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Google and Beyond: Just Google
NHS South West Monday, 11th November 2013, ExeterThursday, 14th November 2013, Bristol
This presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
Karen Blakeman, RBA Information [email protected], http://www.rba.co.uk/search/
twitter.com/karenblakeman, http://google.com/+KarenBlakeman/, http://www.linkedin.com/in/karenblakeman
Slides will be available on http://www.authorstream.com and http://www.slideshare.com/. Also available temporarily at http://www.rba.co.uk/as/
Google for search?
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Why do we use Google?
Often gives 'good enough' results with minimal effort from
the searcher
Great coverage
Personalisation
Problems?
Google thinks it knows best when it comes to the search
strategy
Too much information
Personalisation
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Five things you need to know about Google search
1. Google personalises your search
Personalises search based on– location
– past search history
– past browsing activity
– activity in other areas of Google e.g. YouTube, blogs, images
– content from contacts in your personal networks may be given priority
– what you and others have ‘liked’, g+1
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Five things you need to know about Google search
1. Google personalises your search
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Non-personalised search Personalised search
Google's Privacy Policy
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"Our new Privacy Policy makes clear that, if you’re signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience."
Toward a simpler, more beautiful Google http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/toward-simpler-more-beautiful-google.html
"we're more excited than ever to build a seamless social experience, all across Google"
How to “Un-personalise” your search
Switch off web/search history
Log out of your Google account
Clear cookies
Use private/incognito browsing
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Private browsing - quickest way “un-personalise”search
Chrome - New Incognito window - Ctrl+Shift+N
FireFox - File, New Private Window - Ctrl+Shift+P
Internet Explorer – Tools, InPrivate Browsing [location varies depending on which version you have] - Ctrl+Shift+P
Opera – File, New Private Window - Ctrl+Shift+N
Safari – click on Safari next to the Apple symbol in the menu bar, select Private Browsing and then click on OK.
Will not remove country personalisation
Five things you need to know about Google search
2. Google automatically looks for variations on your search terms and sometimes drops terms from your search
– Google does not tell you it has ignored some of your terms
– “..” around terms, phrases, names, titles of documents does not always work
– To force an exact match and inclusion of a term in a search, prefix it with ‘intext:’
incidence occupational asthma intext:agriculture UK
– Use Verbatim for an exact match for the whole search
Google Verbatim
Five things you need to know about Google search
3. Google web search does not search everything it has in its database
– two indexes: main, default index and the supplemental index
– supplemental index may contain less popular, unusual, specialist material
– supplemental index comes into play when Google thinks your search has returned too few results
– Verbatim and some advanced search commands seems to trigger a search in the supplemental index
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“Normal search” 91,600 Search after Verbatim is applied391,000
Five things you need to know about Google search
4. Google changes its algorithms several hundred times a year How Google makes improvements to its search algorithm
- YouTube http://youtu.be/J5RZOU6vK4Q
Hummingbird
Not just an update but a completely new algorithm
Tries to make “sense” of your query and put it into context, natural language queries
Not just search history but also your location, device being used
Announced September 26th 2013 but had already been in use for about a month
Many aspects had been tested over the previous months and past year
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Five things you need to know about Google search
5. We are all Google’s lab rats
Just Testing: Google Users May See Up To A Dozen
Experiments
http://searchengineland.com/just-testing-google-searchers-may-see-up-to-a-dozen-experiments-141570
Mostly minor effects on search but sometimes totally bizarre
results
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/
What I see on my screen will not be what you see on your screen, will not be what your colleagues see on theirs, will not be
what your users see.
Google Scholar more consistent – stuck in a time warp?
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What does Google know about you
Sign in to your Google account and go to http://www.google.com/dashboard
Check your ad preferences at www.google.com/ads/preferences
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If you do not have a Google account there will only be information about you in the right hand column
Changes to T&Cs 11th November 2013
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https://plus.google.com/settings/endorsements?hl=en
Choosing your search terms
Google automatically looks for synonyms and variations on your terms
– abdominal pain will find stomach ache, stomach cramps etc.
