Hi all! Continuing with my posts on critical thinking and information literacy (check out my series on Logical Fallacies!), today I thought I’d tackle some tips on crafting good online searches. Much of this might seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t know how to really get the best use out of a search engine.
First, since Google is by far the most common search engine used by the population at large (to the point where “Google it” is a common phrase in the culture, and Google searches account for more than 91% of all online searches compared to #2 search engine Bing, with a paltry 3% online searches), I thought I’d start with a few basic tips many people don’t know that may help you refine your searches using that platform.
Google Filters and Operators
Here are a few handy Google filters that can be used to refine your searches on Google:
Filters: Across the top of the search results, you’ll see a set of buttons providing filters for the results. You may wish, for example, to search for images related to your search terms, or see what the most recent news has to say about it. Using those buttons will show you results based on the chosen filter.
One button to take note of is the “Tools” button which will offer you a couple of choices, one of which is to search chronologically — after clicking on Tools, you can click on “Any time” and a drop-down menu will give you some options to adjust your search chronologically, for example, results from sites that were updated in the past hour, or 24 hours, or a date range you specify. Be aware, though, that this isn’t foolproof and you may get a result that is far outside your desired date range because part of the site was updated within your target range and Google wasn’t able to identify that the update was irrelevant to your search.
The other Tools option is to get “All results” or “verbatim” results, where you can choose to see all the results the search produces, or only those that fit your search literally as you typed it into the search engine (see also my item on quotation marks below, which will do the same thing).
Now lets look at some things called “operators” that will help you refine your Google searches.
Quotation marks [“ “]: Putting two or more words together within quotation marks makes Google search for those items together, in that order. So if you know a specific quote or phrase used in what you’re looking for, this is a handy way to narrow that search quickly. For example, you have a piece of a song stuck in your head and want to find it. So you plug in “If her daddy’s rich, take her out for a meal” and the results will shortly tell you that you’re looking for Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime” (It might return that result without the quotes, but the idea is that this forces Google to search specifically for that phrase, and increases your chances of getting good results).
Minus sign [-]: Placing a minus sign in front of a term removes that term from the search, refining your search. For example, if you want to search for lions but want to be sure you don’t get irrelevant results about the Detroit Lions, you might craft a search like this:
Lions -Detroit -Football
A search crafted like this will look for results about lions, but remove results related to Detroit or football (putting football in there also ensures you won’t get results on, say, high school football teams whose school mascot is a lion).
[Site:]: By putting site: in front of a site URL or domain name, you limit the search to that URL or domain name. For example, site:nytimes.com or site:.gov (don’t put any spaces) followed by your search terms limits the searches to the New York Times website or sites with .gov in the URL, respectively.
OR [OR]: Adding OR (in all caps) between search terms does just what you’d expect: it makes the search engine search for either one of the search terms. Why use OR instead of just plugging all terms into the search engine? Because if you do that, the search engine initially start looking for results with both terms, instead of just one or the other.
Hopefully these tips will help you get better, more relevant results out of Google when searching. Other search engines will likely have similar filters and operators, so become familiar with the search engine you’re using to get the best results.
Google Advanced Search
Most people don’t even notice it, but down in the bottom right of the Google search page, there is an option for “Settings.” If you click on this, you will find a selection of items, including “Advanced Search.” The advanced search page will allow you to be more specific with your search phrasing because you can choose mix options like “search these words” and “any of these words” and “none of these words.” You can also select to search by language or region, or where a search term appears on a page (i.e., in the title, in the links on the page, in the text of the page, etc.). And so on. So if you’re really looking to craft a tight search, the advanced search page might be of use.
Enough about Google. Let’s move on to some “best practices” of online searching.
Crafting a Search
For the usual quick n’ dirty search, not much is necessary and throwing a few relevant keywords into the search engine is probably fine. But if you want the best out of your search, here are some additional tips.
Create a list of terms: Write down your question in long form and start by looking at keywords in your question itself. Then take a moment to brainstorm any related terms that might be useful either for alternate search terms or that can be included in your query to refine the results. For example, related terms or concepts, or synonyms of your keywords.
Be Specific: In general, the more specific you can be in your terms, the more specific your results will be. A search for “fish” will bring back a massive, and probably useless, set of results. A search for “tropical fish” will be more specific. A search for “zebra fish” will narrow it even more.
Use Filters and Operators: Find out what filters the search engine you are using has, and what operators it might use (most commonly, these are the so-called “Boolean Operators” like AND, OR and so on). Take advantage of these to adjust your search and get more relevant results. If you’re using a search engine other than Google, take a little time to find a help site and look for filters or operators specific to that site.
Avoid Common Words: This relates back to “be specific,” but be aware that most search engines ignore common words like “a,” “and,” “but,” and “the.” Most search engines ignore them, so in most cases, you can simply leave them out of your search. Stick to the keywords, unless you’re searching a specific phrase and those are part of the phrase (see the item on quotation marks above).
Use Other Search Engines: If you’re not getting the results you want from one search engine, try checking results in one or more others. Different search engines use different algorithms to generate results, so if you don’t have good luck with one, give another a try.
Regroup And Retry: If you’re not getting the results you want within a reasonable time, reexamine your search terms. Can you refine them any more? Are there alternate terms you could use? Don’t be afraid to tweak your search words, adjust your filters, etc. and try again.
Algorithms
I wanted to take a moment to talk about search engine algorithms. As mentioned previously, each search engine uses its own algorithm to do it’s searching. But a word of caution here — some of these track past usage and tweak their results accordingly.
This means that I might get somewhat different results out of a search than you do, as the search engine tries to customize its results to personalize them to what it thinks you’ll want as a result.
On the one hand, that can be a good thing, as the search engine may be able to give better results to you as a person based on what you’ve been interested in in the past. On the other hand, this has the potential to give “self-fulfilling” results. Conspiracy theorists may be more likely to get conspiracy theory related search recommendations, for example. That can contribute to them ending up “down the rabbit hole.”
Bear in mind that when talking about these algorithmic biases these are primarily issues with the common online search engines. Subscription databases (like what you may access via a school or university subscription or via your local library) are much less likely to have this issue. But it is good to be aware that your prior searches, and possibly your prior browsing history, may influence the results you get when using them.
Also, search engine algorithms are not necessarily neutral, as they are designed and maintained by human beings. Some studies have found racial and sexist biases, for example, in search engine results. As with anything online, keep your bias radar alert!
That’s A Wrap
Hopefully these tips will help you craft your searches to get better results. Some folks are more versed than others in the search environment online, and so some out there might be wondering why I haven’t gone more in-depth about things like Boolean Operators (which are touched on in the Google discussion, some of the operators mentioned are Boolean operators) and such, but when I started to write this, I was really targeting the average internet user that, more than likely, uses Google as their go-to and only has occasional need for a well-crafted search. A future diary might dig deeper into using those subscription databases I mentioned earlier, but for now, I wanted to stick to the basics.
I also didn’t dig into things like Google Image Search or Google Scholar. Maybe something for a future diary.
There is a lot more that could be said — evaluating different search engines and such — but again, I wanted to keep it simple.
That said, what is your favorite or go-to search engine? If you have a recommendation you’d like to share, throw it in the comments!
Until next time, folks! Btw, next installment of Logical Fallacies Bootcamp will drop on Wednesday, when we’ll visit the False Dilemma fallacy! Hope you’ll give it a click!