2008-07-13T13:25:00.000-07:00

Google at a Glance

If you’re a typical Internet user, you access Google several times a week, if not
several times a day. As a typical user, you also don’t use a tenth of Google’s
search power—which means you’re not searching as effectively or as efficiently
as you could. That’s probably because you never move beyond Google’s admittedly
easy-to-use home page. The Google home page (www.google.com) is a
marvel of simplicity and elegant Web page design.
most searches can be undertaken by entering a query into the search box
and then clicking the Google Search button. This returns a list of results ranked
in order of relevance.
Google’s simple, easy-to-use home page.
caution Google queries cannot exceed 10 words in length.
Most users like Google’s easy-to-use, uncluttered interface; its fast operation;
and its quality search results. What most users don’t know is that Google offers
a variety of specialty search services that you can use to perform more targeted
searches. Read on, then, to discover the secrets of Google searching—and
become a Google power searcher.

GOOGLE SECRETS 1

Why Google Delivers More Targeted Results Than Other
Search Engines
Like most of the major search engines, Google assembles the pages in its search
index by using special “searchbot” or crawler software to scour the Web. Found
pages are automatically added to Google’s ever-expanding database; when you
perform a search, you’re actually searching this database of Web pages, not the
Web itself.
results of your Google searches are ranked according to Google’s trademarked
PageRank technology. This technology measures how many other
pages link to a particular page; the more links to a page, the higher that page
ranks. In addition, PageRank assigns a higher weight to links that come from
higher-ranked pages. So if a page is linked to from a number of high-ranked
pages, that page will itself achieve a higher ranking.
The theory is that the more popular a page is, the higher that page’s ultimate
value. While this sounds a little like a popularity contest (and it is), it’s surprising
how often this approach delivers high-quality results.
The number of Web pages indexed by Google is among the largest of all search
engines (Google and AllTheWeb are continually jockeying for “biggest” bragging
rights), which means you stand a fairly good chance of actually finding
what you were searching for. And the Google search engine is relatively smart;
it analyzes the keywords in your query and recognizes the type of search result
you’re looking for. (For example, if you enter a person’s name and city, it knows
to search its phone book—not the general Web index.)

GOOGLE SECRETS 2

Bypass the Search Results—and Go Directly to the First Page on
the List

You have another option after you enter your search query, other than clicking
the Google Search button. When you click the I’m Feeling Lucky button,
Google shoots you directly to the Web page that ranked at the top of your
search results, no extra clicking necessary. If you trust Google to always deliver
the one best answer to your query, this is a fun option to try. For the rest of us,
however, it’s still best to view the rest of the search results to see what other
sites might match what we’re looking for.

Google Secrets 2.1

Google Automatically Corrects Your Spelling
That’s right—you don’t have to be a spelling bee winner to search with Google.
That’s because Google has built-in automatic spelling correction. If you inadvertently
misspell a search query, Google recognizes what you meant to type
and provides the correct spelling for you.
So go ahead and type as fast as you can. Google will correct all your spelling
mistakes.

GOOGLE SECRETS 3

Don’t Bother with Capitalization
When you’re entering a Google query, don’t waste time pressing the Shift key
on your computer keyboard. That’s because the Google search engine isn’t case

Google Secrets 4

sensitive. So it doesn’t matter how you capitalize the words in your query—Red
Dog and red dog will both return the same results.

Google Secrets 5

Search for Similar Words

Not sure you’re thinking of the right word for a query? Do you figure that some
Web pages might use alternate words to describe what you’re thinking of?
Then use synonyms in your searches!
Google uses the tilde (~) operator to search for synonyms of a specific word.
Just enter the tilde before the keyword, like this: ~keyword.
For example, to search for words that are like the word “elderly,” enter the
query ~elderly. This will find pages that include not just the word “elderly,” but
also the words “senior,” “older,” and so on.

Google Secrets 6

Conduct an Either/Or Search

When you enter multiple keywords in a search query, how does Google parse
all those words?
It’s quite simple, really. By default, Google searches for Web pages that contain
all the words you entered. That means that Google is inserting an invisible
“and” between the words in your search query.
For example, if you enter red corvette as your query, Google reads this as red
AND corvette, and searches for pages that contain both the words “red” and
“corvette.” Results are likely to include pages dedicated to the Prince song, as
well as to owners of crimson cruisers. But if a page is only about ‘Vettes—and
doesn’t specifically mention red ones—it won’t be listed.
The bottom line? You don’t have to enter that AND between keywords; Google
does it for you.
On the other hand (and here’s where the secret starts), if you want to search for
pages that contain either one or another keyword (but not necessarily both),
you have to give Google explicit instructions. You do this by using the special
OR operator. So, to search for pages that include either of the words you enter,
you insert this OR operator between the words in your query. (Surrounded by
spaces, of course.)
Using the example from the previous secret, if you want to search for pages that
contain either the word “red” or the word “corvette,” you enter the query red
OR corvette. This will return all pages that include the word “red” as well as all
pages that include the word “corvette,” no intersection necessary. So, you’ll get
a lot of pages about red balloons and red robins, as well as general pages about
Corvettes—as well as those pages that include both words.