– but you don’t get the same results if you use stomach ache instead of abdominal pain
– run separate searches using alternative terms/phrases
– no information on how the synonyms are identified or implemented
The terms you use can radically change the emphasis of your results
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Choosing your search terms
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Google Reading level
Changes the type of material that is returned
Nothing to do with publishers assigned reading age
Run the search and from the menu above the results select Search tools, All results, Reading level
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Google Reading level
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Basic Advanced
Nutrition facts
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Information from Wikipedia and USDA
Compare
compare spinach with cabbage
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Do not always need ‘with’Can only compare two similar entities
" " around phrases “No, Google Scholar Shouldn’t be Used Alone for Systematic Review Searching”
- to exclude a term occupational asthma agriculture -aspergillosis
OR to specify alternatives but often better to run separate searches on each term
* to stand in for one or more words
macular * degeneration
Picks up macular myopic degeneration, macular disciform
degeneration, macular cone degeneration etc.
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filetype:
Think file format– PDF for research documents, government reports, industry
papers, company reports
– ppt or pptx for presentations, tracking down an expert on a topic
– xls or xlsx for spreadsheets containing data
Use the advanced search screen or the filetype: command occupational asthma agriculture UK filetype:pdf
occupational asthma agriculture UK filetype:ppt
occupational asthma agriculture UK filetype:pptx
occupational asthma agriculture UK filetype:xls
occupational asthma agriculture UK filetype:xlsx
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site:
For searching large websites, or groups of sites by type for example government, NHS, academic
Can exclude sites using -site:
Use advanced search screen or site: command
organ donation statistics Wales site:nhs.uk
organ donation statistics Wales site:ac.uk
organ donation statistics site:wales.gov.uk
organ donation statistics Wales -site:au
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Numeric range search
Anything to do with numbers and quantities: years, temperatures, weights, distances, prices etc
Use the advanced search screen or type in your two numbers separated by two full stops as part of your search
UK alzheimers forecast 2014..2030
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intitle: inurl:
Words in the title – can be single words or phrases
Ensures subject is the main focus of the article
Use advanced search screen or intitle:intitle:”diabetic retinopathy”
Words in the URL – can be single words or phrases
Use advanced search screen or inurl:inurl:”diabetic retinopathy”
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Date
Restrict your results to information that has been published within the last hour, day, week, month, year or your own date range
Search tools, Any time and select an option
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daterange:
Date restriction does not work with Verbatim
Use daterange: command instead
Uses Julian date format (fractions omitted)
Julian Date Converter http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/JulianDate.php/
Syntax– for example reports on NHS waiting times between1st September
2012 and 30 November 2013
NHS waiting times daterange:2456171-2456261
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daterange: the easy way
Third party tools for the daterange: search for example http://gmacker.com/web/content/gDateRange/gdr.htm then apply Verbatim
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Google Public Data Explorer
http://www.google.com/publicdata/
One of Google's best kept secrets!
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Images - copyright
Always, always check and double check the copyright - images may have a digital watermark and be tracked e.g. Digimarc
Creative Commons does not mean you can do what you like with an image
– http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
“Open-licencing your images. What it means and how to do it.” Andy Mabbett aka pigsonthewing
– http://pigsonthewing.org.uk/open-licencing-images-what-how/
Karen Blakeman's Blog “Free-to-use images might not be”
– http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2009/07/16/free-to-use-images-might-not-be/
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Images – “free to use....”
Google advanced image search
Use the usage rights, but always
double check the licence on the website
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Looking for an expert on a topic?
Academics– use keywords with site:ac.uk or with site:edu
Presentations at conferences, lectures, seminars – use keywords with filetype:ppt or with filetype:pptx
– use keywords with filetype:pdf
Google Scholar– http://scholar.google.com/
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Google Scholar
http://scholar.google.com/
“Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research”.
