Central Library ‚ Reference Department ‚ University of Otago ‚ 2007

Using the Internet for Research: Advanced Google Searching

Before you begin…

ƒ Identify the main concepts of your topic.
ƒ What are your key search terms?
ƒ Look for other key words and synonyms.
ƒ Be specific.
ƒ Put the most important terms first.

The results screen

■ Cached

Search the cached copy that Google stored when it retrieved the page if the current
page won’t connect.
Also very useful when you want to see where your search terms are on a page - the
cache copy highlights your search terms.
An HTML option, when offered, also highlights your terms.

■ Indented results are a second result from the site immediately above.

Find more relevant results...focus your search

■ Intitle

Use intitle:and your keyword (no space after ‘intitle:’) to return pages with that word
in the title and the other terms on the page somewhere. (Remember to put your most
important term first.)
eg ‘allintitle:otago museum virtually’
returns pages with ‘otago’ in the title and ‘museum’ and ‘virtually’ in the page
somewhere.
.
■ All intitle
allintitle:and your keywords produces a very specific and limited search –
all of your keywords will be in the title of the web page.

©Using the Internet for Research: Advanced Google Searching. Central Library. University of Otago. 2007 1
Find more relevant results…focus your search.
■ Domain searching
Use a site or domain search to limit your search to a particular type of site such as
New Zealand educational or academic sites.
eg sports otago site:ac.nz
only returns results from sites with ‘ac.nz’ in their URL (web address).
NB You must use the last part of the ‘top level’ domain in a URL - ie the last part before
the first single forward slash( /).

Common domains:
.com commercial company USA
.co.nz commercial NZ
.co.uk commercial site UK
.org non-profit making organisation
.org.nz non-profit organisation NZ
.org.uk non-profit UK
. .edu academic / educational site USA
.edu.au academic site in Australia
.ac.nz academic / educational site NZ
.ac.uk academic site UK
.gov government site
.gov.uk government site UK
.govt.nz government site NZ

■ Domain searching within a particular site

Useful when you want to find information within a particular web site
eg classes site:www.library.otago.ac.nz
returns webpages about classes held in the University of Otago Library

■ Search for a specific file type

Retrieve results with a link to specific file type (eg PDF).
eg ipod OR mp3 filetype:pdf
returns PDF documents about either Mp3’s or Ipods.

Available formats include:

Adobe Portable Document Format (pdf)
Microsoft PowerPoint (ppt)
Microsoft Word (doc)
Microsoft Excel (xls)

■ Exclude terms
Narrow your search by adding a minus sign immediately in front of the word you want
to exclude eg iraq –war will return pages on Iraq but which do not mention War.

■ Search within results (at the bottom of your result screen) allows you to continue
searching within the current result list.

©Using the Internet for Research: Advanced Google Searching. Central Library. University of Otago. 2007 2
Expand your search

■ Synonym function ~
Google’s synonym function uses the tilde symbol (the curly horizontal line ~).
Added directly before a word eg ~beginner, Google will find results that may not
necessarily include that word, but which will include results with similar meanings
and concepts such as 'beginner's', 'learn', 'tutorial' etc.

■ Definitions

1. All words for which Google can provide a dictionary definition (via Answers.com)
are underlined in the blue bar above your search results. The definition may help you
to determine other possible synonyms, key words and search terms.

2. Or use the Google ‘define’ option to see a definition for a word or phrase as used in
web sites and in online glossaries.
‘define: and the word you want a definition for’ returns definitions gathered from online
sources.

■ Similar pages

Use the Similar pages link to locate pages which Google feels have similar content.

■ Page links
Type "link:and the site URL" (no space after ‘link:’) in Google's search box to see a
list of all web pages which provide a link to that page
eg link:www.library.otago.ac.nz returns all pages which provide a link to the library on
their own pages. This can be useful for finding similar pages, and also for evaluation -
are they quality sites?

Other features…

■ Google alerts http://www.google.com/alerts

Automatic email updates of the latest relevant Google results based on your query or
topic.

©Using the Internet for Research: Advanced Google Searching. Central Library. University of Otago. 2007 3
Quick Checklist…

“phrase searching” use quotation marks around exact phrases

eg “the grass is greener”

OR returns results that include either of your search terms

eg ‘ipod OR mp3’ (NB: ‘OR’ must be UPPERCASE)

synonyms ~ find alternative keywords

eg ‘~deaf’ returns deaf, deafness, blindness, impairment etc.

define: find definitions from web pages and online glossaries etc
eg ‘define:mp3’

exclude use ‘-‘ immediately before a word you wish to exclude from
your search eg Iraq –war

intitle: returns pages with that keyword in the title and the other
terms on the page somewhere
eg intitle:Otago museum virtually

allintitle: only returns results that include all of your terms in the title
eg allintitle:otago museum virtually

domain search allows you to limit to particular sites ( eg academic only)

eg deaf site:ac.nz

search one site search within one site only

eg classes site:www.library.otago.ac.nz

filetype search for a particular filetype

eg ipod OR mp3 filetype:pdf

©Using the Internet for Research: Advanced Google Searching. Central Library. University of Otago. 2007 4
Checklist of criteria for evaluating web sites…
Library resources and databases have already been pre-screened and evaluated by
professionals.
Information on the Web is entirely unscreened - you must critically evaluate the content
yourself.
As with print information, Web based information should be appraised for
credibility, authority, currency, accuracy and bias.

■ Author information (who wrote the page?)

ƒ Author’s name?
ƒ Title / position? Credentials?
ƒ Does it provide contact information?
ƒ Is the author quoted by other sources?

■ Site information (who owns/publishes the site?)

ƒ Does the site have authority for its claims?

ƒ Does it link to an organisational affiliation?
ƒ Does it provide contact information?
ƒ Look for a header or footer identifying the sponsor or affiliation of the
site.
ƒ The URL can provide source information. Check the domain - .edu
.com .ac .gov .org .net
ƒ Do other reputable sites link to this site?

■ Currency (when was the page written?)

ƒ Is the information up-to-date enough for your purpose?

ƒ Is the page dated? When was it last updated?
ƒ Are the links within it current or expired?

■ Accuracy (is the information reliable?)

ƒ Is the information factual, detailed, exact and comprehensive?

ƒ Is it credible, probable or possible?
ƒ Can the information be verified in other sources?
ƒ Are links provided to supporting evidence?
ƒ Is it well designed and without spelling or grammatical errors?

■ Bias / Purpose (why was this page written?)

ƒ Is the information balanced and objective?

ƒ Who is the intended audience? (academics, potential customers?)
ƒ Is there advertising on the page?
ƒ Is the language used designed to sway opinion?
ƒ Does the author have any connection to an organisation or institution
that may influence their treatment of the topic?
ƒ If there is an overriding opinion it should be stated and not disguised.

Think critically! Evaluate!

©Using the Internet for Research: Advanced Google Searching. Central Library. University of Otago. 2007 5