: Your results may include some clearly identified sponsored links (advertisements) relevant to your search. If any of your search terms appear in the ads, Google displays them in boldface type.
Spelling Corrections, Dictionary Definition, Cached, Similar Pages, News, Product Information, Translation, Book results: Your results may include these links, which are described on the next few pages.
Here's another screen shot of the results page in case the one at the top of this page scrolled off your screen.
For more on what's included on Google's results page, visit www.google.com/help/interpret.html.
Links Included with Your Results |
Google may include links to the following types of information above or along side your results.
The shortcut links that often appear to the left of an icon are known as OneBox results.
Spelling Corrections (Suggestions) |
Not sure how to spell something? Don't worry, try gessing or speling any way you can. In just the first few months on the job, Google engineer Noam Shazeer developed a spelling correction (suggestion) system based on what other users have entered. The system automatically checks whether you are using the most common spelling of each word in your query.
(We used to suggest that you search Google for phonitick spewling. But so many Web pages added the same example that now — or, at least, when we last checked — Google no longer treats those "words" as incorrectly spelled! Google's system doesn't match words against an actual dictionary; it compares them to commonly-used words.)
Want to know the approximate value of a used car? Check out its "Blue Book" value.
Notice that Google suggests the correct spelling if you fail to type the final "e" in "blue."
Since an alternative spelling is more common, Google asks: Did you mean: blue book. Click the suggested spelling link to launch a new search on the "blue book" spelling instead of the original "blu book."
Google's checker is particularly good at recognizing frequently made typos, misspellings, and misconceptions. It analyzes all terms in your query to recognize what you most likely intended to enter. For example, when you search for [ untied stats ], the spelling checker suggests Did you mean: "united states", although each individual word is spelled correctly.
Regardless of whether it suggests an alternative spelling, Google returns results that match your query if there are any. If there aren't any that match your query, Google may offer an alternative spelling, search tips, and a link to Google Answers. The last is a service that provides assistance from expert online researchers for a fee.
Google figures out possible misspellings and their likely correct spellings by using words it finds while searching the web and processing user queries. So, unlike many spelling correctors, Google can suggest common spellings for:
People searching for Britney Spears have clearly found the spelling checker useful, as it has corrected spellings of her first name ranging from "Brittany" to "Prietny." Visit www.google.com/jobs/britney.html to see hundreds of other ways people have misspelled her name.
Be aware that the spelling checker isn't able to distinguish between a variant spelling and a word or name that is spelled similarly. So, before clicking on what Google suggests, check that it's what you intended. For example, when looking up the San Francisco Bay Area web designer Mistrale, Google asks: Did you mean: Mistral, though I spelled the name correctly.
The first problem gives you practice in using Google's spelling-correction system. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Note: Though the page looks like a Google page, if you enter another query in the search box, it will be processed by the hosting site, listed in your browser's address box.
Definitions |
Want a definition for your search terms? It's just a click away.
Google looks for dictionary definitions for your search terms. If it finds any definitions, it shows those words as underlined links or includes a definition link in the statistics bar section of the results page (located below the search box showing your query). Google is able to find definitions for acronyms, colloquialisms, and slang, as well as words that you would expect to find in a dictionary.
Click on the underlined terms or the definition link in the statistics bar to link to their dictionary definition, which also may include information on pronunciation, part of speech, etymology, and usage.
For example, learn what co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and CEO Eric Schmidt mean when they say they run Google as a triumvirate by clicking on the link triumvirate.
Phrases with idiomatic meanings that aren't necessarily implied by the definitions of the individual words will be linked to their dictionary definitions, e.g., "happy hour," "put off," "greasy spoon," and "raise the roof."
If Google doesn't find a definition for a term, try using Google Glossary.
Cached |
Google takes a snapshot of each page it examines and caches (stores) that version as a back-up. The cached version is what Google uses to judge if a page is a good match for your query.
Practically every search result includes a Cached link. Clicking on that link takes you to the Google cached version of that web page, instead of the current version of the page. This is useful if the original page is unavailable because of:
Sometimes you can access the cached version from a site that otherwise require registration or a subscription.
Note: Since Google's servers are typically faster than many web servers, you can often access a page's cached version faster than the page itself.
Let's search for pages on the Google help basic search operators.
Click on the Cached link to view Google's cached version of the page with the query terms highlighted. The cached version also indicates terms that appear only on links pointing to the page and not on the page itself.
Note: Internet Explorer users may view a page with any word(s) highlighted, not just search terms, by using the highlight feature of the Google Toolbar, which is mentioned in Part III.
When Google displays the cached page, a header at the top serves as a reminder that what you see isn't necessarily the most recent version of the page.
If the original page contains more than 101 kilobytes of text, the cached version of the page will consist of the first 101 kbytes (120 kbytes for pdf files).
You can also retrieve Google's cached version of a page via the cache: search operator. For example, [ cache:www.pandemonia.com/flying/ ] will show Google's cached version of Flight Diary in which Hamish Reid documents what's involved in learning how to fly.
On the cached version of a page, Google will highlight terms in your query that appear after the cache: search operator. For example, in the snapshot of the page www.pandemonia.com/flying/, Google highlights the terms "fly" and "diary" in response to the query [ cache:www.pandemonia.com/flying/ fly diary ].
Use the Wayback Machine when you want to visit a version of a web page that is older than Google's cached version.
Note: Google indexes a page (adds it to its index and caches it) frequently if the page is popular (has a high PageRank) and if the page is updated regularly. The new cached version replaces any previous cached versions of the page.
Similar Pages |
Here's how to find results similar to another Google search result. Let's say you're interested in finding sites similar to that of Consumer Reports. First, search for their site.
Click on the Similar pages link that appears on the bottom line for the Consumer Reports result.
The link may be useful for finding more consumer resources, or information on Consumer Reports' competitors.
You can also find similar pages by using the Page-Specific Search selector on the Advanced Search page or by using the related: search operator. If you expect to search frequently for similar pages, you may want to install a GoogleScout browser button.
Note: The similar pages feature is most effective on pages that are popular, i.e, that are linked to from many pages.
How does Google find similar pages?
By finding other sites listed on pages that link to the specified page. Let's see how Google chooses sites similar to Google Guide. I use the related: search operator, which returns the same results as the Similar pages link.
Now let's look at one of the sites that link to Google Guide, as it was at the time we made the screen shot above. On the Michigan State University (MSU) Libraries page, www.lib.msu.edu/sowards/home/home5.htm (shown in the screen shot below), Google Guide is listed near the top of the page just after a link to Google's Zeitgeist page, www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html. The next three sites listed as being similar to Google Guide (Metaspy, the MEL Internet Myths and Hoaxes, and Web Characterization) are also listed on the MSU page. Google automatically selected these sites by considering many factors including the popularity of the pages containing links to Google Guide, the positions, sizes, and proximities of other links to the Google Guide link.
Another resource for similar results is the category link that may appear just below the snippet or above your search results, which is described next. If there isn't a category link, try using Google's Directory.
For more information about the Similar pages link, visit www.google.com/help/features.html#related.
Exercises
These problems give you practice in using Google's Similar pages feature. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- Find a site that will get your name off mailing lists so that you receive less commercial advertising mail. Click on the Similar pages link to find other such sites.
- What sites are similar to the Internet Movie Database?
News Headlines When Google finds current news relating to your query, Google includes up to three headlines that link to news stories above your search results. Why at most three? So as not to push the web search results off the page.
Of course, since news by definition reports recent events, you'll see the most recent headlines about the United Nations (if there are any recent headlines, that is) when you enter the query [ United Nations ].
For more news stories or to browse the latest headlines, visit Google News Search at news.google.com, which we describe in Part III.
Exercises
These problems give you practice in searching for news headlines. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- Find the latest news about Google.
- Find the latest news on Iraq.
Product Search (Froogle) When Google finds products relevant to your query, above your search results, you may find up to three links to items that merchants list in Froogle, Google's product search service.
Exercises
These problems give you practice in searching for products. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- Find denim jackets.
- Find cell phones (mobile phones).
File Type Conversion Google converts all file types it searches to either HTML or text (unless, of course, they already are in one of these formats). Google searches a variety of file formats including
File Format Suffix Description Adobe Acrobat PDF A publishing format commonly used for product manuals and documents of all sorts. Adobe PostScript ps A printing format often used for academic papers. Hypertext Markup Language html or htm The primary language for web pages. Lotus 1-2-3 wk1, wk2, wk3, wk4, wk5, wki, wks, or wku A spreadsheet format. Lotus WordPro lwp A word processing format. MacWrite mw A word processing format. Microsoft Excel xls A spreadsheet format. Microsoft PowerPoint ppt A format for presentations and slides. Microsoft Word doc A common word processing format. Microsoft Works wks, wps, or wdb A word processing format. Microsoft Write wri A Macintosh word processing format. Rich Text Format rtf A format used to exchange documents between Microsoft Word and other formats. Plain Text ans or txt Ordinary text with no special formating. Clicking on a link to a non-HTML file will launch the associated program for reading the file, provided it's installed on your system.
If you can't view the page in the native format — for instance, if you don't have Adobe Acrobat on your computer, or if you want faster access to the file — click on either the "View as HTML" or "View as Text" link. Note: Portions of some files converted to HTML or text may be difficult to read.
You can use the Advanced Search form or the filetype: search operator to restrict your results to a particular format.
For more information about file types that Google supports, visit www.google.com/help/faq_filetypes.html.
Exercises
These problems give you practice viewing files of different types. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- Find a document with tips on job interviewing and salary negotiation that is in PDF/Adobe Acrobat format. What differences in the appearance of the document result from viewing it in its native format, Adobe Acrobat versus HTML?
- Find a Power Point slide presentation on first aid and choking. View the presentation as HTML.
- Find pdf or Postscript documents and course notes on symplectic geometry that are on university and other educational sites.
This problem was inspired by Julian Uschersohn.
Translation As the web has spread across the world, more and more web pages are available in languages other than English. Google provides a translation link and language tools to enable you to read pages written in unfamiliar languages.
Google translates pages by computer. Machine translation is difficult to do well and tends not to be as clear as human translation. But it can give you the gist of what's written or suggestions for translating something into another language.
Your results may include a "Translate this page" link when a results page is written in a language different from your interface language (as specified by your Google Preferences, which is described in the next section). Your interface language is the language in which Google displays messages and labels, buttons, and tips on Google's home page and results page. You can translate pages written in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish into another language from that set.
Google's Language Tools overcome language barriers. Click on the "Language Tools" link to the right of the search box on Google's home page,
or visit www.google.com/language_tools, or select the Language Tools menu option in the Google Toolbar (in Part III, section Making Google Search Easier with Google Tools) to:
- Search for pages written in specific languages
- Search for pages located in specific countries
- Use the Google interface in another language,
e.g., set Google's home page, messages and labels, and buttons to display in a specific language
- Visit Google's site in a specific country,
e.g., www.google.de in Germany
- Translate any text or web page from a limited set of languages including English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish into another language in that set.
If you want to translate some text or a page into a language other than those Google Language Translation Tool offers, check out Fagan Finder's Translation Wizard.
If you're interested in translating Google Guide, send email to feedback(at)googleguide.com (replace "(at)" by "@") and review Erik Hoy's advice for Google Guide translators. The Danish Google Guide, bibliotek.kk.dk/soeg_bestil_forny/googleguide, is available through the Copenhagen Central Library's website. You can find a Hebrew version of Google Guide at www.googleguide.co.il/.
Exercises
These problems give you practice with translating words, pages, and results, and with finding pages in specific countries. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- Find out about municipal swimming pools that you can use when visiting Naples. Hint: Find the Italian words for "municipal swimming pools Naples" and then search for them on pages in Italy. You can use your browser's Copy and Paste features to transfer the Italian words from one screen to another.
- Find the name of the mayor of Montpellier, France, by searching the city website montpellier.fr. It may help to know the French word for "mayor."
- Translate "I wish to mail a package. Where is the nearest post office? Thank you." into Spanish.
- Find listings or photos of old books at the national library of Spain. Hint: Translate the two unrelated phrases "old books" and "national library Spain" separately; otherwise, the translation software may try to make them into a sentence (and add "noise" words).
- Restrict your search to France and search for pages in English on the war in Iraq.
Customizing Your Results by Using Preferences
Whenever I run a new piece of software, ... I [first] ... look at the program's 'preferences' panel. By clicking through the options, I rapidly learn what a program can do and what its shortcomings are. Google is no different. — Simson Garfinkel, Getting More from Google, Technology Review, June 4, 2003You can customize the way your search results appear by configuring your Google global preferences, options that apply across most Google search services. To change these options, click on the Preferences link, which is to the right of Google's search box, or visit www.google.com/preferences.
From the Preferences page, specify your global preferences, including
- Interface Language: the language in which Google will display tips, messages, and buttons for you
- Search Language: the language of the pages Google should search for you
- SafeSearch: automatic filtering and blocking of web pages with explicit sexual content
- Number of results: how many search results are to be displayed per page
- Results window: when enabled, clicking on the main link (typically the page title) for a result will open the corresponding page in a new window
When you set your preferences, Google stores your settings in a "cookie" on the computer you are using. Google doesn't associate that cookie with any other computer you use. So, if you want Google to work similarly on all the computers you use, you will need to set these preferences on each one of them. There's more about cookies and other user information in the section called Accounts and Cookies.
The set of languages in which you want to allow messages and labels, text on buttons, and tips to be displayed. Your choice of interface languages is much larger than the "translate" set of languages (those that can be translated into your interface language) and includes relatively obscure languages, such as Catalan, Maltese, Occitan, and Welsh, and frivolous languages, such as Bork, bork, bork!, Esperanto, Hacker, Interlingua, and Pig Latin.
If you set your interface language to Greek, message and text on links, tabs, and buttons will be displayed in Greek.
The interface language is configured on the Preferences page. The pull-down menu allows you to choose from over 80 languages.
Note: If you don't find your preferred language in the list, you can volunteer to translate Google's help information and search interface into that language via the Google In Your Language program.
If you select an interface language other than English, when using Google Web search you will be given the option of searching the entire web or just pages written in your interface language. For example, with French as the interface language the search box looks like this:
Note: Most non-English Google home pages have a "Google.com in English" link in case you can't read the rest of the page.
Search Language
By default, Google Web search includes all pages on the Web. You can choose to restrict your searches to those pages written in the languages of your choice by setting the search language.
If you want to restrict results to a single language for a few queries, consider using Google's Advanced Search page.
Google's SafeSearch filters out sites with pornography and explicit sexual content. Moderate filtering, the default, is set to exclude most explicit images from Google Image search results but not Google Web search or other Google search services.
Google's philosophy is to filter no more than necessary, i.e., as little as possible. Google considered adding the capability to filter other controversial content besides pornography, e.g., hate speech, anarchy, bomb making, etc. But these are much more difficult to filter automatically. For example, if you try to filter hate speech, you may filter out sites that discuss hate speech.
The most important setting, located near the bottom of the page, is "Number of Results." By default, Google returns just 10 results for a search. Since Google's search algorithms are so accurate, this default saves Google both computer resources and downloading time. But I always increase the default to 100. Although such searches take a little longer to download (especially over a dial-up connection), getting back 100 results saves me time when I'm searching for anything out-of-the-ordinary; it's much faster to scroll through a Web page than to manually click through 10 pages of intermediate results. — Simson Garfinkel, Getting More from Google, Technology Review, June 4, 2003 (MIT's Alumni magazine)You can increase the number of results displayed per page to 20, 30, 50, or 100. The more results displayed per page, the more likely you are to find what you want on the first page of results. The downside is that the more results per page, the more slowly the page loads. How much more time it takes depends on your connection to the Internet.
