5 Google Search Tips for Everyday Use

One of the most difficult things to do, besides rocket science which I hear is pretty difficult, is to craft a search that will find what you want without having to sift through a bazillion sites.  Students today have officially all converted to the school of "I'm going to ask Google exactly what I want to know and go from there" way of searching and that ensures that they will find every "wiki" sites ever created.  This post will offer up five ways that you can use Google to effectively find information and in turn teach your students how to be better "Googlers".

1.  Quotation Marks

The easiest way to find what you are looking for is to use the exact phrase search which is initiated with quotation marks.  If you are looking for Civil War and you search that phrase, you are going to get results for all pages that contain the word Civil and War.  Presently that search returned "about 401,000,000 results".  Obviously...we can do better.  Searching for "Civil War" instead returned "about 111,000,000 results".  Enough said.

2.  Limit Your Search

Another reason that most searches return so many results is because the search is too broad.  If you are looking for information about the American Civil War and not the British Civil War you could search "Civil War" -British and it would eliminate the word British from your search.  Another use would be if you wanted information about the war but not the battles you could search "Civil War" -battles and get more specific results.  You could even combine the first two tips and search for "Civil War" -"battle locations".

3.  Title Search

Another reason for the trillions of results when you search is because Google is searching both the title and the content of every web page known to man...yeah that's a lot of searching.  Let's narrow that down a bit.  By using the "intitle:" qualifier you will only receive results that contain your search terms in the page title.  Searching for Civil War content would look like this:  intitle:"Civil War".  It is the equivalent of searching for a book title in a library catalog versus keywords.  Every result that you get is certain to be on topic.

4.  File Type Search

Now that you are a search ace...let's find some specific files to meet your needs.  Let's say for example that you want to teach a lesson about the Civil War using a PowerPoint.  Why create one when there are so many already out there?  In order to find yourself a PowerPoint you can use the search qualifier "filetype:".  For example a search of "Civil War" filetype:ppt would return only the results that are PowerPoint files.  This is mind boggling!  Once you try it you will be hooked.  You can use the filetype: qualifier for lots of other files too (see below).  When using this search skill be sure that you do not include any spaces between fileype, the colon, and the file extension.

Adobe Flash (.swf)
Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf)
Google Earth (.kml, .kmz)
GPS eXchange Format (.gpx)
HTML (.htm, .html, other file extensions)
Microsoft Excel (.xls, .xlsx)
Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx)
Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)
OpenOffice presentation (.odp)
OpenOffice spreadsheet (.ods)
OpenOffice text (.odt)
Rich Text Format (.rtf, .wri)
SMART Notebook (.notebook)
Text (.txt, .text, other file extensions)

5.  Site Search

Your training is almost over...except for one final tip.  This last one will really narrow down your search results and get you on your way much quicker.  Without further adieu I present to you "site:".  It's a great way to find content that was created by an academic, government agency, etc.  If you want to find a primary source from the Civil War you could search "Civil War" "primary source" site:gov and you would only get government site results such as the Library of Congress.  Even better...if you only want results from the Library of Congress you could search "Civil War" "Primary Source" site:loc.gov and you would only see results from the Library of Congress.  If you are looking for PowerPoints created by other teachers you can search schools by using "site:k12.**.us" where the asterisks would be replaced by the state code.  For example if I want to search all Alabama schools about Martin Luther King I would search "Martin Luther King" site:k12.al.us and my results would only be from schools in Alabama.  Bonus:  If you don't know which state you want to search you can use an asterisk (known as a wildcard) to replace the country code.

Putting It All Together

Now that you have learned a few new tricks you should be able to find what you are looking for much more efficiently on the web.  Don't forget that you can include all of these qualifiers in the same search to find specific information.  Remember that we started with our search of civil war without quotes and Google returned over 400 million results.  Who has time for that?  Instead, let's search for "Civil War" "Primary Source" -British filetype:pdf site:gov and guess what that nets us...just over 8,700.  Big difference.

