Internet Research with Google Advanced Search

Introduction

If you have been frustrated with time consuming and fruitless searches on the Internet, or otherwise need an introduction to conducting effective research on the Internet, this tutorial is aimed at you. It is a basic guide to efficiently and effectively searching the Internet for freely available quality information for academic purposes, with specific reference to the Google Advanced Search engine.

At various points in the tutorial you are invited to use the "Try it out" links as a way of applying or testing what you have just learned. Suggested answers can be found by clicking on the accompanying "How did you go?" link. Note that the results we found are provided as an indication only. As new sites and pages are continually being created it is likely that your result sets will be greater than ours were.

If you have questions or feedback as a result of using this tutorial, or need feedback about your searching, feel free to e-mail me, David Horne

Note: Throughout this tutorial links to web addresses outside the library online tutorial will open in a new window. If your screen does not change when you click on a link check the taskbar for a second browser window. Close the new window as you finish reading it.

STOP! Is the Internet the right place...

You can save yourself a lot of time in researching a particular topic by first considering whether the sort of information needed is likely be found on the Internet.

The Internet may not be the the best place to look for...

• brief factual information or a brief overview or definition. A print encyclopedia or dictionary may be more convenient and/or authoritative
• material from the "invisible Web" ie. the wide range of documents and data obtainable only from Monash Library databases (including journal articles, industry reports and statistics) which are not accessible via a general Internet search. Such databases are designed to enable precision searching and retrieval. For information about Library databases in your discipline check the online Subject pages.
• information that is unlikely to be free, at least in a complete form (e.g. detailed market reports or detailed historical share price information)
• old issues of publications (e.g. company annual reports and journal articles from 10 years ago)

GO!...

The Internet can be a useful source of free information that is of an academic standard, especially where currency is important- some examples are:

• government reports
• company annual reports
• media releases and speeches
• working/research/discussion papers
• legislation
• radio program transcripts
• official statistics

Three approaches to searching the Internet...

Having decided that an Internet search is worthwhile, there are several approaches to choose from.

• Directories: are designed to aid browsing and are best used for broad topic searches (eg e-commerce). A typical example is the Google Web Directory, with its hierarchical subject arrangement.
• Subject gateways: the Monash Library maintains Subject pages which include annotated lists of selected Internet sites, according to discipline. They are an excellent way of becoming familiar with key Internet resources in your subject areas. A list of subject gateways is Pinakes. These are, like directories, browsing tools.
• Search engines: allow more focused searching (eg have there been any recent reports from the Australian government on the regulation of e-commerce?). There are a range of different search engines with varying capabilities.

This tutorial focuses on use of the Google (Advanced) search engine, but introduces general principles which are applicable to all Internet searching.

Planning the search (search strategy)… 

Only by developing a search strategy will you be able to search efficiently and effectively. The broad steps of a search strategy are:

• Define the topic and the sort of information you require. Clarify any concepts or definitions in the topic as necessary. Decide whether the sort of information you require is likely to be found on the Internet, or elsewhere.
• Identify the key concepts, which will be used as search terms. This is the example we will research for this tutorial:

  ...the predicted economic impact of climate change on Australia

• For each of the key concepts, list any synonyms or alternative expressions. These can be used to widen the search. For this topic, internet sites that refer to "global warming" or the "greenhouse effect", rather than "climate change" might also be relevant, but would be overlooked by just searching on "climate change". Enter these terms in Google Advanced Search. This is covered in detail in the next section.
• After conducting an initial search evaluate the results for relevance and quality. If necessary, modify the original search and evaluate the new results. You may need to repeat this last step a number of times until you are satisfied with the results obtained.

Using Google Advanced Search

This section and the following series of screens introduce the Google Advanced Search interface, and demonstrate its main features using terms related to the topic, the predicted economic impact of climate change on Australia.

Google is located at: http://www.google.com. From the initial search screen, select Advanced Search.

The Google Advanced Search screen looks like this:

Single word search

Enter greenhouse in the Find results with all of the words box, then click on the Google Search button.

