Google’s Hidden Gems:

10 Mysteriously Satisfying Tips & Tricks

2nd Friday Series

Casual talks on hot topics

Using this software

1. Google like a Librarian

“Google well. Google Knowledgably. Google creatively. Google like a Librarian.”

--Jill Cirasella, 2008

Resources

• “Power Searching With Google” – Offered by Google July 10-July 23, 2012

• LYRASIS Course by Jennifer Bielewski and Russell Palmer “The Gamut of Google”– Coming back to our schedule of online classes– Winter 2013

Googling like a librarian involves:

• Knowing when to use Google• Choosing the appropriate Google tool• Using that tool effectively and

efficiently

Sometimes, it’s the little things

• ~ Synonyms • - NOT (omit a word from

results)• “” Exact Phrase• * Wildcard (missing words)• OR Search multiple terms • .. Numeric range

Advanced functionality on the fly

• related: Find similar sites• site: Search within a site• filetype: Search for a file type• define: Find the definition of a

word• stocks: Find a stock quote• allintitle: Find words only in the

title

Google for ready reference

• What time is it in Barcelona?• Is US Airways flight 3771 on time? • US Dollars to Euros?

• Lots more—from sports scores to patents:

• http://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.html

Google Translate

• Never perfect, but pretty good– Search for and interpret results from

pages written in another language– Seek out international citation info– Creates more usable material overall

2. Fun with Google Image Search

• Search by background color– Example—seeking a diagram=white

background

• Search an image file– Example-Image with no provenance?

Scan and search and you might get lucky!

3. Google Books

• For that last minute reading need-• “I really need to read Dante’s Inferno

by 3 PM tomorrow. All your copies are out, and it isn’t at the bookstore anymore!”

4. Google Magazines

• Searchable in Google Books• Hundreds of titles available • Some favorites include: Baseball Digest,

Life, and the Weekly World News

5. Google Scholar

• “My book manuscript is due to the publisher today! Can you please help me find this citation—the article is by Lanting and its something to do with dating cremated bone!”

• Sound familiar? • Google Scholar• http://www.google.com/scholar

6. Google News & Genealogy

• Google News Search • http://news.google.com/• Has a news archive functionality

• “My dear Great, Great Grandmother Alice sadly met her death in a fire in Chicago in the 1890’s. Can you help me find information about that fire?”

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Searching news archives

Relative!

7. Google tools

• Trends• News• Reader• Plus• Scholar• Magazines• Drive• igoogle

• Books• Calendar • Chat • Chrome • Docs • Earth• Finance• Gmail

Google tools for collaboration

• Back office operations• Collaborating at a distance• Sharing or surveying patrons• With other librarians, teachers,

professors, faculty, community

Google Drive

• Store files in multiple formats – 5GB free, 25 GB, $2.50/mo.

• Download Google Drive software to manage files between PC and Drive

• Manage and share files and documents “in the cloud”

• Collaborate

Google Documents

• Create, edit and store: • Forms• Spreadsheets• Documents• Presentations

Google Forms for surveys and assessments

• Quick and easy to create• Multiple question/response formats• Aggregates data in both visual and

spreadsheet formats

8. Communicating with Google

• Google Chat• Google Voice• Google +• Google Meet Up

Testimonials

• Let’s share some “Google saved the day” searching stories!

Keeping up with Google

• The Official Google Blog• http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

• Lifehacker• http://lifehacker.com/

– A general technology blog, with good articles on Google

9. What else is out there?

• Search engines—the everyday: • Ask• Bing• Yahoo

• What do you like? Dislike?

Search

• Interesting and different• DuckDuckGo.com

– Similar features, limited ads

• Yippy.com– Searches the “deep web”

• Maholo.com– “Answer” engine, frustrates with ads

Metasearch

• mamma.com– “aggregates and organizes the web's

content from several of the leading search engines”

• dogpile.com– “Dogpile aggregates the most relevant

searches from Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Yandex and delivers them to you in a convenient search package.”

Computational

• Wolfram Alpha• http://www.wolframalpha.com/

10. Google tools alternatives

• Slideshare.net– Load and share PowerPoint files

• PollEverywhere.com– Create online polls, respond via mobile

• Prezi.com– Create slideshows or tutorials, PowerPoint

alternative• Zoho.com

– Multiple “office” tools, some free some $