• Search all scholarly literature from one convenient place
• Explore related works, citations, authors, and publications
• Locate the complete document through your library or on the web
• Keep up with recent developments in any area of research
• Check who's citing your publications, create a public author profile
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Thomson Reuters-Google Scholar Linkage Offers Big Win for STM Users and Publishershttp://www.outsellinc.com/insights/12231
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Google Scholar
Does not cover all key journals in all subjects – no source list
Top publications for subjects and languages under Metrics link on home page or http://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?view_op=top_venues&hl=en
Scholar indexes the full text but you may have to pay to view the whole article
Groups different versions of an article together
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Google Scholar
Includes open access material, pre-prints, institutional repositories (but not necessarily author self archived repositories)
Includes material that is NOT peer reviewed but is structured and looks like an academic article (title in large font, authors, affiliations, abstract, keywords, citations)
Pre-prints and IR copies may differ from final published version – charts and images may be redacted because of copyright restrictions
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Google Scholar
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Does NOT use the publishers’ metadata
Date and author search looks in the area of the document where those elements are usually found
Page numbers, part of an address, data item may be mistaken for publication year
Jacsó, Péter. “Metadata mega mess in Google Scholar.” Online Information Review 34.1 (2010): 175-191.
Jacsó, Péter. Newswire Analysis: Google Scholar’s Ghost Authors, Lost Authors, and Other Problems http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6698580.html
Jacsó, Péter. “Google Scholar Author Citation Tracker: is it too little, too late? “Online Information Review 36.1 (2012): 126-141.
Jacsó, Péter. “Using Google Scholar for journal impact factors and the h-index in nationwide publishing assessments in academia–siren songs and air-raid sirens.” Online Information Review 36.3 (2012): 462-478.
Jacso – Savvy Searching Columns, Online Information Review http://www2.hawaii.edu/~jacso/savvy-mcb.htm
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Bad Google Scholar Results | Academic Librarian https://blogs.princeton.edu/librarian/2012/10/bad-google-scholar-results/
Gray, Jerry E., et al. Scholarish: Google Scholar and its Value to the Sciences. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. Summer 2012 http://www.istl.org/12-summer/article1.html
Hamilton, Michelle C, Janz, Margaret M and Hauser, Alexandra. Can librarians trust resources found on Google Scholar? Yes… and no. Impact of Social Sciences: Maximizing the impact of academic research .17 September 2012. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2012/09/17/can-science-students-and-researchers-trust-resources-found-on-google-scholar-yes-and-no/
Kramer, Bianca and Sieverts, Eric. Beyond coverage #ili2012. Slideshare. 27 October 2012. http://www.slideshare.net/bmkramer/beyond-coverage-ili2012
HLWIKI International. Google scholar bibliography. UBC HealthLib Wiki - A Knowledge-Base for Health Librarians. http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Google_scholar_bibliography 11/04/23 www.rba.co.uk 45
Google Scholar advanced search commands
Use advanced search screen or commands as follows:
+ sign before a search term to force an exact match, for example +norne
“....” around phrases for example “environmental remediation” intitle: to search for a single word in the title, for example intitle:zeolites environmental remediation allintitle: to search for all of your terms in the title, for example allintitle:zeolites environmental remediation author: to search on an author’s name, for example zeolites environmental remediation author:rhodes site: to limit your search to specific institution for example marcellus shale site:psu.edu Commands can be combined for a precise search, for example author:wolford site:psu.edu allintitle:marcellus shale
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Create your own Google custom search engine
http://www.google.com/cse/
For
– regularly searched sites
– selected sites on a subject or type of organisation
Cannot include password protected sources or sites where you have to fill in a form to access the information
Google's blog on custom search http://googlecustomsearch.blogspot.com/
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Keeping up to date
Inside Search http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/
Official Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Google Scholar Blog http://googlescholar.blogspot.com/
SearchReSearch : http://searchresearch1.blogspot.co.uk/
Search Engine Land http://searchengineland.com/
Search Engine Watch http://searchenginewatch.com/
Karen Blakeman’s Blog http://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/
Phil Bradley's weblog http://philbradley.typepad.com/
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Fact sheets
The fact sheets are available at http://www.rba.co.uk/search/
Search Strategies - Top Search Tips– http://www.rba.co.uk/search/TopSearchTips.shtml
Search Strategies - Selected Google Commands – http://www.rba.co.uk/search/SelectedGoogleCommands.shtml
Search Strategies - Google Search Tips – http://www.rba.co.uk/search/GoogleSearchTips.shtml
Search Strategies - Search Tools Summary and Comparison – http://www.rba.co.uk/search/compare.shtml
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