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Searching Resources & Options
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Searching Resources & Options

go.ncsu.edu/searchingresources

Become a Better Searcher

Description:

Getting Started

Google Drive Searching

Up your search skills (Google Search Education Online)

Voice Searching Options

Search with a picture from a website

To search with a picture from a website, open your Chrome browser and navigate to the website that contains the photo you want to use. Once you have the image up, right-click on it and select “Search Image with Google Lens.” A new tab will open that will contain the results for that image. If the image results are for an established business, the results will include its ratings and reviews.

Advanced Search and Google Functions

When you're searching for specific material, use Advanced Search to plug in qualifiers that will narrow down your search. Here are more Advanced Search tricks to learn.

  1. Search within a domain: You can use Google to search within a specific domain using the site: syntax. What it does is limits all search results to that specific website only, which can drastically narrow down your search efforts. Only let Google bring up .edu or .gov sites, for example, if you want primary sources or authoritative information.
  2. Select file type: This very handy qualifier is useful when you need to quickly find certain types of data or information for a presentation. You can choose to limit results to .pdf, .xls, Google Earth, .doc, .rtf, and more.
  3. If you're searching for open source material or unlicensed material, this is a good trick to make sure you're on track.
  4. Exclude terms: Use a minus sign right before a word (-example) to eliminate it from your search results.
  5. Wildcard search: The * key acts as a wildcard in Google search that can be helpful with early stages of research. Google gives the example [Obama voted * on the * bill] to learn about Obama's votes on several different bills.
  6. Blogs: After conducting a search, click on the "Blogs" button under "Show Options" to view only blog posts on the subject. Also see: http://www.blogsearchengine.org/
  7. Limit synonyms: Did you know that Google sometimes finds results that don't match your search exactly, but that use synonyms instead? Type in the + sign before a search to eliminate synonyms and use your words only.
  8. Language: For foreign language or international business or policy classes, or if you just have to have a primary source, use this selector to change language settings.
  9. Where your keywords show up: When you're looking for very specific information or for a specific kind of source, you can use this feature to limit where the keywords show up in your search: the URL, title of the article, in links to the page, or just anywhere in the page.
  10. Find pages that link to the page: Use this feature when you want to do a little more digging. You'll stumble across blog posts, journal articles and news stories that offer more in-depth commentary.
  11. Quotation marks: Put quotation marks around a phrase to let Google know you want that exact phrase in that order.
  12. Research with Google Books: You can find Google Books at http://books.google.com/. You can also find a Books link at the top of Google search results.
  13. Instant Search Cards - Blog post link
  14. Reverse Image Search - https://images.google.com/ (drag image to the search bar)
  15. Google Trends - https://trends.google.com/ -  (what are the current searches trends)
  16. Google Alerts - https://www.google.com/alerts (keep up to date with items of interest)
  17. Google Maps - Tour builder https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/
  18. Story Builder - https://docsstorybuilder.appspot.com/
  19. Google Fonts - https://fonts.google.com/
  20. Quick Draw - https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com/
  21. Toontastic - https://toontastic.withgoogle.com/
  22. Cardboard Camera - Android app link or iOS app link
  23. Gmail Templates (Formerly) Canned Responses - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0OROloSgoQ
  24. Google Translate Mobile App - Android app link or iOS app link
  25. Share to Classroom - Chrome Web Store link
  26. Google Cast - Chrome Web Store link (screen sharing)
  27. Spell Up - https://spellup.withgoogle.com/ - Spelling game
  28. Google Keep - https://keep.google.com/ - Blog Post link
  29. Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides - Chrome Web Store link
  30. Google Arts & Culture - https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute
  31. 15 Ways to Search Google 96% of People Don’t Know About

How To Google Your Way To Better Search Results

Most Google searches are relatively accurate. However, sometimes our research requires sophisticated information that is not found in a simple Google query. Learn how you can hack Google to make it find exactly what you're looking for without a lot of time or effort.

Sure, you know you can search the Web with Google, but did you know all the other neat things you can do with this amazing search engine? Keep reading for six things you didn't know you could do with Google.

Add some oomph to your Google searches with this handy table of Google Advanced Search shortcuts.

Do you skim the surface of what Google offers? Learn how to master Google with advanced Google search techniques and make your searches super efficient. 

Review all the topics covered in the Google Advanced Search online course in this roundup of every single lesson.

Tired of combing through Google documentation for the advanced search or Help pages? Here is a comprehensive list of all the advanced search pages that Google has to offer, from Gmail to Search to Google Scholar.

Got a few minutes? Check out this slideshow and get a dozen new ways you can use Google that will make your searches even more powerful.

Scholar Search

Google Scholar is an excellent resource for undergraduate and graduate students who want a quick way to connect to authoritative information from journals and scholarly publications - https://scholar.google.com/. Use these tips to search Scholar.