The Number-of-Results setting applies to Google's Web, Groups, News, Froogle, and Directory search services. It does not apply to Images and Answers.
New Results Window
After you set the Results Window option on the Preferences page, when you click on the main link (typically the page title) for a result, Google will open the corresponding page in a new window.
You can display the contents of the associated page in a new window in Internet Explorer by holding down the SHIFT key while you click on the link or pressing the right button and selecting "Open a New Window" after clicking on the link. In Firefox or Netscape, simply click your mouse's middle button on the link that you wish to display in a new window (this can be configured in the browser's Preferences or Options section).
Cookies and their Effect on Preferences
Google stores your preferences with a cookie in your computer. Among other things, this means:
- If you use more than one computer, you'll need to set your Google preferences on each one.
- If your browser is set to deny cookies, your preferences can't be saved.
- If you use "cleanup" software that removes cookies, it may remove your Google preferences.
So, if Google seems to "forget" your preferences settings, look into what's happening with your cookies. As of this writing, the Mozilla and Firefox web browsers have especially flexible cookie management — including site-by-site cookie preferences and a scrollable list of all saved cookies.
Exercises
These problems give you practice in changing preferences. After you've changed your preferences, run a couple of searches. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- Change your preferences to display 20 results per page.
- Change your preferences to use strict filtering, i.e., filter both explicit text and explicit sexual content.
- Set your preferences to open search results in a new browser window.
- Configure your preferences to suit your needs.
- If you would like to have more than one set of preferences on your computer, e.g., one of searching French language sites and to search all sites, then find tools for enabling you to specify more than one set of preferences using more than one cookie.
(For instance, the Mozilla browser allows you to have multiple "profiles," each with its own set of cookies. You can also install more than one type of browser on the same computer. Both of these methods let you have more than one "identity" at the same time on the same computer.)
Google's Approach to Ads Some search engines sell their search results, in addition to showing ads. A sold result means that a link to the buyer's page is put at or near the top of the results page, just as if the search engine thought it was one of the best results. Usually, there is no indication that the page's result location was bought and paid for.
Google never sells its search results. If a web page appears in Google's search results, it's because Google thought it was a relevant result for your search, not because someone paid Google to put it there.
Google's approach to ads is similar to its approach to search results: the ads must deliver useful links, or the ads are removed.
- Ads must be relevant to your search.
- Ads must not intrude, distract, or annoy (no pop-up or flashy ads).
- Sponsored links are clearly identified and kept separate from search results.
- At most, two sponsored links appear above Google's search results.
Advertisers decide which queries their ads should match, and then Google decides on placement, i.e., which ads to show and in what order. Google determines placement by an auction; the auction not only considers what the advertiser will pay for the ad, but also its click-through rate, i.e., how often users click on the ad. If users often click on an ad, Google will likely place the ad higher up on the results page. If the click-through rate of an ad falls below a certain level, indicating an ad isn't relevant to the query, Google removes the ad.
For the most part, you'll find advertisements pertinent to your query. However, Google's automatic matching to words on a page sometimes places an ad inappropriately. For example, in September of 2003, adjacent to a New York Post article about a gruesome murder in which the victim's body parts were stashed in a suitcase, Google listed an ad for suitcases. Since that incident, Google has improved its filters and automatically pulls ads from pages with disturbing content. So Google is unlikely to make another faux pas on a par with this one.
Some web pages display ads provided by Google's AdSense service. The hosting website and Google share the amount an advertiser pays when a user clicks on an ad, which varies between US$0.01 and US$50.00. Web publishers typically place Google AdSense ads near the top, on the right, or on the left side of a page to catch your attention. We've included such an ad at the top of this page.
For why Google sells advertising and not search results, visit www.google.com/honestresults.html.
For more information on Google's advertising programs, visit www.google.com/ads/.
For what to do if you find a pop-up ad on Google, visit www.google.com/help/nopopupads.html.
Exercises
For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- How many sponsored links (ads) appear on the first search-results page with the answer to the following questions?
- Where can you stay in central London at a moderate price?
- What's going on with NASA's Mars Exploration Program?
- Click on several interesting sounding Adsense ads.
- If you have a website, sign up for an AdWords account so that you can purchase ads to bring users to your site.
- If you have a website, sign up for an AdSense account so that you can generate revenue from advertising on your site.
Evaluating What You Find Google's web-page-ranking system, PageRank, tends to give priority to better respected and trusted information. Well-respected sites link to other well-respected sites. This linking boosts the PageRank of high-quality sites. Consequently, more accurate pages are typically listed before sites that include unreliable and erroneous material. (The various browser toolbars can show you the PageRank of the page you're currently browsing.) Nevertheless, evaluate carefully whatever you find on the web since anyone can
- Create pages
- Exchange ideas
- Copy, falsify, or omit information intentionally or accidentally
Many people publish pages to get you to buy something or accept a point of view. Google makes no effort to discover or eliminate unreliable and erroneous material. It's up to you to cultivate the habit of healthy skepticism. When evaluating the credibility of a page, consider the following AAOCC (Authority, Accuracy, Objectivity, Currency, Coverage) criteria and questions, which are adapted from www.lib.berkeley.edu/ENGI/eval_criteria.html.
Authority
- Who are the authors? Are they qualified? Are they credible?
- With whom are they affiliated? Do their affiliations affect their credibility?
- Who is the publisher? What is the publisher's reputation?
Accuracy
- Is the information accurate? Is it reliable and error-free?
- Are the interpretations and implications reasonable?
- Is there evidence to support conclusions? Is the evidence verifiable?
- Do the authors properly list their sources, references or citations with dates, page numbers or web addresses, etc.?
Objectivity
- What is the purpose? What do the authors want to accomplish?
- Does this purpose affect the presentation?
- Is there an implicit or explicit bias?
- Is the information fact, opinion, spoof, or satirical?
Currency
- Is the information current? Is it still valid?
- When was the site last updated?
- Is the site well-maintained? Are there any broken links?
Coverage
- Is the information relevant to your topic and assignment?
- What is the intended audience?
- Is the material presented at an appropriate level?
- Is the information complete? Is it unique?
Search for [ evaluate web pages ] or [ hints evaluate credibility web pages ] to find resources on how to evaluate the veracity of pages you view.
For a printable form with most of the questions that you will probably want to ask, visit www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/EvalForm.pdf. If you're unable to view PDF files, you can get a free PDF viewer from Adobe by visiting www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.
For more information on evaluating what you find, visit www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html.
Exercises
Find documents on the web that provide the answers to the following questions. What's your level of comfort with the referring site(s) and why? For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
Want more experience assessing the authenticity and integrity of some websites? Try the exercises listed on www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/EvaluateWhy.html.
In this course segment you'll learn — among other things — how to:
- Enter a query even if Google's home page isn't in your browser
- Access shortcuts for finding commonly sought utilities and information
- Take advantage of Google's specialized search services
Google displays the current service link (the kind of search that the current page will perform) in black. Links for other services are blue.
After running a search on one service, you can click on another service's link to run a search on that service using the same terms. For example, when you click on the News link, your search will be repeated on Google's News service.
Topic-specific searches are accessible from the Advanced Search form.
New! Local - Find local businesses and services on the web
Catalogs - Search and browse mail-order catalogs onlineApple Macintosh - Search for all things Mac
BSD Unix - Search web pages about the BSD operating system
Linux - Search all Linux-friendly pages
Microsoft - Search Microsoft-related pages
U.S. Government - Search all .gov and .mil sites
Universities: Narrow your search to a specific school's website, such as Stanford, Brown, BYU, etc.Several nice summaries of some of Google's features and services are available online:
- Google Guide's cheat sheet (classic.googleguide.com/cheatsheet.html)
- Sacramento State University's Google QuikRef is available from the Google Guide server or from Sac State.
- Google's cheat sheet (www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html) comes from Google itself.
The word "Beta" beside the name of a service means that Google is testing and refining the service. Use the service, and if you are so inclined, provide feedback to Google on how the service can be improved.
Next, we'll look at many of the special search tools listed above, as well as:
This section ends with Google's feature history.
The search tips and behaviors described in Part I of Google Guide work with Google's special search tools, except that the synonym operator (~) currently works only on Web and Directory searches.
For more information on Google special services and tools, visit www.google.com/options/.
Making Google Easier with Google Tools You can use Google even when the www.google.com page isn't currently in your browser. It's simple to do with the following tools and features.
- Google Toolbar, Googlebar, or Apple's Safari web browser
- Deskbar
- Browser Buttons
- Built-in Browser Support
- Setting Google as your home page
- Setting Google as your default search engine
Here's how.
- Toolbar (well worth installing if you use Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP with Internet Explorer version 5.5 or later) - toolbar.google.com
Access Google from your Internet Explorer toolbar. The following table lists just some of the many wonderful features available through the Google Toolbar.
Feature Allowing you to ... Search Box Access Google's search technology from your browser toolbar. Search Site Search only the pages of the site you're currently visiting. Highlight Highlight terms on the current page. Word Find Find your search terms on a page and navigate to them. Pop-up Blocker Stop annoying pop-up windows (new in version 2.0 of Toolbar). AutoFill Automatically fill in a form (new in version 2.0 of Toolbar). Below are links to more information on Google's Toolbar:
- An overview and installation - toolbar.google.com
- A description of the features - toolbar.google.com/button_help.html
- Answers to frequently asked questions - toolbar.google.com/faq.html
Google's Toolbar is now available for Firefox.
If you use Mozilla or Netscape, try Googlebar, googlebar.mozdev.org, which emulates all of the basic search functionality of Google's Toolbar, allowing you to easily access almost all of Google's specialty searches (some of which may not be supported by the Google Toolbar) from one convenient toolbar. Googlebar works on recent versions of Mozilla and Netscape, but may not work on older ones.
- Deskbar (well worth installing if you use Windows 98/ME/2000/XP and Internet Explorer 5.5 or a more recent version) - toolbar.google.com/deskbar/
Access Google from your Windows desktop toolbar. The following table lists the Deskbar key features.
Feature Allowing you to ... Search Box Access Google's search technology even when your browser isn't running. Preview Preview search results in a small inset window that closes automatically. Accessibility Access Google from any application by pressing the CTRL, ALT, and the G keys simultaneously (CTRL+ALT+G). Search Selected Text Select text within a Word document, e-mail, browser page, or any other application, and then use that selected text as your search query by pressing the CTRL, ALT, and the G keys simultaneously (CTRL+ALT+G). Keyboard Shortcuts Access Google News by pressing the CTRL and the N keys simultaneously (CTRL+N), Google Images (CTRL+I), Froogle (CTRL+F), Web Search (CTRL+W), Groups (CTRL+U), I'm Feeling Lucky (CTRL+L), Definitions (CTRL+D), Stock Quotes (CTRL+Q), and Thesaurus (CTRL+T). For more information on what the Deskbar can do, visit toolbar.google.com/deskbar/help/cmds.html.
- Browser Buttons - www.google.com/options/buttons.html
Access Google's search technology by adding buttons to your browser's toolbar.
There are several versions; the version for your browser should be selected automatically when you click on the link above. The illustration below, and the rest of this section, describe the Unix/Linux buttons; other versions may not have all of the features described. (When you click the link above, the page you get should describe the features of your version.)Copyright © 2003 Google Inc. Used with permission.GoogleSearch
Performs search on any highlighted text or pops up a search box and prompts you for search terms.
Copyright © 2003 Google Inc. Used with permission.
- Use your mouse to highlight this phrase: Stanford University.
- Click the "Google Search" button and Google searches the web for the highlighted phrase.
OR
- Simply click the button and enter your search terms in the pop-up Google search box.
GoogleScout
Delivers links to sites and information related to whichever page you are viewing.
- Go to a website such as www.stanford.edu.
- Once the page has loaded, click the GoogleScout button to find other web pages similar to Stanford's page.
Google.com
Click the Google.com button to go directly to the www.google.com page.NOTE: The Google Browser Buttons should work for recent versions of most browsers, but may not work on older ones.
Google Browser Buttons are available at www.google.com/options/buttons.html.
Built-in Browser Support
Several web browsers have built-in support for search engines — including, of course, Google.
- If you use Mac OS X, Apple's Safari web browser has a Google search window in the Navigation bar next to the URL. Type your Google search there. Clicking on the icon shows a menu of your recent searches.
- All recent versions of the Opera and Firefox browsers have a feature like Safari's: Type your Google Web search in the special search box next to the URL, then press the ENTER or RETURN key. A drop-down menu lets you choose other types of search.
- The Mozilla (not Mozilla Firefox) browser can show Google search results in its Sidebar, to one side of the browser window.
Make Google Your Homepage
To have the Google home page appear whenever you start your browser, click on the "Make Google Your Homepage" link on Google's home page. If the link is missing, follow the instructions listed on www.google.com/options/defaults.html.
Make Google Your Default Search Engine
For instructions, visit www.google.com/options/defaults.html#default.
Exercises
Set up your system to make Google easier to access. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- If you use Windows 98/ME/2000/XP and Internet Explorer 5.5 or a more recent version, install the Google Deskbar on your system.
- If you use a browser that supports the Google Toolbar, install it on your system. If you use another browser, install Google Browser Buttons on your system.
- Make Google your home page.
- Make Google your default search engine.
Shortcuts Google provides shortcuts for finding commonly sought utilities and information, which you may have previously found offline or on specialized sites. The results of these shortcuts appear to the right of a tag or specialized icon and above your search results.
To read about all of these shortcuts, one by one, simply click the "Next" links at the top or bottom of this page and the following Google Guide pages. Or, to read about any one of them now, click on the item below:
Calculator
Phone Numbers and Addresses
Street Maps
Stock Quotes
Definitions (Google Glossary)
Travel Conditions
Search by Number
Area Code Maps
Package Tracking
Flight Tracking Information
Vehicle Information
Patent Search
FAA Airplane Registration Numbers
UPC Codes
FCC Equipment IDs
Calculator Want to add up a list of numbers, convert from miles to kilometers, or evaluate some other mathematical expression? Instead of using a piece of paper, your calculator, or a computer math software program, you can now solve mathematical problems with Google's built-in calculator function.
Simply enter the expression you'd like evaluated in Google's web search box and click the ENTER key or click the "Google Search" button.
The Google Guide Calculator Reference provides a nice summary of some of Google's calculator features.
Once you have a result, you can use your browser's Copy feature (usually on its Edit menu) to copy the result. Then you can paste it into another program, a box in a form on another web page, and so on.
The calculator can evaluate mathematical expressions involving:
- Basic Arithmetic
- Compute expressions containing standard mathematical symbols. The following table lists operators that come between the two numbers on which they operate, e.g., to multiply 2 times 3, use 2 * 3.
