Searching_Better

//This Information is a follow up to a workshop on Searching at EMS. There maybe a few pointers not covered in the workshop. Also, anyone can use these tips.//

First, I asked people to consider these are questions: 
 * 1) How do you search?
 * 2) Is it efficient and/or effective?
 * 3) Do your students do the same things?
 * 4) Could it be better?
 * If our search terms are not quite right and we choose one of the first few links that come up in a search (as students tend to), we may not find the best results.**

__**Things to consider and do:** __
 Use __advanced search__ (link to right of the search box) or @http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en You will notice the top 3 options will help to shape your search phrase, choose the one that makes the most sense for you depending on your search needs. //Note: when you see your search results the words in the search box may have modifies like + and - that should not be removed.//

This page has a lot of helpful information in order to search better - @http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=134479

Once you have put in a search term and click search the following may be helpful for refining your search: In the upper left-hand corner, you can fine tune your search by clicking on images, videos, news, etc.

__**NOTE THIS NO LONGER COMPLETELY ACCURATE - GOOGLE HAS CHANGED THE SEARCH PAGE layout!**__ In addition, below the search box click on Show options...

Everything down the left-hand side will modify your search. The items in bold are the currently selected options. Under All results you will find modifiers similar to the ones at the top of the page. You many want to try them all, but here are some highlights:


 * 1. Under Any time, if you click on Latest you will get news as it is put on the web.

2. Under Standard view, try each of the options.

• Related Searches may help you refine your search with additional terms

• Wonder Wheel, gives you a visual way to refine your search. Actual results on the right side of the page will change as you click items in the visual web(s). Your search terms will also change.

• Timeline - NEED MORE INFO

More Google Tools At the top of any Google page, you should find a link that says more toward the left. Next to more is an arrow indicating that there is a drop down list. When you click on more, you will see more options that Google thinks you might want to select. At the very bottom, click on even more. This takes you to a page listing all of Google's tools. This is the actual address http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/ They have organized everything into a few categories, but the categories are not perfect so ?????. Some of the items listed need to be downloaded and installed while others are on the web. You may want to look at some of the more focused search options like: Books, News, Patent Search, Scholar, etc. Labs toward the top of the right hand column has tools that Google is not quit ready to put out for everyone, but some people find great stuff there.

We looked at Google Squared.

"Fetch and organize facts from across the web. Google Squared automatically constructs a table of facts about any category you specify." http://www.google.com/squared

If you haven't use Google Squared before, I recommend clicking on one of the examples given to get the idea of how it works. Once you have a table, you can modify it by going to the last column or row and more items. There is a drop down list accessed by clicking in the empty box by Add or you can add your own. Existing columns and rows can be removed by clicking on the X next to the heading (word in bold). You probably want to know where Google got the information in the table. If you point at a cell, there will be a reference link at the bottom. In some cases, you will have a link to more than one option of what might go into the cell (answer). Often those are not available, but you may want to take a look anyway.

[|Yo LInk] Check out this browser add-on that will search your search results. No need to check every page that comes up in your search - yolink will do it for you.

//From their website, "yolink refines your search, & helps you find exactly what you're looking for, then it transports your results to social networks or Google Docs."//

This [|page] has documents to help you put this in place in your classroom.

A live discussion about yolink: http://live.classroom20.com/1/post/2010/05/yolink-special-guests-brian-cheek-and-jill-tinsley.html