Tips for Educators on Performing More Effective Google Searches

With budget crunches, the death of textbooks, and the Common Core's emphasis on nonfiction and curation of content from multiple sources, educators often turn where we all do to find information, Google.  However, like most people, many educators fail to take advantage of the search capabilities of Google when searching for the appropriate content, instead relying on 1,000,000 results and Google's ranking to find pertinent information.

But, with a few tips, you can become a much more effective searcher.  Instead of wandering through millions of results, pare those results into a manageable list and perform other useful tricks.

Tips

1.  Sort results by reading level

Complete a standard Google search.  For example, I searched for "net neutrality" and returned 11,100,000 results.  Now, choose "Search tools" below the search box and select the drop down menu "All results."

Choose "Reading level."  You can now choose between basic, intermediate, and advanced levels based on the vocabulary used in the results.  By choosing "intermediate," I reduce my results by 92%!  Use this tool to select content that matches the reading level of your students.

2.  Select when the page was published

Using the same search tools from the previous tip, you can limit the age of the results returned.  By choosing the "Any time" drop down menu, you can select from information published up to 1 hour ago, 1 day ago, 1 week ago, 1 month ago, 1 year ago, or a custom date range.  Use this tool to limit irrelevant and outdated information.

3.  Use advanced search

While most users just type terms into the search box, Google offers advanced search capabilities.  From the gear button, choose Advanced search.

You will be directed to a page divided into a top and bottom half.  The top half gathers terms for which you are searching.  The bottom half allows you to narrow your results.  

One of the most useful features of the bottom half is the ability to search by file type.  For instance, if you need a presentation on net neutrality, you can choose .ppt as the file type and all results will be PowerPoints.  Performing a search for "net neutrality" with file type .ppt returns 1,750 results, whereas a search for "net neutrality powerpoint" returns 121,000 results.

4.  Use Google's sub-domains 

If you are old enough, you may remember when search engines such as Yahoo allowed the user to click through a directory of webpages arranged by topic.  Google also provided a directory at directory.google.com.  But, that service, and most like it, have gone the way of the dinosaur.  So, how can you find content arranged around a subject?

Take advantage of the different Google sub-domains.  Google offers many different portals that limit results by type.  You are probably familiar with shopping.google.com, which limits results to products available for purchase, or images.google.com, which limits results to images, but there are sub-domains that are useful for educators.

news.google.com  Returns results from news outlets

books.google.com  Returns results from e-texts, both free and paid, as well as providing full-text of public domain and free works and previews and snippets of copyrighted works

scholar.google.com  Returns results from scholarly publications, many of which are full-text

translate.google.com  Translates text from and into multiple languages

finance.google.com  Returns results limited to economic and financial information

goo.gl  Shortens URLs

5.  Let the search bar work for you

Most people do not realize that the Google search bar can perform a variety of functions.  For instance, typing "'city name' to 'city name'" will automatically provide directions and an estimate of travel time between the cities.  Access other functions by typing the following into the search bar:

"weather+city name" for a weather report

"time+city name" for the time in that city

"any mathematical formula" for the answer to that formula

"earthquake+city, state, or zip" for recent earthquake activity in the area

"unit to unit" for a unit conversion

"define+a word" for the definition of the word

"a health condition or medication" for information on either

"poison control or suicide prevention" for hotlines to either

"flu" for a flu shot locator during flu season

"currency unit to currency unit" for current conversion rates

"patent+number" to get information on a patent number

Now you are a more effective Google user!