Behind the Results Count at Google

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Gwen

The count of results at Google can be very misleading – what logically should go down may go up. This can be the case between a search phrase with quotation marks and without. We expect more results if just looking for keywords anywhere, and less if looking for an exact phrase. This posting from Barry Schwartz for Search Engine Roundtable – Google’s Database Tiers – Searching Deeper – explains why the reverse can happen.

The answer is because Google will often search deeper into their index to find more relevant matches when you use quotation marks in your search. When you do not use quotation marks, Google doesn’t always search into deeper index tiers.

Free Google Search Course

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Gwen

Daniel Russell is running his course on Advanced Power Searching with Google again – January 23 to February 14, 2013. This is a good course for learning about the features and syntax at Google and how to use them. It won’t take a lot of your time, but it is important to stay on top of it.

See Advanced Power Searching with Google — Registration Opens Today.

Russell – The 1 Minute Morceau

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Gwen

Daniel Russell at Google generously shares search tips through the 1 Minute Morceau (MM) in his blog Search Research.

Why is text in a search or on Google Docs underlined in red? Likely a spelling error. Control click to get more information about the word.
What’s all that bolding of words in search results? Search terms – yours plus the words that Google picks up that usage has shown to be “statistically related” – these are often word variants or synonyms. The video explains related words very well.
What will Google News Archive reveal? An historical perspective on events. The video - Search Google News Archives Fast! – shows how to access advanced search and use the time period to limit results and find early reports.
Drag an image onto Google’s image search box to find others like it – it helps if you add a keyword or two to provide context. See Search-by-Image Fu.

These are all excellent. Follow Daniel Russell at Search Research.

Much About Blekko’s Slashtags

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Gwen

Blekko is the slashtag engine. Its main strength (apart from blocking spam) is the topical treatment through slashtags for filtering results. For example, if you were searching for vegetarian diets, you’d be wise to limit to the /vegetarian slashtag – eg breakfast/vegetarian.

This posting about 10 Blekko Secrets at Search Engine People (Dec ) is a mini-guide to using slashtags well. Blekko might recommend a slashtag, but you can also use directories to locate them. In fact there is even a tag for it – /directory.

I didn’t know that slashtags are described – just as any true classifier will create a scope note for a category, so will a Blekko slashtag maker. These can be viewed by combining a slashtag with the additional tag /view — such as in this given example — /small business/view.

There is more about Blekko search in the article.

Noodle Tools to help educators

Posted on December 19, 2012 by Gwen

Noodle Tools has created a series of “information literacy modules” to help teachers at all levels in the school system introduce their students to tools and evaluative criteria. Show Me Literacy modules have been prepared for elementary, middle, and university levels. It’s strictly click and read – at least the free version – and the content is basic. This could be fine for absolute beginners.

Internet Schools has just recommended it – NoodleTools Provides Its Show Me Information Literacy Modules Free (Dec 13, 2012)

Noodle Tools has been helping searchers for many years, most notably with its guide on search tools to use. But this type of guide requires frequent review and updates which the Noodle page has not received. It’s time for Noodle to drop directories – they aren’t being funded, and to remove the dead or dying links. The concept is still good, but the page needs work.

Journal Table of Contents

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Gwen

JournalTOCs is a table of contents service in the UK for scholarly journals. Free to use and attractively designed, it has over 20,826 journals directly collected from over 1490 publishers – some of these are open source. Coverage includes sciences, social sciences, humanities. Register to receive email alerts on new arrivals. Use the super-user account if you are a librarian or researcher who arranges to get this type of information for others.

Users can stay up to date with new developments through the Twitter feed or blog.

Google Identifies Navigational Posts

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Gwen

How Google May Identify Navigational Queries and Resources, Bill Slawski, SEO by the Sea (Dec 9)

Many search queries are navigational – these are the ones when you are trying to find a known page. Google may have algorithms that can identify that you have a navigational intent and give more prominence to likely answers.

“A patent granted to Google last week explores how to use query sessions to identify Navigational Queries and Navigational Resources.”

“If Google decides that a query is a navigational query, and a result for it is a navigational result, the patent tells us that the page identified as a navigational result might be re-ordered in search results so that it is “always shown on a first page search results provided for the user session.””

The Yahoo Bing Network

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Gwen

The Yahoo | Bing Network has 152 Million Unique Searchers and Growing. I kid you not: this is 30% of US searchers – and 45 million of those Yahoo / Bing users don’t use Google.

Is Google Reader in Danger?

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Gwen

Google Reader, “Constantly on the Chopping Block”, Google Operating System (Dec 8)

Many people would be annoyed if Google closed its Google Reader for aggregating RSS feeds. What would those of us who rely on it turn to? But the Reader may not figure highly in Google’s social plans.

Bing’s snapshots

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Gwen

Bing Expands Its Snapshot To Include People & Landmarks, Matt McGee, Search Engine Land (Dec 10)

Google has Knowledge Maps and Bing has Snapshots – the purpose is similar – to show facts and images about people and places. Bing’s shows in a middle column between the main results and the social search panel on the right. Does look squeezed but it works. I like the one Bing does for David Suzuki.

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