The first 10 results (Web pages) will be presented (although in this image the page has been truncated). At the top of the list the number of separate Web pages retrieved is displayed (in this case over 1 million!). Search terms are highlighted (in bold text):

Fortunately, Google lists the results so that those that are likely to contain quality, information on the search topic appear at the top of the list. Each retrieved page is ranked, relative to the others in the result, according to the number of links other sites have made to it. On the basis that the more other Web authors link to a particular site, the higher its perceived quality (in terms of design and content), this ranking is a useful indicator of relative site quality.

But remember..the ranking of results is only a guide - you still need to scroll through and evaluate the top ranked results for relevance and quality.

Note, also, that quality sites will tend to link to other potentially relevant sites of a similar standard, so a small number of the top ranking sites can potentially lead to a much larger pool of useful information.

Exact phrase search

There are two ways of phrase searching. Type the phrase in the Find results with the exact phrase box:

OR

Result of either of the exact phrase seaches (approximately 121,000 pages):

Try this for yourself: Use Google Advanced Search and compare the numbers of pages obtained when searching on each of the following phrases:

• greenhouse effect
• climate change
• global warming

How did you go?: In January 2002 the following results were obtained:

• greenhouse effect - 130,000
• climate change - 1,020,000
• global warming - 566,000

Topic search

We can now try a search on our topic: the predicted economic impact of climate change on Australia. As there are two phrases the search terms can be entered in several different ways. Like this:

OR

like this:

OR

like this:

The retrieved pages (almost 3,000 in January 2002) will each include all of the terms entered. The ranking of the results is not necessarily identical in each case.

Alternative terms

Suppose that the search topic was:
The effect of climate change on agriculture in Australia

It may be useful to widen the search to also retrieve pages that include the word "farming". Enter the alternative terms in Find results with any of the words:

This search will find pages containing both of the terms "australia" and "climate change" and also either of the words "farming" or "agriculture". (Pages which include all four terms will also be retrieved).

Try this for yourself: What results do you obtain with separate searches using "farming" and "agriculture". How does this compare with including them as alternative terms (as in the search above)? Google Advanced Search

How did you go? In January 2002 the following results were obtained:

Inclusion of alternate words in a search increases the number of results compared with searching on just one or other of them. Individual searches including just farming gave 12,700 pages; just agriculture gave 53,400. Entering both agriculture and farming in the "any of the words" box retrieved approximately 58,000 results.

Modifying a search

Looking at the numbers of results obtained so far we can end up with very large numbers of sites. Given its vastness, retrieving too many results, of varying relevance and quality can be more of a problem when searching the Internet than too few results. This section presents some of the most useful ways for narrowing down or focusing a search using Google Advanced Search. The specific techniques are:

• adding another term
• specifying a domain
• specifying a date
• excluding a term

Adding another term

Focus on a specific aspect of the topic by including a relevant term in, for example: the economic impact of climate change on Australian tourism

Only those pages from the original search that also contain the word "tourism" are presented (approximately 900 of the 3,000 original pages).

Specifying a domain or site

In its simplest form, the Internet address (URL) of a site classifies it as belonging to a particular type of organisation, and (generally) by country of origin. This information specifies the domain of the site. Examples of the common domains are:

International or United States entities have no country code:

For other domain and country codes see: 2-Character Alphabetical Country Codes - Digraphs of All Countries. (Domains are explained in more detail in the Library online tutorial, How to do research on the Internet)

Restricting the search to a particular domain provides a means of focusing on authoritative sources, e.g. .gov.au for official reports and policy information from the Australian government, or .edu.au for reports, working papers and articles published by Australian universities and research centres. The following example demonstrates this.

To limit the search on the predicted economic impact of climate change on Australia to just Australian government sites, type the domain information into the Domains box:

Result: Without limiting to government sites approximately 3,000 sites were obtained (January 2002). By specifying gov.au about 300 sites resulted.

Date

If currency of information is crucial to your topic, it is possible to limit the results to only those pages which have been updated within a selected recent period of time.