Google Secrets 7

Search for an Exact Phrase
Here’s one of Google’s most powerful search tools, but also one that not enough
users know about. When you want to search for a particular item that you
describe in multiple words, enclose the entire phrase in quotation marks. This
forces Google to search for the exact phrase, and thus returns more targeted
results.
For example, if you’re searching for Monty Python, you could enter monty
python as your query, and you’d get acceptable results; the results will include
pages that include both the words “monty” and “python.” But these results will
include not only pages about the British comedy troupe, but also pages about
snakes named Monty, and guys named Monty who have snakes for pets. To
limit the results just to pages about the Monty Python troupe, you want to
search for pages that include the two words in that precise order. So you should
enter the query “monty python”—making sure to include the quotation marks.
This way if the word “monty” occurs at the top of a page and “python” occurs
at the bottom, it won’t be listed in the search results.
Let’s take this a step further. Want to search for the movie Monty Python and
the Holy Grail? Enter “monty python and the holy grail”. Your results will be
much more targeted than if your query includes all these words separately
without the quotation marks.

Google Secrets 8

Let Google Complete the Phrase

Unlike most other search engines, Google does not support the use of wildcards
to complete a keyword, nor does it use automatic stemming. Wildcards would
let you search for all words that include the first part of a keyword; for example,
a search for book* (with the * wildcard) would typically return results for
“books,” “bookstore,” “bookkeeper,” and so on. Stemming is kind of like an
automatic wildcard, where entering the keyword book would return all the
aforementioned results (“books,” “bookstore,” etc.), no wildcard necessary.
Since Google doesn’t support wildcards or stemming, you have to enter all
forms of any words you want to search for. Using the above example, you would
have to enter the query book OR books OR bookstore OR bookkeeper to
return all possible results. It’s a bit of a bother and a real weakness when you’re
comparing Google to search engines with more powerful query features, such
as AltaVista.
However, Google does let you use whole-word wildcards within a phrase
search. That is, you can search for a complete phrase even if you’re not sure of
all the words in the phrase. You let the * wildcard character stand in for those
words you don’t know.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you want to search for pages that discuss Martin
Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech, but you’re not sure whether he
“has,” “had,” or “have” that dream. So you use the * wildcard to stand in for
the word in question, and enter the following query: “i * a dream”.

Google Secrets 9

You can use multiple wildcards within a single phrase, within reason. While “*
* a dream” might return acceptable results, “* * * dream” is a fairly useless
query.

Google Secrets 10

Include Stop Words in Your Search
In an effort to produce more efficient searches, Google automatically disregards
certain common words, called stop words, that you might include in your search
queries. Including a stop word in a search normally does nothing but slow the
search down, which is why Google excises them. Examples of the types of words
that Google ignores are “where,” “how,” and “what,” as well as certain single
letters (“a”) and digits. For example, if you enter the query how electricity works,
Google ignores the “how” and searches only for “electricity” and “works.”
If you want to include specific stop words in your search, you have to instruct
Google to do so. You do this by adding a plus sign (+) to your query, immediately
followed (with no space) by the stop word you want to include. (Make sure
you put a space before the plus sign but not afterwards!) Using our example, to
include the stop word “how” in your search, you’d enter the following query:
+how electricity works.
If a particular stop word is part of a phrase, you can also use the phrase
operator to include the stop word in your query. In this particular example,
you could enter the query “how electricity works” and the stop word “how”
would automatically be included.
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Google Secrets 11

Exclude Words from Your Results
Just as you can use the “plus” operator to specifically include words in your
results, you can use the contrasting “minus” operator to exclude pages that
include specific words. This is particularly useful if you’ve used a word in your
query that has more than one meaning.
For example, if you search for cloud, you could get pages about those fluffy
floating things, or about a blurring or obscuring (of vision, of minds, etc.). If you
don’t want your results to include clouds of the meteorological variety, enter a
query that looks like this: cloud –cumulus. If you want to search for bass—the
singer, not the fish—you’d enter bass –fish. And so on.
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You can also use the “plus” operator to make sure your results include pages
that contain a specific word. Using the meteorological example, to search for
pages about floating clouds, enter the query cloud + cumulus. (Although,
technically, the “plus” operator isn’t necessary because Google includes an
automatic AND between all the keywords in a query.)

