Google : More Than Words

Wed 18 Aug <Science Week> S. Dekeyser

Google: More Than Words

How can I use Google better?

References: Patrick Crispen: Patrick Crispen: Google 101, Google 201Google 101, Google 201 (web); 2003. (web); 2003. Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest: Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest: Google hacksGoogle hacks (O'Reilly); (O'Reilly); 2003.


The PageRank Algorithm

)()(...

)1()1()1()(

TnCTnPR

TCTPRddAPR

Where• PR(A) is the PageRank of Page A• PR(T1) is the PageRank of page T1• C(T1) is the number of outgoing links from the page

T1• d is a damping factor in the range of 0 < d < 1,

usually set to 0.85Source: Google Hacks, p. 295


The Biggest Mistake

Typing URLs in the wrong box


Top 20 search terms

1. britney spears 2. victoria gotti 3. kelly blue book 4. doom 3 5. howard stern 6. dallas cowboys 7. paris hilton 8. ebay 9. google 10.yahoo

11.anastasia myskina 12.anime 13.mapquest 14.carmen electra 15.yahoo.com 16.ashlee simpson 17.games 18.lindsay lohan 19.nudist+image 20.jokes

-- Courtesy WordTracker.com

http://www.wordtracker.com/


What most people notice1. britney spears 2. victoria gotti 3. kelly blue book 4. doom 3 5. howard stern 6. dallas cowboys 7. paris hilton 8. ebay 9. google 10.yahoo




What *I* notice

1. britney spears 2. victoria gotti 3. kelly blue book 4. doom 3 5. howard stern 6. dallas cowboys 7. paris hilton 8. ebay 9. google 10.yahoo




The Second Biggest Mistake

Using the wrong tool at the wrong time


Three questions

• Where would you find the telephone number or address of the Bama Six theatre?

• Where you would find the definition of the word “pestilence?”

• Where would you find the name of the war that the Treaty of Westphalia ended?


What would happen if you tried to look up the definition of the word

“pestilence” in the telephone book?


YAHOO ISN’T A SEARCH ENGINE!

... it is a directory.


Directories

• Usually human-compiled guides to the web, where sites are organized by category

• Major directories:– MSN– Yahoo– Netscape ODP


What directories are good for

• “What is the Web page address for some company, organization, or entity?” (or “who makes product X?”)

• “Where can I find a list of Web pages that focus on a particular, ‘universal’ topic?”

• In other words, directories are GREAT for “telephone book” searches.


What directories AREN’T good for

• Directories are horrible for “encyclopedia” or “dictionary” searches.

• The only exception is if the topic is so universal that the directories have no choice but to link to a page or two that discuss that topic (and even then the selection will be slim.)


Directories v Search Engines

• Directories are – human-compiled and – have a small number of pages in their databases

(usually in the low millions)

• Search engines are – machine-compiled and – have a HUGE number of pages in their databases

(usually in the hundreds of millions or even the billions)


The Third Biggest Mistake

Not knowing how to use directories or search engines to

actually FIND stuff


Search engine rule #1

Be specific ... because if you aren’t specific, you’ll end up with a bunch of

garbage!



Use quotes to search for phrases.

“the tide is rising”



Use the + sign torequire.

“the tide is rising” +book



Use the - sign toexclude.

“the tide is rising” +book -drugs



Combine symbols as often as possible

(see rule #1).

“the tide is rising” +book –drugs +climate


The five rules

1. Be specific ... because if you aren’t specific, you’ll end up with a bunch of garbage!

2. Use quotes to search for phrases.3. Use the + sign to require.4. Use the - sign to exclude.5. Combine symbols as often as possible

(see rule #1).


Part Two:More Stuff No One Tells You

Google’s shocking secrets revealed!


Part Two: Contents

• Google’s Boolean default is AND.• Capitalization does not matter.• Google has a hard limit of 10 keywords.• Google ignores a BUNCH of common

words.• Google does support wildcard searches …

sort of.• The order of your keywords matters.


Google’s Boolean Default is AND

But there are ways to get around that.


Boolean Default is AND

• If you search for more than one keyword at a time, Google will automatically search for pages that contain ALL of your keywords.

• A search for disney fantasyland pirates is the same as searching for disney AND fantasyland AND pirates

• But, if you try to use AND on your own, Google yells at you.

Source: http://www.google.com/help/basics.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=disney+AND+fantasyland+AND+pirates


Boolean OR

• Sometimes the default AND gets in the way. That’s where OR comes in.

• The Boolean operator OR is always in all caps and goes between keywords.

• For example, an improvement over our earlier search would be disney fantasyland OR “pirates of the caribbean”– This would show you all the pages in Google’s index

that contain the word disney AND the word fantasyland OR the phrase pirates of the caribbean (without the quotes)

Source: http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html


Capitalization Does NOT Matter

The old AltaVista trick of typing your keywords in lower case is no

longer necessary.


How Insensitive!

• Google is not case sensitive. • So, the following searches all yield exactly

the same results: disney fantasyland piratesDisney Fantasyland PiratesDISNEY FANTASYLAND PIRATESDiSnEy FaNtAsYlAnD pIrAtEs

Source: http://www.google.com/help/basics.html


Google Has a Hard Limit of 10 Keywords

Bet you didn’t know THAT!

Source: Google Hacks, p. 19


Google’s 10 Word Limit

• Google won’t accept more than 10 keywords at a time.