  1. Search by author: Scholar recommends using the author's initials, or at least first initial and last name, to increase your results.
  2. Search by journal: Used Scholar's Advanced Search to find articles published in a specific journal or publication.
  3. Find articles and pieces that reference that article: By typing in the name of an article in quotation marks, you'll find that paper plus other papers that reference it.
  4. Limit by date: Make sure you're citing the most updated research by limiting your returns by date.
  5. Find court opinions: If you're searching for court opinions, you can search by state, choose only U.S. federal court opinions, or expand your search to all journals and opinions.
  6. Select collections: Also in Advanced Search is the option to select collections like Chemistry and Materials Science or Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities.
  7. Search Library Links: Under Google Scholar Preferences, you'll find the option to find library access links.
  8. Start with citations, then move offline: Sometimes Google will pull up a citation but not the whole piece because it hasn't found it online. If it looks like a good match for your research, copy it down and bring it to your librarian for help locating it.
  9. Find foreign language journals: Look for primary materials from foreign language journals in Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Spanish and more.
  10. Bibliography Manager: Bibliography Manager is a Scholar feature that lets you add citations in various formats like RefWorks, RefMan, EndNote, and BibTeX. This is found in the Preferences section.
  11. Using Google Scholar and other Google resources for education
  12. Research Tools for the Classroom
  13. Search over 5 million books from the past 500 years - https://books.google.com/ngrams

Reference Tools and Tips

Google is full of tricks for pulling up statistics, basic facts and reference material. Check here for great shortcuts for finding definitions and more.

  1. Dictionary: Type the word "define" before the word you want to look up in the Google search bar.
  2. Calculator: Just type in an equation with the = sign to use Google's calculator feature. You can find more calculator operators and symbols here.
  3. Books: Click on the "Books" option under "Shop Options" after entering your search. You'll find Google books on the subject, and can quickly add them to your library or preview them.
  4. Unit conversion: Let Google complete unit conversions for you when you type in a problem, like "4 lbs in kg."
  5. Cooking conversions: When you're trying out mom's recipes at school, use this feature to solve cooking conversions.
  6. Numeric ranges: If you want to know who was president during a certain timeframe, type in "president 1940…1950" for example. You can also use this feature to find results that contain certain dollar amounts or other numerical ranges.
  7. Stock Quotes: For business classes, you can use the Stock Quotes search by typing in the ticker symbol. Google will bring up current stock quotes.
  8. Glossary: Type in a word followed by ~glossary to find glossaries, term lists and dictionary entries for that word.
  9. Package tracking: Find out when your next care package arrives when you use this feature.
  10. Public data: Look up public data by typing in keywords and a location, like "population california."
  11. Area Code Lookup: This feature should be useful when applying for jobs or looking for places to visit in your area for research.
  12. Froogle: Whether you're shopping for the best deal or are conducting market research for a project, use Google's product search tool, Froogle.
  13. Google’s Stopwatch Feature - In addition to the “Timer” feature, there is now a “Stopwatch” feature.

Notes and Organization

Keep your research organized with these tricks.

  1. Search within a site: Type "example search term site: example website" to search a keyword or search term within that site only, if you need to use a particular source.
  2. SearchWiki: Use SearchWiki to star and edit your favorite results, even hidden ones.
  3. info:: Find information about a website if you need to verify it or collect data for a citation.
  4. Custom Search Engine: Create your own custom search engine with Google. You can name it, pick the language, and select only certain sites to be searched.
  5. Pay attention to Google's indents: Google indents results when they're from the same website as the result above it.

Social and New Media Search

Google is a great tool for finding images, toying around with new media, and locating and connecting with people online. Here are some Google tips to help you maximize Google's cutting edge potential.

  1. Search social media - Put @ in front of a word to search social media. For example: @twitter.
  2. Google Maps eye-level perspective: Once you've searched for a particular map, drag the little person icon (located at the top of the zoom in/zoom out bar) anywhere on the map to get an eye-level perspective.
  3. Google Groups: When you want to pull up information from Google Groups only, you can type in the author's name, group name or insubject: and the subject keyword.
  4. Updates: After conducting a search, click on the "Updates" button under "Show Options." You'll get a steady stream of the most updated social media comments about that topic. Clicking "Discussions" will take you to forums Q&A pages.
  5. Google Image Search: You probably know how to use image search, but did you know it's a useful way to ID people and look up foreign language definitions?
  6. Knol: While it may not be the most authoritative search tool, Knol can help you start your research and find out how others around the world are reacting to current events and popular discussion topics.
  7. Search by people, things & places in your photos

Shortcuts

Use these shortcuts to make your Google searches even faster.

  1. I'm Feeling Lucky: If you're an expert searcher, use this button on the Google search page to get automatically directed to the first web page that would normally show up in a list in a general search..
  2. cache:: Use this shortcut to show a web page in its cached version.
  3. related:: Type in a website after related: to find related sites.

Miscellaneous

From looking for jobs to understanding case sensitivity, here are more Google tricks for students.

  1. Delete search history: You can clear your address bar history, Google Toolbar history, and Google search box history here.
  2. Are Search operators case sensitive? Google isn't case sensitive when it reads your keywords, but operators like OR are.

Other