UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library November 2008

Google: Tips and Tricks!

Search Preferences
You can set search options, and revise them whenever you like on the Google Preferences page. SafeSearch filtering The default is moderate filtering which blocks explicit images but not ordinary web search results. You can also adjust SafeSearch settings on the Advanced Search or the Advanced Image Search pages on a per search basis. Language options - Lets you serch for web pages in a language you choose. Number of results - For the fastest response time the default is 10 search results per page, but the number can increased to 20, 30, 50, or 100. New results window - When you search Google, the search page is replaced by a search results page. You can set this preference option to open your search results in a new browser window.

The Essentials of a Google Search

Type one or more search terms into the search box and hit the 'Enter' key or click on the Google Search button. You'll find the most accurate results by typing words or short phrases - rather than full sentences and questions into the search box. The best seach terms are descriptive and specific. As you type your query Google will try to help with your search by displaying a list of possible search terms that may approximate your query. Google's spell checking software automatically looks at your query and checks to see if you are using the most common version of a word's spelling. If it calculates that you're likely to generate more relevant search results with an alternative spelling, it will ask "Did you mean: (more common spelling)?". Clicking on the suggested spelling will launch a Google search for that term. Because Google's spell check is based on occurrences of all words on the Internet, it is able to suggest common spellings for proper nouns (names and places) that might not appear in a standard spell check program or dictionary. Google produces a results page: a list of web pages related to your search terms, with the most relevant page appearing first, then the next, and so on.

Version 2.0 krb

UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library

"I'm Feeling Lucky"

After you've entered your search terms, you might want to try the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, which takes you straight to the most relevant website that Google found for your query. You won't see the search results page at all, but if you did, the "I'm Feeling Lucky" site would be listed on top. For example, if you're looking for the UMDNJ homepage, just enter UMDNJ and click "I'm Feeling Lucky" instead of the Google Search button. Google will take you directly to "www.umdnj.edu."
umdnj

Google Search

I'm Feeling Lucky

Choosing search terms

Choosing the right search terms is the key to finding the information you need. Start with the obvious if you're looking for general information on Spain, try Spain. But it's often advisable to use multiple search terms; if you're planning a vacation in Spain, you'll do better with vacation Spain than with either vacation or Spain by themselves. And vacation Spain Barcelona may produce even better results if you are specifically planning a trip to Barcelona, Spain.
vacation Spain Barcelona Google Search

You might also ask yourself if your search terms are sufficiently specific. It's better to search on luxury hotels Barcelona than on Spanish hotels. But choose your search terms carefully; Google looks for the search terms you chose, so luxury hotels Barcelona will probably deliver better results than really nice places to spend the night in Barcelona. Google searches are NOT case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you type them, will be understood as lower case.

Automatic "and" queries

By default, Google only returns pages that include all of your search terms. There is no need to include "and" between terms. Keep in mind that the order in which the terms are typed will affect the search results. To restrict a search further, just include more terms. For example to locate hotels in Barcelona, Spain, try Spain Barcelona hotels
vacation Spain Barcelona hotels Google Search

"OR" search
To find pages that include either of two search terms, add an uppercase OR between the terms. For example, here's how to search for a vacation in either Spain or Italy:
vacation Spain OR Italy Google Search

UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library

Phrase searches
Sometimes you'll only want results that include an exact phrase. In this case, simply put quotation marks around your search terms.
"To do no harm" Google Search

Phrase searches are particularly effective if you're searching for proper names ("Louis Pasteur"), lyrics ("the long and winding road"), or famous phrases ("To be or not to be").

Word variations (stemming)

Google will search not only for your search terms, but also for words that are similar to some or all of those terms. If you search for virus, Google will also search for viruses, and other related variations of your terms. Another example is the searching the diet will also include the word dietary. Variants of your terms that were searched for will be highlighted in the snippet of text accompanying each result.

Advanced search "operators"

You can also improve your searches by adding "operators" to your search terms in the Google search box, or selecting them from the Advanced Search page.