Operator Function Example + Addition [ 15.99 + 32.50 + 13.25 ] - Subtraction [ 79 - 18 - 19 ] * Multiplication [ 2 * 3 * 7 ] / Division [ 378 / 9 ] ^ or ** Exponentiation
(raise to a power of)[ 4^10 ] or [ 4**10 ] % of Percent [ 15% of 93.45 ]
mod or % modulo (the remainder
after division)[ 15 mod 9 ] or [ 15 % 9 ]
the nth root of calculates the nth root [ 4th root of 16 ]
[ cube root of 109 ]
[ square root of 42 ] or
[ sqrt(42) ]
Note: To do multiplication, you must include the * symbol; [ 3 * 4 ] will be calculated, 3 4 won't.
- Advanced Math
- Compute results involving mathematical constants, such as e, pi, i (the square root of -1), and mathematical functions. The following table lists just some of the functions built into Google's calculator.
Operator Function Example sin, cos, tan,
sec, csc, cot, etc.Trigonometric functions (arguments are assumed to be in radians) [ cos(pi/6) ]
[ cosine(pi/6) ]
arcsin, arccos, arctan, arccsc, etc. Inverse trigonometric functions [ arccos(.5) ]
sinh, cosh, tanh, csch, arsinh, arccsch, etc. Hyperbolic functions [ cosh(6) ]
ln Logarithm base e [ ln(16) ] log Logarithm base 10 [ log(16) ] lg Logarithm base 2 [ lg(16) ] exp Exponential function [ exp(16) ] ! Factorial [ 5! ] choose x choose y calculates the number of ways of choosing a set of y elements from a set of x distinct elements [ 5 choose 3 ]
The following table lists just a few of the commonly used mathematical constants known to the calculator function.
Name and description Example base of the natural system of logarithms [ e ] pi, the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle [ pi/6 ] imaginary number, i, which represents one of the two square roots of -1 [ i^2 ] Euler's constant, gamma [ e^gamma ]
- Units of Measure and Conversions
- Compute expressions involving different units. By default, units are converted to and results expressed in meter-kilogram-second (mks) units. Many units have both long and short names. Use whichever name you prefer.
Type of Units Examples Currency Australian Dollars (AUD), British pounds (GBP), Euros, US Dollars (USD) Mass kilogram or kg, grams or g, grains, pounds or lbs, carats, stones, tons, tonnes Length meters or m, miles, feet, Angstroms, cubits, furlongs Volume gallons, liters or l, bushels, teaspoons, pints Area square kilometers, acres, hectares Time days, seconds or s, centuries, sidereal years, fortnights Electricity volts, amps, ohms, henrys Energy Calories, British thermal units (BTU), joules, ergs, foot-pounds Power watt, kilowatts, horsepower or hp Information bits, bytes, kbytes, etc. Quantity dozen, baker's dozen, percent, gross, great gross, score, googol Numbering systems decimal, hexadecimal or hex, octal, binary, roman numerals, etc. Prefix hexadecimal numbers with 0x, octal numbers with 0o and binary numbers with 0b. For example: 0x7f + 0b10010101. Here are calculations that involve units.
Convert from one set of units to another by using the notation, x units in y units.
[ three quarters of a cup in teaspoons ]
[ 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit in degrees Celsius ]
[ 130 lbs in kg ]
[ 130 lbs in stones ]
[ 65 mph in kph ] or [ 65 mph in km/h ]Warning: When your query includes "Calories" with a capital "C," Google returns kilocalories called "calories" by nutritionists.
Convert from one numbering system to another.
[ 1500 in hex ] or [ 1500 in hexadecimal ]
[ 64 in binary ]
[ LVII in decimal ]In many cases, you can also get the conversion factor between units:
That last conversion is a common joke among engineers — though, as Jim Jardine points out, "There is no reason to denigrate neither furlongs nor fortnights as they are both very easily defined measurements." (See his page Furlongs Today.)
- Physical Constants
- The following table lists just a few of the many commonly used physical constants known to the calculator function. Parts of this table were adapted from the table at the end of David W. Ward's article Physics the Google Way. Note: Sometimes Google's calculator interprets lower case letters different from upper case letters.
Long Name Shorthand
NotationClick the Link for
the Approximate Valueatomic mass units amu [ amu ] or [ atomic mass unit ] Astronomical Unit au [ au ] or [ astronomical unit ] Avogadro's number [ N_A ] or [ Avogadro's number ] Boltzmann constant k [ k ] or [ Boltzmann constant ] electric constant, permitivity of free space [ epsilon_0 ] electron mass [ m_e ] or [ electron mass ] electron volt eV [ eV ] or [ electron volt ] elementary charge [ elementary charge ] Euler's constant [ Euler's constant ] Faraday constant [ Faraday constant ] fine-structure constant [ fine-structure constant ] gravitational constant G [ G ] or [ gravitational constant ] magnetic flux quantum [ magnetic flux quantum ] mass of each planet and of the sun [ m_mars ], [ m_earth ], [ m_uranus ], ..., [ m_sun ] molar gas constant [ molar gas constant ] permeability of free space [ permeability of free space ] Planck's constant h [ h ] or [ Planck's constant ] proton mass [ m_p ] or [ proton mass ] radius of each planet and of the sun [ r_earth ], [ r_pluto ], ..., [ r_sun ] Rydberg constant [ Rydberg constant ] speed of light in a vacuum c [ c ] or [ speed of light ] speed of sound in air at sea level [ speed of sound ] Stefan-Boltzmann constant [ Stefan-Boltzmann constant ] Here are some calculations using built-in constants.
Parentheses (( )) can be used whenever they'll serve to make complicated expressions unambiguous, and also sets of parentheses can be used within parentheses. Don't use brackets ([ ]) for grouping.
The following are tips from Google's online help for the calculator, which can be found on the web at www.google.com/help/calculator.html.
You can force the calculator to try to evaluate an expression by putting an equals sign (=) after it. This works only if the expression is arithmetically computable. For example, 1-800-555-1234= (a US phone number followed by an equals sign) will return a result, but 1/0= will not.Parentheses can be used to enclose the parts of your expression that you want evaluated first. For example, (1+2)*3 causes the addition to happen before the multiplication.
Feel free to experiment with the calculator as not all of its capabilities are listed here.
If you want a visual interface to some of the capabilities of Google's calculator, visit Soople's Calculator page, www.soople.com/soople_intcalchome.php.
Exercises
This problem set is designed to give you practice in using Google's new calculator function. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- Convert 1 mile to meters.
- Convert 1 kg (kilogram) to lbs (pounds).
- Convert 0 degrees Kelvin to Fahrenheit or Celsius.
- Compute the number of minutes in a 365-day year.
- Which is larger pi^e or e^pi? The same relationship holds between x^e and e^x for all non-negative values of x except e. The exponential constant, e, is approximately 2.72 and the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle, pi, is approximately 3.14.
- How many lottery combinations are there if the winning combination consists of 5 distinct integers between 1 and 99, i.e., there are 99 balls in an urn and once one is selected, it isn't returned to the box.
- Compute the probability of your winning the lottery if you buy 1,000 tickets each bearing five distinct independently randomly chosen integers between 1 and 99.
Use Google if you want to look up a phonebook listing for someone who lives in the United States. Just enter a person's name and a city, state, or zip code in the standard web search box. Then hit the ENTER key or click the "Google Search" button.
If you have easy access to the web, Google's phonebook feature can be more convenient than your local phonebook and more extensive too.
On the results page, phonebook listings are next to a telephone icon.
Google's residential phonebook feature recognizes inputs in the following formats.
To find a US residence, enter either ... Examples First name (or first initial), last name, city
(state is optional)[ Michael Bloomberg New York ] First name (or first initial), last name, state [ Michael Bloomberg NY ] First name (or first initial), last name, area code [ M Bloomberg 212 ] First name (or first initial), last name, zip code [ Michael Bloomberg 10021 ] Phone number, including area code [ 212-772-1081 ] or [ (212)772-1081 ] Last name, city, state [ Bloomberg New York NY ] Last name, zip code [ Bloomberg 10021 ] Notice that Google supports reverse look up. You can enter a phone number with area code and learn to whom that number belongs.
Be aware that some listings are out of date.
When you want a US business white-page phonebook listing, enter a business name and location or phone number.
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 "Phonebook results" link that's just above the phonebook icon.
Notice that when Google provides an address, it includes links to map providers. In the next section, we'll look at how to obtain a map and directions.
If Google doesn't return a phonebook link, try using the phonebook: search operator.
Need an email address? Though it would be a nice feature for you and me, Google doesn't offer an email-lookup service, since spammers could use it to get your address and send you unsolicited spam email.
Exercises
This problem set gives you practice with looking up phone numbers and addresses. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- What is the address of the Empire State Building in New York City in the state of New York (the two-letter state code is NY)?
- Check whether Google knows your phone number and address. If you wish to remove your listing from Google's PhoneBook, complete the name removal form, which you can find at www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html or by searching for [ remove phone number Google ].
Street Maps Want to find where something is or how to get there? Instead of visiting an online map-providing service, just enter an address into Google. You can also copy and paste addresses, even ones with embedded carriage returns, into Google's search box. When Google recognizes your query as a location, the results page includes links to map providers for that location. Clicking on a map-provider link takes you to a map showing the location result.
Enter a U.S. street address, including zip code or city/state. Often, the street address and city name will be enough.
Beside an icon of a map are links to map providers, as shown below.
Click on either the Google Maps link , Yahoo! Maps link, or the MapQuest link to view a map showing 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy in Mountain View, California.
Often the Google Local service can find where something is located without your providing an address.
Click on the link to a map provider to obtain a map.
Click on the link "To this location" in Yahoo!Maps or on the radio button "Driving Directions from this location" in MapQuest and specify your starting location.
Then you'll get a nice set of directions that you can print out and take with you when driving.
Exercises
This problem set gives you practice with looking up addresses and with getting directions. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- Get a map showing the most crooked section of Lombard Street in San Francisco, which is between 1000 and 1100 Lombard Street.
- Get a map showing Japanese restaurants in Topeka, Kansas by entering [ Japanese restaurants in Topeka KS ] in the Google Maps search box.
- If you live in the United States, obtain a map showing where you live by entering your address into Google and clicking the link to a map provider.
- If you live in the United States, get directions from your house to either a good friend's place or a great restaurant.
Looking for Google's stock symbol? It's GOOG on Nasdaq. Click here for Google's stock price or search for it on Google.
Want info on a publicly traded stock or mutual fund? Enter one or more NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, or mutual fund ticker symbols and Google will return the latest stock price (with a 15-minute delay for NASDAQ or a 20-minute delay for AMEX and NYSE), along with an intra-day chart, the daily high and low, the volume traded, the company's market capitalization, as well as a link to other financial information.
Click on the stock symbol link to see financial information, which may include the price of the last trade, the range of prices for the day and for the year, a one-year target price estimate, the previous day's closing price, the opening price for the day, the volume of shares traded during the day, the PE radio, dividends per share, the dividend date, and a chart.
Note: Entering a ticker symbol in the search box and then clicking on I'm Feeling Lucky will not take you to that symbol's financial information page. Instead, Google displays the first search results, whose link appears just below the box enclosing the stock information link.
Click on the "Stock quotes" link to view a chart for each stock symbol in your query.
You can also retrieve stock information via the stocks: search operator. For example, [ stock:brcm brcd ] will return a link to stock information about Broadcom Corporation and Brocade Communications System.
Exercises
This problem set gives you practice in obtaining financial information for US publicly traded companies. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- Obtain a chart of Ebay's stock price for the past 5 years by entering Ebay's stock symbol, ebay, clicking on the link "EBAY" and then clicking on "5y" under today's chart.
- Find current financial information for Yahoo and Amazon.
- Using the similar pages feature, find competitors to google.com that are run by public companies. Check whether their stock prices have been climbing or dropping in the past three months.
When you include "define," "what is," or "what are" in your query in front of a word, phrase, or acronym, Google displays one Glossary definition above your search results. Google Glossary provides definitions for words, phrases, and acronyms that Google finds on web pages. The Glossary is good for finding definitions for terms that aren't in some dictionaries, e.g., slang words, technical terms, ethnic words and other specialized terms.
In February of 2003, Google acquired Pyra Labs, a company that makes it easy for you to create your own blog. What's a blog? Let's ask Google to define the term.
You can search for blogs with Google, in the same way that you search for other documents. You can easily create a weblog (blog) post pointing to the web page you're visiting by pressing the "BlogThis!" button on the Google Toolbar and publish your thoughts on the web so others may find them. You can learn more about this feature on toolbar.google.com/button_help.html.
Google Glossary can also find definitions of acronyms.
One definition appears to the right of the words "Web Definition," below the statistics bar and above Google's search results.When your query includes the "define:" operator, Google displays all the definitions it finds on the web.
If you want a dictionary definition, learn about a shortcut in the Dictionary Definitions section in Part II.
Exercises
These problems give you practice in finding definitions. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- What does aka mean?
- What is Google bombing? If Google Glossary doesn't find the definition, find it yourself.
- Google is named after the word 'googol.' What is a googol?
- What does the abbreviation IRL commonly stand for?
Restrict your search to a particular geographic area.
Click on the Local link above the Google search box
or visit local.google.com and then enter in the Google Local search box
Web Images Groups News Froogle LocalNew! more »
- a location
- Anchorage
350 5th Ave, New York
- a business
- restaurants near the Metropolitan Museum of Art
cafes
- directions
- SJC to 886 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA
San Francisco to 94105
Google Local, aka Search by Location, local.google.com, scouts the web for addresses and clues to pinpoint where things are located.
Not only is Search by Location good for finding businesses and landmarks, but it can find locations of places that aren't listed in phonebooks. For example, you can find places that appeared in the film Sleepless in Seattle.
See these results on a map by clicking on the link just above your search results.
Exercises
This problem set gives you practice with using Google Local. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- Find Thai restaurants in the zip code 94041 in Mountain View, California.
Google provides a shortcut for learning about delays and weather conditions at a US airport. Just enter the airport's three-letter code followed by the word "airport" into Google's search box.
Note: This feature may not work if you search from any of Google's non-US sites, e.g., google.de, google.com.co, google.ca nor from a foreign-language site, e.g., Swahili or Latvian.
For example, find conditions at Honolulu International Airport. If you don't know the airport code, look it up on Google. If your city has more than one major airport, include the airport name as well as the city in your query.
You don't need to click on the first result to see that the airport code for one of Honolulu's airports is HNL, because you can find that code in the first line of the snippet.
It's best not to trust this information, though, unless you know it's the answer you need. For instance, the first result for New York City may be JFK, but there are several New York airports. To check more closely — or if you find the snippet difficult to read — just click on the title of one of the snippets. Let's view the Honolulu Airport entry from World-Airport-Codes.com.
Now let's request travel conditions at Honolulu International Airport.
Click on the "View conditions" link to see the FAA's airport status information.
Exercises
These problems give you practice in finding travel conditions. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page in the Appendix.
- Find the travel conditions for Los Angeles International Airport.
- Find the travel conditions for Kennedy Airport in New York City.
"Parcel tracking IDs, patents, and other specialized numbers can be entered into Google's search box for quick access to information about them," according to the Google Web Search Features page, www.google.com/help/features.html.
Special searches by number types include:
Examples Area Code Map [ 212 ] Package Tracking [ 999444666222 ] Flight Tracking Information [ united 42 ] Vehicle Information [ JH4NA1157MT001832 ] Patent Search [ patent 5122313 ] FAA Airplane Registration Numbers [ n199ua ] UPC Codes [ 036000250015 ] FCC Equipment IDs [ fcc B4Z-34009-PIR ] The rest of this page contains examples of input and output for most of these types of searches.
