BECOME A GOOGLE POWER USER
Don't just type a word in the search box when you search the World Wide Web. Use the real power of Google,
and become a Google power searcher.
Definitions
Title--The HTML code of a web site has various sections, one of which is the title. The words in this title section
are searchable by Google.
URL--Stands for Uniform Resource Locater, the correct name for an Internet address. Google can search within
a URL.
Default--A preselected option of a software program. You do not need to add + to connect search terms in
Google. "And" is the default in Google.
And (+), or, not (and not) (-)--These are the Boolean search operators. They can be used to combine or
eliminate search terms.
Wildcard--A wildcard is used to take the place of letters, words, or word endings. The (*) is the Google wildcard.
It can be used to locate different spellings of the same word and missing letters or words in a phrase.
Directions
Use the example to construct your search. Unless indicated otherwise, perform all searches using Google Basic
Web Search (not the Advanced Search). All search terms are in italics.
Power Search 1: Search as a phrase
One of the most basic power searching strategies that you can use is to search for phrases. You do this by
placing quotation marks around words that you want to treat as a unit, e.g., "chocolate chip," "Mery had a little
lamb," "Frederick the Great," etc.
Example: To find the name of the play that contains the lines "to be or not to be," type "to be or not to be"
play.
Exercise 1: Now, find out which king said how is the empire? When was he supposed to have said these
words?
Power Search 2: Search within the title part of a web site
Google has two ways to limit your search to words found in the title part of a web site intitle: and allintitle:.
Notice that the commands intitle: and allintitle: are followed by a colon. When you use intitle:, the first word or
phrase (group of words enclosed in quotation marks) that follows this command will be located in the title part
of the web site. The others words may be in the title part of the web site, but they do not have to be.
Example 1: If you want to find web sites about "Dolly the cloned sheep," try this search:
intitle: Dolly cloning sheep
Example 2: Every word following the command must be located in the title part of the web site when you use
the command allintitle:, If you want to ensure that every word is located in the title part of the web site, use
allintitle: as in this search:
allintitle: Dolly cloned sheep DNA
This search ensures that all the words "Dolly cloned sheep DNA" are in the title part of the web site.
Exercise 2A: Using allintitle:, construct a search that ensures that both of the words volcano Vesuvius are
located in the title part of the web sites.
Exercise 2B: Using intitle:, construct a search that ensures that the phrase When I was one and twenty is
located in the title part of the web site. Remember to search these words as a phrase.
Power Search 3: Eliminate commercial sites from the search results
The World Wide Web has a lot of commercial information, but commercial web sites are often not very useful
for school assignments. You can eliminate many commercial sites from your search results by adding -.com
or -site:com at the end of your search results.
Example: If you want to find information for a project about steroids and you want to eliminate all the
commercial sales sites from your search results, try this search:
intitle:steroids-.com OR intitle:steroids-site:com
Exercise 3: Now, locate web sites about creatine for a school project, and be sure to eliminate commercial
websites (.com) from your search results. Construct your search so that the word creatine must appear in the
title part of the web site.
Power Search 4: Search for only educational sites
When you are working on school projects, it is often useful to restrict your search results to pages that come
from educational institutions. Search results can be limited to U.S. educational institutions by adding edu after
your search terms.
Example: The search intitle: "storm warning" site:edu locates web sites about storm warning that come from
U.S. educational institutions.
Exercise 4: Locate web sites about ocean currents that come from U.S. educational institutions (.edu). Make
sure that the phrase ocean currents is found in the title part of the web site.
Power Search 5: Search within a URL
The URL is another section of a web page that is searchable.
Example: To locate a web site about the home children that appeared on CBC, type the following search:
"home children" inurl:cbc
Exercise 5: Now, find some web sites about killer whales. Be sure that the web sites come from British
Columbia. (British Columbia has the domain name bc.)
(Search Tip: You will probably want to make sure that you search for killer whales as a phrase and you search
for it in the title field of the web site.)
Power Search 6: Search for a particular file type
Google can search for many different types of files, including Adobe Acrobat files (pdf); PowerPoint (ppt); and
word documents (doc). (Longer reports such as research reports and those produced by government
departments are often on the Web as pdf files. These pdf documents can be useful for research projects.)
