The Bottom Line February 2011
13
FOCUS
Google offers much more than most know
By GARRETT WASNY
and LAWRENCE WONG
hile search engines like
Google have created a
revolution by putting
oceans of information at the fingertips of people all over the
world, the sad truth is that most
people don’t know how to really
use them to their full potential.
For most, using a search engine
is limited to typing in a word or
two in the search box on the home
page, hitting ‘enter’ and seeing
what pops up. That approach uses
a small fraction — just one per
cent — of Google’s full capabilities. It often misses what the
searcher is looking for or buries it
way down a list of responses generated by a query that was not tailored to get the best result.
If a person types in chartered
accountant at Google.ca, without
quotation marks, over three million results appear. Type in “chartered accountant” with quotes
around it and that number goes to
about two million. Just putting
words in quotations narrows a
search by only bringing back
responses where the two words are
used side by side, thereby eliminating responses linked to documents that might have an irrelevant sentence like: “After
consulting an accountant fishing
buddy, he chartered a boat.”
To really start honing a search,
it’s best to use the TPL method,
which stands for time, place, lingo.
Treat a Google query as if it were a
human reference librarian. If
someone were seeking a forensic
accountant currently operating in
Toronto, would it really be best to
go to a librarian and say:
“accountant”? Searching ‘forensic
accountant Toronto 2011’ on
Google.ca gets about 65,500
results, while ‘accountant’ gets
more than 30 million.
Adding context and details to a
query brings better results. Search
“House” and Google will report
back on everything from dwellings
and parliaments to curling and
places of worship. Type “House”
“TV” and the results will focus
more on the Hugh Laurie drama,
albeit with a lot of home improvement shows thrown in for good
measure.
This type of search refinement
is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Little changes to a search bring
different results. Make a term
plural — chartered accountants —
and the search gets a different
result. Using American versus
British spellings — center versus
centre, for example — also
delivers different results. Type a
term twice in the search box to get
results where the phrase is used
twice. Type it three times and only
links to items where the phrase
W
For most, using a search engine is limited to typing in a
word or two in the search box on the home page, hitting
‘enter’ and seeing what pops up. That approach uses a small
fraction — just one per cent — of Google’s full capabilities.
Garret Wasny and Lawrence Wong
appears at least three times will
appear.
Go to different national versions of Google — like Canada’s
Google.ca as opposed to
Google.com — and searches give
more prominence to local content.
People looking for a type of
document in a particular format
can narrow their search by specifying the type of file. A search of
f iletype:ppt
“chartered
unknowns; that is to say we know
there are some things we do not
know. But there are also unknown
unknowns — the ones we don’t
know we don’t know.”
In fact, Rumsfeld’s statement,
while a bit convoluted, makes perfect sense, especially for busy professionals. Which accountant
wouldn’t want to keep constant
track of what is being said about
existing or potential clients, their
Further tailoring can take alerts
from looking at everything on the
net to focusing on news sites,
blogs or videos. Using the TPL
method creates ‘super alerts’ that
avoid filling a person’s inbox with
irrelevant material. Those with
unique names may be able to get
away with a simple search of their
name, however the John Smiths of
the world are going to want to
narrow things a little with some-
Garret Wasny and Lawrence Wong
accountant” is confined to PowerPoint f iles on the net and f iletype:xls “chartered accountant”
limits the search to Excel spreadsheet files.
Poor search techniques put the
average curious person or eager
student at a disadvantage and are
inexcusable for business professionals.
Former U.S. Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld was
once widely ridiculed for saying:
“There are known knowns; there
are things we know we know. We
also know there are known
firm or, most importantly, them?
Can anyone afford to wait until
they’re aware the information
exists to search for it when they
can actually arrange to get it sent
to them automatically in advance?
One of best products out there is
Google Alerts, which seems sadly
under-utilized even though it’s both
free and very effective. Google
Alerts allows people to set up automatic searches for as many and any
terms they can come up with.
Those searches can be customized
to bring results weekly, daily or as
the term appears in real time.
WASNY
Poor search techniques put the average
curious person or eager student at a
disadvantage and are inexcusable for
business professionals.
thing like “John Smith” “chartered
accountant” “Toronto.”
Used properly, Google Alerts
are part of the GARS search technique that encompasses alerts,
plus Google Reader — an easy to
use RSS aggregator that will keep
track of publications and topics
specif ied by the user — and
Google Sidebar, which appears on
the left side of the screen during a
Google search. Sidebar allows
people to easily refine their search
in a number of ways so it’s better
filtered and the optimal information rises to the top of the list.
Keep in mind that, while
Google is good, it’s not the only
search engine out there. For
example, Bing, Microsoft’s search
engine, and Yahoo! often bring different results for the same search
terms. And few people seem to
know that the second biggest
search engine is actually YouTube.
It’s not just for funny clips and ZZ
Top videos from the 1980s. Many
businesses are posting everything
from tutorials and product information to visual annual reports
and public meetings on YouTube.
That makes it a very important
resource.
Professionals should also be
aware of vertical search engines
that focus on a specific industry,
function or issue. For example, too
few accountants seem to know
about www.ifacnet.com, a search
engine website powered by
Google. On the site, it explains
that ifacnet.com is a “one-stop
access to high-quality resources
and information developed by the
International Federation of
Accountants (IFAC) and other
leading accountancy organizations
from around the world. This search
engine, powered by Google, provides access to a wide range of relevant materials to assist professional accountants in business,
small- and medium-sized practitioners, auditors, accounting academics, and others in their day-today operations.”
Professionals, like accountants,
who aren’t using the Internet to its
fullest potential risk falling behind
the competition. After all, if
knowledge is your business, who
can really know too much?
Garrett Wasny, MA, CMC,
CITP, is known as the ‘Internet
guy’ and ‘Google guru’ who
advises accountants and other
professional service providers on
how to improve their online search
skills, increase their web productivity and transform how they use
the web in their business, career
and life. He conducts a seminar on
Advanced Internet Research Techniques for Accountants for the
Institute of Chartered Accountants
of Ontario. His website is
www.garrettwasny.com and can be
easily found by Google.
Lawrence Wong, CA, is associate director, professional development at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario.