Search tactics & strategies… a Teach-in

Daniel M. Russell, Ph.D.

Google Search User Experience Research

Nov 20, 2008

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Topics

• How to use internet search and internet resources

• Develop effective search query formation

• Learn how to evaluate the trustworthiness of web sites

• Special advanced features and tricks-of-the-trade

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Search changes everything

• Your experience of this talk is radically changed from what it was just a
few years ago.

• Now if I say something like…

“…this topic is much

so much more interesting
if you first have
a bumper of
Nottingham ale…”

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Nottingham Ale

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What you need to know…

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► Search literacy

• Six kinds of knowledge & skills needed to search:

site: ricoh.com
“double quotes”
minus (as exclude)
pure engine plus (include)
technique filetype:pdf
intitle:”cheat sheet”
… etc …

knowing when to shift

knowing when to stop
search move from wide to
strategy narrow
preserving state…

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 medical knowledge
plumbing knowledge
English lit
domain world languages …
knowledge

reverse dictionary
keyword frequencies
information contents of domains
Wikipedia
mapping
knowing what’s
available
… etc…

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 Is this believable?
How does this link to
other information I
assessment already know?
What is the
relationship of this
information to
authoritative sources?

Knowing particular
layout and features of a
site-specific site (metadata
knowledge sort/filter; variant
query mechanisms;
location of “print
version” alternate
view) 9
Six components of expertise

pure engine domain

assessment
technique knowledge

information search site-specific

mapping strategy knowledge

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►

The Art of
Keyword
Choice
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Hints to choose keywords…

1. Think about what you’re trying to find

2. Choose words that you think will appear on the page
3. Put yourself in the mindset of the author of those words
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 Choosing the right keywords

[ small note chant notation ]

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Ah ha!

• From: http://lphrc.org/Chant/

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 When you’re choosing search keywords…

• When you eat pig, the meat is called “pork.”

When you eat sheep, the meat is called “mutton.”
When you eat deer, the meat is called “venison.”

• Suppose you visit your cousin in Sydney, Australia and they serve
grilled kangaroo. What’s another word for “kangaroo meat”?

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Solution:

• Search for [ kangaroo meat name ]

• Scan through the results looking for a page with a plausible answer
– There are a number of ways to do this… the variations all have different
amounts of scanning
– Wikipedia (as it turns out) has a very nice article on this… with
discussion of the controversy

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 Think about synonyms

• When an artist is making a sculpture for a client, they often make a

small version of the sculpture in wax or clay. They’re usual a
preliminary sketch, presented to the client for approval

• Question:
What is this thing called?

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Answer

• The easiest solution I found was [ small artist model in wax ] – then
read through the snippets to find a definition.

• To double check, you can use Google as a dictionary:

[ define:maquette ]

• An important skill… reading through the snippets

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 Asking about the un-namable

I noticed the other day that everyone has a little indentation on their
upper lip.

Question: What’s that thing called?

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Answer

• Start with the simplest search you can think of:

[ upper lip indentation ]

If it’s not right, you can always modify it.

• When I did this, I clicked on the first result, which took me to Yahoo
Answers. There’s a nice article there about something called the
philtrum.

• Then I double checked on that by doing a [ define:philtrum ]

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 Use context terms

• I was hiking in the woods nearby in

March when I saw a pretty blue
flower. It was about 3 feet high,
and grew along the pathway in the
middle of the woods in Henry Coe
State Park.

• Question: Here’s the picture… can

you tell me what the common and
Latin name is of this flower?

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Answer: Wildflower image

• Search: web for [ wildflowers henry coe park ]

– Look for collections of pictures. Look for a matching / similar picture.
– http://www.coepark.org/wildflowers/blue/blue.html

• Answer: Hound's tongue (Cynoglossum grande)

• Path: I started with [ blue wildflowers california ], but that didn’t work.
Added [ blue wildflowers album california ], as a context term…
but still too many bad hits.

