Better Google Searches

1. If your search contains more than one word (example: snare drum), you should either enclose the words in "quotation marks" or put the word AND between them.
2. If you need scholarly/academic results, add .PDF to your search. This will bring back published sources only and these are higher quality.
3. Google is NOT the source of information. Rather, it is where you go to FIND the source of information. However, Googling your entire research question CAN help you figure out useful search terms/keywords. For instance, by Googling "What jobs are there for people who like to draw?" I repeatedly saw the terms "visual arts" and "illustrator" and "graphic artist." Now I can use those terms in my searches, too.

Most of us never venture any further than the first page of Google, including not looking at the sides of the page. But there are LOTS of other things you can learn from using Google's Advanced Search and some other options provided by Google.

• Enter your first search term, keeping in mind the need for quotations or other elements mentioned above. I entered "visual artist" and got about 12,800,000 results...that's a few too many.
• Now, there are choices along the top of the results page that nobody ever notices. They are WEB, which is what is automatically returned, and these other options: Images, Shopping, Videos, News, More (under which you can see results for Maps, Books, Flights and Apps), and Search Tools. These tools can be useful if you want to sort the results by a time period, by the reading level of the result, or the location of your result.
• However, the best tool is on the right side of the screen, next to the words "Safe Seach On." Click on the GEAR icon to see other options, including Search Settings (you won't be able to change these at school, but you can at home), Search Help (where you will find many of the tips I list here), and Advanaced Search. Choose that, please. Here are the steps to making your search better:

1. You will notice that Google has inserted your search term in the box labeled "this exact word or phrase." (That's the same as putting it in quotes or the word AND between words in your term.) You can leave it there or fill in keywords/search terms in the first 3 boxes as you see fit.
2. You may also want to enter things that you would like Google NOT to look for...like "visual artist" in the first box and "illustrator" in the 4th box labeled "none of these words." Your results will not include those with "illustrator" in them. For this example, I am now down to 9,130,000 results...still too many.
3. I went back and added the word "jobs" to my search and I am down to 359,000.
4. Finally, in the box labeled "any of these words," I typed in "Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe, Scottsdale" and I am down to only 5 results!!!
5. If you are still not at a good/reasonable number of results, there are more limits at the bottom of the Advanced Search page. Those that are most useful are "last update" (you can limit it to more recent posts), "terms appearing" (which lets you decide where specifically the keywords can be found in the result), and "file type." This last one is very helpful if you need a specific kind of information, as it makes sense to look only for that.