| Yahoogle Wise |
| 6.3 Searching Google |
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Why Google?
Google was launched in September 1998, and quickly gained
a well-deserved reputation as one of the best search engines
on the internet for finding relevant information. Google uses
sophisticated text matching and ranking techniques to find
pages that are both important and relevant. |
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| Basic search tips for Google |
| 1. Keyword searching |
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Keyword searching can be done by typing your terms into the search box and clicking on Google Search.
Keyword searching will retrieve documents containing all the terms entered for the search, in any order and any distance from each other. |
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| 2. Phrase Searching |
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Placing terms in inverted commas will search for them
as a phrase. That is, all the terms have to appear in
the order in which they were entered. e.g. "bird
flu" will search for documents that contain the
word bird immediately preceding the word flu.
Exercise: Go to Google and perform:
i. a keyword search for bird flu
ii. a phrase search using inverted commas "bird flu" |
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| 3. Advanced Search |
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Google's Advanced Search allows you to perform more refined keyword searching. You can also limit your search by additional parameters, such as date, language and file format. |
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| 4. Word Stemming |
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Google automatically searches for alternative word endings ("word stemming") e.g. if you search for child, it will also retrieve items with children, childhood etc. |
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| 5. Be specific in your search |
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As there is so much information available on the internet, be specific in selecting keywords. Enter as many keywords and/or phrases as you can to narrow your search.
For example, if
you are looking for information on the relationship
between el niño and climate change,
go to Google and perform:
i) a keyword search for climate change
ii) a keyword search for el niño
iii) a phrase search for "climate change"
iv)
a phrase search for "el niño"
v) a combination search of phrase and keyword: "climate change" el niño
vi) a combination search of phrase and keyword: climate change "el niño"
vii) a combination search of phrase and keyword: "climate change" " el niño"
Compare the number of results from each search. |
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For UNSW Students