Then shifted to using location name as my context term (and removing

all the other words), giving me: [ wildflowers henry coe park ]
I noticed the exact hit at position #1.

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 Going deeper on a topic

• I kind of like that wildflower! What else can I find out about it?

• Where does it grow near me?

• Does it like to live in the sun or the shade?

• Question: How can you find out more gardening information about
this particular wildflower?

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Answer: Going deeper

• I started with the Latin name because it’s the MOST specific term
you can use. So I did a copy & paste from the previous search:

[ Cynoglossum grande ]

and then started looking around. I quickly found that I could see it
in Coe Park, near Morgan Hill.

• When I looked up the Wikipedia entry, I found that it likes shady

conditions. I then checked my work by doing a search for

[ Cynoglossum grande shady ]

Sure enough, other places say the same thing. It checks out!

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 Keep looking! Think of synonyms!

• Sometimes you need to keep trying, thinking your problem through

in different ways. Usually, if you think about how someone else
would describe the thing you’re looking for, that will suggest search
terms for you.

• Question: A friend told me that there is an abandoned city in the

waters of San Francisco Bay. Is that true? If it IS true, what was
the name of the supposed city?

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Answer: Synonyms

• Yes, it’s true… there IS an

abandoned city near what is
now Fremont. It was called
Drawbridge.

• The trick here is to think about

other ways of describing an
“abandoned city”—don’t just
assume that’s the best way to
describe it. Try this search:

[ ghost town san francisco bay ]

The former town of Drawbridge 26

Specifiers: term to get a certain kind of result

• Some search terms suggest results that are of a specific type.

– Wikipedia – will usually bring wikipedia articles to the front

– Image
– Video – when looking for videos
– Review – to find reviews of products, books, movies, etc.
– Forum – a forum is an online discussion between people on a given topic
• Example: [ Chinese wedding forum ]
– Overview – for an on-topic overview
– Tutorial – when looking for a tutorial on topic
– Workbook
– Help
– Documentation – to look for documentation on a topic
– FAQ – frequently asked questions list (often useful for topic summaries)
– DIY – “do it yourself” useful when looking for instructions 27
Art of Keyword Summary

1. Choose words that will be on the page(s) you seek

2. Start as simply as possible (don’t start with 5 words in your query)

3. If you know a very specific term, use it (but be sure it’s right!)

4. Learn from what you see on the pages you visit

5. Don’t get stuck on a particular term or phrase. If you’re not making

progress, re-think the terms you’re using

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► Consider using other content types

• Video: Youtube –be sure to look for [ TED talks ] – great speakers
e.g., Ola Rosling or Jane Goodall

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For example.. when are images a good resource?

• “What’s a fore topmast studding sail?”

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Ship
[ shipdiagram: Use
sail diagram ] image search

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Using Maps

• Using Google Maps is a great way to find where something is. But
suppose you want to find out how far APART two things are.

Question:
(a) Can you figure out how far the De Young museum is from the San
Francisco train station?

(b) Suppose you want to hike from the Yosemite Visitor’s Center up to
Glacier Point. How would you figure out how far a hike that is?

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Answer

• Use maps with driving directions to get the rough distance from
point to point.

• For Yosemite, you have to look for a map at the Yosemite Park
website.

• Then… use the maps “Distance measurement tool” (under My

Maps)

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Using other resources

Someone told me that in the mid-1500’s, people often would carry

around a special kind of notebook. They would use the notebook to
write down quotations that they heard, or copy passages from
books they’d read. The notebook was an important part of their
education, and it had a particular name.

Question: What was this kind of notebook called?

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Answer

• This is a really hard question. The best way to answer it is to first

look for a reverse dictionary.

[ reverse dictionary ]

• Then, go to the reverse dictionary (such as

http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml )

… and type in the words [ notebook quotations ] – then look thru

the list of words it shows you.

• Answer: “commonplace book”

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How to remove bogus results from your searches

• Sometimes you want to look up something that’s pretty common, so

there are LOTS of web pages out there. It’s even worse when the
word is really common. So how do you eliminate things you don’t
want?