To limit the previous search to just pages updated in the last three months, choose this option from the drop down menu in the Date box:

Result: In January 2002 just over 70 sites resulted.

Try this for yourself: Do a search on the topic, the economic impact of climate change on agriculture in Australia, and specify only Australian educational sites updated within the last year. Google Advanced Search

How did you go? In January 2002 approximately 65 sites resulted.

Excluding a term

The initial search on just the word greenhouse returned some pages about garden greenhouses. One way to focus more towards the greenhouse effect is to modify the search by typing "gardening" in the Find results without the words box

Use this feature with care. If the term you are trying to exclude could reasonably also appear in pages which are of relevance to your topic you may overlook useful information.

Try this yourself: Using Google Advanced Search search for information on the preservation of the jaguar (ie. the cat, not the make of car or computer game with the same name)

How did you go? In January 2002 searching on jaguar and preservation resulted in about 6,000 results. By excluding the words car and game the results were much more relevant (approximately 2,360 pages).

Other ways of focusing a search

Google Advanced includes further functions for limiting searches:

• to specific formats (File Format)
• parts of individual sites (Occurences)
• or, a specific language (Language)

Click on Advanced Search Tips (top right of the Advanced Search screen) for further information on these functions.

Summary

The previous section covered some techniques for focusing a search where a large number of pages have resulted. These are summarised below, along with tips for modifying a search which has produced few useful results.

Quality Control

Because of the unrestricted nature of Internet publishing, it is especially important that you verify the quality of any information you intend to use in your academic work. Key considerations are:

• the purpose of the site
  Does the site exist to entertain, or for commercial promotion?
  Is some bias evident?
  If there a sponsor for the site, what is their motivation?
• the authority of the author(s)
  Are the authors of the site and its content recognised experts in that field?
  Is sufficient information presented about the author(s) to verify expertise? (e.g. are they members of relevant university department?)
• the accuracy of the information
  Are there spelling, typographical or other errors in presentation?
  Does the information presented contain any inaccuracies?
• whether the information has undergone an editing process
  (e.g. an online academic conference paper will have been expertly reviewed and edited prior to posting, whereas a personal Web site is not subject to such quality checks)
• the currency of the site and the information presented
  Is the site well maintained (e.g. no broken links)?
  When was the site last updated?
• whether there are contact details included in the site
  Is the author/site maintainer easily contacted to answer queries?

Citing a web page

It is important to acknowledge the source of any information you use in your academic work. Be sure to print out or copy information of importance to your research, in case it has changed, or even disappeared from the Web the next time you try to access it. The format of the citation will depend on the referencing style you are required to use.

Detailed guidance on citing Web pages is available in the Library online tutorial How to acknowledge what you've read

Faculty of Business and Economics students should also consult Citing Online Sources, (section 10.3.2) in the Q Manual.

Faculty of Law students should consult Campbell, E. and Fox, R., Students' Guide to Legal Writing (Federation Press, Leichardt, NSW, 2003), section 3.13; or Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd ed, Melbourne University Law Review Association, 2002), section 6.14.

Key points for Web searching

Understand the question/topic for which you are attempting to find information, and the type of information needed.

Carefully consider whether a general Internet search is likely to provide the information you require.

Develop a search strategy to efficiently guide the search.

Evaluate the higher ranked results for relevance and quality, and look for further potential search terms that could be used to modify the original search.

Experiment with modifications of the original search to expand or focus the search as necessary.

Retain a copy of information found on the Web that you intend to use- in the future it may change or disappear. Ensure you have all the details necessary for citing the source, including the date accessed.

Be systematic. Inefficient Web searching is an inadvertent time waster.

Sources for further information, help and feedback

The following Monash University Library sites provide ways of further developing your Internet research expertise

How to do research on the Internet (tutorial)

Search the internet, a brief guide to a range of search tools. Tip: Bookmark this page!

Questions about Google and Internet searching in general and feedback on this Google Advanced Search tutorial are welcomed:

David Horne
Subject Librarian
Caulfield Campus Library

Addendum
Take a look also at US computer scientist Nancy Blachman's Google Guide tutorial