Using the Google search engine

There are plenty of Internet search engines but Google has proven itself to be one of the best, if not the best. Searching is simple: Just type whatever comes to mind in the search box, hit the Enter key on your keyboard or click the Search button on the screen.

Some basic facts

• • Every word matters. Generally, all the words you put in the query will be used.

  • Search is always case insensitive. A search for evening post is the same as a search for Evening Post.

  • Generally, punctuation is ignored, including @#$%^&*()=+[]\ and other special characters.

Keep it simple

If you're looking for a particular company, just enter its name or as much of its name as you can remember. If you're looking for a particular concept, place or product, start with its name. If you're looking for takeaways, just enter takeaways and the name of your town or your postcode. Most queries do not require advanced operators or unusual syntax. Simple is good.

Think how the page you are looking for will be written

A search engine is not a person; it is a programme that matches the words you type to pages on the Web. Use the words that are most likely to appear on the page, e.g. rather than typing my tooth hurts, type toothache, because that's the term a medical page will use. The query in what country are bats considered an omen of good luck? is very clear to a person but the document that gives the answer may not have those words. Instead, use the query bats are considered good luck in or even just bats good luck, because that is probably what the right page will say.

Describe what you need with as few terms as possible

The goal of each word in a query is to focus it further. Since all words are used, each additional word limits the results. If you limit too much, you will miss a lot of useful information. The main advantage of starting with fewer keywords is that if you don't get what you need, the results will likely give you a good indication of what additional words are needed to refine your results on the next search. For example, weather auckland is a simple way to find the weather and it is likely to give better results than the longer weather report for auckland in new zealand.

Choose descriptive words

The more unique the word is the more likely you are to get relevant results. Words that are not very descriptive, e.g. 'document', 'website', 'company' and 'info' are usually not needed. Keep in mind however, that even if the word has the correct meaning but is not the one most people use, it may not match the pages you need, e.g. bird ringtones is more descriptive and specific than bird sounds.

The basic search is usually enough but sometimes you might need a little extra help:

Phrase search " "

By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change. Google already uses the order (and the fact that the words are together is a very strong signal) and will stray from it only for a good reason, so quotes are usually unnecessary. By insisting on phrase search you might be missing good results accidentally, e.g. a search for "Alexander Bell" will miss the pages that refer to Alexander G. Bell.

Search within a specific website site:

Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website, e.g. the query computers site:compworks.co.nz will return pages about services but only from compworks.co.nz. You can also specify a whole class of sites, e.g. computers site:.govt.nz will return results only from a .govt.nz domain and computers site:.nz will return results only from New Zealand sites.

Terms you want to exclude -

Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages that contain this word to appear in your results. The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space, e.g. in the query anti-virus software the minus sign is used as a hyphen and will not be interpreted as an exclusion symbol; whereas the query anti-virus -software will search for the words ‘anti-virus’ but exclude references to software. You can exclude as many words as you want by using the - sign in front of all of them, e.g. ferns –netball -rugby.

Fill in the blanks *

The *, or wildcard, is a little-known feature that can be very powerful. If you include * within a query, it tells Google to try to treat the asterisk as a placeholder for any unknown term/s and then find the best matches, e.g. the search Google * will give you results about many of Google’s products. The query Goff voted * on the * bill will give you stories about different votes on different bills.

NOTE: The * works only on whole words, not parts of words.

Search exactly as is +

Google employs synonyms automatically, so that it finds pages that mention, for example, ‘daytime’ for the query day time, or ‘New Zealand history’ for the query nz history. But sometimes Google helps out a little too much and gives you a synonym when you don't really want it. By attaching a + immediately before a word, you are telling Google to match that word precisely as you typed it, e.g. +nzsg. Putting double quotes around a single word will do the same thing, e.g. “nzsg”.

The OR operator OR

Google's default behaviour is to consider all the words in a search. If you want to specifically allow either one of several words, you can use the OR operator (note that you have to type OR in CAPITALS), e.g. All Blacks 2010 OR 2011 will give you results about either one of these years, whereas All Blacks 2010 2011 (without the OR) will show pages that include both years on the same page. (The symbol | can be substituted for OR.)

The AND operator is the default, so it is not needed.

Using Google, search for your ancestor's name, e.g. richard mudgway. Then try a search with the name in inverted commas, e.g. "richard mudgway". By using inverted commas or +, only entries with those precise words and spelling will be found: