Finding things on the web

I just found a great resource for doing internet research - A Working Smarter Resource by C4LPT out of the UK.  For example:

Here are 5 simple things to remember to "power search" on Google:

1. Search string: A group of search terms is called a string. You don't need to add a + or ADD between terms but leave a space. Try building your search string one term at a time
2. Google ignores common or "stop" words like the, an, in, where, how, but to include them in the search add + before each one
3. Phrase string: If you're looking for an exact phrase or quote, not just the occurrence of the words entered, use quotation marks "greenhouse effect"
4. Ranking favours pages with your words in phrases, close together and in the order typed. Compare the top results (ranking) for searches in Google for these sets of keywords
   
   • grass snake
   • snake grass
   • snake in the grass
   • snake +in +the grass
   • "snake in the grass"
5. Operators: adding a minus sign (-) allows you to narrow your search, for example if you wanted to search for New York but not City you'd enter New York -City; adding OR will let you look for one or more terms or strings, e.g. Kent OR Sussex, "global warming" OR "greenhouse effect".

Creating a search string that uses some combination of specific terms, a phrase string and a negative term can reduce the number of your search results from a few million to fewer than one hundred! It's best to build one or two terms at a time, adding terms to your string as needed based on your results.


Here are 5 clever things you can do with Google

1. Get definitions: Type define:word to produce a list of definitions
2. Use as a calculator: Google supports mathematical functions / * - +
3. Conversion: Convert imperial measurements to metric and vice versa as well as currency conversions using format such as 100 lbs in kg or. 300 euros in USD
4. Get maps: Type in the postcode
5. Get the weather forecast: Type in the postcode
6. Q&A: Ask a question, e.g. When was Beethoven born?