Example 1: To locate pdf documents about medical marijuana, try this search:
intitle: "medical marijuana" filetype:pdf
Example 2: If you want to locate PowerPoint presentations about the same topic, try this search:
intitle: "medical marijuana" filetype:ppt
Exercise 6A: Now, see if you can locate a PowerPoint (ppt) presentation about rainforests. Make sure that the
word rainforests is located in the title part of the web site.
Exercise 6B: Now, find pdf pages with the word rainforests in the title part of the web site and the word
medicine somewhere on the page. Make sure you trod only pdf pages.
Power Search 7: Search within a site
Google has the ability to search within a site for information. This ability is quite useful as some web sites
contain many pages, and it is often difficult to find things you are seeking within a large site.
Example: If your teacher has asked you to find out how much tuition costs at .St. Mary's University, Canada, and
gave you the Internet address for St. Mary's University (http://www.stmarys.ca/), this is how you would find
the answer:
tuition site:www.stmarys.ca
Search Tip: When you are searching within a site, it is necessary to trim the http://from the front of the URL
and remove the slash (/) from the end of the URL.
Exercise 7: Now, use a site search of the Acadia University web site (http://www.acadiau.ca) to find the
undergraduate fees for Acadia University.
Type your search here ( )
How much does it cost for the Fall-Winter term in 2003-2004 at Acadia
University excluding B.Ed.? ( )
Power Search 8: Search for related sites
Google is capable of finding web sites that are similar or related to each other in purpose.
Example: If you want to find organizations similar to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, http://www.rcmpfrc.gc.ca/, try this related search:
related: www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca
Search Tip: When you are searching for related sites, it is necessary to remove the http://from the front of the
URL and remove the slash (/) from the end of the URL, the same as when you are performing a site search.
Exercise 8: Find 2 sites related to our school homepage.
Power Search 9: Searching for missing words using a wildcard
When an (*) is used within a phrase, the (*) finds characters or full words that could occupy the space between
the words where it is placed.
Example: intitle. "John (*) Kennedy" locates either John Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, or John Fitzgerald Kennedy
in the tide part of the web page.
Exercise 9: Construct a similar search that will find web sites about Hillary Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and
Hillary R. Clinton in the title part of the web page.
Power Search 10: Using Google News
Google News searches and indexes over 4,000 news sources. Google keeps these news stories in a database for
one month. This is an excellent free source for newspaper articles that are up to one month old.
Example: If you want to find recent newspaper articles about Sunday shopping in Nova Scotia, type: "Sunday
shopping …. Nova Scotia" in the Google News search bar.
Exercise 10 : Use Google News to locate newspaper articles about Kirk Johnson from Nova Scotia.
Type your search here ( )
How many articles did you find? ( )
Search Tip: Remember Power Search 1: search as a phrase.
Power Search 11: I'm Feeling Lucky
When you click on "I'm Feeling Lucky" after you type your search, you will get only one search result, the most
frequently visited site about that topic. It is a great way to go directly to official sites of sports teams, actors
and actresses, and singers, as these are generally the most frequently visited sites on these topics.
Example: Type "Toronto Maple Leafs" in the search bar, and click "I'm Feeling Lucky." You will be taken to the
official site of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Exercise 11: Type “Beijing Olympics” and click on “I’m Feeling Lucky”.
Power Search 12: Define
Google has a command that can be used to find definitions for words and phrases on the Web. This often
makes using a dictionary unnecessary.
Example 1: Type define: cloning in the Google search bar, and Google will return definitions for cloning found
on the Web. It also provides the URL where the definitions were located. If you type define cloning without the
colon(:) after the command, Google will return web sites about cloning with definitions of cloning at the top of
the list.
Exercise 12: Type define: cloning and now type define cloning without the colon. Note the difference in the
results. What is the difference?
Power Search 13: Google Image Search
Google has both an Image Search and an Advanced linage Search. The Advanced Image Search allows you to be
more specific in your image searching. You can search by size of image, color of image, and file type (jpeg or
gif).
Exercise 13: Use the Google Advanced Image Search to locate a map of Halifax that is saved as jpeg format.
Be sure to use the Google Image Advanced search that looks like this:
Power Search 14: Using Google Advanced Search
Google Advanced has a fill-in-the blanks and drop-down menu interface that allows searches to perform
searches (searching in the title field; searching by file type; searching by date, county, language, etc.) without
knowledge of all the commands.
Exercise 14: Use Google Advanced to locate web sites that contain all of the words racism Canada in the title
part of the page, in the English language, that have updated in the past three months, and that are saved in pdf
format.