Google, the Tool for Writing
by Alomenu Samuel
This is a conversation between two journalists as they
explore how to use Google's search capabilities efficiently. The two writers
went to a class on using Google search efficiently. Sammy seems to have had the lesson sink in
well but it was quite different with Kofi, Sammy’s friend. Be part of the
conversation as they run through what they learned. Learn how to use Google efficiently, too.
Sammy: "So you remember what they said, that Google is
a full text search engine, so it indexes entire web pages instead of just
titles and descriptions. The teacher said in order to get what we want we need
to learn to use a couple of commands called special syntaxes which will allow
you to determine the specifics of the info you want."
Kofi: "I remember a couple of them, I was actually
practicing with the easy ones this morning; I was doing a write up today and I
needed a couple of publications on mobile money and the filetype
command was very useful. You know I entered 'filetype:
pdf mobile money' and, voila, I had a huge line of pdf files all on mobile money. I just couldn't believe it."
Sammy: "Yes the filetype
syntax is very useful, and its amazing. All you need to do is enter 'filetype file extension (doc, pdf,
mp3, jpg, etc) type' and you will have a whole lot of
interesting responses. I actually used it to download my favorite song this
morning. I just typed in 'filetype mp3 kelewele' and there it
was."
Kofi: "That’s so
funny, Kelewele, who composed that song? Was it that rap song you did?"
Sammy: "Yes it is.
There is another very useful syntax, the intitle. Intitle: really
helps you really narrow down your search as it brings everything to the title
of the web pages, or news you are looking for.
For example, I went to news.google.com and
typed 'mobile money' in the space. It
brought me lots of news that had mobile money just mentioned in it. I mean, lots of the news I got was irrelevant
to my work, so I decided to use 'intitle:mobile
money' and I got lots of great stuff. Very informing news, all at a go."
Kofi: "news.google.com,
what’s that? I am lost here, enlighten
me."
Sammy: "Were you ever in that class room? OK, Google has a number of directories. A couple are Google
Groups, Google Code, Google News, Google Sites, and the last I can mention is
Google Web, what you frequently visit.
Now, it’s important to notice that searching on Google Web won’t give
you all the results you desire to have. It’s important you use all these
directories in your search."
Kofi: "Why, are they that important?"
Sammy: "Good
question… seems you have to pay me something after this tutorial. Well, using these directories helps you
narrow down your search and gives you what you need in the amount Google
provides. So if the information you need
involves news, why not go to news.google.com? If you need inputs of various groups and
forums why not use groups.google.com, and so
on."
Kofi: "In other ways you are saying precision is very
important when it comes to using Google search."
Sammy: "Precision is very much important. Being exact will aid the program to bring you
more refined, exact results. Talking
about precision, you realize the number of syntax commands we were taught
really helps, especially when used in the right directory."
Kofi: "Yeah, I remember the syntaxes, but I don’t have
them all in mind. Is it possible we
could go over them again? Do you have
your notes here?"
Sammy: "No problem, lets have a look at what I typed in my notes."
site restricts results to sites within
the specified domain
For example site:Google.com research will find all
sites containing the word "research" located within the *.google.com domain.
intitle restricts results to
documents whose title contains the specified phrase
For example intitle:good research will find all sites
with the word "good" in the title and "research " in the
text.
allintitle restricts results
to documents whose title contains all the specified phrases
For example allintitle:good
research will find all sites with the words "good" and
"research" in the title.
inurl restricts results to sites whose
URL contains the specified phrase
For example inurl:good research will find all sites
containing the word "good" in the URL and "research" in the
text.
allinurl restricts results to sites
whose URL contains all the specified phrases
For example allinurl:good research will find all sites
with the words "good" and "research" in the URL.
filetype ext restricts results to
documents of the specified type
For example filetype:pdf research will return PDFs containing the word research,
while filetype:xls research will return
Excel spreadsheets with the word research . It is important to note that
entering the extension brings you the particular type of file, such as
"doc" for Microsoft word files.
numrange restricts results to
documents containing a number from the specified range
Entering, for example, numrange:2005-2010
research will return sites containing a number from 2005 to 2010 and the
word "research". The same result can be achieved with 2005..2010 research.
link restricts
results to sites containing links to the specified location
For example link:www.google.com will return documents containing
one or more links to www.google.com.
inanchor restricts
results to sites containing links with the specified phrase in their
descriptions
For example inanchor:research will return documents with links whose
description contains the word "research". (That's the actual
link text, not the URL indicated by the link.)
allintext restricts results to
documents containing the specified phrase in the text, but not in the title,
link description or URLs. For example allintext:"good
research" will return documents which contain the phrase "good
research" in their text only.
+ specifies
that a phrase should occur frequently in results.
For example +research will
order results by the number of occurrences of the word "research".
- specifies
that a phrase must not occur in results
For example –research will
return documents that don't contain the word "research".
"" delimiters for entire search phrases, not
single words
For example "good
research" will return documents containing the phrase "good
research".
logical OR, or the equivalent symbol |
Entering "good research" | excellent
study will return documents containing the
phrase "good research" or the words
"excellent" and "study".
Kofi: "Looking at what you have said so far, I think I
am beginning to understand the whole thing... that it is important that you
always narrow down your search and that using these in the right directories
depending on the news you are looking can help you to have well refined
results.
Sammy: "Exactly, now I think the word precision really
caught up with you. There are a couple
of things like date range that the teacher didn't mention and many other things,
too. It's also important we experiment
with what we learn and be intuitive during our search."
Kofi: "Thanks man, this has been enlightening, I learned a whole lot. I believe now I can put together a whole lot of information better when I search."
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