Blogs on the art and science of Googling
September 8, 2008 1:21 PM Subscribe
Are there any good blogs out there on improving your Googling skills?
I'm talking about the sort of techniques to find information using search engines that make you go "wow, why didn't I think of that?" and open you up to a new way of finding things. It is such a fundamental skill on the internet - surely someone has had to have written one?
I'm talking about the sort of techniques to find information using search engines that make you go "wow, why didn't I think of that?" and open you up to a new way of finding things. It is such a fundamental skill on the internet - surely someone has had to have written one?
It's too bad that you can't GOOGLE for things like this, amirite?
You might want to check out the advanced search operators.
posted by shownomercy at 2:11 PM on September 8, 2008
You might want to check out the advanced search operators.
posted by shownomercy at 2:11 PM on September 8, 2008
You want to know Google, of course, but if you really want to find stuff online you need to know about other search engines, especially those that search the "invisible web" or "deep web".
Search Engine Guide
Invisible or Deep Web: What it is, How to find it, and Its inherent ambiguity
Research Beyond Google: 119 Authoritative, Invisible, and Comprehensive Resources
99 Resources to Research & Mine the Invisible Web
Deep Web Research blog
The main tip I can give to improve your Google-fu is "use synonyms". Google is actually pretty good these days at pointing you toward stuff that is closer to your topic than your search terms would intuitively suggest. (That's how their relevance algorithm is supposed to work.) But sometimes you need the right term to make the right site bubble to the top. Try a search several ways. If you're searching for something related to a source document, don't be afraid to take a key sentence and just paste that as your search term. Use the site: prefix with country-level domains, e.g. site:uk. If you have enough of a language facility to recognize foreign words (even if you can't read the language), those can be effective search terms that even lead you to English results.
posted by dhartung at 2:18 PM on September 8, 2008 [7 favorites]
Search Engine Guide
Invisible or Deep Web: What it is, How to find it, and Its inherent ambiguity
Research Beyond Google: 119 Authoritative, Invisible, and Comprehensive Resources
99 Resources to Research & Mine the Invisible Web
Deep Web Research blog
The main tip I can give to improve your Google-fu is "use synonyms". Google is actually pretty good these days at pointing you toward stuff that is closer to your topic than your search terms would intuitively suggest. (That's how their relevance algorithm is supposed to work.) But sometimes you need the right term to make the right site bubble to the top. Try a search several ways. If you're searching for something related to a source document, don't be afraid to take a key sentence and just paste that as your search term. Use the site: prefix with country-level domains, e.g. site:uk. If you have enough of a language facility to recognize foreign words (even if you can't read the language), those can be effective search terms that even lead you to English results.
posted by dhartung at 2:18 PM on September 8, 2008 [7 favorites]
Don't Google for what you're looking for, Google for text you think will appear on the page you want.
They're not always the same.
posted by Mwongozi at 3:48 PM on September 8, 2008 [1 favorite]
They're not always the same.
posted by Mwongozi at 3:48 PM on September 8, 2008 [1 favorite]
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posted by rokusan at 1:26 PM on September 8, 2008