A WebSearch University 2014 presentation

1. Advanced Search Strategies
by Greg R. Notess, greg@notess.com
Montana State University
SearchEngineShowdown.com
Twitter: @notess

2. • Arstechnica: snipr.com/gdork14
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3. Overview
• Advanced Search Pages
• Advanced Search Commands
• Filters & Limits
• Prefixes
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4. Remaining Google Advanced
Search Pages
• Web google.com/advanced_search
• Images google.com/advanced_image_search
• News news.google.com/news/advanced_news_search
• Books google.com/advanced_book_search
• Patents google.com/advanced_patent_search
• Gone: Groups, Video, Shopping, Blogs (and basic)
• Scholar Exists but No Direct Link
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5. Filters: Google Search Tools
• Tools Vary, Depending on Database
– Web Search
• Time, Results, Location
– Image Search
• Size, Color, Type, Time, Usage Rights, More (!?)
– News Search
• News/Blogs, Time, Sort
– Book Search
• Any Books, Any Documents, Any Time, Sort
– Video Search
• Duration, Time, Quality, CC, Source
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6. Web Results Search Tools
• More Tools When Signed In
• Features Have Been Disappearing
• “Results” Includes Verbatim, Reading Level
– Verbatim: Not Able To Combine With All Features
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7. Exact Searches
• Exact Search Options:
– Verbatim search tool
– intext: prefix
– “phrase marks” “around” “each” “word or
phrase”
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8. Phrase Searching
• Default Ranking at Google
• “most important advanced feature”
• Phrase Search or Exact or Precision?
• Changing Functionality
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9. Not Always Phrase, Exact, or
Precise
• “linded data”
• Google Zero Results:
– Gives Alternative Results & Explanation
• Bing Zero Results: No Explanation
– + Forces Precision and Shows Zero
• Other Databases
– May Appear to Work but May Not Be Precise
– libguides.com Example
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10. Punctuation Searching
Symbol What you can use it for
[+] Search for things like blood type [AB+] or for a Google+ page like [+Chrome]
[@] Find social tags like [@google]
[&] Find strongly connected ideas and phrases like [A&E]
[%] Search for a percent value like [40% of 80]
[$] Indicate prices, like [nikon $400]
[#] Search for trending topics indicated by hashtags like [#lifewithoutgoogle]
[-] Indicate that words around it are strongly connected like [twelve-year-old dog]
[_] Connect two words like [quick_sort]. Your search results will find this pair of words either linked together
(quicksort) or connected by an underscore (quick_sort).
• support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433
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11. Shortcuts to Advanced Search
PREFIXES
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12. Prefix Syntax
• Typically prefix:queryword
– No Spaces
• site: edu Searches Both Words
– Some Support Phrase Search (But Not All)
• Most (Not All) Advanced Features Have
Prefixes
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13. Google All In vs. In Prefix
• allintitle: vs. intitle:
• Note that the “allin….” prefixes mean
– All following words will be in that field
– Cannot be combined with other terms, most of
the time
• The “in…” fields like intitle and intext,
support phrase syntax
– intext:“advanced search”
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14. Web Search Prefixes
site: TLD, domain, computer name, & directory
filetype: Try almost any file extension
link: Shows some links to a specific URL
cache: Followed by URL for cached copy of a page
info: id: For a URL: links to cache, related, links, site
search, & term matches
related: Pages similar to URL based on link patterns
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15. Unlisted Web Prefixes
The following are no longer listed in Google
help but still appear to work for now
intext: allintext: Words in body; not URLs, title, or inbound links
intitle: allintitle: Words in the HTML title element
inurl: allinurl: Words within a URL (domain, directories, file name)
inanchor: Words within anchor text on a page
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16. Google Book Search
intitle: Book title words
inauthor: Author names
inpublisher: Publisher words
subject: Old advanced search form; does
not include all books
isbn: enter with no space or punctuation;
ISBN-10 or ISBN-13
issn: enter 8 digits with no space or dash
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17. Google Scholar
author: Instead of inauthor: (or use
advanced search)
intitle: allintitle: For allintitle: can also use
advanced search form & combine
Other Web Prefixes Also Work
intext:
filetype:
site:
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18. site: Search
• TLD Required
– site:tld OR site:company.tld OR site:sub-area.
company.tld
• Expanded to Include Directories (Google)
– site:imf.org/external/pubs
• To WWW or Not To WWW
– Compare site:imf.org/external/pubs to
site:www.imf.org/external/pubs
– Can Have >1 site: Operator per Query
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19. SPECIAL SOURCES &
TECHNIQUES
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20. Other Google Operators
• Numrange
– 5..8.34
– numrange:5-8.34
– "library fines" site:edu $101..$150
• Wildcard Word in a Phrase
– * Represents One (or More) Word(s)
– "a wealth of information creates * attention“
– Quotes Not Required
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21. Other Google Search Sites
• Table Search
– research.google.com/tables
• NGRAM Search
– books.google.com/ngrams
– Updated through 2008
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22. Dan Russell
• Anthropologist of Search
• MOOC: powersearchingwithgoogle.com
• Blog: searchresearch1.blogspot.com
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23. Questions?
“Search well, be
wise”
-Aeschylus
Greg R. Notess, greg@notess.com
Twitter: @notess
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