Disclaimer: the content of these slides was correct on November 24th 14.59 GMT, using google.co.uk via Chrome, and signed into one of my Google accounts. Of course, a lot of it will have changed by now!!

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Google knows best

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Hewish mild

Google decided to change my search to Jewish mild

=Google decides that coots are lions – changed a search for coots mating behaviour to lions mating behaviour

Coots mating behaviour = lions mating behaviour

• A Google experiment?

– we think Google assumed coots was a typing error for cats and then did a synonym search on cats

• See:

– Google decides that coots are really lions http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/02/12/google-decides-that-coots-are-really-lions/

– Update on coots vs. lions http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/02/21/update-on-coots-vs-lions/

– Google still thinks coots are possibly cats (or cows) http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/06/07/google-still-thinks-coots-are-possibly-cats-or-cows/

• Exact search when

– the term coots was repeated

– the order of the search terms was changed

Thanks to Arthur Weiss and Susanna Winter for their help with this oddity11/04/23 www.rba.co.uk 4

How Google works

“Dear Bing, We Have 10,000 Ranking Signals To Your 1,000. Love, Google”

http://searchengineland.com/bing-10000-ranking-signals-google-55473

Over 200 hundred “signals”

Each may have over 50 variations

/

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Google knows us so well

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Google personalises and tailors

your results depending on your

location, computer, browser, past

searches, what you have looked at

in the past, your +1s, your blocked

sites, Google experiments, your

Google+ account, your other

social networks, what you do on

your android phone, what you had

for breakfast...and anything else it

can find by rummaging around

in your Google dashboard.

Check your account’s dashboard at http://www.google.com/dashboard/

Google includes social media

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Google is good at....

• Localisation

• Country versions give priority to local content

• Localisation at town/city level– may have to tell Google where you are based

– don’t have to tell Google my town if I am looking a local restaurant, taxi or plumber

– especially useful when using a mobile device

• Personalisation? Varies from person to person as to whether it is useful

• Image search

• Maps

• Google Finance

• Overall coverage and rolling out features worldwide

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BUT.......what I see on my screen for a search is not what you’ll see on yours.

This affects how we advise users and clients on the best search strategy.

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No plus sign any more and Google ignores “...”

• Dear Google, stop messing with my search : http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/11/08/dear-google-stop-messing-with-my-search/

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Google does a “soft AND”

“When you do a multi-term query on Google (even with quoted terms), the algorithm sometimes backs-off from hard ANDing all of the terms together.......it’s clear that people will often write long queries (with anywhere from 5 to 10 terms) for which there are no results. Google will then selectively remove the terms that are the lowest frequency to give you some results (rather than none)....Soft AND is a way to reduce the overall frustration and give the searcher something to examine (and with luck, a chance to reformulate their query).”

Dan Russell

http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/11/08/dear-google-stop-messing-with-my-search/#comments

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We now have Verbatim search

• Run your search first and then select Verbatim from the left hand menu on your results page

• Appears that you can include advanced search commands in your strategy e.g. OR and the tilde (~) for synonyms

• Google: Verbatim for exact match search http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2011/11/18/google-verbatim-for-exact-match-search/

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“Normal” search Verbatim (identical to &pws=0) Chrome Incognito

Google web searches

Use the results sidebars

• These help you focus your search

• Vary depending on type of search e.g. web, news, images

• Open up the "more" options to see everything

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Translated pages for a different perspective

• Google suggests languages from context of search but you can choose your own

• Your search is translated and the results are translated into your original language

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Google sidebars

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Images Videos News Books Blogs

Where have cached and similar gone?

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Hover over a result and a "preview" of the page should appear to the right together with cached and similar links

Block sites that you never, ever want to see again!

• Use with caution – Google may use your blocked sites as a ranking "signal" for other searchers

• Sign into your Google account

• Run your search, click on a result, return to results and a block option is made available

• Site will be blocked from all your future searches regardless of topic

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Learn advanced search commands

• Advanced Search screen (now hidden under cog wheel in upper right hand corner of the screen)

• Do more with commands

• For example selecting file type ppt on the Advanced Search screen will only search for ppt and not pptx

• Use filetype command instead, for example zeolites environmental remediation filetype:ppt (35 results)

zeolites environmental remediation filetype:ppt OR filetype:pptx (42 results)

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Essential commands

• filetype:

• site:

• inurl: and allinurl:

• intitle: and allintitle:

• related:

• Numeric range search– [1st number]..[2nd number] [unit of measurement (optional)]

– 1..7 kg

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Keeping up to date

• Inside Search http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/

• Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/

• Search Engine Land http://searchengineland.com/

• Search Engine Watch http://searchenginewatch.com/

• Boolean Black Belt-Sourcing/Recruiting http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/

• Karen Blakeman’s Blog http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/

• Phil Bradley's weblog http://philbradley.typepad.com/

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