Ten by Ten: Current Events in Pictures

Ten by Ten is a neat website that I discovered on Free Tech 4 Teachers that links images with the top 100 news stories from around the world in the past hour.  The images/stories on Ten by Ten are also ranked by popularity and provide information and links when clicked.  In order for this information to pop-up be sure to allow pop-ups from this site.

Now What?


When I was teaching social studies there were times when we didn't have enough time to move to our next destination but we had a few minute left in class.  Ten by Ten would be an excellent way to use those few minutes productively to discover what is trending in the news around the globe.

Google Docs Research Tool

Last week I was working with a student in Google Docs and as I peered over to the right hand side of the document (usually a continuation of the page) there it was...a research tool to use within Docs.  Essentially it is like a little Google Search right there within your document.  You can search the web, images, places, even quotations to use in your document.  One of the most useful features in my opinion is the ability to cite a footnote right from within your document.  All you have to do is place your cursor where you want to create a citation and then hover over the site in the research tool and click on "cite".  It will add the superscript number and also the footnote at the bottom of the page.  Check out the screenshot below to see the research tool in action.

Now What?

The research feature in Google Docs is just one of the many reasons that I find Google Docs to be an excellent alternative to proprietary word processing programs.  It is also a demonstration of the fluid nature of the program and how updates are constantly being developed.  This tool is obviously excellent for students to use while they are working on a research paper but also teachers who are developing plans or documents.

Google Search Education

Last week Google introduced another great resource for helping to educate students on how to search efficiently using Google's search engine.  Google Search Education is a great place to find lesson plans and other great resources for your students.  The lesson plans are arranged according to skill level in five categories.: picking search terms, understanding results, narrowing results, searching for evidence, and evaluating credibility of sources.  My favorite part of the Google Search Education page is the ability to search the Google-A-Day questions by content area (see below).  I think these short warm-up activities are a great way to develop search skills by modeling them to the class or thinking aloud together as you search for the answer.

Now What?

The ability to search effectively is becoming increasingly important as more and more information is put onto the web each and every day.  Students have a habit of typing their questions directly into Google to find the answer which usually brings them to a site like Yahoo answers or Wiki answers which rely on user generated content which is not always the most reliable answer.  The lessons and search questions on Google Search Education are a great way to fundamentally change the way the students search for information.

Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha is something that I use from time to time and I just realized that I hadn't written about it yet here on Tech Messages.  If you've read my blog for a while you know that use a lot of Google products.  Obviously for them it all started with web crawling and indexing web pages using their Google search engine.  Wolfram Alpha is another type of search engine that I use that relies on computational knowledge and human input.  Simply put it is a much better way to find information than typing a question into Google.  Check out some of the examples of searches you can perform on Wolfram Alpha and you will see for yourself.  Wolfram Alpha is also useful for searching more than just keywords including mathematical computations, the weather and even nutritional information for food that you eat.

Now What?

For students, searching for information is a very important skill that needs to be learned and honed over time.  Many students still search by typing a question into Google which doesn't always give them the most accurate answer.  Wolfram Alpha is a search engine that you can share with your students in order to take their searches to the next level.  Give it a try today!

Websites Like

Websites Like is a search engine that provides you with a list of websites that are similar to something else that you have visited and enjoyed.  Using Websites Like is very simple and easy as long as you have a website in mind that you have visited and found useful.  Simply drop the URL into the search box on Websites Like and then click on search.  You will instantly be provided with up to 50 websites similar to the one you entered based on an special algorithm which searches indexed sites based on popularity, Google page rank and more.

Now What?

Students use Google all of the time to search for pages but what happens when they find one that they like and they want to get more information?  Websites Like is a great next step for those students and also teachers who are looking for similar resources to what they are already using in the classroom.

