Better Searching

Directions and Worksheet

This worksheet is designed to help you record your answers as you explore advanced Internet
searching techniques and think about why the number of hits came out as they did. Before getting
started, make sure your advanced search options are completely visible.
This link will take you directly to Google Advanced Search.
Go to
http://www.google.com/advance
d_search

When searching on your own, you can type advanced search into the
search bar of any browser and the first link will be to Google Advanced
Search.
Another option when using Google is to conduct a search then scroll to
the bottom of the first search results screen where youll find a link to
Advanced Search.

This window opens, but does

not include all the options
available for advanced
searching.
To access the other options,
see below.

If you scroll down the page,

youll see a set of links under
the heading You can also
Follow the link titled Find pages
that are similar to or link to a
URL.
Now youre ready to refine your
search.

Directions: The column on the left tells what to search for and how to search for it. Record the
number of hits you get in the Matches column. Explain what contributed to the number of hits in the
Reasons column. The space in the column will expand as you type.

Question
Find web pages that have...
all these words: Atlantis continent

# Matches
609,000

The first search shows only

what? And excludes what?
The first search shows only
Atlantis continent but it excludes
shuttle film movie.

But don't show pages that have...any of these

unwanted words: shuttle film movie

Find web pages that have...

all these words: Atlantis

115,000,000

Find web pages that have...

all these words: Greenville

56,400,000

The second one has more hits

because The second one has
more because its more broad

The first search shows only

what? And excludes what?
It shows Greenville but excludes
South Carolina SC

one or more of these words: Maine ME

But don't show pages that have...
any of these unwanted words: South Carolina SC
Find web pages that have...
all these words: Greenville

Reasons

96,400,000

this exact wording or phrase: San Diego State

University

10,900,000

Find web pages that have...

all these words: San Diego State University

258,000,000

The second one has more hits

because
It doesnt exclude South
Carolina SC

The second one has more hits

because
It searches for all that have San
Diego State University

this exact wording or phrase: Bill 602P

25,400
this exact wording or phrase: the recent online
hoax

10

this exact wording or phrase: demonstrating

genuine leadership

2,730

this exact wording or phrase: Jenny kissed me

when we met

4,180

Page-specific tools:
Find pages similar to the page:
www.edutopia.org

141,000

What do these searches show?

They show what people look up
and post on the internet. That
they get looked up less than
other things.

These are different because...

It searched for pages that were
similar.

Find pages that link to the page:

www.edutopia.org

550,000

18,400
Find pages similar to the page:
kids.msfc.nasa.gov
Find pages that link to the page:
kids.msfc.nasa.gov

474,000

These are different because...

These are different because one
is the link and the other is
similar.

Reflection: Please reflect on what you learned while completing this assignment.
Why are these advanced, Internet searching techniques important to you? Support your ideas with
specific examples.
I believe that they are important to me because they can help me search for things that it would
take me a long time to find and or search. They can also help me find things that would that are
harder to find.