[vip_students] Re: Google Tips and Tricks! "Version 1"
- From: "Susan Curry" <SusanCurry@xxxxxxx>
- To: <vip_students@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:35:32 +0100
hi paul,
this is great, my daughter is getting married next month and i have been able
without hastle as in the past been able to look up the hymns that we will be
singing at the church.
a huge big thanks
susan
----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Traynor
To: vip_students@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 9:35 AM
Subject: [vip_students] Google Tips and Tricks! "Version 1"
Google Tips and Tricks.
Introduction:
I hope to keep updating this tutorial from time to time. I want you all to
give the tips in this newsletter a go and not just file them away for “future
reference”. Its actually enjoyable to try them out and see how you get on.
Most people will either use JAWS, Supernova Zoomtext or Hal and if your
programs
which I have just mentioned are up n the years say acquired within the last
4 years or so then using Google will be no problem.
First of all lets look at how our screen readers/magnification software
interacts with the Google search engine and indeed you can apply what I am
going to say here to many or all web pages which contain forms.
When you first load up Google it will contain advertisements, various other
options and preferences for you to use or take a look at but mainly you find
that Google is a text based search engine which is fine for us.
What we are going to look at in this lesson is the fact that Google has "one
edit field" for us to place those important search words into and hope that
it comes back with loads of useful results. Google will do this provided you
take a little time to gain a little knowledge about how it works and how
best to use it.
(Using JAWS and Supernova within Google) When we enter Google basically the
first thing we need to look for is the search box in Google where we type in
our search words. With jaws you can first go to the top of the Google
webpage using keys: "control plus home" on your keyboard then arrow down the
page till you come to the search edit box which jaws will announce and you
then press the "enter key" which activates the jaws forms mode, a great
feature in the jaws program itself.
There is a dedicated set of keystrokes for jumping directly into a Google
form field such as the search box and this again applies to all form fields
on any webpage. The keystrokes for this are: jaws5 and versions of jaws 4
"control, shift and tab key". If its jaws6 onwards then versions use key
"letter E" and
it will place you in the search field ready for you to activate forms mode
with the enter key.
You can use the above mentioned technique on any webpage which has form
fields. Note: if there are more than one edit box on a webpage you only need
to press and activate the jaws forms mode on the first edit or list box and
any more edit or list boxes, checkboxes etc that come after on that page you
can simply tab key to them and use them. Once you go to the next or continue
button on a webpage and move off the current webpage to a new page will jaws
forms mode turn off and you would have to activate it again if you need to
on the next page if there are forms to be filled in.
I have talked so far about jaws on the pages with forms and I will say here
that supernova acts much the same as jaws in this regard jaws calls this
function "forms mode" while supernova calls it "interactive mode". If any of
the I.T Trainers on the list can post a more detailed account of how
supernova works on a webpage with forms then please do.
(Supernova on the web)
Here I am going to switche over to Supernova for a moment and talk about it
and how it works on the web.
Yes, there are a lot of differences between using the jaws keyboard strokes
and the supernova ones.
(Google Web Search Basics)
Whenever you search for more than one keyword at a time, a search engine has
a default strategy for handling and combining those keywords. Can those
words appear individually anywhere in a page, or do they have to be right
next to each other? Will the engine search for both keywords or for either
keyword?
Google defaults to searching for occurrences of your specified keywords
anywhere in the page, whether side-by-side or scattered throughout. To
return results of pages containing specifically ordered words, enclose them
in quotes, turning your keyword search into a phrase search , to use
Google's terminology.
Now let me give you an idea of a search. This is called a phrase search and
if you study it carefully you will see why.
[Begin Sample]
to be or not to be
Above I have typed in some words, the phrase: to be or not to be.
Google sees all those words as just being separate words and will return
results where any or all of these words are scattered all over the place.
