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St. Augustine School
Internet Tips and Tricks
May 4, 2006
St Augustine School
Search Engines
 Google
www.google.com
biggest, best
 AlltheWeb
alltheWeb.com
also a very large database
 Alta Vista
www.av.com
wildcards
 Vivisimo
www.vivisimo.com
categorized results
(ie.: Small*)
 Ask Jeeves www.ask.com
ask questions, natural language
 Yahoo
www.yahoo.com.au
human compiled, well respected
 HotBot
www.hotbot.com
finds most popular sites
 Dogpile
www.dogpile.com
aggregates smaller SE results
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3. How do they work?
 Search engines for the Web do not really search the World
Wide Web directly. Instead, what they do is…
 …search a database of the full text of Web pages…
 …selected and built by computer robot programs called
spiders.
 Spiders find the pages to include in their databases by
following the links on pages that already are there
 If a Web page is new and never linked to by any other
pages, a spider cannot find it
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Use + to add things together
 + pandas + endangered + animals
 IBM + ThinkPad
 chocolate + chip + cookies + recipes
 + Seattle + hotels + reservations
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Use - symbol to subtract
 Mao Tse Tung – Jiang Qing
In other words, you’re telling the search engine to find Web
pages on Mao Tse Tung but to exclude any pages where his
fourth wife Jiang Qing is mentioned.
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Use “ ” to denote searched-for phrase
 If you use + pandas + endangered + animals it is possible the
words could appear anywhere on the page instead of in a
phrase!
 Doing a “phrase search” avoids this problem.
 This helps you to multiply the words!
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Getting clever…
 If you want to get really clever, you can combine all the
symbols!
 You could use “chocolate” – cake + “cookie recipes”
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News
 New York Times on the Web
http://www.nytimes.com/ :all the news daily from the New
York
Times
 CNN Webspace Search Engine
http://www.cnn.com/SEARCH/index.html
 The Age :
http://www.theage.com.au
 The ABC :
http://www.abc.net.au
 The BBC :
http://www.bbc.net.uk
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staugustineschool.org/homework.shtml
Homework help page
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Typing Tutor
Math Drills
Dictionary
Searchable
 Shakespeare
 Bible
 Brick Testament
 Add things, request
things, just click the
comments link at the
bottom of any page.
Also, http://www.staugustineschool.org/teacherpage.shtml
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Wikipedia
 Open Source encyclopedia
 Built, edited and monitored by
volunteers
 Anyone who views it can edit it
 Disagreements get taken into an
open discussion which anyone can
read
 Contributors strive to keep content
scholarly, but not always as
dependable as, say…
− Britannica.com.
 Content is NOT filtered for children
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
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Babel Fish
 Programmatic Translation site
 Words or phrases – it does
pretty well
 Enter a Web page url and
this application will attempt
to render it with the text
translated. This is usually
pretty entertaining.
http://babelfish.altavista.com/
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Google Tips n Tricks 101
 This is intended to help you use Google more productively
and to be able to show off for your friends.
 It will highlight key tips and tricks, as well as introduce you to
some of the newer features of Google.
 It is by no means comprehensive. Google is everywhere.
We are Google. Kumbayah.
• Ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
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Google Advanced Search Operators -- define
 define:
Query provides basic
definition of the query
Example: “insanity”
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Google Advanced Search Operators -- related
 related:
Query lists Web pages
“similar” to a specified
Web page
Which one of these
pages is just like the
other?
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Google Advanced Search Operators – allintitle
 allintitle:
Query will restrict
results to those with all of
the query words in the
title of the page
Example: “allintitle: lotus
support” will identify any
pages with “Lotus” AND
“support” in the title
Very useful for
narrowing down a search
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Google Advanced Search Operators -- link
 link:
Lists Web pages that
have links to a specified
Web page (very useful for
link analysis)
Note: No space
between the “link:” and
the URL
In this example, there
were 73,400 estimated
pages linking to
www.ibm.com
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Google Advanced Search Operators -- cache
 cache:
Type “cache:www.staugustineschool.org” Shows
version of site that Google has in its cache
Type “cache:www.staugustineschool.org staff”
−Shows cached content with the word “staff” in that
page
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Google Advanced Search Operators -- site
 site:
Query will restrict
results to those Websites
in the given domain
Example: “support
site:www.ibm.com” will
identify support-related
Websites on the IBM
domain
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Google Advanced Search
 that contain ALL the search terms you
type in
 that contain the exact phrase you type
in
 that contain at least one of the words
you type in
 that do NOT contain any of the words
you type in
 written in a certain language
 created in a certain file format
 that have been updated within a certain
period of time
 that contain numbers within a certain
range
 within a certain domain, or website
 that don't contain "adult" material
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Google Advanced Search: Domain
 Domain searching allows you to
“only” or “don’t” return results from
a specific domain
Ex. Search “ThinkPad” and only
return results from domain:
“www.lenovo.com”
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
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Google Advanced Search: Find results
 Find results option allows you to
delimit the search to include the
following:
With all of the words
With the exact phrase
With at least one of the words
Without the words
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
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Google Advanced Search: Language and File Format
 Language allows you to return pages
against a query in 36 languages
 File Format allows you to:
Only or don’t
−Return results of the file format
•PDF
•.PS
•.DOC
•.XLS
•.PPT
•.RTF
Particularly helpful using Google’s
Desktop Search (for finding files you know
part of the name of, but not sure where it
is)
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
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Google Advanced Search: Date/Numeric Range and Occurrences
 Date range allows you to search for
Web pages updated within a specified
time range
Anytime
Past 3 months
Part 6 months
Past year
 Occurrences returns results where
terms occur:
Anywhere in the page
In the title of the page
In the text of the page
In the URL
In links to that page
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
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Google Advanced Search: Searching for Numbers

