BECOME A GOOGLE POWER USER
Don't just type a word in the search box when you search the World WideWeb. Use the real power of Google, and become a Google power searcher.
Definitions
Title--The HTML code of a web site has various sections, one of which is the title. The words in this title section are searchable by Google.
URL--Stands for Uniform Resource Locater, the correct name for anInternet address. Google can search within a URL.
Default--A preselected option of a software program. You do not need toadd + to connect search terms in Google. "And" is the default in Google.
And (+), or, not (and not) (-)--These are the Boolean search operators. They can be used to combine or eliminate search terms.
Wildcard--A wildcard is used to take the place of letters, words, or wordendings. The (*) is the Google wildcard. It can be used to locate differentspellings of the same word and missing letters or words in a phrase.
Directions
Use the example to construct your search. Unless indicated otherwise,perform all searches using Google Basic Web Search (not the AdvancedSearch). All search terms are in italics.
Power Search 1: Search as a phrase
One of the most basic power searching strategies that you can use is tosearch for phrases. You do this by placing quotation marks around wordsthat you want to treat as a unit, e.g., "chocolate chip," "Mery had a little
lamb," "Frederick the Great," etc.
Example: To find the name of the play that contains the lines "to be or notto be," type "to be or not to be" play.
Exercise 1: Now, find out which king said how is the empire? When was hesupposed to have said these words?
Power Search 2: Search within the title part of a website
Google has two ways to limit your search to words found in the title part ofa web site intitle: and allintitle:. Notice that the commands intitle: andallintitle: are followed by a colon. When you use intitle:, the first word or
phrase (group of words enclosed in quotation marks) that follows thiscommand will be located in the title part of the web site. The others wordsmay be in the title part of the web site, but they do not have to be.
Example 1: If you want to find web sites about "Dolly the cloned sheep,"try this search:
intitle: Dolly cloning sheep
Example 2: Every word following the command must be located in the titlepart of the web site when you use the command allintitle:, If you want toensure that every word is located in the title part of the web site, use
allintitle: as in this search:
allintitle: Dolly cloned sheep DNA
This search ensures that all the words "Dolly cloned sheep DNA" are in thetitle part of the web site.
Exercise 2A: Using allintitle:, construct a search that ensures that both ofthe words volcano Vesuvius are located in the title part of the web sites.
Exercise 2B: Using intitle:, construct a search that ensures that the phraseWhen I was one and twenty is located in the title part of the web site. Remember to search these words as a phrase.
Power Search 3: Eliminate commercial sites from thesearch results
The World Wide Web has a lot of commercial information, but commercialweb sites are often not very useful for school assignments. You caneliminate many commercial sites from your search results by adding -.com
or -site:com at the end of your search results.
Example: If you want to find information for a project about steroids andyou want to eliminate all the commercial sales sites from your searchresults, try this search:
intitle:steroids-.com OR intitle:steroids-site:com
Exercise 3: Now, locate web sites about creatine for a school project, andbe sure to eliminate commercial websites (.com) from your search results.Construct your search so that the word creatine must appear in the titlepart of the web site.
Power Search 4: Search for only educational sites
When you are working on school projects, it is often useful to restrict yoursearch results to pages that come from educational institutions. Searchresults can be limited to U.S. educational institutions by adding edu after
your search terms.
Example: The search intitle: "storm warning" site:edu locates web sitesabout storm warning that come from U.S. educational institutions.
Exercise 4: Locate web sites about ocean currents that come from U.S.educational institutions (.edu). Make sure that the phrase ocean currents isfound in the title part of the web site.
Power Search 5: Search within a URL
The URL is another section of a web page that is searchable.
Example: To locate a web site about the home children that appeared onCBC, type the following search:
"home children" inurl:cbc
Exercise 5: Now, find some web sites about killer whales. Be sure that theweb sites come from British Columbia. (British Columbia has the domainname bc.)
(Search Tip: You will probably want to make sure that you search for killerwhales as a phrase and you search for it in the title field of the web site.)
Power Search 6: Search for a particular file type
Google can search for many different types of files, including AdobeAcrobat files (pdf); PowerPoint (ppt); and word documents (doc). (Longerreports such as research reports and those produced by governmentdepartments are often on the Web as pdf files. These pdf documents canbe useful for research projects.)