Click on the link to view a map.
Package Tracking
Instead of going to the FedEx (www.fedex.com), UPS (www.ups.com), or US Postal Service (www.usps.com) sites to find out where your package is located, now you can enter parcel tracking IDs directly into Google's search box.
Click on the link to view tracking information for a parcel.
Find the latest information about your UPS package by entering "ups" followed by the tracking ID into Google's search box.
Click on the Travelocity link to view tracking information on the flight.
Click on the fboweb.com link to view how the actual flight is progressing.
Vehicle Information
Look up automobile vehicle information by entering a vehicle ID (VIN) number.
Click on the link to view information on the specified vehicle.
Patent Search
Look up a US patent by typing "patent" followed by a space and a patent number.
Click on the link to view information on the patent.
Click on the link to view information about the aircraft.
UPC Codes
Find information about an item by entering its UPC code into
Google's search box.
Click on the link to view information about this item.
Click on the link to view information about this equipment.
Image Search |
Looking for an image, map, graphic, photo, design or drawing? Try Google's Image Search by clicking on the Images link above Google's search box
Web Images Groups News Froogle LocalNew! more »
or visiting images.google.com.
Enter your query and click on the "Google Search" button. Alternatively, enter your query and then click on the Images tab. Google Image Search works best when there are many images available to choose from, e.g., photos of Anna Kournikova, the most photographed tennis player.
Click on the image that interests you. You'll go to a framed page with two parts. On top, you'll see Google's image thumbnail. On the bottom, you'll see the full page on which the image appears.
Clicking on the thumbnail image or on the "See full-size image" link that appears just below the thumbnail image will display the full-size image.
Save the image to your hard disk by either selecting "Save As" or "Save Page As" from the File menu of your browser or by clicking the mouse's right button and selecting "Save As" or "Save Page As" from the pop-up menu.
To view the page containing the image without the thumbnail image on top, click on the page's URL, which appears between the thumbnail image and the page itself following the text "Below is the image in its original context on the page."
How Does Google Image Search Work?
Notice that when you search for images of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Image Search returns some photographs of Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
The words "Larry Page" and "Sergey Brin" appear near images of Eric Schmidt, or in image captions, or in links to those images. Google makes a guess that the words are related to the image. Google technology isn't yet to the point where it can tell what's in an image by looking at it directly.
Focusing Your Image Search
As with text searches, you can focus your search when it finds too many images. Restrict your results to images that are large, medium, or small by clicking on one of the links that is in the upper right corner on the Images results page.
Alternatively, narrow your query by using Google's Advanced Image Search form. To get there, either click on the Advanced Image Search link or go to images.google.com/advanced_image_search.
You can specify:
Option Restrict results to Values Size images of these relative dimensions small, medium, large Filetype image files whose names end with the specified suffix jpg, gif, png Coloration images with the specified color depth black and white, grayscale, full color Domain a specific site or domain (for a description of site and domain names, see Anatomy of a Web Address) Domains such as .com, .edu, .nl, or sites such as pandemonia.com SafeSearch the specified level of filtering. Be aware that Google's automatic filtering doesn't guarantee that you won't be shown offensive content. none, moderate, strict
The Size restriction refers to the height and width of the image in pixels. The following table lists the approximate dimensions for each relative size specification.
Size Value Approximate Dimensions
in pixelssmall 150 x 150 or smaller medium larger than 150 x 150 and
smaller than 500 x 500large 500 x 500 or larger
For more information on Google's Image Search visit images.google.com/help/faq_images.html.
Groups (Discussion Forums) |
Want advice, opinions, and recommendations that haven't necessarily been edited?
Then consider using Google Groups, which provides access (posting and reading) to thousands of discussion forums — an enormous storehouse of discourse, including
The Internet connects people from all over the world. When the Internet was initially established, people used it to send email messages to each other. As with physical mail, email must have the address of the recipient. In 1979-1980, Steve Bellovin, Jim Ellis, Tom Truscott, and Steve Daniel at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill implemented a distributed bulletin board system supported mainly by UNIX computers. It became known as Usenet, which was short for Users Network, and, because it was free and non-proprietary, it swiftly became international in scope. Usenet discussion forums became popular in the 1980s before the birth of the World Wide Web. In 1995, a company named DejaNews began archiving Usenet. In 1999, during the .com boom, DejaNews changed its name to Deja.com. Like many .com companies, Deja.com didn't do well financially. In February of 2001, Deja.com sold its Usenet archives to Google for an undisclosed amount.
Google has Deja's entire archive (dating back to 1995), as well as lots of material posted earlier, available from the Google Groups home page. Google Groups also tracks recent postings on Usenet and non-Usenet groups. Finally, Google allows you to post messages to these forums by signing up for a free account.
Click on Groups link above Google's search box
Web Images Groups News Froogle LocalNew! more »
or visit groups.google.com to access this comprehensive archive of human conversation, dating back to 1981.
Note: Particularly in the latter part of the 1980s, there are some significant gaps in the archive. As traffic expanded, volunteers who had been saving Usenet traffic at their own expense were overwhelmed, and stopped archiving some groups. While the Google Groups archive is the most complete Usenet Archive known to exist, it is not a complete archive prior to the 1990s.
You can search and read public groups without identifying yourself to Google. To access private groups or to post a message to any group, you'll need a Google Account. (You may also be able to post to public Usenet groups through your Internet provider's own news server — without needing a Google Account. If this seems useful, ask your ISP whether they provide Usenet access.)
For a listing of groups organized by topic, region, language, activity level, and (for non-Usenet groups) the number of people who belong to the group, see the Group Directory.
Many of the Google Groups are part of Usenet. Usenet newsgroups (forums) are grouped into several large areas, each of which is broken into subareas. The different parts are always separated by a "." (period). The first part of a name is called its hierarchy. Consider, for instance, the name rec.sport.tennis. The newsgroup is in the rec or recreation area, in the sports subarea. Within each newsgroup, there are messages (also referred to as articles or postings) that look like email from one user to another. But instead of just being exchanged between two people, these messages are available to everyone who accesses the Usenet or Google Groups. The top level Usenet hierarchies are:
alt.Alternative discussions (any conceivable topic) biz.Business products, services, reviews, etc. comp.Relating to computers humanities.Fine art, literature, philosophy, etc. misc.Miscellaneous topics, e.g., employment, health, etc. news.Relating to Usenet netnews itself rec.Relating to recreation, e.g., games, hobbies, sports sci.Relating to the sciences soc.Relating to social issues, culture talk.Long arguments, current issues and debates, frequently political
Below are some examples of Usenet newsgroup names.
alt.graphics.photoshop misc.jobs.offered alt.atheism.moderated rec.aviation.soaring alt.fan.letterman rec.food.recipes alt.personal.ads rec.music.classical.guitar biz.books.technical soc.feminism misc.invest.real-estate talk.politics.misc
Discussion groups can be unmoderated (anyone can post) or moderated (submissions are automatically directed to a moderator, who edits and filters out inappropriate and irrelevant material). Some discussion groups have parallel mailing lists, with postings to a group automatically propagated to its mailing list and vice versa. Some moderated groups are even distributed as digests, groups of postings periodically being collected into a single large posting with an index. The names of some moderated groups include the suffix .moderated, e.g., rec.martial-arts.moderated.
Click on a topic (hierarchy) or enter your query.
Note that the results are sorted by relevance — that is, how closely they match your query — rather than by the date they were posted. Each result includes the date it was posted, shown in green next to the group name. To sort results by date, click "Sort by date" above the Sponsored Links.
Click the title to view the original article with your search terms highlighted. The article may be part of a discussion thread or topic — the original article together with any preceding and followup articles — as this example shows.
Want to participate in a discussion? For information on how to post messages, click on the "Groups Help" link above or to the right of the Google Groups' search box or visit the Google Groups Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about posting at groups.google.com/googlegroups/posting_faq.html. Also be sure to read the first answer in Google Groups Posting Style Guide. Usenet has a very strong culture, and well-established ways of doing things. In order to get the best responses to your post, you should try to conform to Usenet standards.
If you post to Usenet via Google Groups, your email address will be distributed widely and you may receive lots of spam as a result. (Google Groups will make your email address difficult for spammers to find, but other Usenet servers may not.) Consider getting another email address from Gmail, Yahoo, or some other free service to use for your public postings. If you get a separate email address, though, do remember to check it periodically: some Usenet readers may send you a question or other private reply.
Want to search for a specific message or those written by a certain person? Click on the Advanced Groups Search link or visit www.google.com/advanced_group_search.
For more information on Google Groups visit groups.google.com/support.
News Search |
After the tragedies of September 11, 2001, Krishna Bharat, a Google engineer, built a tool to crawl news sites and organize news into ranked clusters. Because of its popularity, Google expanded the demo into Google News.
Google News:
Click on the News link above Google's search box
Web Images Groups News Froogle LocalNew! more »
or visit news.google.com.
Google news indicates how fresh a story is by listing how long ago it was posted, e.g., 30 minutes ago for the top story on the left in the screen shot above. Click on the title to display the article. Notice the "and 1007 related" link at the bottom of the entry of the story on the left of the above screen shot. If you click an entry's "and XXX related" link, you'll see a page listing all articles related to the same topic.
Search news by entering your query and clicking on the "Google Search" button.
By default, results are sorted by relevance to your search terms. When you wish to see articles ordered chronologically, click on the "Sort by date" link, located in the upper right corner of the results window.
Advanced News Search, accessible from the Advanced Search link on the News page, lets you search by news source, location, date range, and other criteria. It's also available at news.google.com/advanced_news_search.
International versions of Google News are available for countries including Australia, Canada (English and French), France, Germany, India, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, and the U.K.
Making Google News Your Home Page
If you like keeping up with the latest news, consider making Google News your home page and/or setting up Google Alerts.
Make Google News your home page by following the instructions listed on www.google.com/options/defaults.html, changing https://www.google.com/ to https://news.google.com/ (or copying the URL from one of the non-US versions that we just mentioned). If these instructions don't work for your browser, check your Options or Preferences settings for a "home page" box; paste the URL into that box.
For more information on Google News visit news.google.com/help/about_news_search.html.
If you're a news junkie, check out Topix.net, which you can find at http://www.topix.net/ and Columbia Newsblaster, which you can find at http://newsblaster.cs.columbia.edu/. Like Google News, Topix.net and Newsblaster are systems that automatically track the day's news. Why are we including non-Google sites in a tutorial on Google? To make you aware of sites offering capabilities different from Google News's and to publicize a friend's site.
According to the About Columbia Newsblaster page, which you can find at http://newsblaster.cs.columbia.edu/faq.html, "There are no human editors involved — everything you see on the Newsblaster main page is generated automatically, drawing on the sources listed on the left side of the screen." Unlike Google News, Newsblaster summarizes clusters of articles about the same topic. "The end result is a Web page that gives you a sense of what the major stories of the day are, so you don't have to visit the pages of dozens of publications," according to About Newsblaster page.
Froogle (Search and Browse Items for Sale) |
Froogle is a searchable and browsable shopping index tuned to finding products for sale online. Click on the Froogle link above Google's search box
Web Images Groups News Froogle LocalNew! more »
or visit froogle.google.com. Search results include price, brand, description, and, if available, a photograph. Note that unlike other online shopping services, Froogle doesn't actually sell things.
Froogle obtains listings for products from vendors and by scouring the web. When Google finds a page that appears to sell something, it feeds the information it collects to Froogle. Vendors don't pay to have their products included in Froogle's search results. However, they can purchase sponsored links, which appear along the right side of Froogle's results pages.
You'll find a link to Froogle on the Google home page. Or go to froogle.google.com.
You can browse products by clicking on a category or you can search by entering your query in Froogle's search box. Interested in buying a watch for a child? Try searching on Froogle for [ watches children ].
The results included the verb "watch" and pages selling children's jewelry. Study results to get ideas for more effective search terms. Consider searching for specific brands.
Search for specific types of watches.
When Froogle finds more than one product from a site, it includes the link "See all results from vendor." Limiting the number of results from a given site to just one ensures products from a single vendor won't dominate your search results and that Froogle provides pages from a variety of sites.
Want products with prices in a specified range? Enter a price range just above the results or fill in a field in Froogle's advanced search form. Access the advanced search form by clicking on the Advanced Froogle Search link next to the search box on a Froogle page or visiting froogle.google.com/froogle_advanced_search.
For more information on Froogle visit froogle.google.com/froogle/about.html.
More Search Services |
Click on the more » link above Google's search box to learn about many of Google's search services and tools.
Web Images Groups News Froogle LocalNew! more »
In Google Guide, click on any of the following images or links to learn more about these services and tools.
Google Services
Google Tools
Catalogs (Search and Browse Mail-Order Catalogs) |
After acquiring a fancy scanner, Larry Page, co-founder of Google, encouraged engineers to come up with a search service that would take advantage of its speed and flexibility. Lauren Baptist started by developing a service around mail-order catalogs because they posed the least copyright issues. Some vendors have better pictures in their catalogs than on the websites. Now you can throw out your mail-order catalogs and browse or search for their contents online, even if the company hasn't listed them on the web. Visit catalogs.google.com. But, if you don't have a high speed connection, the catalog pages load slowwwwwly.
Google tries a lot of things. Some projects succeed and are supported; others fade away. As of this writing (late 2005), Google Catalogs seems to be one that may fade away. For instance, most catalogs in the Computer category are from 2002 or 2003 — an eternity in that fast-paced market.
Another interesting point about a not-so-developed service like Catalogs is that not all search features may be supported. For instance, searching by price with the numeric range operator, like $250..$1000, would be useful in a catalog search. But that operator was developed after Catalogs, which may explain why it doesn't work.
Still, the service is interesting — and some of the catalogs are fairly up-to-date. Since IKEA gives out their catalogs sparingly, check out their catalog online.
Like Froogle, Catalogs doesn't sell things. Instead, use this service to browse and/or search print page catalogs. For example, search for a sun hat.
As with other Google services, the Advanced Catalog Search gives you more search choices. Advanced search lets you choose the latest issue of a catalog or all issues. You can also name a certain merchant
For more information on Google Catalogs visit catalogs.google.com/googlecatalogs/help.html.
Directory |
There are two basic ways to find information systematically on the Web: browsing and searching. Chris Sherman and Gary Price offer the following description of browsing versus searching in their book The Invisible Web.
... think of how you use a library. If you're familiar with a subject it's often more useful to browse in the section where books [on that] subject are shelved. Because of the way the library is organized, often using either the Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress Classification system, you know that all of the titles in the section are related, and serendipity often leads to unexpected discoveries that prove quite valuable.If you're unfamiliar with a subject, however, browsing is both inefficient and potentially futile if you fail to locate the section of the library where the material you're interested in is shelved. Searching, [with the aid of] specialized tools offered by a library's catalog, is far more likely to provide satisfactory results.
Using the web to find information has much in common with using the library. Sometimes browsing provides good results, while other information needs require nothing less than sophisticated, powerful searching to achieve the best results.
Up until now, we've shown you how to choose search terms and craft your queries to locate the information you seek. This section describes how to browse by following links on Google's Directory.
Google organizes the Directory into categories that are classifications of pages by subjects. The Directory is similar to the table of contents in a book. Browsing a book's table of contents, which includes the titles of chapters and sections, allows a reader to quickly find interesting sections of the book. Similarly, browsing a subject-oriented directory, enables a user to quickly locate categories containing related documents. However, there's no assurance that what you're seeking will be in the book or web page.
