Quick link: Google Guide
Quick link: Google Cheat Sheet
Early last year, I attended Nancy Blachman’s presentation for librarians on using Google. All the nifty features I had never noticed blew me away. Her Google Guide tutorial is excellent for improving your searching skills.
Nancy makes it a point to keep up with Google’s inhouse developments, and she seems to know people who work there. However, her site is not affiliated with Google.
I want to highlight a sampling of the tips I learned from Nancy on using Google…
Hints & Highlights
- Use the tilde (~) to search synonyms of a word
- Example: lighthouse ~glossary
- This will search for glossaries about lighthouses (as well as definitions, terminology lists, and other related documents).
- Use two dots (..) to search within a range of numbers
- Example: recumbent bicycle $250..$1000
- Include the hyphen (-) in your search where a term is sometimes but not always hyphenated
- Do not search for “email” (This search will only cover the exact word, email)
- Do search for “e-mail” (This search will include e-mail, email, and e mail)
- Use prefixes
- define: If I type “define:temerity” - Google gives me the definition of this word
- movie: If I type “movie:recruit” - Google gives me links to Web pages about the Pacino movie, The Recruit, and excludes websites about recruits or recruiting
- weather: If I type “weather:las vegas” – Google takes me straight to Las Vegas weather sites
If you are a busy Googler reading this post, at least print out Nancy’s Google cheat sheet and keep it at your desk.
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