• Any keyword past 10 is simply ignored.

• How can you get around this limit? Well, first you need to remember that …



Google Ignores a BUNCH of Common Words

Words to avoid


Stop Words

To enhance the speed and relevancy of your Web search, Google routinely and automatically ignores common words and characters known as “stop words.”

Source: http://www.google.com/press/guide/reviewguide_7.html


Stop _ _ Name _ Love

• This is certainly not a canonical list, but here are 28 stop words I know about.

• a, about, an, and, are, as, at, be, by, from, how, i, in, is, it, of, on, or, that, the, this, to, we, what, when, where, which, with

• You can force Google to search for a stop word by putting a + in front of it (for example pirates +of +the caribbean)

Source: 10/23/02 post by Bill Todd to news:google.public.support.general


Dealing with the Word Limit

• Omit the stop words in your search terms and you’ll probably never run into the 10 word limit.

• Another way around the limit is to use wildcards.

Image source: http://www.alloyd.com/


Google DOES Support Wildcard Searches … Sort Of.

When you wish upon a *.


Wildcards

• Wildcards are characters, usually asterisks (*), that represent other characters.

• Google offers full-word wildcards.

• For example, if you search Google for it’s +a * world, Google shows you all of the pages in its database that contain the phrase “it’s a small world” … and “it’s a nano world” … and “it’s a Linux world” … and so on.


it’s +a * world• The + before a is required

because it is a stop word and would otherwise be ignored.

• Most of the hits are phrases because that’s what Google looks for first.

• Oh, and I defy you to get that song out of your head!

Image source: http://themeparksource.com/


Wildcards and the Word Limit

• Remember when I said that one way to get around the 10 word limit was to use wildcards?

• Google doesn’t count wildcards toward the limit.

• For example, Google thinks that though * mountains divide * * oceans * wide it's * small world after all is exactly 10 words long.



The Order of Your Keywords Matters

A me life for pirate’s?


How Google Works• When you conduct a

search at Google, it searches for– Phrases, then– Adjacency, then– Weights.

• Because Google searches for phrases first, the order of your keywords matters.

Image source: GoogleSource: Google Hacks, p. 20-22


For Example

A search for disney fantasyland pirates yields the same number of hits as a search for fantasyland disney pirates, but the order of those hits – especially the first 10 – is noticeably different.

http://www.google.com/search?client=googlet&q=disney%20fantasyland%20pirates

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&newwindow=1&safe=off&client=googlet&q=fantasyland+disney+pirates


Part Two: In Summary

• Google’s Boolean default is AND.• Capitalization does not matter.• Google has a hard limit of 10 keywords.• Google ignores a BUNCH of common

words.• Google does support wildcard searches …

sort of.• The order of your keywords matters.


Advanced OperatorsQuery modifiers

• daterange:• filetype:• inanchor:• intext:• intitle:• inurl:• site:

Alternative query types• cache:• link:• related:• info:

Other information needs• phonebook:• stocks:• define:• Google Calculator


Other Information Needs

Did you know that Google can look up phone numbers, stock quotes, dictionary definitions,

and even the answer to math problems?


phonebook:• There are actually three

different Google phonebook operators.

• Using phonebook: searches the entire Google phonebook.

• Using rphonebook: searches residential listings only.

• Using bphonebook: searches business listings only.

Source: http://www.google.com/help/operators.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&newwindow=1&safe=off&client=googlet&q=phonebook:(714)+956-6425+


How to Use the Phonebook

• first name (or first initial), last name, city (state is optional)

• first name (or first initial), last name, state • first name (or first initial), last name, area code • first name (or first initial), last name, zip code • phone number, including area code • last name, city, state • last name, zip code


phonebook:Data

phonebook:disneyland caphonebook:(714) 956-6425


stocks:• If you begin a query with stocks: Google will treat the rest of the query terms as stock ticker symbols, and will link to a Yahoo finance page showing stock information for those symbols.

• Go crazy with the spaces – Google ignores them!

Source: http://www.google.com/help/operators.html

http://www.google.com/search?client=googlet&q=stocks:%20aapl%20intc%20msft%20macr


stocks:Symbol1 Symbol2 …

stocks: msftstocks: aapl intc msft macr


define:• If you begin a query with define: Google will display definitions for the word or phrase that follows, if definitions are available.

• There can be no space between define: and the word or phrase you wish to define.

• You don’t need quotes around your phrases.

Source: http://www.google.com/help/features.html#definitions

http://www.google.com/help/features.html


define:term

define:piratedefine:barbary coast


Google Calculator• Simply key in what you'd

like Google to compute (like 2+2) and then hit enter.

• Google’s Calculator can solve math problems involving basic arithmetic, more complicated math, units of measure and conversions, and physical constants.

Source: http://www.google.com/help/features.html#calculator

http://www.google.com/help/calculator.html


3+4456*78

1.21 GW / 88 mph100 miles in kilometers

sine(30 degrees) G*(6e24 kg)/(4000 miles)^2 0x7d3 in roman numerals

For instructions on how to use the Google Calculator, see http://www.google.com/help/calculator.html

http://www.google.com/help/calculator.html


Advanced OperatorsQuery modifiers

• daterange:• filetype:• inanchor:• intext:• intitle:• inurl:• site:

Alternative query types• cache:• link:• related:• info:

Other information needs• phonebook:• stocks:• define:• Google Calculator

Google : More Than Words

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