Tips to search like a journalist on Google

By L.A. Lorek@lalorek

This/Not That

Paris, Texas Paris, France

Paris, Texas

Paris, France

Finding the Right Stuff

When searching, what you leave out is just as important as what you include. So to eliminate stuff, just put a minus sign “-” in front of the word or words you don’t want to appear in the search results.

Try these out: Paris Texas –France Alamo –car -rental Cheech –Chong

Still haven’t found what

you’re looking for ?

Phrase Search

Use “” double quotes around a phrase if you want Google to only consider those words.

Google will exclude everything else but what’s in the quote marks so make sure the phrase is accurate.

For example “L.A. Lorek” my byline yields different results than “Laura Lorek”

Restricted Searches

To search successfully, you’ve got to shut out all that other noise.

If you just want to search a select Web site, then use this command - subject site:website to find documents on the specified site.

For example: Constitution site:archives.gov

Fill in the Blank

Stumped? Don’t remember something? Go ask Google. Let Google “fill in the blank” by adding an asterisk (*) to the information you want to find out. It works. Check out the next page.

The Power of the Plus Sign

Google ignores common words and characters so if a common word is essential to getting the results you want, put a “+” sign in front of it.

Related Searches

Want to find web pages that have similar content? Type "related:" followed by the website address into the Google search box.

Google U.S. Government Search

Search across federal, state and local government websites at usgov.google.com

Google Scholar With Google Scholar you can search books and articles from leading academic journals and conferences on many topics.

Public Data on Google

Google makes it easier to find and use public data from government sources like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau. Just go to www.google.com/publicdata

For more search information please visit: visit http://www.google.com/help/features.html#query

Laura Lorek @lalorek

www.techchi.com