• Question: Can you find a great recipe for salsa to make for dinner
tonight? IN PARTICULAR… your nephew is allergic to tomatoes.
Can you find a salsa recipe without tomatoes in it?

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Salsa - answer

• The trick here is to remove all those “salsa as dancing” meanings.

The quick way to do that in a web search is with the MINUS sign.

[ salsa –dancing ] -- this will remove all the dancing references

[ salsa –dancing -tomatoes ]

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You found a site you like and want to search JUST it…

• I really liked the recipes on Epicurious.com – use SITE: to restrict

search to just the site(s) you like

[ site:epicurious.com salsa ]

• Also use site: to limit searches to just universities (in the US):

[ site:.edu history american romanticsm literature ]

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Always check your work… Get multiple answers

• Can you figure out

the diameter of the
earth?

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Checking your work…

• Just do the obvious: [ diameter of the earth ]

But CHECK YOUR ANSWER by looking at different sites. Depending

on which one you choose, you’ll get somewhat different answers!

Site #1: 7,926.41 miles

Site #2: 12,756 km
Site #3: 12,756.3 km
Site #4: 7,900 miles

Why the differences?

- different measuring techniques
- different circles around (polar vs. equatorial)
- different resolutions of measurement (cm vs. mile scales)

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Calculator

• Can you figure out how to use the calculator on Google?

– Just type the expression into the search box

1. 4 + 5 + 19
2. 45023 / 34 + 5 / 29
3. Sin(0.5) ^ 2

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Conversions

• General pattern: number units1 in units2

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Problem: How fast does the World’s Fastest Man run in MPH?

• Steps:
1. What’s the current world record?
2. Make the conversions
3. Do the calculations

1. Use web search (news) to find out world record

2. Note that the record is in meters (100 meters)
3. Convert distance from meters to miles
4. Convert time from seconds to hours

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Finding tools on the web

• General point:
When you want to do something complex, LOOK for a tool to do it
before building your own.

• Find a way to graph the equations:

y = x2 + sin(x)
y = x2 * sin(x)

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Answer: Look for a tool

• Answer: use [ graphing calculator ] – then choose one

From coolmath.com

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► Credibility

• We all want to teach it… but how?

• Credibility = trustworthiness + expertise

– Oh yeah… it’s also socially contextualized: What’s credible to you might
not be credible to another social group.

• A large part of learning how to judge as credible is…

– What does your social group recognize as credible?
A large part of this is name recognition.
• (NYTimes v. Fox v. CNN…)
• (Folger Shakespeare Library v. Renaissance Pleasure Faire v. …)

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Credibility / Assessment

• How can you tell if something is credible?

1. Check links pointing TO the page:

use: [ link:<URL> ] e.g., [ link:www.ufos-alien.uk ]

2. Check the page and site on Alexa.com

use: www.alexa.com – look on the “Site overview” and “Traffic”

3. Check links pointing OUT from the page:

use: www.linkvendor.com/seo-tools/outbound-links.html 48
Example: Did NASA fake the moon landing?

• [ lunar landing hoax ]

• Click on first result: www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicapollo.html

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Heuristics to check credibility

• Look at the contact info for website

– usually on the home page, not a deep linked page

• Look at ads that run on the site

– what do they tell you about the content / operator?

• Use the link operator:

[ link:www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosmicapollo.html ]
• to see what other web pages link to this page

[ link:/www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/ ]
• to see what other web sites link to this page

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Use Alexa to get overall sense of site

www.alexa.com

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Use other
tools
LinkVendor.com
- see: outbound links
- see: keywords

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Find out who owns the site…

• http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp
• www.internic.net/ -- look under “Whois Search Results”

Report for:
www.globalwarminghoax.com

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► Advanced search techniques
• All search engines have advanced search capabilities.
Here are some of the advanced things I use often…

site:stanford.edu -- “site restrict” limits results to JUST that site

(Try: [ winograd ] vs. [ winograd site:stanford.edu ] or
[ moon image ] vs. [ moon image site:nasa.gov ] )

filetype:pdf – “filetype restrict” limits hits to just files of that type (can be
pdf, doc, ppt, jpg, gif, xls, etc.

