Searching Google: tips & tricks

http://www.google.co.nz/

Searching Google
This guide covers selected tips and tricks to refine your search technique for more information,consultGooglesvarioushelpscreens. Pleasenote: Thetipsandtricksdescribedonthisguidearesubjecttochange. Google can personalise search results. Your search results may be different from someoneelsesandmayvaryaccordingtothecomputeryouareusing. ThisguideisbasedontheFirefoxbrowserInternetExplorer(IE)isverysimilar

Default search settings include:

not case sensitive AND search word order truncation search results compound words capital letters of search terms are ignored search terms are automatically combined using AND keyword enter the most important search terms first automatic - no additional symbol required to find alternative endings for search terms display by relevance searches both the compound word and with a space between the words airline air line

Options to refine your search include:

synonyms phrase searching OR exclude include exact spelling intitle: allintitle: related: filetype: site searching domain searching use ~ (the tilde symbol) immediately before a search term to include synonyms use quotation marks around phrases results include either search term. OR must be in capital letters. use immediately before a search term you want to exclude use quotation marks around automatically excluded search terms (e.g. the, a) use quotation marks around a single search term to prevent automatic truncation finds results with your search term in the document title finds results with all your search terms in the document title finds results with content related to a specific website limits your search results to a specific file type
Examples of file types include; doc xls ppt mp4 docx pptx xlsx

~tourism

adventure tourism tourism OR travel tourism wine the tourist tour intitle:tourism allintitle:tourism adventure related:www.tourism.org.nz filetype:pdf site:www.library.otago.ac.nz site:govt.nz
Australia com.au org.au edu.au gov.au United Kingdom co.uk org.uk ac.uk gov.uk America com org edu gov

limits your search to searching within a specific site limits your search to a specific domain
Examples of domains include; Site Commercial Not for profit Academic/Educational Government New Zealand co.nz org.nz ac.nz govt.nz

link: define: search preferences

use to see what sites link to a specific website find definitions sourced from a range of online resources

link:www.library.otago.ac.nz define:tourism e.g. language

select options from Search settings to set your search preferences

UniversityofOtagoLibraryJuly2012

Advanced Search
TouseAdvancedSearchtobuildcomplexsearches: 1. ClicktheOptionsicon(nexttoSignin)andselectAdvancedsearch 2. Enteryoursearchtermsandselectnarrowingfunctions 3. ClickAdvancedSearch

Refining your search from the results screen

Link to a cached copy of this site where your search terms are highlit.

If you use Firefox, hover over the >> to the right of a result to preview it.

Date ranges
DaterangeoptionsarefoundbyclickingMoresearchtools.ThedefaultisAnytime.

Type of information
ThedefaultsearchisEverything.ClickMoreandselectatypeofinformation,torefineyour resultsbysuchas;books,images,videos,ormaps.

Verbatim
VerbatimisfoundbyclickingMoresearchtools.VerbatimisatoolthatinstructsGoogleto onlysearchforthespecifictermsyouenterinthesearchbox.EitherclickVerbatim,enter yoursearchtermsthenclickthesearchicon(magnifyingglass),ordoasearchthenclick VerbatimtoapplytheVerbatimsettingstothatsearch.

Indented results
Ontheresultsscreen,indentedresultsareresultsfoundinthesitelistedimmediatelyabove.

Searching with Usage rights filters

TouseaUsagerightsfiltertosearchformaterial(e.g.text,images,video)thatyouwantto reuseormodify: 1. GotoAdvancedSearch 2. Enteryoursearchtermsinthesearchboxes 3. SelectaUsagerightsfilterfromthepulldownmenu 4. ClickAdvancedSearch FormoreinformationaboutUsagerightsfilters,clickusagerightsontheAdvancedSearch screen.