Now that’s fine if that is what you want but remember this is a phrase
search and I am studying for say an important English exam
In order for those words to appear together as a combined phrase enclose
them within quotation marks using keys "shift plus number 2"
See the following sample of what I mean. So we are in the Google search box
and here is what you should have inserted:
"To be or not to be"
(Below are the list of results I got from Google following the above
technique)
Book results for "To be or not to be"
To Be or Not to Be -
by William V. Rauscher - 142 pages
Shakespeare - To be, or not to be: that is the question William Shakespeare
- To be, or not to be (from Hamlet 3/1). To be, or not to
be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The
slings ...
www.artofeurope.com/shakespeare/sha8.htm - 4k - 13 Aug 2005 - Cached -
Similar pages To BE or Not to BE, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and
Love ...
All you ever wanted to know about barium enemas but were afraid to ask from
the webisite for adults, married adults that is.
marriedadults.com/bariumenema.php - 12k - 13 Aug 2005 - Cached - Similar
pages To Be or Not to Be (1942) To Be or Not to Be - Cast, Crew, Reviews,
Plot Summary, Comments, Discussion, Taglines, Trailers, Posters, Photos,
Showtimes, Link to Official Site, ...
www.imdb.com/title/tt0035446/ - 51k - 13 Aug 2005 - Cached - Similar pages
Block quote start
www.imdb.com/Title?0035446
Similar pages
Block quote end
To Be or not to Be: An Investigation of Artists and Suicide To Be or Not to
Be is no doubt the most famous line William Shakespeare ever wrote.
It's the first line of Hamlet's Act III, Scene 1 soliloquy in which he ...
www.rnw.nl/culture/suicide/ - 11k -
Cached -
Similar pages
FunBrain.com - 2Bee or Nottoobee
2Bee and Queen Nottoobee need flowers to make honey. Help them find flowers
by choosing the correct verb to complete the sentences. Two levels
available.
www.funbrain.com/verb/ - 5k -
Cached -
Similar pages
Amazon.com: To Be or Not to Be (1942) : Video To Be or Not to Be, Ernst
Lubitsch, Carole Lombard, Jack Benny, Robert Stack, Felix Bressart, Lionel
Atwill, Stanley Ridges, Sig Ruman, Tom Dugan, ...
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ tg/detail/-/630170648X?v=glance - 61k - Cached -
Similar pages Block quote start
Amazon.com: To Be or Not to Be (1983) : Video To Be or Not to Be, Alan
Johnson, Mel Brooks, Anne Bancroft, Tim Matheson, Charles Durning,
Christopher Lloyd, José Ferrer, Ronny Graham, Estelle Reiner, ...
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ tg/detail/-/6301798643?v=glance - 58k - Cached -
Similar pages Block quote end
To Be Or Not To Be
Scene-indexed HTML of the plays. Options for viewing via wireless devices.
www.tobeornottobe.com/ - 2k -
Cached -
Similar pages
Poetry - William Shakespeare - To be or not to be - that is the ...
Poetry - William Shakespeare - To be or not to be - that is the question.
www.davidpbrown.co.uk/poetry/william-shakespeare-3.html - 5k - 13 Aug 2005 -
Cached - Similar pages
(End of first page of results)
[End of sample]
Google will return matches only where those words appear together.
Therefore I am more likely in my list of results to get exactly what I want
from the search and therefore I will spend less time and frustration trying
to find what I want.
Now try the above sample or else find a line of text yourself and see how it
works for you. Remember to use quotation marks each side of the search.
I will end for now on this subject so any questions relating to this topic
or anything else please write in to the list.
[Bulleon Searching]
We are going to talk about boolean searching in this lesson.
Whether an engine searches for all keywords or any of them depends on what
is called its Boolean default .
Search engines can default to Boolean using the word, "AND" (which will
search for all keywords) or Boolean using the word, "OR" (searching for
any keywords).
Note:Read the above paragraph well and understand it so you will know what
it means exactly.
Google's Boolean default is the word, "AND" , which means that, if you
enter query words without modifiers, Google will search for all of your
query words. For example, if you search for:
snowblower Honda "Green Bay"
Google will search for all the words.
If you prefer you can add in boolean words: the word, "or" for example to
tell google that you want any or all of the words such as the following
example.
snowblower OR snowmobile OR "Green Bay"
Note:Read through the words above carefully and notice where I have placed
the word, "OR". This tells google I would like any of the words in my
selection or indeed all of the words.
