Search the Internet Like a Pro
American Experience research projects take effective internet and text searching. We've purposefully asked you questions that you can't just answer by Googleing the question. For example,let me tell you right now that typing, "Why were the Native American's justified to go to war during the French and Indian War?" into Google will get you nowhere.
Instead of searching like you've always searched, you can implement some more effective strategies, tips, and tricks that will find you want to want a lot faster and easier.
1. Type in keywords. Websites want you to find them and look at their stuff. To do that, they label their site as a whole and each and every page with keywords. Your job is to anticipate what key words the sites you want have labeled their pages with and then search using those keywords.
Don't type in whole questions. Then, you've got words that don't really matter confusing the search algorithms.
2. Change up your keywords. If you're not finding what you want on the first try, change up your keywords. Sometimes, it takes two, three, four, or more tries before you figure out the right keywords.
3. Use quotation marks. Usually, Google searches for each word in a search term separately; those words all may be on the page, but nowhere near each other. For example, searching for French and Indian War, Google will search for French and Indian and War, finding pages that may have all three words but may be about a French restaurant and an Indian Restaurant in a long-term feud in downtown Los Angeles. Not helpful.
Instead, when you put quotation marks around a multi-word search term, to tell Google to look for all of those pages together. So "French and Indian War" will look for that exact phrase.
4. Include or exclude words. Sometimes, you want to search for a particular meaning of a word that has multiple meanings. Other times, you want to search for something that has many words to describe it.
exclude a word Add a dash (-) before a word to exclude all results that include that word. This is especially useful for synonyms like Jaguar the car brand and jaguar the animal.
[ jaguar speed -car ]
Include similar words Normally, synonyms might replace some words in your original search. Add a tilde sign (~) immediately in front of a word to search for that word as well as even more synonyms.
[ ~food facts ] includes results for "nutrition facts"
5.Search within a site or domain Include "site:" to search for information within a single website like all mentions of "Olympics" on the New York Times website.
[ Olympics site:nytimes.com ]
6. Include a "fill in the blank" Use an asterisk (*) within a query as a placeholder for any unknown or "wildcard" terms. Use with quotation marks to find variations of that exact phrase or to remember words in the middle of a phrase.
[ "a * saved is a * earned" ]
7. Search for either word If you want to search for pages that may have just one of several words, include OR (capitalized) between the words. Without the OR, your results would typically show only pages that match both terms.
[ olympics location 2014 OR 2018 ] Note: The OR has to be in uppercase.
8.Search for a number range Separate numbers by two periods (with no spaces) to see results that contain numbers in a given range of things like dates, prices, and measurements.
[ camera $50..$100]
Use only one number with the two periods to indicate an upper maximum or a lower minimum.
[ world cup winners ..2000 ]
This one works for dates, too, so if you want to search for a particular date range, you can search, "George Washington" primary documents 1753...1765
For more information or more detail, go here:
http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=134479
http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=136861
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/tipstricks/index.html
http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2009/06/expertise-in-google-search/
Instead of searching like you've always searched, you can implement some more effective strategies, tips, and tricks that will find you want to want a lot faster and easier.
1. Type in keywords. Websites want you to find them and look at their stuff. To do that, they label their site as a whole and each and every page with keywords. Your job is to anticipate what key words the sites you want have labeled their pages with and then search using those keywords.
Don't type in whole questions. Then, you've got words that don't really matter confusing the search algorithms.
2. Change up your keywords. If you're not finding what you want on the first try, change up your keywords. Sometimes, it takes two, three, four, or more tries before you figure out the right keywords.
3. Use quotation marks. Usually, Google searches for each word in a search term separately; those words all may be on the page, but nowhere near each other. For example, searching for French and Indian War, Google will search for French and Indian and War, finding pages that may have all three words but may be about a French restaurant and an Indian Restaurant in a long-term feud in downtown Los Angeles. Not helpful.
