How to do effective searches to obtain better results using the standard Google search screen.

1. Digital Literacy.
Searching the Internet
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2. Getting the most from
Google Searches
For most Google is the first thing they go to
when they want to find information.
There are 2 basic search screens:
1. Standard (default) screen
2. Advanced Search Screen
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3. Google – Standard search screen
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There are a few things to think about before starting your search.The first is to
understand your question. (What you are trying to find?)
Think about and decide on the most specific descriptive keywords you can think of
to help narrow down the range of results.
• Avoid using words such as “the” and “an” in your search
• Also: the better, more reliable search results are found when you do not ask a
question.
• If your search is not successful, try using synonyms. Google is useful that it will
try other spellings if your version does not find anything.

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1. Google automatically defaults to an “AND” search therefore automatically
looks for results that use all your search terms.
2. If your topic has 2 or more related keywords, use phrase searching
techniques. ie. “Genetically modified food”
This means that these words must be found together in that order on
order on a site rather than the three words being individually found
found somewhere on the site.
Try: “Sherlock Holmes”
NOTE: Google (and Bing) once used to have a “not” option to exclude terms
but this no longer works.
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better results
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You can see
the phrase
you searched
for in bold

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When you run your search and have the results, there are several options at
the top of the that are useful.
In particular use the “SearchTools” option if you want to limit your search to
Australian sites or recently updated data.
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If you want results with either (OR any) of your words, you can use the OR keyword.
This means that either (or any) of your search terms were found.
For example: a search for “Sherlock Holmes” OR “DoctorWatson” will find pages
containing either the phrase “Sherlock Holmes” OR “DoctorWatson” and some
page results will contain both.
Another way to be more specific and add extra search terms is to use parentheses
around your terms.
For example searching (“Sherlock Holmes” OR “DoctorWatson”) “television series”
will find pages containing either the phrase “Sherlock Holmes” or “DoctorWatson”
linked with the phrase “television series”.
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You will have seen the web addresses of the sites you visit.The information
here is useful to know and use.
Some questions to keep in mind:
1. Do you recognize the domain name?
The domain name is found after the http:// and www. to the first forward slash /. A domain
name can sometimes provide clues about the quality of information of a site or tell you
what a site is about.
2. What is the extension in the domain name?
Extensions are an important part of domain names. Extensions are intended to show the
type of establishment that owns and publishes the domain.
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Here is a list of COMMON EXTENSIONS to look for:
.edu = Educational organization
.k12 = US school site (not all US schools use this)
.sch = School site (some schools outside of the US use this)
.ac = academic (in Britain and New Zealand)
.gov = Government agency
.com = Company (usually .co in the UK)
.net = Network
.org =A Non-profit organization
.mil = Military institution
Other extensions to look for: .biz, .name, .pro, .info. are used for commercial purposes.
Extensions can also include country codes, such as .au, .ca, .ru, .uk, .za, etc. If there is no
country code, the organisation is registered in the USA.
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A complete list can be found at:
http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/text/web_country_codes.html.
Some extensions may provide more reliable information than others, but there are
no guarantees and all information should be checked and verified.
Those that may be more reliable include .edu, .gov, .k12.
The ones to be more careful with are .com, .org, .net. as these can be bought by
anybody.
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Using the Domain options in your searching.
Searching within a specific site:
If you know a useful site or you want to search a specific site.
For example: You want to search for information about the space shuttle
shuttle and you know there is something on the NASA site,.
You can search: "space shuttle" site:nasa.gov
Try: "fishing safety" site:bom.gov.au
cosmetices site:nova.org.au
Something on the “space race”? Most of the searches the come up are US
sites.
If you put in the search “space race” site:.ru you get Russian sites and a
different slant.
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DoingWildcard searches
There are times you don’t remember the whole name/phrase of the thing you
are looking for or perhaps you might not be sure of the spelling .
You can do a search of this partial phrase by using the asterisk (*).
Try the following searches:
• "a * saved is a * earned“
• "a * stitch in time saves *“
• "the three * "
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Other useful searching tips
If you want to know what other pages link to the particular site you are interested in, you can use link:
as a keyword.
For example: link:whitefriars.vic.edu.au
You can search for sites similar to the one you are on by using related: in your search
Example: related:whitefriars.vic.edu.au
If you go to a page that has changed, but you want to refer to an earlier page you can use cache:
Example: cache:whitefriars.vic.edu.au
If you can’t remember the above you can combine your searches and use info: and from here you will
get a list of linked options to follow
Example: info:whitefriars.vic.edu.au
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Example: info:whitefriars.vic.edu.au
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More search options
You can chose to do a search of page titles, urls or intext searches
To search for your topic in the title of a page you use - intitle:
Example: intitle:volcanoes
If you are searching more than one word you can use allintitle: if you want all the
words in the title
Example: allintitle:human and bionics
You can also search for something that appears in the URL of a page using inurl:
Example: inurl:amazon
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More search options
You can ask for a particular file type For example: use filetype:pdf
bionics filetype:pdf
You can check the weather forecast by typing in weather then the postcode
Example: weather 3111
You can quickly check definitions by typing in definition then the word
define:
You can do quick calculations and conversions
Try: 403+683 429-59 40*32 1020/5
Conversions metric to Imperial
3cups in ml
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More search options
Conversions metric to Imperial for example 3cups in ml
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