Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog by William Badke

Author:William Badke [Badke, William]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
ISBN: 9781491722343
Publisher: iUniverse
Published: 2014-01-15T16:00:00+00:00

Google has a small inverted triangle next to the URL in each search result. Click on it, and you will find options to see a cache of the site (what it looked like the last time Google added it to its search index), similar sites, or an opportunity to share the site with others. Formerly, Google had an option to view a thumbnail picture of each site, but that choice is gone (as of Spring 2013).

If you sign in, using the box on the upper right of results, you will be prompted to set up an account with your g-mail ID. This will give you a few other features, like the ability to share websites with others. Google also provides automatic enhancements to your searches to improve results if you are logged in. But be cautious: Logging in gives Google more of an opportunity to retain information about what you are searching. If you have privacy concerns, go to the iGoogle privacy policy statement at http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

Google Instant is a feature that lists possible terminology under the search box while you are typing, so that you don’t always have to type in the whole search – just select the search terms from the list below the search box. This feature may also give you clues to a better way to formulate your search terms. There is a demo located at http://www.google.com/landing/instant/.

Google offers separate search engines for books (Google Books - http://books.google.com), scholarly material (Google Scholar - http://scholar.google.com), blogs (Google Blog Search - http://blogsearch.google.com), things to buy (Google Product Search - http://www.google.com/prdhp?tab=wf_and_ie=UTF-8), and so on. Each of these is either at the top of the Google home page or can be found under the “more” link.

In October 2013, Google search moved into the next phase of its development with a new algorithm (method of gathering and delivering search results) called Hummingbird (because it’s “precise and fast”). The goal is to move away from mere keyword-matching and deliver what the user is really looking for. All of this is wrapped around a better ability for Google to handle real questions. Thus, instead of searching on <climate change arctic>, Google wants to be able to handle a question like, <What’s happening in the arctic because of climate change?> At the time of publication of this edition of Research Strategies, the verdict is still out on how much Hummingbird will improve search.

All in all, Google remains the biggest and best Internet search engine. Try out some of its extra features to improve your searches.

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