Search By Number
Parcel tracking IDs, patents and other specialized
numbers can be entered into Google's search box for quick
access to information about them.
For example, typing a FedEx tracking number will return
the latest information on your package. Other special search
by number types include :

UPS tracking numbers

FedEx tracking numbers
Example search: "1Z9999W99999999999“
Example search: "999999999999“

USPS tracking numbers

Vehicle ID (VIN) numbers

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
Example search: "9999 9999 9999 9999 9999 99"
Example search: "AAAAA999A9AA99999“
UPC codes example search: "073333531084”
Telephone area codes
Example search: "650“
Patent numbers
Example search: "patent 5123123“ (Remember to put the
word "patent" before your patent number)
FAA airplane registration numbers
Example search: "n199ua“ (An airplane's FAA registration
number is typically printed on its tail)


FCC equipment
Example search: "fcc B4Z-34009-PIR“ (Remember to put
the word "fcc" before the equipment ID.)
Flight Tracking
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
Just enter “Airline Flight #” and look at top of results page
– and don’t forget to go pick up Grandma !
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Google Advanced Search: Searching for Phone Numbers
 Search By:
first name (or first initial), last name, city (state
is optional)
first name (or first initial), last name, state
first name (or first initial), last name, area code
first name (or first initial), last name, zip code
last name, city, state
last name, zip code
phone number, including area code !
Query: “Todd Watson, Austin, TX”
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Google Advanced Search: Searching for Books, Movies, and Music
 Books
Ex. “books about space”
Then click “book results for “books about space”
at top of page…or whatever your query is
 Movies
To find reviews and showtimes for movies
playing near you, type “movie” or “showtimes” or
the name of a current film into Google
If you’ve saved your location previously with
“Google Local,” the top searches will display
showtimes for nearby theatres for the movie
you’ve chosen
Can’t remember the title of a movie. Search
“movie: name of movie or actor or director or
subject”
−“movie: mafia don” – Guess what it presented as
the top result?
 Music
Type in “music: name of artist” to get links about
the artist, discography, artist websites, latest
news, photos, discussion groups
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How to Do Your Shopping via Google in 10 Minutes or Less
 Catalogs.google.com features
products from more than 6,000
paper catalogs in a searchable
index.
 Froogle.com indexes products
from online stores
 Froogle allows you to:
Search prices between X and Y
Find products near a certain
location
Find products with occurrences of a
word in the product name or
description
Look at products within a certain
category
Provide a list or grid view for easy
viewing and comparison shopping
http://catalogs.google.com
http://www.froogle.com
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Google Advanced News Search
 Google Advanced News
Search allows you to easily
search past news stories and
specify by:
News source
Location
Occurrences where appeared
(anywhere, headline, body, or
URL)
When published
−Anytime
−Date Range
http://news.google.com/advanced_news_search
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Google Alerts
 Google Alerts enable you to
monitor keyword activity on the
Internet and proactively notify
you via email of mentions of
those terms
Type: News, Web, Groups,
Blogs, Comprehensive
Frequency: once a day, as-ithappens, once a week
Other search operators apply
−Ex. allintitle: IBM Software
http://www.google.com/alerts
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Google Reader
 Google Reader is a Webbased RSS reader that
enables you to subscribe, read,
and filter RSS feeds
 You can import existing OPML
files so you don’t have to start
over
 Advantage over client-based
RSS feed readers:
You can get to your feeds on
any machine into which you can
sign on to the Web via a
browser!
Google continues to evolve
and add new features
Easy text-based key
commands for navigating the
feeds
−Sharing feeds
−Starring feeds
−Emailing feeds
http://www.google.com/reader
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Google Trends
 Compare any two search
terms
Limit by time period
Limit by location
 Kids love this
Google.com/trends
http://www.google.com/reader
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Google Home Page
 Google Personalized home
page allows you to drag and
drop RSS widgets and
customized content
 Provides a single view into
many resources, and is highly
customizable
 Tab-based nav allows you to
set up multiple desktops (one
for work, personal, etc.)
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Google Mobile
 Google Mobile allows you to
access numerous Google
resources via your mobile
device
 You can also SMS basic
commands to Google at
“46645”
Ex. “weather NYC”
−“sushi 78704”
−“dallas cowboys”
 Go to second URL below and
play with browser-based SMS
before running up your phone
bills
http://mobile.google.com
http://www.google.com/mobile/sms/index.html
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Google Reference: Google Cheat Sheet
 Google Cheat Sheet
provides quick view into
key operators and
commands to help you
with your searches, and
includes useful
examples.
http://www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html
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Google Reference: Google Guide
 Google Cheat Sheet
provides quick view into
key operators and
commands to help you
with your searches, and
includes useful
examples.
http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html
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Google Reference:
Simply Google
 Everything you wanted to
know about Google but
were afraid to search for.
 The Professional
Googler’s Google Index
(“Googledex?”)
http://www.usabilityviews.com/simply_google.htm
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Google Moon
 Google can even take you
to the moon and to Mars
 No rockets or spacesuits
required.
http://moon.google.com
http://mars.google.com
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