Hajian: Digital Literacy 21: II: Google Advanced Search

1. Choose words you think will appear on the page.
2. Focus on key ideas/concepts - no extra words.
3. Consult subject database to collect more terms/"specific phrases"
4. Do NOT include your entire research question - use only keywords

• Do:  chocolate health benefits
• Do NOT:  What are the health benefits of chocolate?

• On your open webpage, database article or document, hit CTRL-F and a search box will appear.  
   
• In Google Chrome it appears in the top right corner.  
   
• Type in the word you are searching for and you will see how many times the word is used on the page.  
   
• Use the up and down arrows to find the word in the text.

Put quotes around two or more words to search for that exact phrase:

"dark chocolate"

"milk chocolate"

"renewable energy"

"climate change"

"to be or not to be"

To search only .edu websites

site:edu   chocolate

To search only .gov websites

site:gov  chocolate

To search only a particular website - ex. National Institutes of Health

site:nih.gov  chocolate

HINTS:  

• NO SPACE between colon and domain/website
• Works for any top level domain (.com, .org, .gov, .edu, .mil) or website

1. Start Google search and get results list
2. Click on SETTINGS below the search box.  
3. Select "Advanced Search"

 Room Name:    ahajian

To remove unwanted results from search:

Use minus - for Google  and NOT in databases

In databases, use the word NOT

To search salsa, but not salsa dancing

salsa  NOT dancing

birds  NOT endangered

In Google, use the - minus sign

          salsa -dancing -dance

          birds -endangered

          bono -sonny -pro

HINTS:

NO SPACE between minus sign and unwanted word

Use OR to search synonyms of the same idea

"global warming" OR "climate change"

chocolate and health OR benefits OR flavonoids

chocolate health OR benefits OR flavonoids

HINTS:

• OR must be ALL CAPS

Google automatically uses AND when you type in keywords.  For example, if you type endangered birds into Google, it will be interpreted as endangered AND birds, thus automatically search for pages with both search terms.

In databases and book searches, you must use the word AND for the database to find articles with both/all search terms.  

Many words have multiple variations and how do you pick the correct one?  To solve this problem, you can have Google search all variations from the root word by using an asterisk *.  For example, if you were searching for information on France's economy, you could search France econom* 

The econom*  will find results with all forms of the word:

economy

economics

economical

economies

economist