Example 1: To locate pdf documents about medical marijuana, try thissearch:
intitle: "medical marijuana" filetype:pdf
Example 2: If you want to locate PowerPoint presentations about the sametopic, try this search:
intitle: "medical marijuana" filetype:ppt
Exercise 6A: Now, see if you can locate a PowerPoint (ppt) presentationabout rainforests. Make sure that the word rainforests is located in the titlepart of the web site.
Exercise 6B: Now, find pdf pages with the word rainforests in the title partof the web site and the word medicine somewhere on the page. Make sureyou trod only pdf pages.
Power Search 7: Search within a site
Google has the ability to search within a site for information. This ability isquite useful as some web sites contain many pages, and it is often difficultto find things you are seeking within a large site.
Example: If your teacher has asked you to find out how much tuition costsat .St. Mary's University, Canada, and gave you the Internet address for St.Mary's University ( this is how you would find theanswer:
tuition site:
Search Tip: When you are searching within a site, it is necessary to trimthe the front of the URL and remove the slash (/) from the endof the URL.
Exercise 7: Now, use a site search of the AcadiaUniversity web site( to find the undergraduate fees for AcadiaUniversity.
Type your search here ( )
How much does it cost for the Fall-Winter term in 2003-2004 at Acadia
University excluding B.Ed.? ( )
Power Search 8: Search for related sites
Google is capable of finding web sites that are similar or related to eachother in purpose.
Example: If you want to find organizations similar to the Royal CanadianMounted Police, try this related search:
related:
Search Tip: When you are searching for related sites, it is necessary toremove the the front of the URL and remove the slash (/) fromthe end of the URL, the same as when you are performing a site search.
Exercise 8: Find 2 sites related to our school homepage.
Power Search 9: Searching for missing words using awildcard
When an (*) is used within a phrase, the (*) finds characters or full wordsthat could occupy the space between the words where it is placed.
Example: intitle. "John (*) Kennedy" locates either John Kennedy, John F.Kennedy, or John Fitzgerald Kennedy in the tide part of the web page.
Exercise 9: Construct a similar search that will find web sites about HillaryClinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Hillary R. Clinton in the title part of theweb page.
Power Search 10: Using Google News
Google News searches and indexes over 4,000 news sources. Google keepsthese news stories in a database for one month. This is an excellent freesource for newspaper articles that are up to one month old.
Example: If you want to find recent newspaper articles about Sundayshopping in Nova Scotia, type: "Sunday shopping …. Nova Scotia" in theGoogle News search bar.
Exercise 10 : Use Google News to locate newspaper articles about KirkJohnson from Nova Scotia.
Type your search here ( )
How many articles did you find? ( )
Search Tip: Remember Power Search 1: search as a phrase.
Power Search 11: I'm Feeling Lucky
When you click on "I'm Feeling Lucky" after you type your search, you willget only one search result, the most frequently visited site about that topic. It is a great way to go directly to official sites of sports teams, actors andactresses, and singers, as these are generally the most frequently visitedsites on these topics.
Example: Type "Toronto Maple Leafs" in the search bar, and click "I'mFeeling Lucky." You will be taken to the official site of the Toronto MapleLeafs.
Exercise 11: Type “Beijing Olympics” and click on “I’m Feeling Lucky”.
Power Search 12: Define
Google has a command that can be used to find definitions for words andphrases on the Web. This often makes using a dictionary unnecessary.
Example 1: Type define: cloning in the Google search bar, and Google willreturn definitions for cloning found on the Web. It also provides the URLwhere the definitions were located. If you type define cloning without the
colon(:) after the command, Google will return web sites about cloning withdefinitions of cloning at the top of the list.
Exercise 12: Type define: cloning and now type define cloning without thecolon. Note the difference in the results. What is the difference?
Power Search 13: Google Image Search
Google has both an Image Search and an Advanced linage Search. TheAdvanced Image Search allows you to be more specific in your imagesearching. You can search by size of image, color of image, and file type(jpeg or gif).
Exercise 13: Use the Google Advanced Image Search to locate a map ofHalifax that is saved as jpeg format.
Be sure to use the Google Image Advanced search that looks like this:
Power Search 14: Using Google Advanced Search
Google Advanced has a fill-in-the blanks and drop-down menu interfacethat allows searches to perform searches (searching in the title field;searching by file type; searching by date, county, language, etc.) without
knowledge of all the commands.
Exercise 14: Use Google Advancedto locate web sites thatcontain all of the words racism Canada in the title part of the page, in theEnglish language, that have updated in the past three months, and that aresaved in pdf format.