Web Search Strategies The Web may seem like a vast ocean when it comes to finding something you need. Thankfully, search engines can help turn oceans of information into small pools that make finding information easier. Before we dive in, let’s talk a bit about how search works on the Web. Search engines go out and try to account for every word on every webpage. All this information is then organized for easy reference. When you search for a word, the search engine finds all the pages where the word appears, and displays them in the search results. The problem is that there are often too many results. Say you’re looking for a specific kind of fish, and these represent all the websites on the Web. Try to imagine the exact fish and describe it in the search box. But to be a smart searcher, you should know some basic shortcuts. Here’s another shortcut.
PBLU.org | Making Projects Click PowToon, free business presentation software animated video maker and PowerPoint alternative Sweet Search Google Search: 10 Questions & Answers to Help You Search Smarter! At the Google Teacher Academy Lisa Thumann awed me with her lively presentation on Google Search. I must do an average of 15 searches a day on a wide range of topics. I search for articles, images, power points presentations, key words, etc. but I had no idea what Google search could do for me and my students. What I know now will radically change how I teach my students to research in the future, so I wanted to share some cool tips with other educators. First, let’s get the lingo down (since I didn’t know the terminology before I started digging into the resources Lisa provided). Your search is called a “query” and you type it in the “query box.” I know that query means question or inquiry, but I had no idea that is what you called the little box on the Google homepage. Note: When I type an example query, I will use brackets [ ] to indicate that it is a query. Here is some quick and interesting information on how Google improves your searches. 1. 2. Do you want to find PDFs, PPTs, or XLS?
Search operators - Search Help You can use symbols or words in your search to make your search results more precise. Google Search usually ignores punctuation that isn’t part of a search operator. Don’t put spaces between the symbol or word and your search term. A search for site:nytimes.com will work, but site: nytimes.com won’t. Refine image searches Overall Advanced Search Go to Advanced Image Search. Search for an exact image size Right after the word you're looking for, add the text imagesize:widthxheight. Example: imagesize:500x400 Common search techniques Search social media Put @ in front of a word to search social media. Search for a price Put $ in front of a number. Search hashtags Put # in front of a word. Exclude words from your search Put - in front of a word you want to leave out. Search for an exact match Put a word or phrase inside quotes. Search within a range of numbers Put .. between two numbers. Combine searches Put "OR" between each search query. Search for a specific site Search for related sites