Instead, when you put quotation marks around a multi-word search term, to tell Google to look for all of those pages together. So "French and Indian War" will look for that exact phrase.
4. Include or exclude words. Sometimes, you want to search for a particular meaning of a word that has multiple meanings. Other times, you want to search for something that has many words to describe it.
exclude a word Add a dash (-) before a word to exclude all results that include that word. This is especially useful for synonyms like Jaguar the car brand and jaguar the animal.
[ jaguar speed -car ]
Include similar words Normally, synonyms might replace some words in your original search. Add a tilde sign (~) immediately in front of a word to search for that word as well as even more synonyms.
[ ~food facts ] includes results for "nutrition facts"
5.Search within a site or domain Include "site:" to search for information within a single website like all mentions of "Olympics" on the New York Times website.
[ Olympics site:nytimes.com ]
6. Include a "fill in the blank" Use an asterisk (*) within a query as a placeholder for any unknown or "wildcard" terms. Use with quotation marks to find variations of that exact phrase or to remember words in the middle of a phrase.
[ "a * saved is a * earned" ]
7. Search for either word If you want to search for pages that may have just one of several words, include OR (capitalized) between the words. Without the OR, your results would typically show only pages that match both terms.
[ olympics location 2014 OR 2018 ] Note: The OR has to be in uppercase.
8.Search for a number range Separate numbers by two periods (with no spaces) to see results that contain numbers in a given range of things like dates, prices, and measurements.
[ camera $50..$100]
Use only one number with the two periods to indicate an upper maximum or a lower minimum.
[ world cup winners ..2000 ]
This one works for dates, too, so if you want to search for a particular date range, you can search, "George Washington" primary documents 1753...1765
For more information or more detail, go here:
http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=134479
http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=136861
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/tipstricks/index.html
http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2009/06/expertise-in-google-search/
Specialized Search Engines
Now, I want to introduce you to some of my friends, err, specialized search engines that I find helpful.
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Google Scholar searches scholarly articles and books, so basically stuff writing by professionals in specialized fields for other professionals in those fields. Lexiles will often be high in these search results, but the payoff is worth it, since you'll find details here you won't find anywhere else.
The general web is written for the general searcher. Google Scholar finds are written for the academic. |
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Badegerlink searches newpapers and magazine articles. Their database goes back farther and farther each year, categloging every major newspaper and magazine around the country. Want to know how the people in Oaklahoma felt about the Oaklahoma City Bombing? You can find the newspaper articles from the very next day, and then contrast them with the national magazines' coverage.
Badgerlink also searches scholarly articles in history and the social sciences, so again, historians writing about history for other historians and history buffs to read. You'll find interesting details if you search well here. |
When using both of these search engines, you'll need to use the tips, tricks, and techniques that you learned in Search the Internet like Pro. You'll get more accurate, more helpful results.
Find permanat links to both these search engines on the AF American Experience Links page.
Find permanat links to both these search engines on the AF American Experience Links page.
Search Books like a Pro
In the back of history books, there is magic. I swear. Magic. Don't believe me? In this case, Magic is called an Index. It looks like this:
The index lists every person, event, or group, basically every key word that the book talks about. Then, it lists the page number for every time the book mentions that keyword. So, if picked up this book, hoping that it would talk about Lorena Foster, you would find her name in the index (right above where you're reading right now), notice that the book mentions her two times, in pages 78-79, and on page 142.
Then, you would turn to those pages and Viola! you would find her name and read about Ms. Foster.
If you had picked up this book hoping it would talk about Julie Lothe, you would scan for her name, find that the index did not list her name, and immediately put the book back down again, not wasting your time.
I told you: Magic.
Learn to love the index, kids. Learn to love the index.
Then, you would turn to those pages and Viola! you would find her name and read about Ms. Foster.
If you had picked up this book hoping it would talk about Julie Lothe, you would scan for her name, find that the index did not list her name, and immediately put the book back down again, not wasting your time.
I told you: Magic.
Learn to love the index, kids. Learn to love the index.
