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.ISU LIBRARY BASICS: Google

What you need to know to get started with your research at the ISU Library.

About Google

Google is a popular database. It is favored by librarians because it ranks its results depending on how many other Web pages link to the result. This makes it more difficult for Web sites to rig the results and force their pages to rank first.

Google Scholar

Advanced Google Searching

FEATURE

EXAMPLE

DESCRIPTION

 

 

10 words maximum

 

 

Default AND

|

myanmar|burma

Use | for OR

" "

 

Put quotes around phrases

-

 

Use – for NOT

*

"short letter * * * * long one"

Replace a word with *

~

~help microsoft Office 2007

~guide apa style

Find synonyms with ~

intitle:

intitle:"Indiana state university"

Finds the word in the title of the Web page

intext:

intext:yahoo.com

Finds the word in the body text; ignores titles, URL, link text

inanchor:

inanchor:"ISU library"

Finds words and images on a Web page that link to another page (descriptive text of a link); includes text, icons, images, and buttons

site:

site:loc.gov

site:.edu

Finds word within a site or top level domain; does not search subdirectories

inurl:

inurl:help

Finds the string in the URL

link:

link:library.indstate.edu

Returns pages linking to the URL

cache:

cache:www.yahoo.com

Searches Google cache for page

filetype:

filetype:ppt

filetype:asp

filetype:php

 

related:

related:www.google.com

related:library.indstate.edu

Finds categories of Web pages

info:

info:martinlutherking.org

Finds links to more information about a URL

define:

define:sedulous

Defines a word

Assessing Online Resources

Using Google to Find Govt Docs

Don't Google it, ASP it

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