See the top level classifications by visiting directory.google.com.
Google's web-search index is built automatically by computers that crawl the web. On the other hand, Google's Directory is created by volunteer human-subject matter experts who contribute to the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org). The raw open-source directory is used not just by Google, but also by Netscape Search, AOL Search, Lycos, HotBot, and DirectHit. The volunteers evaluate, classify, and annotate each entry. The entries are then ranked by Google's PageRank algorithms.
(If you sort the results by their PageRank, you'll notice a bar scale to the left of each result. The wider the bar, the higher the PageRank. See the next screen shot for two examples.)
Consider using the Directory instead of Google's web search whenever you want to:
Fewer sites are included in the Directory than in Google's web search but those that are included tend to be of high quality.
Use Google's Directory when you want to explore by clicking on topics, i.e., browse. For example, learn about travel by clicking on the Travel category, which is included in the top-level category Recreation, which in the future we'll abbreviate as Recreation > Travel.
To broaden your search, consider browsing subcategories or related categories, which the Directory includes on your results page. Next to each subcategory is a number in parentheses (), which is the number of links included in that category. Names of categories with lots of entries are shown in boldface.
With Google's Directory, you can browse and/or search to find pages of interest to you. If you're unfamiliar with a topic, browse through a few levels of categories and then restrict your search to a particular branch of the Directory by selecting the "Search only in ..." radio button before entering your query in the search box. If you're familiar with a topic, search the Directory by entering your query and clicking on the "Google Search" button. Then you can either refine your search by changing your search query or entering additional terms or browse by clicking on a subcategory or a related category.
Directory drawbacks include size, timeliness, and coverage. Since computers can crawl the web and add index entries much faster than humans can travel the web and evaluate pages, most directories, including Google's, have significantly fewer entries than searchable indices. Since directory links are maintained by hand, upkeep and maintenance are time-consuming. It's difficult for editors to keep up with the dynamic nature of the web. Because different people edit, annotate, and add entries, some categories in a directory are well-populated and others are sparse.
For more information on Google Directory visit www.google.com/dirhelp.html.
Special Searches |
Looking for an easier way to find information on a specific topic or at a specific website?
Google provides the following specialized search engines:
University Search
www.google.com/options/universities.html
Narrow your search to a specific institution's website
The specialized searches let you find information about a topic without getting completely unrelated results. For instance, if you want only official information from US governments about taxes, you can search all federal and state government websites from this one search box.
Why these topics? Early on in Google history, some engineers created these specialized search engines to serve their own interests. They've remained part of the site though Google has turned its attention to other types of search services and features.
You can find links to these specialized search engines, as well as Google Book Search and Google Scholar, on the Advanced Web Search form.
Answers |
Having trouble creating a query to find the information you seek? Don't have time to research the topic yourself? Consider asking a reference librarian, an experienced online researcher, or Google Answers, which, for a fee of your choosing, provides assistance from researchers with expertise in online searching.
If your query returns few results or none, there may be a link to Google Answers on the results page. Otherwise, visit answers.google.com.
Reluctant to use Google Answers? Think you can find the information you want if you search a bit longer? If you feel that way, you're not alone. Nevertheless, many people who have asked questions of Google Answers are now fans of the service. Not only does it save them time, but the answers they get are packed with useful information and links. It's a wonderful service that's well worth your checking out, whether you're a novice or an experienced searcher.
Here's how it works:
Before posting your first question, check out Google's tips for getting a better answer to your question, which can be found on the web at answers.google.com/answers/help.html.
You'll need a Google Answers Account to ask a question. (You can search previous questions and answers without an account.) Provide your email address, a password, and a nickname. (If you already have a Google Account — to use with Google Alerts, for instance — you'll still need to choose a nickname, specify when Google Answers should send you email, and agree to the Terms of Service for Google Answers.) Your nickname will be shown on every Google Answers question, answer, or comment that you post.
Then enter the topic of your question, your question, the amount between US$2 and US$200 you're willing to pay for an answer, and the category most appropriate for your question. For example:
Subject: Enter the topic of your question for our researchers (e.g. "Hiking in New Mexico").
Nina Totenberg, NPR legal affairs correspondent, birthday, education, and degreeQuestion: The more details you provide, the better the results you'll receive.
When was Nina Totenberg, National Public Radio's (NPR) legal affairs correspondent, born, where was she educated, and what degrees does she have? Did she attend law school?Price: Set a price between $2.00 and $200.00.
$2.00 (Google Answers bills your credit card this amount after a researcher answers your question.)Category: Select the category most appropriate for your question.
Reference, Education and News > General Reference
The more you're willing to spend on an answer, the more likely a researcher will answer it and the more likely the answer will be comprehensive.
When a Google Answers researcher or anyone else writes a response to your question, the answer and/or comments will be posted to Google Answers. You may request in your Google Answers' Profile to be notified by email either once a day or whenever there is new activity with any of your questions.
After a researcher has answered your question, you are given an opportunity to rate the answer from one star (very poor answer) to five stars (great answer), provide comments that anyone who uses Google Answers can access, and tip the researcher between US$1 and US$100, if you feel that you have received an exceptional answer.
Click on a researcher's handle to see the ratings and comments that researcher has received from users who have posted questions. You may specify which researcher(s) should deal with your question when you submit it.
You can search or browse previously asked questions, both those that have been answered and those that haven't. At the bottom of the Google Answers home page, find questions (some with answers) by either:
By default, Google Answers displays questions, their associated comments, and their answers in reverse chronological order (most recently asked question is listed first). Click on either the Date or Price links just above all the questions to sort on that field. When you sort by date, a triangular icon indicates whether the field is sorted with the most recent listed first (triangle points down) or is sorted with the oldest listed first (triangle points up). Click on the triangle to reverse the order.
You'll find answers there to many already asked questions, including
Answers to many questions can be found on the web. Users also seek and obtain answers to questions of a more personal nature,
Some of the answers are indexed by Google and then searchable through Google's web search.
For more information on Google Answers visit answers.google.com/answers/help.html and answers.google.com/answers/faq.html. To see what users are saying about the service and how they are using it, visit answers.google.com/answers/testimonials.html.
Postscript by Jerry: Nancy has been a big fan of Google Answers. (She wrote most of this page.) She told me recently that Google Answers doesn't seem to be as active as it used to be: there are fewer answers active or being answered. Before you ask a question, consider doing a little research yourself. Look at the questions, which questions are being answered, and how much questioners are willing to pay.
Prototypes and Demos (Google Labs) |
Google's mission is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." To this end, Google showcases some prototypes and products in development on the Google Labs, the web site of Google's research group.
Visit Google Labs' home page at labs.google.com.
Note: Google Labs updates its site periodically. So you may find prototypes or demos different from the ones shown here.
In Parts II and III, I mention graduates of Google Labs, services and tools that have been refined and made available through Google's home page.
Search by Location (Google Local)
Google Alerts
Google Glossary
In this final lesson of the Special Tools section, I describe a Google Labs' prototype search tools:
Google will likely refine some of these demos and make them available through Google's home page. If you want to become part of Google's development process, try out these prototypes and provide feedback to the engineers who developed them.
Google Sets - labs.google.com/sets Automatically create sets of items from a few examples. Enter a few items from a set of things. Then press the "Large Set" button or the "Small Set" button and Google Sets will try to predict other items in the set. For example, if you enter Golden Gate Bridge, Palace of Fine Arts, and Coit Tower, Google Sets suggests other places worth visiting in San Francisco. |
Use Google sets to suggest: people who might share interests with you, places to visit, books to read, movies to see, synonyms, food you might enjoy, stores where you can buy a particular type of item, etc.
Feature History |
You can make your website (more) popular and generate (more) income. Learn how in this segment, which provides tips on:
The information in this section is based on my experience in designing and developing Google Guide, which is now the top result for the queries including:
Note: There are thousands of sites devoted to developing a website and optimizing its performance. So, should you want more detailed information, just search for it. But be careful: there are sites that charge good money for bad information.
Want to give a presentation on developing a website or print the files in this segment of Google Guide? Then check out the links below.
Creating Content for Your Website |
Following each tip on creating content is information about how I developed Google Guide and improved its content.
The goal of Google Guide is to make searching even easier for novices and experienced users.
Nelson Blachman, my father, is blind and is a wonderful reviewer and beta tester for Google Guide.
Studying Google Guide logs, I've learned which pages are most popular among users and I'm focusing my attention on providing users more of what they like.
A few years ago I replaced unhelpful names with more descriptive ones.
Usually Google Guide opens a new browser window when a user clicks on a link outside of Google Guide.
I initially wrote Google Guide in HTML. Jerry Peek and I are translating Google Guide into DocBook.
I noticed that users were choosing the Google Guide Stock Quotes page after entering the query [ Google stock symbol ].
So I added, at the top of the page,
Looking for Google's stock symbol? It's GOOG on Nasdaq. Click here for Google's stock price or search for it on Google.
When putting together content for this page, I came across wonderful pages on creating content for websites, including:
When these people run vanity searches, i.e., search for themselves, they may run across your page and get in touch with you.
At the 30th Asilomar Microcomputer Workshop in 2004, Bill Cheswick suggested this approach to searching for people if you don't find them in Google's phonebook.
Developing Links to Google Search Results |
If you know HTML, it's relatively easy to make links to Google's search results. Following each link in the examples below is the code that produces it.
Note: The URL — that is, the text shown in Italics here: href="http://URL-GOES-HERE" — must be valid. For instance:
For example, the query [ "a song for you" ] would be encoded in a URL as https://www.google.com/search?q=%22a+song+for+you%22, where each quote (") is replaced by %22.
The easiest way to find the correct encoding is to type your query into a Google Search box — run the search and look at the resulting URL in your web browser's address box (which is usually in the toolbar at the top of the window). Then copy and paste the parts you need from the URL into your HTML code.
With AdSense for Search, you can easily create a revenue stream at the same time as provide a Google search box like the following.
Fill the search box with a query by specifying a value the attribute "value", which AdSense for Search initializes to the null string ("").
Note: If you fill the search box with a query, Google may not share revenue with you.
Note: AdSense for Search centers the search box on the page while AdSense for WebSearch+SiteSearch doesn't. Of course, you can modify the AdSense code to place the search box wherever you want on the page.
Getting Your Website Listed on Google |
How does Google find your site and list it? Merely registering your domain on the Internet isn't enough.
As soon as your site is available on the Internet, you can submit it to Google by completing the add URL form at www.google.com/addurl.html.
Another way to be listed — and to raise your PageRank too — is by getting other websites to link to yours. After that, when Google's robots or spiders, known as Googlebot, crawl the web, they should run across your site within a month or so. As we mentioned in the How Google Works page, there are two types of crawls, fresh crawls and deep crawls. Your site most likely will first get a fresh crawl in which only pages Google deems most important are crawled. After Google runs a deep crawl of your site, most, if not all of the pages on your website that contain links from other pages will be crawled and subsequently listed on Google — except pages that are included in the file robots.txt, which lists pages that you don't want Google to crawl and pages containing code that Google is unable to parse.
Recently Google developed Google Base, a service, like a bulletin board, for posting all types of content, e.g., coupons, reviews, jobs, housing, events, tickets, merchandise. Things for sale may get cross posted on Froogle and locations may get cross posted from Google Base to Google Maps.
For more about how to get your site listed on Google, visit www.google.com/webmasters/1.html.
How can you remove websites, individual pages, cached pages, and outdated or dead links from Google's index? Visit www.google.com/webmasters/remove.html.
What's PageRank? |
PageRank is Google's system for ranking web pages. A page with a higher PageRank is deemed more important and is more likely to be listed above a page with a lower PageRank.
Google describes PageRank:
In other words, Google conducts "elections" in which each web page casts votes for web pages with hyperlinks to those pages. But unlike a democracy a page can have more than one vote and links from pages with high PageRank are given more weight (according to their ranking) and thus help to improve the targets' PageRank.
If you don't want a link to be considered for the purposes of PageRank, e.g., a spammer posts a link to a discount pharmacy site, specify the hyperlink attribute rel="nofollow", which Google implemented in January 2005.
See the PageRank of a page with the PageRank meter in the Google Toolbar (an advanced feature). The more green the higher the PageRank.
Compare the relative PageRank of your site with those of other related sites by viewing the green bar to the left of a website in the web page section (near the bottom of the page) of the Google Directory page. (If your site isn't listed in the Directory, that's another way to improve its PageRank. See www.dmoz.org/add.html.)
In the next section, Improving Your PageRank, I offer suggestions for how to improve the PageRank of your webpages.
Improving Your Website's PageRank |
Below are suggestions for publicizing your site based on our experience getting the word out about Google Guide.
Post your site's URL (web address) to popular web directories including Open Directory Project (ODP), Yahoo!, and LookSmart. Also post your URL to online reference, e.g., Wikipedia, industry-specific expert sites, blogs, etc.
In addition to making it easy for other sites to distribute your headlines and content, your RSS feed will be indexed by popular Blog search engines, including Technorati, BlogSearch, and Ask.com Bloglines.
Note: If your site links to delisted websites, your website might also be removed from Google's index.
Note: If Google suspects that you've traded links with other sites for the sole purpose of improving your ranking, it might penalize or blacklist your site.
Next I emailed journalists who specialize in search engines, but again few wrote articles about Google Guide.
Then I emailed reviewers of books on using Google. A handful responded. Some wrote that Google Guide was for novices; others wrote that Google Guide was tailored for advanced users. Wanting to make Google Guide appeal to novices and experts alike, I indicated sections that would appeal to particular users, e.g.,
After several months of emailing potential users and posting to websites, libraries, schools, and users began linking to Google Guide.
I tried again to get national press coverage by contacting John Markoff from the New York Times. After a few attempts, I was quoted in an article about Search Engine Wars and afterwards Google Guide got over 50,000 unique visitors/day for the following week and traffic has been good ever since.
On the basis of a suggestion from Matt Vance, I created the Google Guide Cheat Sheet and announced it on Slashdot, which generated great publicity, along with a few flames; within 24 hours, the Cheat Sheet went from being ranked so poorly I couldn't even find it to being ranked #2 (after Google's cheat sheet).
Recently Google Guide was translated into Hebrew.
When I first made this site publicly available, Google Guide wasn't in the first 100 sites on searches for [ Google guide ]. Thanks to the sites that linked to Google Guide and users who clicked on Google Guide in their search results, Google Guide is in the top ten results for many queries that relate to the content of the site. Being listed so highly on Google has improved the traffic flow to Google Guide.
Note: For the top ranked site, Google sometimes includes useful links from within that site.
Google Guide
Interactive online tutorial on using the search engine includes tips and information on new services...
classic.googleguide.com/ - 7k -Cached - Similar pages
Query Input - Special Tools
Introduction - Understanding Results\ a>
More results from classic.googleguide.com
In addition to considering the number of links to your page and the ranking of the linking page, to compute a page's PageRank, Google considers hundreds of factors including
These factors and many others are described in the article "Great Site Ranking in Google The Secret's Out" on Buzzle.com.
Google periodically changes how it calculates a page's importance, thereby resulting in shifts in rankings, known as a Google Dance. Google Guide's placement in Google's search results sometimes changes when Google modifies or enhances their indexing algorithms.
