Google may be the world’s largest search engine, but are you making the most of it? Maximise your Google research potential with advice from Tarja Moles
As you most likely know, Google (www.google. com or www.google.co.uk) is the world’s largest search engine. It has been so popular over the years that the neologism ‘to google’ was incorporated into the Oxford English Dictionary almost twenty years ago as a term for searching online. Although many of us use it daily, do we really know how to get the most out of it?
How to search
What makes Google so great is that it allows you to search intuitively. You just write your keyword(s) – or even a simple question (eg What time does the British Library open?) – and you’re presented with a list of results. As you’re typing your keyword(s), it even provides assistance by auto-predicting what you might be intending to write and checking your spelling in the process.
Intuitive searches make it easy for anyone to use Google and get results. However, the quality of the results may not always be what you’re looking for. Hence, it’s good to know a few tricks that can help you make your results list more relevant.
The easiest way to do this is to use the advanced search function. In fact, the more complex your research needs are, the more useful it is to conduct all your searches in this way.
To get started, go to www.google.com/advanced_search. Then, enter your search criteria in more detail. The page has numerous search boxes (as opposed to there being just one as there is on the main page): for example, there’s one box that will make the search engine look for all of your keywords, another box will search for an exact phrase, and yet another one will allow you to specify which words to exclude. All of these boxes can be used in combination, so consider what the best option(s) might be for you at any given time.
For instance, if you wanted to find out more about Jaguar cars, you could write Jaguar in the ‘All these words’ box and cat in the ‘None of these words’ box. Additionally, you could set filters to narrow down your results, for example, by selecting a specific language, geographical area or file type.
Sifting through results
When you conduct a search, Google will promptly show you the results – usually millions, if not hundreds of millions, of them. The order of the results is determined by Google’s algorithm and it may not reflect your preferences. To get to the most relevant entries as defined by you, try
