Published date: 9/2/08
Google offers many different tools to help "organize the the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," however Google is primarily recognized as a "search engine." While searching seems like a natural skill to have, a user can improve their results by knowing a few tricks.
Do your students know that there is no need to capitalize any of the search terms? That's right, search terms, or queries, are not case sensitive. [George Washington] [GEORGE WASHINGTON] and [george washington] will all return the same results.
Teach your students to be as specific as possible when searching. For instance, if your student is looking for information on the first president, have them look for [george washington] not simply [washington], which will return a variety of results on the first page, none of which may refer to the first president.
Just how lucky are you feeling? When using the Classic Google Webpage, you have a chance to select "I'm Feeling Lucky." This will skip the list of results and go directly to the number one search result for that query. If you know that what you want is Macy's, but aren't quite sure of the URL, you can search for [macys] , choose "I'm Feeling Lucky," and skip the step of the results page!
Over the next few weeks we'll be introducing you to more search tips, including Advanced Search, Preferences, some fun functions you can use from the search bar, and give you some tips on how to determine who authors a site. However, if you have any specific questions you would like answered, please e-mail either of us by replying to this e-mail. We'll try to answer any of your questions.
Google offers many different tools to help "organize the the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," however Google is primarily recognized as a "search engine." While searching seems like a natural skill to have, a user can improve their results by knowing a few tricks.
Do your students know that there is no need to capitalize any of the search terms? That's right, search terms, or queries, are not case sensitive. [George Washington] [GEORGE WASHINGTON] and [george washington] will all return the same results.
Teach your students to be as specific as possible when searching. For instance, if your student is looking for information on the first president, have them look for [george washington] not simply [washington], which will return a variety of results on the first page, none of which may refer to the first president.
Just how lucky are you feeling? When using the Classic Google Webpage, you have a chance to select "I'm Feeling Lucky." This will skip the list of results and go directly to the number one search result for that query. If you know that what you want is Macy's, but aren't quite sure of the URL, you can search for [macys] , choose "I'm Feeling Lucky," and skip the step of the results page!
Over the next few weeks we'll be introducing you to more search tips, including Advanced Search, Preferences, some fun functions you can use from the search bar, and give you some tips on how to determine who authors a site. However, if you have any specific questions you would like answered, please e-mail either of us by replying to this e-mail. We'll try to answer any of your questions.