How Does Google Work?
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With Genealogy Links: http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/library/genealogy-presentation How does Google work? Google’s Computers: Google utilizes many computers known as “servers” to administer (serve) Google services. Google likely has around one million servers for different functions including analyzing search queries and delivering search results. One of their largest “server farms” is located in the Dalles, Oregon. Google is very secretive about how many servers it actually has. When you run a search with Google, you’ll notice that Google brags that brings back your results in a fraction of a second —For example: About 11,700,000 results (0.27 seconds), this is the result of many of Google’s servers working together on your search together. Indexing the Web: Google browses the visible web and creates and re-creates an index of the websites it browses. When you run a Google search you aren’t searching the Web itself, but instead Google’s index of sites with links to live pages that it created when it last indexed the web. Google has the largest index of web pages of any search engine, indexing over 55 billion web pages! When Google indexes the web it makes a copy of the site for its “cache”. When you search with Google and come across a website which is currently down, you can mouseover a site in the search results, then the double arrows and then click on “cached” to see what the site recently looked like when it was last indexed or before it went down. Useful for find- ing information that “was just there yesterday!”. Google Search Results: When you send a query to Google (“Google something”), Google brings back a list of pertinent web pages from websites along with links to pictures and other resources from its index. Google utilizes special search algorithms (mathematical procedures) to bring back highly relevant search results. Google is very secretive about its search algorithms. In a standard search the most relevant results are at the top of the list of results; the further down the list (and further through the Google results pages), results will be progressively less relevant to your search query and even contain fewer of your search terms —in a simple (non-Boolean)search. When Google indexes the web it looks at your search terms and matches them with the web pages that contain those search terms —the more occurrences of those words together on pages makes those pages more relevant. When Google indexes the web, it analyzes the pag- es that link to the pages with your relevant search terms and rates pages that are more linked to, more relevant. In other words a link to a page is a vote for that page. Of the pages that contain your search terms, those that have the most links to them from other pages will rise to the top of the search results. Many kinds of Google Searches & Services: Google offers many types of searches and services that can be accessed from links at the top of their page. Most of Google’s search functionality involves the: Search, Images, Maps, YouTube, and News searches. Under More there is the very useful Books search, and also Translate, and Shopping. Most of Google’s services can be accessed with a Google ID (Gmail username and password). Services include: Gmail, Google Docs, Google+, and Sites (make your own website). Under More and Even More, there are all kinds of Google services and options... With Continued... Basic Google Searching: Don’t use search terms that are too general or too specific. You will get too many search results in the first case, and perhaps eliminate the results you want in the second case. Interview Yourself: what do you know for sure? Use words that you know for certain about your subject as search terms, then look for more relevant search terms (or synonyms) in your Google search results and use those in your next search. Repeat until you find the answer. Eliminate unnecessary words and articles (“the” “a” “an”), pronouns (“I”, “it”) and prepositions (“of” “to” “on” “at”), unless they are part of a proper name, or absolutely necessary. Google tends to ignore these words; they are called “stop words”. Imagine the words that would be on the perfect website that would have the information you are looking for. What words would appear frequently? Think of synonyms for your search terms. Word order matters subtly. Think of ordering search terms from general to specific, or putting the most important search terms first. Advanced Google Searching & Boolean Searching: When you run a search with Google you’ll notice a gear symbol to the upper right of the search results. Clicking on the gear will give you access to Search Settings, the Advanced Search, Web History, and Search Help. You can get directly to the advanced web search by going to: http://www.google.com/advanced_search The advanced search is available (and very useful) for: Search (searching the In- ternet), Images, News, Books, Shopping, and some Google services. The Ad- vanced Search will allow you to highly customize your search and target your re- sults. The Advanced Search will also allow you to conduct Boolean searches. Boolean Searching: Boolean searches allow you to combine search terms, eliminate search terms from your search results, and / or make Google return results with your search terms. The Boolean search: “turkey” “recipe” -travel –country can be visualized by the Venn diagrams shown below. The search results must not contain the words travel or country, but must contain the subgroup of sites that both contain the words turkey and recipe (shown in red). turkey “turkey” recipe “recipe” -travel -country With Continued... The Advanced Google search provides a form for you to fill out to execute your search. When you run your search it translates it into a query with the search operators shown below in the examples. You can also just use the search operators (parentheses, minuses etc., on the main Google search page). The Advanced Google search form offers these options: Find pages with... All these words: Example: “dough” “pizza” “recipe” The words dough, pizza, and recipe must be present in each result. This exact wording or Phrase: Example: “Benjamin Franklin” The words Benjamin Franklin (in that order) must be present in each result. Any of these words: Example: banana OR coconut OR strawberry Google will bring pages with all of the words to the top of the search results, as you go through the results pages, fewer words will appear until results only have one of the words. Usually used in conjunction with a phrase search. Example: “ice cream”. None of these words: Example: -recipe –thanksgiving The words recipe and thanksgiving must not be present in each search result. Numbers ranging from: Example: $300..$500 Will bring you back results with numbers within the number range you choose. Then narrow your results by… (underlined options are most important) Language: Finds pages in the language you select. Region: Finds pages published in a particular region. Last update: Finds pages updated within the time you specify. Site or domain: Searches one site (like wikipedia.org ) or limit your results to a domain like .edu, .org or .gov Terms appearing: Searches for terms in the whole page, page title, or web address, or links, to the page you're looking for. Reading level: Finds pages at one reading level or just view the level info. File type: Finds pages in the format you prefer. Usage rights: Finds pages you are free to use yourself. With Continued... Google Tips & Tricks: A complete list of Google tricks can be found here: www.google.com/insidesearch/tipstricks/index.html Google Guide: www.googleguide.com An excellent and comprehensive guide to searching with Google. Google Support: http://support.google.com Google’s own guide to searching with Google! General Tips & Tricks: CNTRL + F finds a word on a page or in a document Learn to copy and paste! Drag over text until highlighted, then: CNTRL + C copies the words CNTRL + V pastes the words Copying and pasting will allow you to take attractive search terms from your results and paste them, or several of them back into the search box without typing them. Also useful when creating documents, copying (and cutting) and pasting is an essential skill... .