Note: Make sure you capitalize the OR ; a lowercase or won't work
correctly.
Now I would like any of you to try practicing the above using perhaps words
of your own choosing and read over the above carefully as it might not make
much sense at first but it will come to you as you go along. As always, just
write into the list asking any further questions you have in relation to this
topic of "basic Boolean searching".
(Negation “Excluding or including words”)
If you want to specify that a query item must not appear in your results,
prepend a – ( minus sign or dash):
snowblower snowmobile -"Green Bay"
This will search for pages that contain both the words “snowblower” and
“snowmobile,” but not the phrase “Green Bay.”
Note that the – symbol must appear directly before the word or phrase that
you don’t want. If there’s space between, as in the following query, it won’t
work as expected:
snowblower snowmobile - "Green Bay"
Be sure, however, to place a space before the - symbol.
( Explicit Inclusion)
On the whole, Google will search for all the keywords and phrases that you
specify (with the exception of those you’ve specifically negated with – , of
course). However, there are certain words that Google will ignore because they
are considered too common to be of any use in the search. These words—“I,”
“a,” “the,” and “of,” to name a few—are called stop words .
You can force Google to take a stop word into account by prepending a + (
plus) character, as in:
+the king
Stop words that appear inside of phrase searches are not ignored. Searching
for:
"the move" glam
Will return to me information about the rock and roll industry and its news.
This will result in a more accurate list of matches than:
the move glam
simply because Google takes the word “the” into account in the first example
but ignores it in the second.
( Synonyms)
Every so often, you get the feeling that you’re missing out on some useful
results because the keyword or keywords you’ve chosen aren’t the only way to
express what you’re looking for.
The Google synonym operator, the ~ ( tilde) character, prepended to any
number of keywords in your query, asks Google to include not only exact
matches, but also what it thinks are synonyms for each of the keywords.
Searching for:
~ape
turns up results for monkey, gorilla, chimpanzee, and others (both singular
and plural forms) of the ape or related family, as if you’d searched for:
monkey gorilla chimpanzee
along with results for some words you’d never have thought to include in
your query.
Google figures out synonyms algorithmically, so you may be surprised to
find results that your garden-variety thesaurus would not have suggested.
(Synonyms are bolded along with exact keyword matches on the results page, so
they’re easy to spot.)
( Number Range)
One of the more difficult things to convey in an Internet search query is a
range—of dates, currency, size, weight, height, or any two arbitrary values.
The number range operator, .. (two periods), looks for results that fall
inside your specified numeric range.
Looking for that perfect MP3 player, hard drive size 30 or 60 gigs? Try
this for size:
Iaudio X5 size 30..60
Perhaps you’re looking to spend $800 to $1,000 on a nice digital SLR camera;
Google for:
slr digital camera 3..5 megapixel $800..1000
The one thing to remember is always to provide some clue as to the meaning
of the range, e.g., $ , size , megapixel , kg , and so forth.
You can also use the number range syntax with just one number, making it
the minimum or maximum of your query. Do you want to find some land in Ireland
that’s at least 500 acres? No problem:
acres Ireland land 500..
On the other hand, you might want to make sure that raincoat you buy for
your guide dog doesn’t cost more than $30. That’s possible too:
raincoat dog ..$30
Google normally does not recognize special characters such as $ in the
search process. But because the $ sign was necessary for the number feature,
you can use it in all sorts of searches including most of the time “euro
pricing”. Try the search "yard sale" bargains 10 and then "yard sale" bargains
$10 . Notice how the second search gives you far fewer results? That’s because
Google is matching $10 exactly.
( Simple Searching and Feeling Lucky)
The I’m Feeling Lucky™ button is a thing of beauty. Rather than giving you a
list of search results from which to choose, you’re whisked away to what Google
believes is the most relevant page given your search (i.e., the first result
in the list). Entering washington post and clicking the I’m Feeling Lucky
button takes you directly to http://www.washingtonpost.com . Trying
president will land you at http://www.whitehouse.gov .