(Try: [ sensemaking filetype:PDF ] )

intitle:”American Heritage” – requires that this string be in the TITLE of

of the page that’s found

(Try: [ museum ] vs. [ museum intitle:”American Heritage” ]

or [ museum American technology ] vs. [ museum intitle:”American Technology” ] )

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Advanced search page

• Access to all
of the advanced
features w/o
having to
remember
them all!

• The link to
advanced search
is on every
search page

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► Summary
1. Choose keywords carefully
• Think of the target you seek / how would it be written there?
• Start broad, scan quickly, focus in
• Use precise terms when you know them
• Use type specifier terms
e.g., wikipedia, image, video, review, forum, overview, tutorial, help, documentation…

2. Consider other content types (images, videos, maps)

3. Remember other information resources exist

• e.g., reverse dictionaries, synonym finder, forums, domain-specific sites

4. Techniques:
• Minus to remove terms from searches
• Check your result by looking for same answer elsewhere
• Calculator
• Conversions
• Site:

5. Credibility
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Have a research stance…

• Key takeaways:

– Make research be a part of everything you do

– Teach this attitude to your students

– Plan on learning new skills

• Nothing stays constant on the web
• Search engines continually improving
• New search tools / new

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End

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Custom Search Engines http://www.google.com/cse/

• A CSE provides a tailored

(usually more selective and
focused) search experience
for the topic of your choice

• Sample uses:
– Custom search for your web
site
– Group together multiple
web sites on a common
theme

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Finding a custom search engine (CSE)

• http://www.google.com/coop/cse/examples/GooglePicks
– Note that the searches can sometimes be a little funky…

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Alerts http://www.google.com/alerts

• Scan news, groups, web, videos, comprehensive… and generate

emails automatically
– Use in conjunction with advanced search techniques

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Mashups

http://schoolperformancemaps.com/

• Combines data from

multiple sources into
single view

• To find mashups:
[ mashup search ]

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Video

• Video.google.com
• Youtube.com
• …you can find lots more

• Notes:
– Lots of junk on the public
video sites… be careful of what you see
– Low quality
– Also lots of faked video. You can’t believe everything you see either.

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Images

• Images.google.com

• But remember than many

sites have their OWN image
collections. Especially
true of newspapers, .gov,
NASA, universities,
libraries, etc.

• Example:
– http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/index.html
– Site:usgs.gov – in image search

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Books

• Books.google.com
– scanned page images [ scuba ]

• Amazon.com – “search inside

this book” feature
– Look for Backyard Ballistics
then [ potato gun ]

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Patents

• Google.com/patents

• Usually want to use

advanced search here

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Scholar

• For scholarly searches…

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Searching libraries

• Very useful to do online searches of libraries…

– Especially when you’re looking on obscure topics
– Looking for an out-of-print author (not in Amazon)
– When you need to find a hardcopy to read
– Need access to local resources (e.g., Palo Alto Historical Association)

Palo Alto, 1960 68

Palo Alto

• http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/library/

– Search the catalog (another “deep web”

area!
– (Click on the “search” icon, right hand
side. Red and blue. Looks a little
like a train…)

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Advanced Search Tips & Tricks

• When to do an image search?

– When looking for a picture… obviously
– But consider it when you’re stuck

– Try: [ resume ] -- but try doing an IMAGE search for resume!

• Oneboxes:
– [ define:moa ] – note: contrast this with [ define moa ]
– [ movies palo alto ]
– [ pizza near mountain view ]
– [ weather mountain view ]
– phone number and map: [ kepler’s menlo park ]
– <ups tracking number>
– Flight numbers (to track a flight): [ AA102 ]

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