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LEJA 441: Seminar on Current Issues in the Court System: WWW Search Engines

Google Etc

Google is no doubt one of the first places you turn for information on the WWW. If you need credible information, try using Google scholar, a bibliographic database that indexes most peer-reviewed online journals of Europe and America's largest scholarly publishers. For more information on how to search Google well go to the online Google Guide.

A Few Google Search Tips

Expert Google Search Tips (adapted from HubSpot Blog)

  1. Title Search:
    Google does not use a controlled vocabulary, though that would be nice. But you can search by title of website. To do this, use the "intitle:" modifier.
    Example: intitle:"supreme court"

  2. Explicit Phrase:
    Lets say you are looking for content about internet marketing.  Instead of just typing internet marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase.  To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.
    Example: "citizens united"
  3. Exclude Words:
    Lets say you want to search for content about internet marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising.  To do this, simply use the "-" sign in front of the word you want to exclude.
    Example Search: "citizens united" -"supreme court"
  4. Site Specific Search:
    Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase.  Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the "site:somesite.com" modifier.
    Example: "gun control" -site:.com
  5. Similar Words and Synonyms:
    Let’s say you are want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms.  To do this, use the "~" in front of the word.
    Example:  ~litigation ~cybercrime
  6. Specific Document Types:
    If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier "filetype:".  For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to internet marketing.
    Example: cybercrime  filetype:ppt
  7. This OR That:
    By default, when you do a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search.  If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator.  (Note:  The OR has to be capitalized).
    Example: "supreme court cases" (2009 OR 2010)

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