ShmoopTube

00:01

We speak student!

00:06

Online Searching

00:08

[ dog barks ]

00:09

How to be efficient with Google search

00:13

Search is one of those things

00:15

that everyone thinks they know how to do

00:17

but no one actually does.

00:18

It's kind of like reading.

00:19

Everyone's like, "Well, I can read."

00:20

But do you know how to read well?

00:22

Probably not.

00:23

"I know how to do Google search."

00:25

But do you know how to do a Google search correctly?

00:27

Probably not.

00:28

So, there's a few tactics.

00:29

But the main thing you need to do when you're searching is

00:33

be specific.

00:34

If you are not specific --

00:35

If you don't tell Google what you want,

00:37

they're not going to give it to you.

00:39

Google is a genius.

00:41

Its being.

00:42

It basically could take over the world. It has.

00:45

But it can't tell you --

00:47

It can't give you what you want if you don't tell it.

00:49

So we're talking about fame and celebrities.

00:52

If you type the word "fame"

00:54

into the Google search.

00:55

Just go ahead and try it...

00:57

[ disgusted sound ]

00:58

Then what?

00:59

[ laughs ]

01:00

You might get a Wikipedia article about fame.

01:03

Usually Wikipedia is right near the top.

01:06

But other than that,

01:08

you're not gonna find what you're looking for.

01:10

That means you wanna get more specific.

01:13

So maybe the question is --

01:14

If we wanna go back to an earlier lesson,

01:16

the question is, "Why are people so obsessed with fame?"

01:20

You can type that in.

01:22

"Why are people so obsessed with fame?"

01:24

But then, you run into the classic problem of Yahoo Answers.

01:28

- Yeah. - And WikiAnswers.

01:29

Explain what that is.

01:31

So if you type a question --

01:32

I love to search this way, because it's kind of hilarious.

01:35

But if you type a full question into Google,

01:38

Google is smart and it's gonna find that full question for you.

01:41

And people ask full questions

01:43

on forums like WikiAnswers and Yahoo Answers.

01:46

Someone sitting at home going,

01:48

"Huh. Why are people so obsessed with celebrities?

01:50

I'm gonna type that into Yahoo Answers,

01:52

see what people say."

01:54

Then random people from all across the world

01:56

who are literally sitting on their couches at four in the morning

01:59

and have nothing to do

02:00

except answer Yahoo Questions

02:03

say, "Oh, here's why." and they give answers.

02:07

And they're entertaining, but just please don't --

02:10

please don't trust them.

02:12

Rarely does a professor of anthropology

02:16

go onto Yahoo Answers and tell you why

02:18

people are obsessed with fame. That just doesn't happen.

02:20

So if you type a question in,

02:21

you're gonna get very specifically

02:24

the answer to that question,

02:26

but you might get it from sources that you don't love.

02:28

So instead, just try and type in relevant words.

02:32

If you're trying to figure out why people are obsessed with celebrities,

02:36

you might try "obsession celebrities."

02:39

If it doesn't, switch the word order.

02:43

"Celebrities obsession."

02:45

Word order counts on Google.

02:46

Depending on which order you type it in.

02:48

You might wanna get more specific,

02:51

you might wanna get less specific.

02:52

If you type in "celebrities obsession,"

02:54

it might turn out that there is a brand name

02:56

of a perfume called "Celebrity Obsession."

02:59

And that's what you get.

02:59

Okay, well, now you know

03:01

and you have to take a step back and make it broader.

03:03

Another technique you can use

03:05

is putting things in quotes.

03:06

If you know that you're looking

03:08

for a certain string of words together,

03:11

put it in quotes

03:12

and Google will only give you websites

03:14

that actually have those words in that order.

03:16

If you're looking for "orange shirts,"

03:21

type in "orange shirts."

03:23

If you type in "orange" and "shirts," you might get it,

03:25

but you also might get oranges

03:26

and you might get shirts.

03:28

You can also do the same thing where you can tell

03:30

Google what not to give you.

03:32

Put a little minus sign in front of it.

03:34

And then write whatever you don't want,

03:36

and it will give you all of your results

03:38

that don't have that specific word or phrase in it.

03:40

So there are basically just a bunch of different techniques

03:42

you can use to Google search.

03:44

You get used to it really quickly.

03:45

But what you don't wanna do is be vague

03:48

and you don't wanna ramble in your searches,

03:51

because if you're saying,

03:53

"What is it that makes us obsessed with celebrities in the 21st century?"

03:57

Okay, there are so many words in there

03:59

that Google, who is not human

04:00

and doesn't know what you're asking,

04:02

is going, "21st century, and, the..."

04:04

It's like pulling a bunch of different things.

04:06

And then the last thing you can do

04:08

is just go to the little header at the top

04:11

and choose what types of sources you want.

04:13

If you know you're only looking for news articles -

04:16

You're in a class and the assignment is

04:18

"do research paper based on news articles" -

04:20

click "news," and then you'll only get news results.

04:22

If you want images, click "images."

04:24

There are ways to refine your search that way.

04:26

And we can open a whole can of worms

04:28

by talking about advanced Google search,

04:30

but those are the few key techniques to keep in mind.

04:34

[ pen writing ]

04:36

How are simple searches performed?

04:39

What mistakes might we be making in our searches?

04:42

What are some important techniques in searching?

04:49

The algorithm... Or not.

Full Transcript