"+" search
Google ignores common words and characters such as where, the, how, and other digits and letters which slow down your search without improving the results. If a word has been excluded details will be displayed on the results page below the search box. If a common word is essential to getting the results you want, you can do a phrase search or include it by putting a "+" sign in front of it. Also use the + sign in front if you dont want to include any variations of a word, such as plurals, synonyms, ory any tenses. For example, Google will ignore Roman numerals so here's how to ensure that Google includes the Roman numeral "I" in a search for information about Star Wars Episode I:
Star Wars Episode +I Google Search

Negative terms
If your search term has more than one meaning (virus, for example, could refer to viruses that infect computers or the type that effect organisms) you can focus your search by putting a minus sign ("-") in front of words related to the meaning you want to avoid. For example, here's how you'd find pages about viruses, but not computer viruses:
viruses -computer Google Search

UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library

Synonym search
If you want to search not only for your search term but also for its synonyms, place the tilde sign ("~") immediately in front of your search term. For example, here's how to search for car or auto loans and cooking information:
~car loans Google Search

Special Query Operators

Google supports several advanced operators, which are query words that have special meaning to Google. Typically these operators modify the search in some way. Below is a description of some of the special operators Google supports.

File Types
In addition to PDF documents, Google can search Microsoft Office, PostScript, Corel WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and others. The new file types will simply appear in Google search results whenever they are relevant to the user query. Google also offers the user the ability to "View as HTML", allowing users to examine the contents of these file formats even if the corresponding application is not installed. The "View as HTML" option also allows users to avoid viruses which are sometimes carried in certain file formats. If you prefer to see a particular set of results with a specific file type (for example, PDF links), simply type filetype:[extension] (for example, filetype:pdf) within the search box along with your search term(s).
form 1040 filetype:pdf Google Search

Site (Domain) search

You can use Google to search only within one specific website by entering the search terms you're looking for, followed by the word "site" and a colon followed by the domain name. For example, here's how you could find admission information on the UMDNJ site:
som site:w w w .umdnj.edu Google Search

Related Search
You can use Google to search for web pages that are similar to a specified web page or website. This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the Similar Pages link on Googles main results page. For example, here's how to find websites similar to the UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine website:
related: som.umdnj.edu Google Search

UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library

Title Word Search

If you start a query with [allintitle:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the title. For instance, [allintitle: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the title. This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Occurrences. If you include [intitle:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the title. For instance, [intitle:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their title, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (title or no). Note there can be no space between the "intitle:" and the following word. Putting [intitle:] in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting [allintitle:] at the front of your query: [intitle:google intitle:search] is the same as [allintitle: google search].
allintitle: UMDNJ SOM Google Search

Definitions
You can also get a list of definitions by including the special operator "define:" with no space between it and the term you want defined. For example, the search [define:PubMed] will show you a list of definitions gathered from various online sources.
define PubMed Google Search

Numrange search
Numrange searches for results containing numbers in a given range. Just add two numbers, separated by two periods, with no spaces, into the search box along with your search terms. You can use Numrange to set ranges for everything from dates ( Willie Mays 1950..1960) to weights ( 5000..10000 kg truck). But be sure to specify a unit of measurement or some other indicator of what the number range represents. For example, here's how you'd search for hi definition televisions that costs between $800 and $1100:
hi def tv $800..$1100 Google Search

UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library

Advanced Search Menu

Advanced Search offers numerous options, including many of the ones mentioned above, for making your searches more precise and getting more useful results. You can reach this page by clicking the "Advanced Search" link on the Google home page. Here's what the Advanced Search page looks like:

UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library

Search Results Page

The search results page includes a lot of information. Here's a quick guide to decoding it. Each underlined item is a search result that the Google search engine found for your search terms. The first item (not counting News results) is the most relevant match we found, the second is the next-most relevant, and so on down the list. Clicking on any underlined item will take you to the associated web page.

UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library A. Google navigation bar - Click the link for the Google service you want to use. You can search the web, browse for images, news, maps and videos, and navigate to Gmail and other Google products. B. Search field -To do a search on Google, just type in a few descriptive search terms, then hit "Enter" or click the "Search" button. C. Search button - Click button to submit search query. You can also submit query by hitting the Enter key. D. Advanced search - This links to a page on which you can do more precise searches. E. Preferences - This links to a page that lets you set your personal search preferences, including your language, the number of results you'd like to see per page, and whether you want your search results screened by our Safe Search filter to avoid seeing adult material. F. Search statistics - This line describes your search and indicates the total number of results, as well as how long the search took to complete. G. Top contextual navigation links - These dynamic links suggest content types that are most relevant to your search term. You can click any of these links in order to see more results of a particular content type. H. Integrated results - Google's search technology searches across all types of content and ranks the results that are most relevant to your search. Your results may be from multiple content types, including images, news, books, maps and videos. I. Page title - The first line of any search result item is the title of the web page that we found. If you see a URL instead of a title, then either the page has no title or we haven't yet indexed that page's full content, but its place in our index still tells us that it's a good match for your query. J. Text below the title - This is an excerpt from the results page with your query terms bolded. If we expanded the range of your search using stemming technology, the variations of your search terms that we searched for will also be bolded. K. URL of result - This is the web address of the returned result. L. Size - This number is the size of the text portion of the web page, and gives you some idea of how quickly it might display. You won't see a size figure for sites that we haven't yet indexed. M. Cached - Clicking this link will show you the contents of the web page when we last indexed it. If for some reason the site link doesn't connect you to the current page, you might still find the information you need in the cached version. N. Similar pages - When you select the Similar Pages link Google automatically scouts the web for pages that are related to this result. The more specialized a page is, the fewer results Google will be able to find for you. O. Indented result - When Google finds multiple results from the same website, the most relevant result is listed first, with other relevant pages from that site indented below it. P. More results - If we find more than two results from the same site, the remaining results can be accessed by clicking on the "More results from..." link. Q. Plus Box results - Clicking the "plus box" icon reveals additional info about your search result. You'll see this feature for pages related to U.S. stocks, local businesses, and Google and YouTube videos. R. Related search terms - Sometimes the best search terms for what you're looking for are related to the ones you actually entered. Click these related search terms to see alternate search results. 8

UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library

Selected Reference Features

Use any of these features through the main Google search page. Simply type your query in the search box and click Search or hit Enter

Weather

To see the weather for many U.S. and worldwide cities, type "weather" followed by the city and state, U.S. zip code, or city and country.
w eather San Francisco Search

Example:

Time

To see the time in many cities around the world, type in "time" and the name of the city.
time London Search

Example:

Calculator

To use Google's built-in calculator function, simply enter the calculation you'd like done into the search box.
5*9+(sqrt 10)^3= Search

Example:

Unit Conversion

You can use Google to convert between many different units of measurement of height, weight, and mass among others. Just enter your desired conversion into the search box and well do the rest.
10.5 cm in inches Search

Example:

UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library

Area Codes

To see the geographical location for any U.S. telephone area code, just type the three-digit area code into the Google search box and hit the Enter key or click the Google Search button.
856 Search

Example:

Currency Conversion

To use our built-in currency converter, simply enter the conversion youd like done into the Google search box and well provide your answer directly on the results page. Example:
150 GBP in USD Search

Patent Numbers

To search for U.S. patents, enter the word "patent" followed by the patent number into the Google search box and hit the Enter key or click the Google Search button. Example:
Patent 5123123 Search

Airline Travel Information

To see flight status for arriving and departing U.S. flights, type in the name of the airline and the flight number into the search box. You can also see delays at a specific airport by typing in the name of the city or three-letter airport code followed by the word "airport". Example: Example:
american airlines 18 Houston airport Search Search

Q&A
Want to know the population of Japan? What currency is used in Algeria? The birthplace of Bono? Hit us with a fact-based question or query (like "population of Japan") by typing it into the Google search box. We'll search the web and display the answer at the top of your search results page. We also link to Googles source for this information so that you can learn even more.
population of Japan Google Search

example:

10

UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library

Selected Google Specialized Search Features, Tools, and Products

Links to Googles specialized features can be found along the upper right side of the main Google web page. Some of these features require that you create a free account with Google to customize, save, and personalize some content.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your topic or query. Some uses of Google Alerts include: keeping current on news and developments in the health care field, getting the latest on a celebrity or event, or keeping tabs on a favorite sports teams

Google Scholar
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations, and publicly available databases, like PubMed. Note, however, that by entering PubMed from Google Scholar you will not see the Findit@UMDNJ button Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research. For example searching in Google for reputable, non-politicized information on global warming can be challenging, but by searching Google Scholar you are much more likely to find non-politicized information on Global warming example: Search
"global w arming"

Blog Search

Google Blog Search focuses on blogs. Whether looking for Harry Potter reviews, political commentary, summer salad recipes or anything else, Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice. Results include many bloging sites; the blog index is continually updated, so you can reasonably expect up-to-date results; and you can search not just for blogs written in English, but in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, Swedish, Malay, Polish, Thai, Indonesian, Tagalog, Turkish, Vietnamese and other languages as well. example:
breast cancer Search