( Case Sensitivity)
Some search engines are case-sensitive; that is, they search for queries
based on how the queries are capitalized. A search for "GEORGE WASHINGTON" on
such a search engine would not find “George Washington,” “george washington,”
or any other case combination.
Google is case-insensitive. If you search for Three , three , THREE , or
even ThrEE , you get the same results.
( Full-Word Wildcards)
Some search engines support a technique called , in which you add a wildcard
character—usually * (asterisk) but sometimes ? (question mark)—to part of your
query, requesting the search engine to return variants of that query using the
wildcard as a placeholder for the rest of the word. For example, moon* would
find moons, moonlight, moonshot, etc.
(Stemming)
What is stemming?.
Well its where if I search for the word in google; “swim”, I might get
returned in my list of results, “variations. For example,
*“Swimming or "swims".
Google doesn’t support explicit stemming. It didn’t used to support
stemming at all, but now it implicitly stems for you. So, canine dietary will
yield results for dog diet, diets, and other variations on the theme.
(Wild Cards)
Google does offer a full-word wildcard. While a wildcard can’t stand in for
part of a word, you can insert a wildcard (Google’s wildcard character is * )
into a phrase, and the wildcard will act as a substitute for one full word.
Searching for three * mice , therefore, finds three blind mice, three blue
mice, three green mice, etc.
What good is the full-word wildcard? It’s certainly not as useful as
stemming, but then again, it’s not as confusing to the beginner. * is a
stand-in for one word; ** signifies two words, and so on. The full-word
wildcard comes in handy in the following situations:
(Checking frequencies of phrases)
Note: here we are going to use the tag of “InTitle”
Checking the frequency of certain phrases and derivatives of phrases, such
as: intitle:"methinks the * doth protest too much" and intitle : "the * of
Seville" ( intitle: is described next in “Special Syntax ”).
Filling in the blanks on a fitful memory. Perhaps you remember only a short
string of song lyrics; search using only what you remember rather than randomly
reconstructed full lines.
Let’s take as an example the country hit of years ago by Lacy Jane Dalton,
“sixteenth Avenue”. Consider the following line: God Bless the boys who make
the noise on Sixteenth Avenue.”
Perhaps you’ve heard that lyric, but you can’t remember if the word “
noise” is correct or if it’s something else. If you’re wrong (if the correct
line is, for example,
“God Bless the boys who make the sound on Sixteenth Avenue”
you’ll come away with the sad conclusion that no one on the Internet has
bothered to post lyrics to L.J Dalton songs.
The solution is to run the query with a wildcard in place of the unknown
word, like so:
"God Bless the boys who make the *, on Sixteenth Avenue"
And here is the song in its entirety for you all to practice. I joke not!, I
am thinking of forming a new music groups after this so be prepared,*smiles*.
From the corners of the country
From the cities and the farms
With years and years of living
Tucked up underneath their arms
They walk away from everything
Just to see a dream come true
So God bless the boys who make the noise
On 16th Avenue
With a million dollar spirit
And an old flattop guitar
They drive to town with all they own
In a hundred dollar car
‘Cause one time someone told them
About a friend of a friend they knew
Who owns, you know, a studio
On 16th Avenue
Now some were born to money
They’ve never had to say “Survive”
And others swing a 9 pound hammer
Just to stay alive
There’s cowboys drunks and Christians
Mostly white and black and blue
They’ve all dialed the phone collect to home
From 16th Avenue
block quote
Ah, but then one night in some empty room
Where no curtains ever hung
Like a miracle some golden words
Rolled off of someone’s tongue
block quote
And after years of being nothing
They’re all looking right at you
And for a while they’ll go in style
On 16th Avenue
block quote end
block quote end
It looked so uneventful
So quiet and discreet
But a lot of lives where changed
Down on that little one way street
‘Cause they walk away from everything
Just to see a dream come true
So God bless the boys who make the noise
On 16th Avenue
You can use this technique for quotes, song lyrics, poetry, and more. You
should be mindful, however, to include enough of the quote to find unique
results. Searching for
"God * boys" will glean far too many irrelevant hits.
(End of newsletter)
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