I don't try to keep up with the latest search engine optimization tricks. Instead I strive to make searching Google easier by educating users about Google services, capabilities, and features. When I am successful, sites link to Google Guide pages and increase their ranks and importance to Google.
Here are links to a few pages that discuss how to publicize your website and improve the ranking of your web pages.
In the next section, Advertising Your Website, I'll tell you how I increase traffic through running inexpensive ads.
Advertising Your Website |
To increase traffic and to learn about Google's advertising services, I became an AdWords advertiser. I designed simple text ads, chose queries and keywords the ads should match, and specified the maximum we were willing to spend on an advertising campaign. Google charges us only when someone clicks on one of our ads.
AdWords contributes greatly to Google's bottom line, i.e., it's profits. Google offers many resources to educate website owners about AdWords. Rather than developing tutorial material on AdWords, which is likely to get outdated when Google enhances AdWords capabilities and features, I encourage you to learn from Google's material and those of third parties.
We increased the effectiveness of our advertising by following wonderful suggestions from Perry Marshall's free 5-day course and from his Definitive Guide to Google AdWords, which you can learn about at www.perrymarshall.com/google/. We tested lots of ads targeted on many different queries and keywords until we found ones that got favorable responses from users, i.e., the ads that users clicked on. And Google has rewarded us by overrunning our ads, i.e., showing some of them from time to time at no cost to us.
Now that Google Guide gets thousands of unique visitors each day most of whom find the site via a Google Search, I've stopped running ads, but Google is saving our ads and campaigns in case I decide to run them again.
Generating Revenue by Running Ads on Your Website |
You can make money from Google AdSense by hosting
Display ads that it deems relevant to the content of the page.
Display a list of topics that Google deems relevant to the content of the page.
A page of related ads is displayed when a user clicks on a topic.
Provide web search and earn revenue from Google.
Generate revenue by providing a query box for searching the web and the specific site(s) of your choice.
Generate income by referring your users to Google products and search services.
At first I was reluctant to run ads on Google Guide. I didn't want to create any distractions that would lure visitors away from my site. But visitors leave even if I don't run ads. So I ran ads at the bottom of a page because I thought they would distract only viewers who weren't interested in my site. Few users clicked on the ads. Later I moved the ads to the top of a page. The response rate more than doubled and so did revenue.
Why did Google create AdSense? Many sites wanted to advertise and Google wanted more real estate, i.e., web pages, on which it could display ads. Web sites wanted a slice of Google's revenue.AdSense is a money-generating service for Google and it's users. Unlike user services, Google provides a wealth of resources on AdSense, just a few of which I've listed below.
Appendix |
You've reached the end of the tutorial. The following sections contain additional information that you may find useful.
The remainder of this appendix is filled with compliments and appreciative remarks, how to submit feedback, linking instructions, licensing information, and acknowledgments.
Summary |
Google strives to make it easy to quickly find whatever you're seeking, whether it's a web page, a recent news story, a photograph, advice, or a present for a friend. Google Guide's Cheat Sheet (classic.googleguide.com/cheatsheet.html), Google Guide's Advanced Operator Quick Reference (classic.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html), Google Guide's Calculator Cheatsheet (classic.googleguide.com/help/calculator.html), and Sacramento State's Google QuikRef (available from www.csus.edu/uccs/documents/quikrefsite/PDFs/googleqr.pdf or on the Google Guide site), provide nice summaries of some of Google's features and services.
The following table lists the major search services Google offers along with the URLs.
Search Service Description Website Web Search the web. This service includes shortcuts for finding commonly sought utilities and information, such as dictionary definitions, definitions on the web, news headlines, phone numbers, addresses, street maps, stock quotes, travel conditions, package tracking information, calculations of mathematical expressions, and translations of any text or web page. www.google.com Images Find images, graphics, photos, drawings, maps, etc. images.google.com Groups Search, browse, and participate in online discussions. This service is wonderful for finding advice, opinions, and recommendations that haven't necessarily been edited. groups.google.com News Search and browse online news sources. news.google.com Froogle Find and browse products for sale from across the web. froogle.google.com Catalogs Find and browse mail-order catalogs online. catalogs.google.com Directory Browse web pages by category. directory.google.com Answers For as little as US$2.50, obtain assistance from researchers with expertise in online searching. answers.google.com Google Labs Try Google prototypes and demos. labs.google.com When you forget where to find one of Google's search tools or services, just look it up on Google. For example, if you don't remember the name or web address of Google product shopping search service, search for [ Google product shopping ].
Query Input
Search Behaviors | Descriptions |
Implicit AND | Google returns pages that match all your search terms. Because you don't need to include the logical operator AND between your terms, this notation is called an implicit AND. |
Exact Matching | Google returns pages that match your search terms exactly. |
Word Variation | Google returns pages that match variants of your search terms. |
Common-Word Exclusion | Google ignores some common words called "stop words," e.g., the, on, where, and how. Stop words tend to slow down searches without improving results. (Provided on all search services except Froogle). |
32-Word Limit | Google limits queries to 32 words. |
Term Proximity | Google gives more priority to pages that have search terms near to each other. |
Term Order | Google gives more priority to pages that have search terms in the same order as the query. |
Case Insensitivity | Google is case-insensitive; it assumes all search terms are lowercase. |
Ignoring Punctuation | Google ignores some punctuation and special characters including , . ; ? [ ] < > @ / |
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 | [ recumbent bicycle $250..$1000 ] |
" | with the exact phrase, a proper name, or a set of words in a specific order |
[ "I have a dream" ] [ "Rio de Janeiro" ] |
Advanced Search Find results | Basic Search Example | Basic Search Find results |
with all of the words | [ tap dance ] | with all search terms |
with the exact phrase | only with the exact phrase inside the quotes | |
without the words |
[ tap -dance ] [ -tap dance ] | including none of the terms preceded by a - |
[ tap OR
| with at least one of the terms adjacent to OR |
Too many results? Focus the search by... | Too few results? Broaden the search by... | |
adding a word or phrase | removing a word or phrase | |
specifying the order in which you want words to appear | specifying words instead of phrases | |
using a more specific term | using more general terms | |
including synonyms or variant word forms or using a more common version of the word's spelling | ||
limiting to a domain or site | broadening the domain or searching the entire web | |
limiting to a date range | removing date range | |
limiting where terms occur | removing redundant terms or splitting a multi-part query | |
restricting type of file | searching any type of file | |
limiting pages in a particular language | translating your search terms into other languages and searching for the translated terms | |
limiting pages to a particular country | searching the entire web |
Now that you've seen the versatility of the Google search engine, you'll understand why many users rarely use bookmarks and either use the Google Deskbar, the Google Toolbar, or leave their browsers pointing to Google; they can find practically any site using Google's many search services and features.
I sincerely hope that Google Guide has helped you become (more) proficient in using Google. I have tried to anticipate your questions and problems. Please let me know if I have missed something or if you have corrections or suggestions for improving Google Guide, by emailing feedback(at)googleguide.com (replace "- at -" by "@"). I welcome all comments. I look forward to hearing from you.
Colophon
Hamish Reid, a principal at Mistrale, enhanced this site by improving its visual design and by making it easier to maintain and to traverse. I created most of the screen shots with TechSmith's SnagIt and resized and sharpened them with the powerful free viewer and editor IrfanView.
Tracking |
One of Google's corporate philosophies has always been not to "do evil." Google's Privacy Policy Highlights explain more. (You'll also find a link to their complete Privacy Policy on that page.)
Whether you trust Google or not, it's good to know something about how Google tracks you. What does Google do to remember your Preferences? When does Google record personal information like your name and your email address? And how far can you go to protect yourself without losing Google's services? We won't try to answer all of those questions thoroughly or in detail — after all, this is a guide to Google, not to computer security. We'll hit the highlights, though: enough information to help you understand what's going on inside your browser and on Google's servers.
Let's start with an overview of two main ways Google can keep track of you: by storing cookies on your web browser(s) and by asking you to sign up for a Google Account.
A Google Account is free of charge. The easiest way to get one is by visiting www.google.com/accounts. There you'll be asked for information like your email address and a password. Note: if you're planning to get a Gmail account, and you'd like to use your Gmail address as your primary email address, you should sign up with Gmail first. Then your Gmail address can automatically become the email address for your Google Account. In fact, signing up for Gmail gives you a Google Account automatically.
Once you have a Google Account, you can tell Google who you are by signing in to the account. You'll find a "Sign In" box at the top right-hand corner of many Google screens. You can also sign in from the home page of services like Gmail and Groups, as well as from the Accounts page shown above.
When you're done with your Google account, you can simply go on with your business. You can also close your browser. If you've checked the "Remember me on this computer" box (see the example above), Google will set a cookie in your browser so that, the next time you open your browser and go to a Google page, Google's server will sign you in automatically.
As we said, a cookie is a bit of data from a web server. (Think of "fortune cookies" you might get after a Chinese meal, with little bits of wisdom inside each one.) Each web browser keeps its own set of cookies. So, if you use several computers — or several different web browsers on the same computer — each of those browsers has a different set of cookies in its "cookie jar" (actually, in the computer's memory and/or disk).
So, for example, if you set your Google preferences on a particular browser, Google's web server can set a cookie in that browser to maintain your preferences on that browser. But if you go to another computer, those preferences you just set on the previous computer won't be set here because Google's server can't know that it's you on that other computer. (Google has no idea where you are in a room.)
It's possible for a web server to associate cookies with other information you enter. It won't always do that, but it can — and often does. For instance, if you have an account and you sign in, then the web server will know who you are and that you're using this browser. Then the web server may set cookies on that browser to "remember" that you're using it and keep track of what you're doing. A company's privacy policy may explain what it stores in any cookies it sets.
Remember that, unless you have a Google Account and you sign in, Google can't track you as a person. It can only track what's happened on the particular browser you're using at the moment. (This is true of other web servers, too: not just Google's.)
You can remove the cookies from your browser by using cookie management programs or by using controls built into your browser itself. You can also prevent cookies from being set in the first place. Doing so can help to preserve your privacy, but you can also lose the advantages of cookies — such as being able to set preferences.
Each cookie has a name and an expiration date. When a web server sends a cookie, it asks your browser to keep that particular cookie until a certain date and time. These dates can be:
As we'll see in a moment, Google uses a mixture of session cookies and longer-term cookies.
Most web browsers let you prevent a web server from setting cookies. Add-on software can also control cookies. The most sophisticated browsers, such as Mozilla, give you a lot of control over cookies.
Your browser probably has a way to remove some or all stored cookies. Doing that will stop most (but not all) tracking that a web server can do. But, of course, you'll lose the benefits of permanent cookies. For instance, if you have a Google Account, you'll probably have to sign in again before you use a personalized Google service like Gmail.
If you're concerned about privacy but also want the advantages of cookies, some browsers have a good compromise: treating some or all cookies as session cookies. That is, if a server asks to store a cookie until next year, your browser can store it as a session cookie instead.
That's enough, we hope, to give you an idea of what Google is doing "behind the scenes" in your web browser and on their servers. It's far from everything there is to know, though! If you'd like to know more, please check the website's privacy policy and some good references about Web security.
You can configure the Firefox browser to let you control each cookie and to see details about each of the stored cookies. Let's use it to show a few examples of Google's use of cookies. Note that this section is for people who are interested in more technical details of setting cookies. If you aren't, please skip ahead to the next lesson.
We'll start by opening Firefox to a blank page and entering www.google.com as the URL. We've configured Firefox to ask before setting each cookie, and we've also just used its "Clear privacy data" command to erase all old cookies. As soon as we go to www.google.com, the server asks to set a cookie:
Notice that the server wants the cookie to expire in the year 2038 and that the cookie's name is PREF. (This may be where the server "remembers" our Google preferences.) We click the "Allow for Session" button, which tells Firefox to erase the cookie when we quit the browser. We could also have denied the cookie, though, to see what might happen next. It's likely that Google will work fine with almost all cookies denied — except the cookie(s) that keep your Google Account settings.
Later, after doing some searches, we decide to sign in. Clicking the "Sign in" button brings up another "Confirm setting cookie" dialog. This time, the server wants to modify a cookie that it set earlier named GoogleAccountsLocale_session. The cookie will expire at the end of the browser session. In this case, we agree. (We could also have chosen "Use my choice for all cookies from this site" if we didn't want to answer any more questions about www.google.com.)
After more searching, we open the Firefox Options dialog to look at the stored cookies. (That's the little right-hand window in the next screen shot.) Google has set several cookies by now: five for www.google.com, one for groups.google.com, and at least one more for images.google.com. Clicking on one of the cookies shows that it's the PREF cookie set two screen shots previous. You generally won't need to get to this level of detail — but it is possible to, say, remove the stored cookies from a server so that server can't "remember" you.
Useful Links |
If the following topics are of interest to you, check out the following links:
Please let me know of other sites that may of interest to Google Guide readers by emailing nancy(at)googleguide.com (replace "(at)" by "@").
Search Leader: Why Google is Popular |
This page describes:
What Makes Google Great? |
Here are reasons why Google has many users and why those users frequently search using Google.
Google Returns Relevant Results
It tends to be good at selecting links that closely
match your search query.
What you want is usually near the top.
Google Identifies Ads and Sponsored Links
It doesn't sell placement of search results.
Sponsored links and ads are clearly marked and kept
separate from search results.
Ads relate to content and aren't distracting.
Google is Fast
Most
results are found in less than a second.
You can also
access Google's cached
version of a web page, often faster than the page
itself.
Google is Simple to Use
Clear uncluttered simple web pages.
Google Shows What You
Get
Search results include an excerpt (or
"snippet") of the text that matches your query
with your search terms in boldface.
Google Packs Results with
Information and with Links Related to your Query
Shows a Page Even
When it's Gone or its Link is Inaccessible
Google takes a snapshot of each page it examines and
caches (stores) these as a backup.
If the original isn't available, you can
access Google's cached version.
Your search terms will be highlighted in color on the
cached page, making it easy to find the sections of
the page relevant to your query.
Google Continually Improves its Search Results
Its capabilities are enhanced and expanded
to match the dynamic growth and changing nature of the web.
For more information on the benefits of using Google, visit https://www.google.com/technology/whyuse.html.
Google's Mission and Philosophy |
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. While pursuing this vision, Google has adopted the following philosophy:
For more information on Google's philosophy, visit www.google.com/corporate/today.html.
What Can You Find with Google? |
Google strives to make it easy to quickly find what you're seeking. The following list shows some of the many types of searches Google can easily do. Click on the type of information to learn how to search for it and click on the examples to see the results of such a search.