Google Secrets 12

Narrow Your Search to Specific File Types

Google can search for information contained in all sorts of documents—not just
HTML Web pages. In particular, Google searches for the following file types
and extensions in addition to normal Web pages:
Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)
Adobe PostScript (PS)
Lotus 1-2-3 (WK1, WK2, WK3, WK4, WK5, WKI, WKS, WKU)
Lotus WordPro (LWP)
MacWrite (MW)
Microsoft Excel (XLS)
Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT)
Microsoft Word (DOC)
Microsoft Works (WDB, WKS, WPS)
Microsoft Write (WRI)
Rich Text Format (RTF)
Text (ANS, TXT)
If you want to restrict your results to a specific file type, add the following
phrase to your query: filetype:filetype. For example, if you want to search only
for Microsoft Word documents, enter filetype:doc.
To eliminate a particular file type from your search results, add the following
phrase to your query: -filetype:filetype. For example, if you want to eliminate
PDF files from your results, enter -filetype:pdf.

Google Secrets 13

Narrow Your Search to a Specific Domain or Web Site

Maybe you want to search only those sites within a specific top-level Web
domain, such as .com or .org or .edu—or, perhaps, within a specific country’s
domain, such as .uk (United Kingdom) or .ca (Canada). Google lets you do this
by using the site: operator. Just enter the operator followed by the domain
name, like this: site:.domain.
For example, to search only those sites within the .edu domain, you’d enter
site:.edu. To search only Canadian sites, enter site:.ca. Remember to put the
“dot” before the domain.
The site: operator can also be used to restrict your search to a specific Web site.
In this instance, you enter the entire top-level URL, like this: site:www
.website.domain. For example, to search only within my personal Molehill
Group Web site (www.molehillgroup.com), enter site:www.molehillgroup.com.
To search only within Microsoft’s Web site (www.microsoft.com), enter
site:www.microsoft.com. Your results will include only pages listed within the
specified Web site.

Google Secrets 14

Google Browser Buttons
Google Browser Buttons are buttons that are added to your Web browser’s personal
or links toolbar. These buttons can be added to either Netscape or
Internet Explorer browsers (versions 4.0 and later).
There are three Google Browser Buttons:
Google Search—initiates a Google search when you highlight any
word on a Web page and then click this button
GoogleScout—finds Web pages that are similar to the currently displayed
page
Google.com—takes you to the Google home page
To install Google Browser Buttons in your Web browser, go to www.google.
com/options/buttons.html and click the Get Your Google Buttons Here link.
Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the installation.

Google Secrets 15

Google Deskbar

If you’re a Windows user, you can take advantage of Google’s latest navigational
tool—the Google Deskbar. This little utility installs right in the Windows
taskbar, and lets you search Google without even launching your browser.
Once installed, you can access the Deskbar by pressing Ctrl+Alt+G, and then
enter your query into the Deskbar search box. Your search results are displayed
in a small inset window.
To download and install the Google Deskbar, go to toolbar.google.com/

Google Secrets 16

Searching with Froogle

Google’s main shopping service is called Froogle. (Froogle, frugal—get it?)
Froogle is just like Google, except that it’s tweaked to search only e-tailer Web
sites. You access Froogle by clicking the Froogle tab on Google’s home page or
by going directly to froogle.google.com.
As you can see in Figure 6-15, you can search Froogle for the merchandise you
want or browse through the product categories found on Froogle’s home page.
When you search Froogle, it returns results from all Web merchants that offer
matching product; click the results link to view the product listing on the merchant’s
site.
deskbar and click the Download Google Deskbar button. You need to be running
either Windows 98, Me, XP, or 2000, along with Internet Explorer version
5.5 or higher.

Google Secrets 17

Make Google Safe for Kids

There’s a lot of unsavory content on the Internet. When you perform a Google
search, some of these undesirable pages can end up in your search results—
which is not a great thing if it’s your kids who are doing the searching.
Fortunately, Google offers a content filter that you can apply to your Google
searches. Google’s SafeSearch filter screens the Google index for sites that contain
adult information and then eliminates those pages from your search results.
Google uses proprietary technology to check keywords, phrases, URLs, and
Google Directory categories against a list of objectionable words and topics.
When you activate SafeSearch, you’re blocked from viewing results that contain
these undesirable words and topics.
You activate the SafeSearch filter from Google’s Preferences page. You have
three choices:
Moderate filtering: Blocks objectionable images from Google Image
Search results; it doesn’t block any pages based on objectionable text.
This is the default configuration.
Strict filtering: Blocks both objectionable words and images—and also
includes a stricter image filter than the moderate filtering option.
Do not filter my search results: This turns off the SafeSearch filter.
If your kids use Google, consider activating SafeSearch’s strict filtering option.
It’s not perfect, but it does a pretty good job of reducing the amount of bad stuff
your kids might be exposed to.