Search tactics

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Search tactics strategies a Teach-in

• Daniel M. Russell, Ph.D.
• Google Search User Experience Research
• Nov 20, 2008

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THINGS TO ADD

1. Add dictionary lookup PWNED example of how
   DEFINE connects to currently active language (I
   dont believe pwned is in any dictionary yet,
   but DEFINE works just fine to find it.)
2. Emphasize research stance for prior work in
   nearly everything you do. At least be conscious
   of the choice you make. (Example lookup
   recipes online. No-knead bread. Who knew there
   was a better way to make bread?)
3. Hard question How big were Chinese sailing
   vessels in the 15th century?
4. Follow-on question Can you quickly create a
   chart that shows Chinese vs. European sailing
   ships, max length, over time?
5. Could you find images of each of ship from
   several countries and make a chart? (e.g, import
   image of Santa Maria, scale to size wrt the Star
   Raft ships)
6. Add the egg of Columbus example (What is the
   word describing a problem whose solution
   impossible to see when stated, but is obvious
   once it has been pointed out to you?) How do
   find such a phrase?
7. Add inurl as a way to find tutorials and
   notes on topics example inurltutorial html
   page development

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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
  

pure engine technique
searchstrategy
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domain knowledge
informationmapping
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assessment
site-specificknowledge
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Six components of expertise
assessment
pure engine technique
domain knowledge
site-specificknowledge
searchstrategy
informationmapping
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The Art of Keyword Choice

• ?

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Hints to choose keywords

1. Think about what youre 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 youre 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.
  Whats 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. Theyre 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
• definemaquette
• 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 Whats that thing called?

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Answer

• Start with the simplest search you can think of
  upper lip indentation If its not right,
  you can always modify it.
• When I did this, I clicked on the first result,
  which took me to Yahoo Answers. Theres a nice
  article there about something called the
  philtrum.
• Then I double checked on that by doing a
  definephiltrum

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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 Heres 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 didnt 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 its 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 youre 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, its 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 citydont just assume
  thats the best way to describe it. Try this
  search
• ghost town san francisco bay

The former town of Drawbridge
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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

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Art of Keyword Summary

1. Choose words that will be on the page(s) you seek
   
2. Start as simply as possible (dont start with 5
   words in your query)
3. If you know a very specific term, use it (but be
   sure its right!)
4. Learn from what you see on the pages you visit
5. Dont get stuck on a particular term or phrase.
   If youre not making progress, re-think the terms
   youre 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?

• Whats a fore topmast studding sail?

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Ship diagram Use image search
ship sail diagram
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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
  Visitors 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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(No Transcript)
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Using other resources

• Someone told me that in the mid-1500s, 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 theyd 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 thats
  pretty common, so there are LOTS of web pages out
  there. Its even worse when the word is really
  common. So how do you eliminate things you dont
  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
• siteepicurious.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, youll
  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
• 4 5 19
• 45023 / 34 5 / 29
• Sin(0.5) 2

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Conversions

• General pattern number units1 in
  units2

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Problem How fast does the Worlds Fastest Man
run in MPH?

• Steps
• Whats the current world record?
• Make the conversions
• 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 its also socially contextualized
  Whats 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 linkltURLgt e.g.,
  linkwww.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

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Example Did NASA fake the moon landing?

• lunar landing hoax
• Click on first result www.ufos-aliens.co.uk/cosm
  icapollo.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
• linkwww.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
• sitestanford.edu -- site restrict limits
  results to JUST that site
• (Try winograd vs. winograd
  sitestanford.edu or moon image
  vs. moon image sitenasa.gov )
• filetypepdf filetype restrict limits
  hits to just files of that type (can be
  pdf, doc, ppt, jpg, gif, xls,
  etc.
• (Try
  sensemaking filetypePDF )
• intitleAmerican Heritage requires that
  this string be in the TITLE of
  of the page
  thats found
• (Try museum vs.
  museum intitleAmerican Heritage
• or museum American technology vs.
  museum intitleAmerican Technology )

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Advanced search page

• Access to allof the advancedfeatures w/o
  having to remember them all!
• The link to advanced searchis on every search
  page

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? Summary

• 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
• Consider other content types (images, videos,
  maps)
• Remember other information resources exist
• e.g., reverse dictionaries, synonym finder,
  forums, domain-specific sites
• Techniques
• Minus to remove terms from searches
• Check your result by looking for same answer
  elsewhere
• Calculator
• Conversions
• Site

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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/GooglePick
  s
• 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 cant believe
  everything you see either.

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Images

• Images.google.com
• But remember than manysites have their OWN image
  collections. Especiallytrue of newspapers,
  .gov, NASA, universities, libraries, etc.
• Example
• http//www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/index.
  html
• Siteusgs.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 youre 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
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Palo Alto

• http//www.cityofpaloalto.org/library/
• Search the catalog (another deep webarea!
• (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 youre stuck
• Try resume -- but try doing an IMAGE
  search for resume!
• Oneboxes
• definemoa note contrast this with
  define moa
• movies palo alto
• pizza near mountain view
• weather mountain view
• phone number and map keplers menlo park
• ltups tracking numbergt
• Flight numbers (to track a flight) AA102