Type of Information | Examples |
Specific person, place, or thing (named entities) | Robin Williams, San Francisco, Paris restaurants |
Information on a subject (web sites by topic) | salary negotiation tips, lasik eye surgery, hybrid cars, lawn furniture, travel |
Something you've seen before or know exists | the original research paper on Google's technology, tax forms, Dixie Chicks song lyrics |
Answer to a question |
What
is the local weather forecast for the next three days? How can I reserve a camping site at Yosemite? How can I book a cheap flight from Boston to London? What is the approximate value of my car? How old is Nelson Mandela? How can I get a divorce in the US? |
What to write or say | cover letter when applying for a job |
Specific site (navigational query) | CNN.com (you know the name of the site) |
Someone's phone number or address | California Senator Diane Feinstein's office phone number |
Map or directions | map of Hearst Castle San Simeon CA |
Financial information | current price and stock chart for Krispy Kreme |
Dictionary definition | definition of schadenfreude |
Data | number of Internet hosts |
Translation of a page or text | Palais de Luxembourg |
Similar or related items | sites similar to Consumer Reports |
Visual information | tennis photos of Anna Kournikova, Dilbert cartoons, Paris metro map |
Personal recommendations, opinions, advice | Mykonos travel recommendations, reviews of compact digital cameras and color printers |
Recent news | what's happened in the last 24 hours |
Where you can buy something | carry-on luggage |
A set of items given a few examples | given the Golden Gate Bridge, Palace of Fine Arts, and Coit Tower, suggest other sites to visit in San Francisco |
Answers to Selected Exercises |
This page contains hints for or solutions to some (not all!) of the exercises in Google Guide. If you suggest a better way to solve any problem or other problems to include in Google Guide and we include your solution(s) or your problem(s), we will include your name beside your contribution. Please email problems and solutions to exercises(at)googleguide.com (replace "(at)" with "@").
If there's interest, we'll consider adding answers to the following problem sets.
Directory (Categories of Topics) - directory.html
Special Searches - special_searches.html
Google Answers - answers.html
Google Prototypes
and Demos - labs.html
Creating Content for Your Website - content.html
Creating a Link to Search Results - linking.html
Improving Your PageRank - pagerank.html
Advertising Your Website - adwords.html
Generating Revenue using AdSense - adsense.html
Below is a list of links to the exercises together with the name of the file where they can be found in Google Guide. Click on the links to see the entire problem set. See an answer below the section in which the corresponding problem appears.
Going Directly to the First Result - first_result.html
Search for [ google tutorial ] and you'll find links to many resources that offer help with Google, including this one.
If you tell your friends about Google Guide and they use it and tell their friends about it, then hopefully Google Guide will become the top ranked result for the query [ google tutorial ].
The first problem returns links to all pages that match your query while the second returns the first result, which Google speculates is the most relevant to your query.
Selecting Search Terms - select_terms.html
Search for [ Google doodle ] and you'll find a page with the special Google home page logos used to commemorate holidays and special events.
Search for [ Google history ] and you will find a page entitled "Google Corporate Information: Google History."
It took Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson sixty-three and a half days to drive from San Francisco to New York City in 1903, according to the Public Broadcasting Service site www.pbs.org/kenburns/films/horatio.html.
Possible search strategy:
[ first
cross United States road trip ]
[ first
cross country road trip America ]
Search for [ Hearst Castle recommended tour ] and you'll learn about an incredible mansion, which is now a historical monument. It is located in San Simeon nearly half way from Santa Barbara to San Jose and is worthwhile visiting when you're in the area.
Interpreting Your Query - interpreting_queries.html
Just those that contain the name in its entirety.
[ year-end ] | year-end <— | year end <— | yearend <— |
[ year end ] | year-end <— | year end <— | yearend |
[ yearend ] | year-end | year end | yearend <— |
Because Google returns pages that match variants of your search terms, all the following queries are likely to find sites with discounted designer linens. The first and second queries may be best because Google gives higher priority to pages with terms in the same order as your query. The last query is least likely to rank sites with discounted designer linens because it includes the term "design" rather than "designer."
The idea for this problem came when I thought about what queries might generate traffic to my friend's Designer Linens Outlet site, designerlinensoutlet.com.
You can see that Google is doing stemming since the first query matches the word "printers" and the second query matches the word "printer"; the matched words are in a boldface type in the results.
Google's estimated number of results are unreliable. Don't attach any weight to these estimates.
Google has a system that is suppose to do stemming when it deems that it would be useful. The system sometimes works well and other times doesn't.
The word "be" is a stop word, which Google ignores, unless you precede it with the + operator or enclose the entire query in quotes (" ").
Crafting Your Query - crafting_queries.html
For best results, apply sunscreen approximately 30 minutes before going into the sun so that it can be absorbed by your skin and so that it's less likely to wash off when you perspire.
Possible search strategy:
[ +when apply sunscreen ]
[ tips apply sunscreen ]
Since "will" is a stop word, either precede it by a + sign or enclose it in quotes.
Possible search strategy:
[ advice
drafting +will ]
[ legal
help "drafting will" ]
[ tips
+will estate planning ]
Possible search strategy:
[ Afghanistan
daily life
-war -Taliban ]
Looking at the results of the query [ ~cheap ], you can see that Google considers the following terms approximately equivalent to the term "cheap": buy, discount, cheapest, last minute, inexpensive, low cost, and bargain.
Possible search strategy:
[ weather
forecast OR condition ]
Possible search strategy:
[ studio
available OR rent Minneapolis OR "St Paul" ]
[ "studio apartment"
available OR rent Minneapolis OR "St Paul" ]
The query [ "the who" ] returns results with the exact phrase "the who." The query [ the who ] returns results with the words "the" and "who" in any order and not necessarily together. For instance, the second query could find "WHO, the World Health Organization" and "the boy who cried wolf."
Sharpening Your Query - sharpening_queries.html
Possible search strategy:
[
rid ants home remedy ]
[ ants
"pest control" "home remedies" ]
Possible search strategy:
[ google
privacy policy site:google.com ]
How do I stop my previous queries from appearing when I type in a new search term?
The following is from the Google General Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), which can be found at www.google.com/help/faq.html#iehistory
Fortunately (and unfortunately), this has nothing to do with Google. It's a feature of Internet Explorer 5.0, which is possible to disable using its menu. (You can verify this by going elsewhere on the web to fill out a form and then return to that same page on which you filled out the form.)To disable this feature on Internet Explorer 5.0, go to the Tools menu; select Internet Options; select the Content tab. Within the Personal Information area, select AutoComplete. Click on Clear Forms. You can also uncheck the Forms box in this same window to keep this from occurring in the future.
Alternatively, you can delete individual entries from the history by using the Down arrow key to select a previous search, and then pressing Delete while an unwanted search is highlighted.
Possible search strategy:
[ delete query
history ]
Here's part of the answer that juggler-ga posted to Google Answers, which can be found at
answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=224951.
Possible search strategy:
Nina Totenberg was born January 14, 1944 in New York, NY.
She doesn't have any degrees and did not attend law school.
[ "Nina Totenberg" born ]
[ "Nina
Totenberg" 1944 ] (Nina Totenberg was born in 1944)
[ "Nina
Totenberg" "Roman Totenberg" ] (Roman
Totenberg is Nina's father)
[ "Nina
Totenberg" "law school" ]
Using Search Operators (Advanced Operators) - advanced_operators.html
Possible search strategy:
[ armchair
site:ikea.com ]
Possible search strategy:
[ intitle:FAQ
OR intitle:help site:google.com -site:answers.google.com
-site:directory.google.com ]
(The operator site:google.com would normally include the domain google.com as well as all of its subdomains, such as x.google.com and y.google.com. Adding -site:answers.google.com -site:directory.google.com specifically excludes those two subdomains of google.com.)
Possible search strategy:
[ intitle:surfing
-WWW -"World Wide Web" ]
Possible search strategy:
[ google help site:googleguide.com OR site:www.lib.berkeley.edu ]
Spelling Corrections - spelling_corrections.html
The spelling corrector suggests the correct spelling of Jeff's last name.
Did you mean: "Jeff Nunberg" NPR "Stanford University"
I clicked on the link and the first result was Geoffrey Nunberg's home page, which included his email address, i.e., email: nunberg(at)csli.stanford.edu (replace "(at)" with "@").
Possible search strategy:
[ "Jeff
Naumberg" NPR "Stanford University" ]
Possible search strategy:
[ define: urban
legend ]
Instead of checking Google's documentation, find out through experimentation. Search for some non-English words and then see any of the words are underlined in the statistics bar section of the results page and linked to their dictionary definitions.
Based on the experiments I ran today, the US version of Google provides links to dictionary definitions of some non-English words.
Possible search strategy:
[ vino macho ]
Cached Pages - cached_pages.html
Possible search strategy:
[ "The Mathematical
Scientist" June 2003 contents ]
Since the previous query doesn't appear to return a table of contents, let's remove the date from our query.
[ "The Mathematical Scientist" contents ]
This snippet looks promising since it mentions the journal by name and includes the word "contents."
The first result is the Journal's web page but it doesn't
contain the table of contents. Clicking on the
Cached link and viewing Google's cached version of
the page with the query terms highlighted makes it easy to
find the
Similar Pages - similar_pages.html
The more search strategies you try, the more information you are likely to find.
Possible search strategy:
[ "reduce junk mail" ]
[ "reducing junk mail" ]
[ "end junk mail" ]
[ "less junk mail" ]
[ "stop junk mail" ]
[ "unwanted
mail" ]
[ "opt
out" "junk mail" ]
[ "mail
preference service" ]
[ remove
name from mailing list ]
[ get off mailing list ]
[ reduce
unwanted junk mail ]
Note: Most of the results from these searches assume you are in the United States.
Possible search strategy:
[ google ]
Click on any of the following:
File Type Conversion - file_type.html
Possible search strategy:
[ interviewing
salary negotiation filetype:pdf ]
In the pdf version, the spacing between words in section headings is more uniform. Items that are vertically aligned in the pdf version are not vertically aligned in the html version.
Possible search strategy:
[ "symplectic geometry" site:edu filetype:pdf OR filetype:ps ]
Translation - translation.html
Possible search strategy:
[ piscine comunali Napoli ]
Use Google's Language Tools Translate text feature.
Select "English to Spanish" and click on the Translate button.
Google provides the following Spanish translation:
Deseo enviar un paquete. ¿Dónde está el correos más cercano? Gracias.
Use Google Language Tools to restrict the query [ war Iraq ] to pages located in France that are written in English.
Customizing Your Results by Using Preferences - preferences.html
Possible search strategy:
[ managing cookies ]
Google's Approach to Ads - ads.html
Possible search strategy:
[ hotel central London moderate price ]
There are 2 ads above and 8 ads to the right of the search results.
Possible search strategy:
[ NASA Mars Exploration Program ]
I've seen any where from zero to two ads appearing along side the search results.
Evaluating What You Find - evaluating_results.html
Find documents on the web that provide the answers to the following questions. What's your level of comfort with the referring site(s) and why?
I posted the following questions to Google Answers, service that provides assistance from expert online researchers for a fee. If no results match your query, Google offers search tips. The following solutions include information Google Researchers provided as well as a link to their complete answers.
Here's part of the answer that sublime1-ga posted to Google Answers, which can be found at answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=286499.
Yes, healthy skin, even recently cleaned, will produce natural oils, and, these oils on halogen bulb will shorten its lifespan.
Possible search strategies:
[ touch ruin "halogen bulb" ]
[ touch oil "halogen bulb" ]
[ +why not touch "halogen bulb" ]
Here's part of the answer that jon-ga posted to Google Answers, which can be found at answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=286599.
The short answer to your question is yes - fluoride is good for the teeth and so water containing fluoride is a good thing for cavity-prevention.
Possible search strategies:
[ "fluoridated water" ]
[ "fluoridated water" "dental cavities" ]
Here's part of the answer that missy-ga posted to Google Answers, which can be found at answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=286497.
Whether or not clumping kitty litter is a health hazard for cats is a matter of some debate. Since there haven't been any clinical studies, it really comes down to whom you ask and which brand you're asking about. Most of the current controversy swirls around brands that use Sodium Bentonite, a highly absorbent clay. Brands that do not contain Sodium Bentonite seem to be considered safer.
Possible search strategies:
[ "clumping
litter" hazardous ]
[ "clumping
litter" safe ]
[ scoopable litter hazardous ]
[ scoopable litter safe ]
Here's part of the answer that crabcakes-ga posted to Google Answers, which can be found at answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=286471.
There are far more documented reasons to get the vaccine (injectable or nasal spray versions) than to refuse it, but plenty of flu vaccine controversy exists.
Possible search strategies:
[ flu vaccine ]
[ pros cons flu vaccine ]
Here's part of the answer that crabcakes-ga posted to Google Answers, which can be found at answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=286529.
The short answer is: Yes, chemicals can migrate into the food. The issue is whether they are harmful.
Possible search strategies:
[ toxic chemicals plastic wrap ]
[ plastic wrap microwave cooking ]
Making Search Easier with Google Tools - tools.html
Visit toolbar.google.com/deskbar/ and click on the "Download Google Deskbar."
Visit toolbar.google.com/ and click on the "Download Google Toolbar."
To have the Google home page appear whenever you start your browser, click on the "Make Google Your Homepage" link on Google's home page. If the link is missing, follow the instructions listed on www.google.com/options/defaults.html.
Follow the directions listed on www.google.com/options/defaults.html#default.
One mile is equal to 1609.344 meters.
Possible calculation strategy:
[ 1 mile in meters ]
0 kelvin is approximately equal to -273.15 degrees Celsius.
Possible calculation strategy:
[ 0
degrees kelvin in Celsius ]
e^pi > pi^e
Possible calculation strategy:
[ e^pi-pi^e ]
The following answer was contributed by Nelson Blachman (Nancy's father).
You might try [ 1 - (1 - 1/(99 choose 5))^1000 ], but this is well approximated by [ 1000/(99 choose 5) ], which is roughly 0.00001 . If each ticket costs $1, the prize had better be at least $100 million to be fair to you--and higher if you might have to share the prize with other winners.
Phone Numbers and Addresses - phonebook.html
The address of the Empire State Building is 350 5th Ave, New York, NY 10118.
Possible search strategy:
[ Empire
State Building New York NY ]
Street Maps - maps.html
Possible research strategy:
[ 1100
Lombard Street San Francisco CA ]
Stock Quotes - stock_quotes.html
Possible research strategy:
[ ebay ]
Possible research strategy:
[ related:google.com ]
[ yhoo askj ]
(stock symbols for Yahoo and Ask Jeeves respectively)
Definitions (Google Gossary) - glossary.html
Aka is short for "also known as."
Possible search strategy:
[ what
is aka ]
The result of this query includes a link to the dictionary definition in the statistics bar, the value of 1 googol provided by Google's built-in calculator function, and a definition provided by Google Glossary.
Possible search strategy:
[ what is googol ]
IRL commonly stands for "In Real Life."
Possible search strategy:
[ define:irl ]
Google Local (Search by Location) - local.html
Travel Conditions - travel_conditions.html
First, I find the code for the Los Angeles International Airport.
[ Los Angeles International Airport code ]
Then I look up the travel conditions.
[ lax airport ]
Possible search strategy:
[ html color chart ]
Possible search strategy:
[ Alhambra ]
[ Alhambra Granada ]
[ Alhambra
Spain OR España ]
Groups (Discussion Forums) - groups.html
Possible search strategy:
[ recommendations booking flights online ]
[ recommendations book flights online ]
[ recommendations flights online ]
Possible search strategy:
[ online
banking reviews ]
Possible search strategy:
[ remove
varnish maple ]
Possible search strategy:
[ memorable articles Usenet ]
Just visit news.google.com.
Create an alert for the Web query [ site:classic.googleguide.com ]
Possible search strategy:
[ 100%
cotton comforter covers ]
[ 100%
cotton duvet cover ]
Possible search strategy:
[ sun
protective clothing ]
[ uv
protective clothing OR hats ]
Possible search strategy:
[ 100%
cotton comforter covers ]
[ 100%
cotton duvet covers ]
Possible search strategy:
[ sun-protective clothing ]
If you suggest a way to solve any exercise that I include in Google Guide, I will include your name beside your contribution. Please email problems and solutions to exercises(at)googleguide.com (replace "(at)" with "@").