Google Search Stories

It's official...you can create a story about anything...yup even your Google searches using Google's Search Story Creator.  This is a very exciting idea for digital storytelling.  Instead of having your students write a story why not have them narrate it through Google searches?  Before creating the story, it is important to think about how it will start and how it will end.  You can only have seven searches in your story which will give you a 30 second clip.  This max helps to focus the story and keep it moving.  The final product gets uploaded to your YouTube account for sharing with the world.  Check out my story below about buying a house...





Now What?

This is a great little activity for your students to complete.  Why not have them tell their next story through a Google search rather than explicitly on paper.  You can also include images and maps content into your search story which is all set to background music.

Top 3 Search Engines...That Aren't Google

1.  SweetSearch is a search engine that returns only results that have been reviewed by a panel of educators, librarians and research experts and deemed appropriate for students.  Recently SweetSearch incorporated several more specific search engines in the area of social studies, biographies, elementary searches and more.  When I searched on SweetSearch I liked the fact that like Google, clicking on a search result gave me a preview of the webpage before I went to it.

2.  Search Cube is a site I recently found and I really think this is a great way for students to start a research project.  On this site, which is also powered by Google's search engine, you type in a search term and the results are brought back to you in the form of a cube of images.  Mousing over these images on Search Cube you will get a preview in the sidebar of that site, video, or image.  You can then choose that link or continue to scroll around the cube.  Search Cube is what I envision searches to look like in the near future as websites, journals, images, video, etc. are all lumped together in one search engine.

3.  Twurdy is a search engine that is powered by Google and uses a complex algorithm to to determine a page's readability level based on several factors including how many syllables each word has on average or the number of words per sentence.  Twurdy is an excellent resource for all of the varying levels of readers you have in you class.

Besides search engines there are other ways to learn more about the topics you are researching.  For example Explania is a great site with animated explanations, Qwiki is another site that uses video to review your search term and yet another is one of my favorites called Common Craft which uses stop motion animation to explain difficult concepts in an easy to understand format.

Now What?

Help your students become more efficient searchers by posting links to these search engines on your website.  You can also model their use in class and discuss with them why these search engines are a good place to start.  Remember that it is always important to fact check and use more than one source when learning about something new.

Twurdy

Every days students head off to a search engine and are at the mercy of their search results.  Most times they find themselves on a page but don't know how they got there or how to comprehend the words they are reading.  Twurdy is a Google powered search engine that breaks pages down by their readability level.  Simple Twurdy will be the quickest search, while Twurdy with pop is the most complex algorithm.

Now What?

Twurdy is a great resource to show to your students so that they can begin searching the web based on content readability.  This is also a great tool for a teacher who is looking for content on different reading levels.

Explania

Found this website to be very simple and functional in explaining some of those hard to explain topics.  This would be an excellent class starter when delving into a new topic or as a review after you have taught something new.  Check it out for yourself.

Google A Day

Recently, I was introduced to something simply called "A Google A Day". The premise behind Google's latest offering is to ask a unique question which requires the user to find the answer using keen Googling skills while being timed. I can see this being a very useful tool in the classroom when talking with students about refining search skills and trying to eliminate the dreaded question search (e.g. What culture is the best one to study?). Enjoy!

Google Instant and Preview

 

http://www.google.com/images/logos/ps_logo2.png

Recently Google made a change to the way search results are displayed when looking for information.  It is a small change that can have significant results for our students.  Before Google introduced what they now call "Google Instant", users would develop keywords to search on Google and then click each link to see if it would be of any use.  This took time and for some students it took much longer than others.  Now, Google has made searching the web more intuitive and even faster.  When you search on Google now you will notice that each keystroke will bring up new search results as Google searches your keyword(s) with each new letter.  This instantaneous list of search results is said to be 2.5 times faster than searching before Google Instant.  It is also very helpful for those students who don't know exactly what to search.  With each keystroke, Google will give suggestions as to what the most popular searches are involving your keyword(s).

To take this one step further, Google has also introduced Google Preview which allows users to click on a little magnifying glass next to a search result and see a preview of that site without ever leaving Google.  Pretty cool huh?  Head over to Google yourself to give it a try!