1. Let's start with Google - http://www.google.com
2. Type in apples oranges
3. Look toward the upper right of the screen and note the blue text line under the search box. You will see how many Web sites were found. Notice how many more you found then I did in January 2008. When I did the search on May 20, 2008 I got 1,190,000 hits! That nicely illustrates how fast the Internet is growing.
4. Now type in apples OR oranges
Notice the difference in how many Web pages were found.
5. Now let's try something else. Type in chain saws. Notice how Google will ask if you really mean chainsaws as one word?
6. Google is the only search engine that will check your spelling for you. Click on the corrected spelling (illustrated above) that Google offers and let it redo the search for you.
7. I found almost two million hits in December 2007, which is a bit too much, so let's look for something more specific. Add the words oregon (accident OR accidents). Note how many pages your search found.
Look at some of the items. Notice that the texts provided below the links are excerpts from these sites.
8. Let's try another search. Type in car repair.
See how many pages you found. Page through the first two screens and see what kind of pages have been returned to you. Because Google ranks the sites the first few are often the best sites available.
9. Now type "car repair" as a phrase. As you can see you have quite a few less, however it's still too much.
10. Now leave your previous search of "car repair" alone and add next to it ford taurus. We now see fewer pages but it is still a ridiculous number of pages. Try adding the phrase "owner's manual". You should now see far fewer.
So if this didn't give us a copy of the Ford Taurus Owner's manual where would we look next? As it happens the Ford Company's Web site has owner's manuals available in full text online for the more recent years (1999-2006). They have their own search engine (searches only their Web site) and you would be able to find the manual eventually that way. You could also check an auction site such as e-bay - http://www.ebay.com. There were 23 manuals listed there when I last checked.
11. Take a moment to try these same searches in other search engines. Take time to look at their equivalent "Help" or "Advanced Searches" tip pages. Note how their search strategies differ from Google's.
12. Here we can do two things, we can see what a directory looks like and we can find specialized search engines.
Scroll through Cyndi's List; notice she has links to jump you to specific topics. Also use Cyndi's search box to look for genealogy search engines by typing "search engines"
13. Now for the tough part! Think of something you would like to find and try to find it in one or more search engines. It can be anything, a poem, a song, a recipe, something related to one of your hobbies, or your favorite author's official Web site.
Specialized Search Engines
NOTE: Due to filter restrictions at the North Bend High School this search may not work at the Technology Center. If so, please do this exercise at your library or home computer.
14. Google can also be used to search for pictures. Type loons in the Google search box. Now without changing anything else click on the word "Images" right above your text box, it will rerun your search automatically. Looking at the example below, note how many pictures Google found.
15. If you scroll through the many pages or results (or "hits") you will notice some pictures are of people rather then birds! Try using the "NOT" command to get rid of images with people in them. Remember that in Google you may use the "-" to avoid words you don't want. Here's what I did; loons (bird OR birds) -man -men -students -people -person -birders
Congratulations!
You now know the basic tools for improving your searches. Good Hunting!!
JUST FOR FUN
The search engine market is highly competitive and Google maintains it's current position by constantly improving its technology and adding new features. Note the more - (http://www.google.com/options/index.html) toward the upper right on the Google homepage, click it to see many of Google's special offerings, including catalog searching, foreign language translation, instant messaging, Internet telephone service, mapping and other tools to enhance your Internet experience.
FROOGLE (http://froogle.google.com/) - is a beta search engine just for shopping. Beta means it is still in development and Google does not consider it a finished service. So keep in mind that this particular search service is still being designed and will miss many of the products you are interested in.
For more information on searching tips and other aids see Google Help Central - (http://www.google.com/help/index.html).
