|
|
Why Google?
Google searches more sites more quickly,
delivering the most relevant results.
Google runs on a
unique combination of advanced hardware and software. The heart is PageRank™, a system for ranking web pages. PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the
web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's
value. Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank,
which Google remembers each time it conducts a
search. Google combines PageRank
with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both
important and relevant to your search.
A Google search is an easy,
honest and objective way to find high-quality websites with information
relevant to your search.
The
Basics of Google Search
To enter a query into Google,
just type in a few descriptive words and hit the 'enter' key (or click on the
Google Search button) for a list of relevant web
pages. Since Google only returns web pages that
contain all the words in your query, refining or narrowing your search
is as simple as adding more words to the search terms you have already
entered.
Choosing Keywords
For best results, it's
important to choose your keywords wisely. Keep these tips in mind:
- Try the obvious first. If you're
looking for information on Picasso, enter "Picasso" rather
than "painters".
- Use words likely to appear on a site
with the information you want. "Luxury hotel dubuque"
gets better results than "really nice places to spend the night in Dubuque".
- Make keywords as specific as possible.
"Antique lead soldiers" gets more relevant results than
"old metal toys".
Search By Category
The Google
Web Directory (located at directory.google.com) is a good place to
start if you're not exactly sure which search keywords to use.. Searching within a category of interest allows you to
quickly narrow in on only the most relevant pages to you.
Advanced
Search Made Easy
You can increase the accuracy of your searches by adding
operators that fine-tune your keywords. Most of the options listed on this
page can be entered directly into the Google search
box or selected from Google's Advanced
Search page.
Phrase Searches
Search for complete phrases
by enclosing them in quotation marks. Words enclosed in double quotes
("like this") will appear together in all results exactly as you
have entered them. Phrase searches are especially useful when searching
Other Advanced Search Features
- Language: specify which
language you would like your results returned in.
- Date: restrict your results to
the past three, six, or twelve months.
- Occurrences: specify where your
search terms occur on the page - anywhere on the page, in the title, or
in the url.
- Domains: search only a specific
website or exclude that site completely from your search.
Search
Features
In addition to
providing easy access to more than 3 billion web pages, Google
has many special features to help you to find exactly what you're looking
for.
|
|
• Cached
Links
|
Google takes a
snapshot of each page examined as it crawls the
web and caches these as a back-up in case the original page is unavailable.
If you click on the "Cached" link, you will see the web page as
it looked when indexed
|
|
|
• Dictionary Definitions
|
To use Google to find
dictionary definitions, enter your query into the search box as you would
normally. Any or all parts of your query for which google has a dictionary definition will be
underlined in the center text above the search results. Clicking on the
link will take you to the relevant definition from a dictionary provider
|
|
|
• File
Types
|
There are 12 main file types searched by Google
in addition to standard web formatted documents in HTML. The most common
formats are PDF, PostScript, Microsoft Office formats.The
additional file types provide Google users a
wider view of the content available on the World Wide Web
|
|
|
• I'm
Feeling Lucky
|
The "I'm Feeling Lucky™" button takes you
directly to the first web page Google returned
for your query. You will not see the other search results at all
|
|
|
• News
Headlines
|
When searching on Google you
may see links at the top of your results marked "News". These
links connect you to reports culled from numerous news services
.
|
|
|
• PhoneBook
|
Look up U.S. street address and phone
number information.
|
|
|
• Similar
Pages
|
When you click on the "Similar Pages" link
for a search result, our GoogleScout technology
automatically scouts the web for pages that are related to this result.
.
|
|
|
• Site Search
|
The word "site" followed by a colon enables
you to restrict your search to a specific site.
|
|
|
• Spell
Checker
|
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..
|
|
|
• Stock
Quotes
|
Use Google to get stock and mutual fund information.
|
|
|
• Street
Maps
|
Use Google to find U.S. street maps.
|
|
|
• Web Page Translation
|
Google breaks
the language barrier with this translation feature. Using machine
translation technology, Google now gives English
speakers access to a variety of non-English web pages. This feature is
currently available for pages published in Italian, French, Spanish,
German, and Portuguese.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