Book Search
Google is helping to get the world's information online by bringing books themselves online. Whenever books in Googles Google Book Search index contain content that matches your search terms, you'll see links to those books under Book Results at the top of your search results page. Click on any book title and you'll see the page in that book which contains your search terms, as well as other information about the title. Click one of the links under "Buy this Book" and you'll go straight to a bookstore selling that book online. example: Search
breast cancer

11

UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library

Special Google Searches

Google's special searches enable you to narrow your search to a specific topic. University Search enables you to select a specific univeristy or collge website and search that specific schools website. Search for things like admissions information, course schedules, or alumni news. Google U.S. Government Search offers a single location for searching across U.S. government information, and for keeping up to date on government news. You can choose to search for content located on either U.S. federal, state and local government websites or the entire Web. You can also search Microsoft-related sites using Google Microsoft search. For example, use the U.S. Government Search to search for contact information for a Congressman:
Robert Andrew s Google Search

example:

Images

You may occasionally see small images at the top of your Google search results. These are images that Google thinks are relevant to your search terms. You can also find relevant images by doing a Google Image Search, or by adding words like 'pics' or 'pictures' to your search terms when you do a regular web search. example:

viruses

Google Search

Google Documents
Create and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentation online and access them from anywhere for free using Google Docs. You can easily do the basics, including making bulleted lists, sorting by columns, adding tables, images, comments, formulas, changing fonts and more. Google Docs accepts most popular file formats, including Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. So you can upload and work with files stored on you desktop or laptop.

Google Health

Google Health allows you to store and manage health information in one central place. With Google Health, you manage your health information not your health insurance plan or your employer. You can enter your health conditions, medications, allergies, and lab results into your Google Health profile. Import your medical records from participating hospitals and pharmacies. Learn about health issues and find helpful resources. You can search for a doctor's name or location, find a doctor's website, get directions to a doctor's office, and save a doctor's information to your medical contacts list. You can also browse the online health services directory to find services that are integrated with Google Health.

12

UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library

Google Reader

Google Reader checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content. Google Reader shows you all of your favorite sites in one convenient place. It's like a personalized inbox for the web. Millions of sites publish feeds with their latest updates, and Googles integrated feed search makes it easy to find new content

Google Custom Search

Googles Custom Search Engine is a tailored search experience. You can create and save your own custom search engine that only searches the websites you want it to search. This customizable search engine can even be incorporated into your own website.

Web Page, Word and Phrase Translation

Google breaks the language barrier with a translation feature. Using translation technology, Google gives you the ability to access web pages in languages other than English. Currently, if search results contain a page in a supported language, you can translate that page into your language with a single click. Words and Phrases can also be translated using Googles Translation Tool. Ferrovie dello Stato - Homepage - [ Translate this page ] Metanavigazione in questa pagina:. Vai al menu principale; Vai al menu di secondo livello; Vai al contenuto della pagina ... trenitalia.com/ - 27k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this by U Notizie - All 4 versions

IGoogle

Google offers the ability to create a personalized iGoogle page that gives you at-a-glance access to key information from Google and across the web. On this self-designed page, you can choose and organize content from many of the Google features and tools mentioned above. Integrate Google services such as: - your latest Gmail messages - headlines from Google News and other top news sources - weather forecasts, stock quotes, and movie showtimes - bookmarks for quick access to your favorite sites from any computer - your own section with content you find from across the web|

Street Maps
To use Google to find street maps, enter a U.S. street address, including zip code or city/ state (e.g. 42 E. Laurel Rd. Stratford NJ), in the Google search box. Often, the street address and city name will be enough. example: Google Search
42 E. Laurel Rd. Stratford NJ 08096

When Google recognizes your query as a map request, we'll show the address on a Google map and enable you to obtain directions and store your default location.

13

UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library

Click on one of your query items and view bubble information.

14

UMDNJ-Health Sciences Library

Other Useful Google Tools and Resources:

Toolbar - Add a search box to your browser

Picasa - Find, edit and share your photos

Maps for mobile - View maps and get directions on your phone

Mobile - Use Google on your mobile phone

Blogger - Share your life online with a blog

Calendar - Organize your schedule and share events with friends

Google Labs

Explore Google services and resources under development.

15