Submitting Feedback |
We sincerely hope that Google Guide helps you become (more) proficient in using Google. We have tried to anticipate your questions and problems. Please let us know if we have missed something or if you have corrections or suggestions for improving Google Guide by emailing nancy(at)googleguide.com (replace "(at)" by "@"). We welcome all comments, including answers to the following questions.
We would appreciate hearing from you. Feedback, both positive and negative, motivates us to improve Google Guide.
If you want to meet the authors, consider attending Nancy's birthday party/conference.
If Google Guide is helpful to you, please tell other Google users
about it, and if you have a website, please add a link to Google
Guide's home page, classic.googleguide.com. Feel free to use the
following code, which displays the Google Guide
logos, which link to Google Guide's home page.
Google Guide is licensed under a Creative
Commons License to give you more rights than copyright allows.
You are free to
Under the following conditions:
For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.
Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the author.
Your fair use and other rights are in no way affected by this license.
You can find a summary of the Legal Code (the full license) on the web
at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode.
First, I offer thanks to Jerry Peek for suggesting that I write a book
about how to search with Google. I revised this tutorial
incorporating the valuable comments and suggestions from many people
to whom I am grateful. They include: Rod Adams, Amit Agarwal, Abass
Ahmady, Marian Bach, Joe Barker, Penny Barsimantov, Adam Baxter, Joel
Biatch, Justin Carroll, Henry Cejtin, Marc de Groot, Jutta Dejener,
Philip De Neef, Marie desJardins, Larry Engholm, Tim Farley, Stephen
Ferguson, Philip Fire, Gordon Barg, Ahuva Gelblum, Wouter Gerritsma,
Johann George, John Glenn, Anita Goldstein, Leora Gregory, Andrew
Gumperz, Tim Helck, Tom Hill, Hank Hufnagel, Nancy Jamison, Richard
Karpinski, Debra Kaufman, Shauna Kelly, Steve Klein, Stefani Lefebre,
Doris Li, Jan Lindner, Dan Lyons, Liz Mabey, Chris Manning, Jane Manning,
Sandy McNiven, Katie Miller, Robert Miller, Gwyn Firth Murray, Dave Nagle,
Martha Newman, Steve Omohundro, Eric S. Pecoraro, Jerry Peek, Lisa
Pons, Kurt Bernhard Pruenner, Abijah Reed, Hamish Reid, Sara Richards,
Marlene Rozofsky Rogers, Bob Rosenberg, Kevin Rowe, Janet Sanford, Taly Sharon,
Malcolm Slaney, Alex Sokolowski, Romke Soldaat, Stephan Spencer, Paul
Spinrad, Brad Templeton, Matt Vance, Linda Walters, Rita Wespi, Dan
Whittaker, and Hanna Yap. I especially thank Earl Crabb, Pauline
Facciano, Thomas Galloway, Joy Li, Milton Peek, Mark Seiden, and
Google Answers researchers (most of whom I know by their handles)
Angy-ga, Byrd-ga, Crabcakes-ga, Omnivorous-ga, Serenata-ga, Voila-ga,
and Robert Skelton for providing a wealth of advice for making this
tutorial more accurate and readable. I thank Fritz Schneider and Eric
Fredricksen, with whom I wrote How
to Do Everything with Google, for providing me ideas of what to
include in this tutorial. I'm also grateful to Matt Vance, author of
www.minezone.org
for suggesting that I develop a Google Advanced Operator cheat sheet,
to Hamish Reid for making Google Guide easier to navigate, and my
father, Nelson Blachman, for asking questions that encouraged me to
explore and learn more about how Google works and for reviewing
numerous drafts. I thank Jerry Peek for joining me on this project.
I thank David desJardins, my husband, for suggesting
topics to include, answering my questions, and reviewing early
versions of this tutorial. Last, but not least, I thank Louis and
Sarah for their big hugs and kisses when I wasn't working on this
Google tutorial.
Creative Commons License
Attribution. You must give
Nancy Blachman credit and link to or reference the original
version, or Google Guide's home page, classic.googleguide.com.
Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
Acknowledgments
Cheat Sheet
(A printable PDF version
is available.)
Basic Examples
This Search
Finds Pages Containing...
biking Italy
the words biking and Italy
recycle steel OR iron
information on recycling steel or recycling iron
"I have a dream"
the exact phrase I have a dream
salsa –dance
the word salsa but NOT the word dance
Louis "I" France
information about Louis the First
(I),
weeding out other kings of France
castle ~glossary
glossaries about castles, as well as
dictonaries, lists of terms, terminology, etc.
fortune-telling
all forms of the term, whether spelled
as a single word, a phrase, or hyphenated
define:imbroglio
definitions of the word imbroglio from the Web
Calculator
Operators
Meaning
Type Into Search Box (& Results)
+ – * /
basic arithmetic
12
+ 34 - 56 * 7 / 8
% of
percentage of
45% of 39
^ or **
raise to a power
2^5 or 2**5
old units in new units
convert units
300 Euros in USD,
130 lbs in kg,
or 31 in hex
Restrict Search
Operators
Meaning
Type Into Search Box (& Results)
city1 city2
Book flights.
sfo bos
(Book flights from San Francisco (SFO) to Boston (BOS).)
site:
Search only one website or domain.
Halloween
site:www.census.gov
(Search for information on Halloween gathered by the US Census Bureau.)
[#]..[#]
Search within a range of numbers.
Dave Barry pirate 2002..2006
(Search for Dave Barry articles mentioning pirates
written in these years.)
filetype:
(or ext:)
Find documents of the specified type.
Form 1098-T IRS filetype:pdf
(Find the US tax form 1098-T in PDF format.)
link:
Find linked pages, i.e., show pages that point to the URL.
link:warriorlibrarian.com
(Find pages that link to Warrior Librarian's website.)
Specialized Information Queries
Operators
Meaning
Type Into Search Box (& Results)
book
(or books)
Search full-text of books.
book
Ender's Game
(Show book-related information.
Note: No colon needed after book.)
define, what
is, what are
Show a definition for a word or phrase.
define
monopsony, what is podcast
(Show a definition for the words monopsony and
podcast. Note: No colon after define,
what is, or what are.)
define:
Provide definitions for words, phrases, and acronyms from the Web.
define:kerning
(Find definitions for kerning from the Web.)
movie:
Find reviews and showtimes.
movie: traffic
(Search for information about this movie, including reviews, showtimes, etc.)
stocks:
Given ticker symbols, show stock information
stocks: goog
(Find Google's current stock price.)
weather
Given a location (US zip code or city), show the weather
weather Seattle WA,
weather 81612
(Show the current weather and forecast.
Note: No colon after
weather.)
Alternative Query Types
Operators
Meaning
Type Into Search Box (& Results)
cache:
Display Google's cached version of a web page.
cache:www.irs.gov
(Show Google's cached version of the US Internal Revenue Service home page.)
info:
(or id:)
Find info about a page.
info:www.theonion.com
(Find information about The Onion website.)
related:
List web pages that are similar or related to the URL.
related:www.healthfinder.gov
(Find websites related to the Healthfinder website.)
Restrict Search to Sites where Query Words Appear
Operators
Meaning
Type Into Search Box (& Results)
allinanchor:
All query words must appear in anchor text of links to the page.
allinanchor:useful
parenting sites
(Search for pages that are called useful parenting sites by others.)
inanchor:
Terms must appear in anchor text of links to the page.
restaurants Portland inanchor:kid-friendly
(Search for pages on Portland restaurants for which links to the page say they are "kid friendly.")
allintext:
All query words must appear in the text of the page.
allintext:ingredients cilantro chicken lime
(Search for recipes with these three ingredients.)
intext:
The terms must appear in
the text of the page.
Dan Shugar intext:Powerlight
(Find pages mentioning Dan Shugar where his company, Powerlight, is included in the text of the page, i.e., less likely to be from the corporate website.)
allintitle:
All query words must appear in the title of the page.
allintitle: Google Advanced Operators
(Search for pages with titles containing
"Google," "Advanced,", and "Operators".)
intitle:
The terms must appear in the title of the page.
movies
comedy intitle:top ten
(Search for pages with the words movie and comedy
that include top ten in the title of the page.)
allinurl:
All query words must appear in the URL.
allinurl:pez faq
(Search for pages containing the words pez &
faq in the URL.)
inurl:
The terms must appear in the URL of the page.
pharmaceutical
inurl:investor
(Search for pages in which the URL contains the word investor.)
Restrict Search to Google Groups
Operators
Meaning
Type Into Search Box (& Results)
author:
Find Groups messages from the specified author.
flying author:Hamish author:Reid
(Search for Hamish Reid's articles on flying.)
group:
Find Groups messages from the specified newsgroup.
ivan
doig group:rec.arts.books
(Search for postings about Ivan Doig in the group rec.arts.books.)
insubject:
Find Groups messages containing crazy quilts in the subject.
insubject:"crazy quilts"
(Find articles containing crazy quilts in the subject line.)
Restrict Search to Google News
Operators
Meaning
Type Into Search Box (& Results)
location:
Find News articles from sources located in the
specified location.
queen location:uk
(Find British news articles on the Queen.)
source:
Find News articles from specified sources.
peace
source:ha_aretz
(Show articles on peace from the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.)
About This Cheat Sheet
For more tips, tricks, & examples, visit
classic.GoogleGuide.com.
By Nancy Blachman & Jerry Peek who don't work for Google &
Tasha Bergson-Michelson.
Thank you
Matt Vance
for the idea of creating a Google Guide cheat sheet.
Calculator Cheat Sheet
Quick Reference: Google Calculator
(Cheat Sheet)
by Nancy Blachman – nancy
at googleguide.com (replace at with @)
Solve mathematical problems with Google's built-in calculator function.
Simply enter the expression you'd like evaluated in Google's web search box and hit the ENTER key or click the "Google Search" button.
BASIC ARITHMETIC
OPERATOR
MEANING
TYPE INTO SEARCH BOX
+ or plus
addition
12 + 34 or
three plus four
– or minus
subtraction
3.4 - 5.6 or
five minus two
* or times
multiplication
56 * 7 or
six times nine
/ or divided by
division
7 / 8 or
ten divided
by two
% of or percent of
percentage of
45% of 39
mod or %
modulo (the remainder after division)
15 mod 9 or
15 % 9
^ or **
raise to a power
2^5 or 2**5
the nth root of
nth root
4th root of
16, sqrt(16),
cube root
of 109
reciprocal of
multiplicative inverse
reciprocal
of 7
ADVANCED MATH
The following table lists some of the functions built into Google's calculator.
OPERATOR
FUNCTION
TYPE INTO SEARCH BOX
sin, cos, tan,
sec, csc, cot
trig functions (arguments are assumed to be in radians)
cos(pi/3)
arcsin, arccos, arctan, arccsc, etc.
inverse trigonometric functions
arccos(.5)
sinh, cosh, tanh, csch, arsinh, arccsch, etc.
hyperbolic functions
cosh(6)
ln
logarithm base e
ln(16)
log
logarithm base 10
log(16)
lg
logarithm base 2
lg(16)
exp
exponential function
exp(16)
!
factorial
5!
choose
x choose y calculates the number of ways of
choosing a set of y elements from a set of x distinct elements
5 choose 3
CONSTANT
MEANING
TYPE INTO SEARCH BOX
e
base of the natural system of logarithms
e
pi
the ratio of the circumference to the
diameter of a circle
pi/6
i
imaginary number, which represents one of the
two square roots of -1
i^2
gamma
Euler's constant
e^gamma
TIPS (adapted from Google's Online Calculator Help)
Parentheses can be used whenever they'll serve to make complicated expressions unambiguous, and also sets of parentheses can be used within parentheses; don't use brackets for grouping.
You can force the calculator to try to evaluate an expression by putting an equals sign (=) after it. This works only if the expression is arithmetically computable. For example, 1-800-555-1234= will return a result, but 1/0= will not
(because dividing a non-zero number by zero is undefined and not computable).
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.
Google's calculator automatically balances unclosed parentheses.
A missing operator within an expression may default
to an *, e.g., 6cos(2pi).
Feel free to experiment with the calculator as not all of its capabilities are listed here.
UNITS OF MEASURE AND CONVERSIONS
Compute expressions involving different units. By default, units are converted to and results expressed in meter-kilogram-second (mks) units. Many units have both long and short names. Use whichever name you prefer.
TYPE OF UNITS
UNIT CONVERSION
EXAMPLES OF UNITS
old units in new units
Currency (money)
23 USD in Euros
US Dollars (USD), Euros, Britain Pounds (GBP)
Mass
130 lbs in kg
kilogram or kg, grams or g, grains, pounds or lbs,
carats, stones, tons, tonnes
Length
3 miles in km
meters or m, miles, feet, Angstroms, cubits,
furlongs
Volume
three
quarters of a cup in teaspoons
gallons, liters or l, bushels, teaspoons, pints
Area
2 acres
in sq km
square kilometers, acres, hectares
Temperature
98.6 Fahrenheit in Celsius or 98.6 f in c
Celsius or c, Fahrenheit or f
Time
1 year
in seconds
days, seconds or s, centuries, sidereal years,
fortnights
Electricity
100
volts in picovolts
volts or v, picovolts, amps or a, ohms, henrys
Energy
160 lbs * 4000 ft in Calories
Calories, British thermal units (BTU),
joules, ergs, foot-pounds (Warning: When your query includes "Calories" with a capital
"C," Google returns kilocalories called
"calories" by nutritionists.)
Power
1 hp in
watts, 500 V * 3 A in KW
watt or W, kilowatts or KW, megawatts or MW, horsepower or HP
Angle
90
degrees in radians
degrees or radians
Information
2 bytes in bits
bits, bytes, kbytes
Quantity
1
great gross in dozens
dozen, baker's dozen, gross, great
gross, score
Numbering Systems
1500 in
hex
64
in binary
LVII
in decimal
decimal, hexadecimal or hex, octal, binary, roman
numerals (Prefix hexadecimal numbers with 0x, octal
numbers with 0o and binary numbers with 0b, e.g., 0x7f + 0b100101)
PHYSICAL CONSTANTS
The following table lists just a few of the many commonly used physical constants known to the calculator function.
SHORTHAND
NOTATION
LONG NAME
CLICK LINK FOR
AN APPROXIMATE VALUE
au
Astronomical Unit
au or
astronomical
unit
Avogadro's number
Avogadro's number
k
Boltzmann constant
k or
Boltzmann constant
Faraday constant
Faraday constant
G
gravitational constant
G or
gravitational constant
magnetic flux quantum
magnetic flux quantum
mass of a proton
mass of a proton
m_planet
mass of planet
m_Mars,
m_Earth,
m_Uranus,
m_sun
molar gas constant
molar gas constant
permeability of free space
permeability of free space
h
Planck's constant
h or
Planck's constant
r_planet
radius of planet
r_Earth,
r_Pluto,
r_sun
c
speed of light in a vacuum
c or
speed of light
speed of sound in air at sea level
speed of sound
This reference is based on the Google Cheat
Sheet
with Google's permission.
CCL 2005 Google Guide
–
Google Guide is neither
affiliated with nor endorsed by Google.
For copy & redistribution permission, visit
Google Guide's Creative Commons License page.
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