Google Search - For the Win!

Google Search is probably the most well known product Google has as part of it's application and web program offerings.  The company that has brought us Google Docs/Drive, Gmail, Google Maps, Chrome and the Android operating system also purchased Youtube not so long ago.

Contrary to what many think, when you perform a Google search, you're not actually searching the web, you're actually searching Google's index of the web... or at least as much as they can find of it.  Google's strength is to take all the sites on the web they index and compare them against your search terms using over 200 different questions.  They then rank the pages they think will best help you find what your're looking for... all in under 1 second.  (Don't believe me?  Just ask Matt!)

Finding what you want on the web should be simple with all of Google's amazing built-in-wizardry running in the background.  But without the knowledge of how to ask the right questions or how to sort through the potential millions of returns... You might end up spending more time then you bargained for...

This leads us to a quick 3 lesson series on how to get the most out of Google Search... (click here to get worksheet A for lessons #1 & 2 or worksheet B for lesson 3.)

Lesson #1:  Picking the Right Search Terms (Youtube Walkthrough Video)

How can appropriate search terms and queries guide targeted searches?

Individual Search Terms become Queries when we group them together to perform a search.  Sometimes we might ask a question (complete with a ? for punctuation), other times we might Parse the question to provide more appropriate Keywords for a better targeted query?

Four steps for successful parsing:

1. Look for Keywords
2. Use Synonyms for "maybe" statements
3. Add missing information
4. Remove unnecessary words

Here's two example queries that will help demonstrate this point:
Original Question: What food does Tyson like best?
Parsed Query: food Tyson favorite Percy Jackson

Lesson #2: Understanding Search Results (Youtube Walkthrough Video)

What do I need to know to help me choose the right links?

Each time you do a Google Search in the Search Bar you’ll be given a variety of data in return that includes your Natural Results,  Advertisements (Ads) and Search Filters.  The natural search results show the Web Address and include a Snippet of information that will assist you in determining if it holds any useful information for you.  The web address of a result can clue you in to how useful it might be if you’re able to decode the Server Name, Domain and other Suffixes.

After doing a quick search of the search terms "wind power" you should get a similar result as shown in the image above.

Image courtasy of: http://bigwebfaq.com/what-are-the-parts-of-a-domain-name/

Each web address designates what file or website will open when you click on it. The domain name (or address) includes the name of the site and a suffix, in most cases one of the following: .com (most companies), .org (used for organizations), .net (for network based site), .edu (colleges and universities, .gov (government run sites), .mil (military sites), etc.  

Some sites might have an extra two digit suffix that indicates that site is hosted on a server outside our country: .uk (England), .au (Australia), .jp (Japan), etc. Finally, each address may or may not end with a file extension name such as .htm/.html (website), .doc (Work document), .mp3 (music file), .jpg/gif (image files), .ppt (presentation file), etc.  

By examining a web address, you can often get a sense and idea of what type of information you'll find if you were to click on the link to go to that site. Some sites are better than others when it comes to research for the classroom. Can you think what type of site domain names or suffixes would help you find valid research information from a local university? You could if you knew how to read the domain name!

Lesson #3: Narrowing a Search to Get the Best Results (Youtube Tutorial)

What filtering strategies help me find accessible sources from the Web?

Successful Google searches can be narrowed down by effectively using the built in search Filters to better define your queries. Google filters can assist you in locating Sites with Images, locate resources by Reading Level, Maximize Image Searches and help broaden or expand your query and more.  

The Sites with Images filter gives preference to sites where the text matches your query but also includes a number of images. This can be helpful for younger searchers where text-only results may be more difficult to read and interpret. 

The Reading Level filter can be used for filtering through results for technical words or helping you to understand complex concepts. Setting search options to "Basic", "Intermediate" or"Advanced" will tailor the vocabulary level and sentence structure of the text on the resulting web pages. 

Filtering searches using the Image filter allows the user to quickly find images based on size, color and type.