GETTING THE MOST OUT OF:
Google is the world’s most widely used search engine. In addition to its web search function, Google also offers many specialized services such as Google Scholar, Book Search, Image Search, News Search, and Maps.
Introduction
This guide explains how to effectively use the Google search engine (le.ca/) and some of its specialized search tools to find information online.
Points to remember:
1.No single search engine searches the entire Web. For the best results, try your search in more
than one search engine.
2.Many scholarly journal articles cannot be found by search engines. This includes Google
Scholar. To find and access scholarly journal articles reliably, use the library’s databases.
3.Websites often lack the quality controls that are used in publishing other types of resources
(e.g., scholarly journals), so you should always evaluate internet resources for quality and
appropriateness for your research. To learn more, refer to the Library’s guide on evaluating
internet resources.
4.Just because a result is the top hit on Google, this does not mean it is credible, reliable or
accurate. Google’s sorting is based on relevancy – to you, your search, your location, your past searches… – not quality.
5.Your search results are affected by personalized information such as your location and past
search history. Google’s algorithms guess what information you are looking for, which can result in a “filter bubble”.
For example, you may not be shown results that disagree with what Google perceives as your viewpoints or ideologies. To see this personalization in action, try comparing your search results from your regular browser to that of a private or incognito window! You might also try searching with duckduckgo, a search engine that shows the same search results to every user.
6.Some of your search results may include advertisements (denoted by a small “Ad” to the left of
the URL). These are from companies that pay Google to advertise their products or services
and are not an indication that the site is a credible source.
Basic Search
Google search has some customizable features and will perform differently depending upon which settings are selected.
Google has a built-in Autocomplete  feature that is not possible to turn off. As you are typing your query, Google makes predictions about possible search terms for you. However, it is not necessary to choose any of the predictions.
Google has an option to include Private results that can look for tailored content for you from other Google products you use, like Gmail or Google Calendar. This only works if you are signed into your Google account while searching, and it can be turned off by going into Settings  and selecting Do not use private results .
Searching with Google:
To perform a search with Google, enter your keywords into the search box.
When you have entered your keywords, either click on one of the Autocomplete predictions, hit Enter  on your keyboard, or click on the search button on the browser.
Search termsinclude和contain
Autocomplete predictions Voice Search:
To use Voice Search, click on the microphone icon in the search bar and follow the instructions. When choosing search terms:
•Be specific  and try to include at least 2 keywords that best describe what you are trying to
find. For example, to find apartments for rent in Halifax, you could search:
•Avoid common words  such as “how”, “of”, and “where” because these stop words will normally
be excluded from a search. If stop words occur in a common phrase or title such as Of Mice and Men , use quotation marks to search for the exact set of words:
•Select appropriate terminology for your query and be aware that different terms may imply a certain bias:
<, searching “oil sands” will retrieve results from Alberta Energy and other members of
the oil industry, whereas a search for “tar sands” will retrieve results from Greenpeace
and other environmental advocacy organizations.
•Word order can affect your search results. Words should be ordered in the way you would expect them to appear in a search result or how they appear in natural phrases:
<, “world war” retrieves results about the First and Second World Wars, whereas “war
world” retrieves results about a DC comic book series.
Writing a Search Query
When searching, it helps to understand how Google interprets what you enter:
•Google searches for pages that contain as many of your terms as possible. However, it may return results without some of the terms you entered.
o If a result is missing a search term, below its entry you will see: “Missing: term”
•Google searches are not case sensitive.
•Google automatically searches for variations of some search terms, e.g., “knit”, “knits”, “knitting”, etc. To prevent searching for variations of a term, enclose it in quotation marks.
•You don’t need to type AND between your search terms.
Basic Search Operators
OR
<, canine OR dog OR puppy Finds pages that contain one or more of the search terms.
–
<, titanic –movie
<, biology – Exclude particular words, phrases or sites from your results.
Google’s version of the “NOT” operator.
Can be combined with other special operators, such as site:
“ ”
<, “life of pi”Finds pages that contain the phrase exactly as typed between the
quotation marks.
*
<, “* for an * makes the
whole world blind” Use the asterisk as a wildcard for unknown terms. Phrase search with quotations for variations of an exact phrase.
Advanced Search
To use advanced search, click on Settings  in the bottom-right of the Google homepage and select Advanced Search  from the pop-up menu.
If you are in a search already, Settings  will appear below the search bar. Or, visit
le.ca/advanced_search .
First, type your search terms into the relevant search boxes:
Then, refine your search by selecting one or more limit options, which are listed next to the search
boxes.
Refining Your Search
If your searches are retrieving too many irrelevant hits, use these special operators to increase the relevancy of your results:
Special Search Operators
intitle: Restrict your results to documents with a specified search term in the title
<, forensics intitle:university
allintitle: Restrict your results to documents with all of your search terms in the title
<, allintitle:google tutorial
site: Restrict your results to documents within a specified website or domain
<, chemistry site:www.smu.ca
inurl: Restrict your results to documents with a specified search term in the URL
<, book review inurl:library
define: Google tries to define the term first using dictionaries or encyclopaedias.
<, define:deep web
filetype: Restrict your results to specific file types using file extensions
<, syllabus filetype:docx
<, thesis filetype:pdf
related: Restrict your results to find webpages with similar content to a specific URL
<, related:www.smu.ca/
Note: do not place a space after the colon when using special operators.
Google Search Results & Other Search Tools
Your searches could retrieve a variety of content, including links to books, news, images, etc. To limit your results to a particular format, e.g., images, simply select the Images tab located below the search bar on the results page. It is important to note that the placement of these links may change
with every search. In the example below, Google Books results are hidden under the More tab, alongside Shopping, Flights, Finance, and Personal.

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