Google offers users a variety of useful tools and techniques that make it easier to get more accurate results for your online information seeking endeavours – here are just a few:
Google offers users a variety of useful tools and techniques that make it easier to get more accurate results for your online information seeking endeavours – here are just a few:
• Define the search topic – ask exactly what you want to know
• Use more words than less when searching
• Use quotation marks when searching for a name eg. “Nelson Mandela” instead of Nelson Mandela
• Click on cached, below search results, this shows when Google last visited the site. This is useful when information has been removed from the internet, like stories people don’t want you to read
• Use time-based searching – past 24 hours for recent relevant news
• Google Wonder Wheel – greatest mind maps of related topics – great for profiles
• Timeline option – events related to specific dates
• In advanced search you can specify sites from gov.za or a certain format of document like a PDF
• Type location: Zimbabwe/South Africa/Switzerland before searching to get material from a specific country only.
• The search bar can be used as a calculator, currency converter and metric converter
• When using Google Maps, click the Wikipedia tab for articles written from particular regions to be highlighted on the map
• Google Translation allows you to translate text into over 40 languages, recently including Swahili and Amharic
• You can narrow your search down by removing a body of results from a topic using the minus sign, eg. “Zuma- shower” to omit any stories about that scandal.
