Ethiopian Treasures

Google

All search engines have similar search features for finding information on the Internet. However, Google is one of the largest and most comprehensive search engines available , as it is very rare to find a non-working link. It crawls the web and updates its index (database) on a regular basis. When it finds new web pages, it adds them to its index, at the same time it removes non-working web pages from its index.

Google is a hybrid search engine and uses a directory to supplement its own search engine. It examines and organises the links on websites into topics to determine the most relevance of the information. Google search features also include the unique "I'm feeling lucky" button, which takes you directly to the first website in the list of results. Try the following examples to search Google (www.google.com) more effectively.

Google Basic Search

Search using keyword(s) and/or phrase(s):

• example 1. earthquake - this search will find web pages containing "earthquake".
• example 2. earthquake volcano - this search will find web pages containing both "earthquake" and "volcano".

Google Advanced Search Features

If you want to narrow down your search further, you can make use of the advanced search features which will influence the order in which the results appear. This forces Google to find the information more accurately, according to the extra terms that you've asked for and allows you to sort, refine and group your search criteria more specifically using the following built in advanced search features.

Find Results

• With all of the words: web pages will contain all of the words you enter here in your search reasults.
• With the exact phrase: web pages will contain the exact words or phrases in the order you have typed them in your search reasults.
• With at least one of the words: web pages will contain at lease one of the words you enter here in your search reasults.
• Without the words: web pages that contain the words you enter here, will be excluded from your search results.
• Language: you can search for web pages written in any language or specific language e.g. English, French, Spanish, etc.
• File Format: you can search for web pages of any format or specific format e.g. Adobe Acrobat PDF (.pdf), Microsoft Word (.doc), Microsoft Exel (.xls), Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt) or Rich text Format (.rtf).
• Date: you can search for web pages updated anytime, in the past 3 month, in the past 6 month or in the past year.
• Occurances: you can search for web pages where the keyword(s), you have entered, occur anywhere in the web page, in the title of the page, in the text of the page, in the URL of the page or in the link of the page.
• Domain: you can search for web pages from a specific website or domain e.g. bbc.co.uk, cnn.com, .org, etc.
• Safe Search: you can excludes web pages that contain pornography, racist, violent images or contents from your search results if you select the Filter.

Google also allows you to refine your search further using the logical "OR" operator, "+" (plus sign), "-" (minus sign), "~" (Tilde sign) and quotation marks (" ").

OR Searches

The OR operator finds web pages that contain either or all keywords entered e.g. earthquake OR flood. Please note that the logical OR operator must be entered in uppercase between the keywords.

Plus Sign (+) Searches

The plus sign (+) finds web pages that contain all keywords you have entered. You must include a space before the plus sign, but no space after the plus sign, otherwise the search will not be accurate. For example, earthquake +flood +volcano, Google search will find web pages that contain "earthquake", "flood" and "volcano".

Minus Sign (-) Searches

The minus sign (-) excludes web pages from your search results that contain a keyword(s) you have entered. You must include a space before the minus sign, but no space after the minus sign, otherwise the search will not be accurate. For example, earthquake +flood -volcano, Google search will find web pages that contain both "earthquake" and "flood" excluding "volcano".

Tilde Sign (~) Searches

The tilde sign (~) allows you to search for a particular keyword(s) and its synonyms by entering the tilde sign (~) in front of the keyword(s) e.g. ~Word ~processing ~Tutorials.

Phrase Searches

Google allows you to refine your search further, using keywords or phrases, by enclosing them in quotation marks (" "). The keywords or phrases you enter in quotation marks will appear exactly on your search result as you have typed them.

Define Searches

Google allows you to search definitions for any words or phrases using define followed by colon and a keyword(s) or phrase(s). However, you must not include a space before or after the colon. Just try the following examples by entering in the Google search box:

• define:email
• define:world wide web
• define:Internet
• define:information technology
• define:word processing

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