Searching the Internet: Google & Beyond

Twenty-four people attended the UKeiG advanced Search workshop at Birmingham today and, as we always do at these events, the participants were asked to come up with a list of top search tips, tools and sites.

This is the list:

1. Install the Google Toolbar to access many of the Google features direct from your browser, for example site search, news and image search. Go to http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/index.html for versions for Firefox and IE or http://googlebar.mozdev.org/ for additional features in the Firefox toolbar (Books, Scholar, Local search etc.)

2. Yahoo Mindset - http://mindset.yahoo.research.com/
This version of Yahoo includes a slider bar at the top of the results list so that you can change the emphasis of sites by moving the bar towards shopping or research.

3. Trovando.it
Trovando enables you to run your search on different search tools and types of resources one by one. No need to remember which search tools can do what and it encourages you to try out new services and approaches to searching. Tools are grouped under resource types such as Web, Images, AudioVideo, Blogs, News, Reference.

4. Don't automatically Google, ask a human being. The person sitting next to you may have been there, done that and got the tee shirt, and have exactly what you need or know where to find it in seconds.

5. Use the Freepint Bar discussion board for tricky questions.

6. Use " ...." around phrases to search for the terms adjacent to one another and in the order specified. A basic technique but all too often forgotten.

7. Google local, maps and satellite images (http://local.google.co.uk/). Search by postcode, location or types of businesses in a location and combine the results with maps and satellite images. High resolution satellite images are not available for all areas but when they are the detail is scary!

8. Tales from The Terminal Room http://www.rba.co.uk/tfttr/
A monthly electronic newsletter on information resources, developments in search tools and issues related to Internet access.

9. The site/domain search option in many of the major search engines. This enables you to search for types of web site, for example .gov.uk for UK government sites or ac.uk for UK academic pages, and to search individual web sites. The latter is useful for large sites that have appalling navigation or for tracking down documents that have "disappeared" from the main menus.

10. Jux2.com. A meta search tool that combines results from Google, Yahoo and MSN, and highlights what they miss or what is unique in their individual results list.