14 Essential Google Search Tips for Students

August 17, 2015
Teaching students how to conduct smart search queries online is an important part of cultivating a digital citizenship culture within your classroom.  Smart searching goes beyond the simple ability to conduct quick search queries to how to effectively locate information online and assess their authenticity and accuracy. In other  words, smart searching encompasses a complex set of interrelated skills and competencies that together make up the holistic picture of what it is to be a search savvy netizen.

And since Google comes at the top of search engines accessed by students it goes without saying that attention here should be targeted at the know-how necessary for  students to be able to tap into the full potential of this search engine. To this end, and in addition to the different resources we covered here in the past, we are sharing with you this collection of video tutorials  from Google Help featuring some essential Google search tips. Check them out and  share with your students:

1- Search by File

2- Exclude Words

3- Search for two things

4- Define a word

5- Fill in the blanks

6- Look up public data

7- Find an exact phrase

8- World clock

9- Track a package

10- Calculate anything

11- Area codes

12- Search within sites

13- Refine your Google search results

14- simple Google search tips

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Some Very Good Tutorials to Help Students Develop Online Search Skills

April 24, 2015
The key to unlocking the educational potential of the virtual world is through knowing how to effectively search it with the minimum time and efforts possible. Effective search in this sense refers to the ability to locate targeted information online using ‘informed search queries’. It does take time and practice to develop such an ability but it is worth every single second you spend learning it. Once you learn the skill, you will save so much time that would  be have been wasted tracing those search queries that render six figure number of responses.

We have been sharing several tutorials, tips, and graphics on how to help students develop effective search strategies which you can access from this page. Today we are adding another excellent resource from USC Beaufort Library. This is basically a tutorial made up of 20 well crafted lessons all geared towards helping learners build effective web search skills. The lessons are very short and feature only the basic things learners need to get started in the right direction. We have been browsing this collection of lessons and we found them a real treasure trove that teachers should definitely access and share with their students. Here is a round-up of the lessons covered by USCB Library’s Bare Bones Tutorial:

• Lesson 1: Search Engines: a Definition
• Lesson 2: Metasearchers: a Definition
• Lesson 3: Subject Directories: a Definition
• Lesson 4: Library Gateways and Specialized Databases: a Definition
• Lesson 5: Evaluating Web Pages
• Lesson 6: Creating a Search Strategy
• Lesson 7: Basic Search Tips
• Lesson 8: Searching with Boolean Logic and Proximity Operators
• Lesson 9: Field Searching
• Lesson 10: Troubleshooting
• Lesson 11: Ask Search Engine: A Closer Look
• Lesson 12: Clusty Search Engine: A Closer Look
• Lesson 13: Dogpile Metasearcher: A Closer Look
• Lesson 14: Gigablast Metasearcher: A Closer Look
• Lesson 15: Google Search Engine: A Closer Look
• Lesson 16: MSN Directory / Search Engine: A Closer Look
• Lesson 17: Yahoo! Directory / Search Engine: A Closer Look
• Lesson 18: Graveyard for Dead Search Engines
• Lesson 19: Final Exam
• Lesson 20: Beyond "Bare Bones" 

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New- Google Released A New Feature for Downloading Search History

April 20, 2015
Google has recently added a new feature which allows users to download their search history into a file that is automatically saved on Google Drive. Before, users can only view their search history. Unless you searched for things you don’t want your grandma to see, downloading your search history will enable you to keep a physical archive of all your Google Search activities. Of course this feature works only when you are logged in to your Google account and you have the History feature activated.

 However, before you create an archive of your search history, be forewarned of the following caveats as stated by Google:

• Do not download your archive on public computers and ensure your archive is always under your control; your archive contains sensitive data.
• Protect your account and sensitive data with 2-Step Verification; helping keep bad guys out, even if they have your password.
• If you have decided to take your data elsewhere, please research the data export policies of your destination. Otherwise, if you ever want to leave the service, you may have to leave your data behind.

Here is how to download an archive of your search history:

1- Head over to your Account History
2- Click on the cog button in the top-right and select ‘download”

3- Click on "Create Archive"

Once done, you will get a notification in your Gmail with a link to the archived file on Google Drive.

Courtesy of TNW.

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A New Visual Featuring Some Interesting Google Search Tips

April 17, 2015
Here is an interesting infographic covering some handy Google search tips. This could be a very good material to share with students. Of course, as we have repeatedly argued here, searching Google is an indispensable skill for the 21st century students. An effective search query goes beyond composing a simple lexical phrase with key words and hitting the search button. The visual below captures some the most popular tricks students can use to enhance their search experience. We invite you to have a look and share with your colleagues.



Via: Veravo
Courtesy of eLearning Infographics

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Awesome Visual Featuring 13 Important Google Search Tips for Students

February 7, 2015
Here is a new interesting visual on Google search tips that I want to bring to your attention. The visual features 13 practical features that would allow students to conduct smart and time-saving searches on Google. We have already covered these and several other tips in previous posts here in this blog, but it would not hurt to remind our students of the rules of Google’s search game.

The tips featured in this visual include:

• How to define a word 
• How to search for words in the same order
• How to exclude certain words
• How to search within a range of prices
• how to search within a website
• Fill in the blanks
• Search by file type
• How to set a timer
• Do math
• How to convert currency
• How to find a GIF
• How to search by title

Source of the visual: Veravo
Courtesy of Learning Infographics

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3 Important Google Search Tips to Help Students with Their Language Learning

January 28, 2015
Today I want to share with you three useful Google search tips that students can use to enhance their language learning and enrich their vocabulary. These tips are related to the use of Google’s integrated dictionary. There are actually three ways students can use Google’s dictionary right from their search bar: the first way is to search for definitions, the second one is for synonyms ( words with almost similar meanings) and the third one is for antonyms (words with opposite meanings).While I have been using the definition feature of Google for years now, it is only recently that I learned about the antonyms and synonyms functionality from a post by Drive Bunny which also inspired me to write this blog post.

1- Searching for word definitions
Google offers a quick and easy way to search for definitions of any term by simply typing “define” followed by the word you want defined. If you are using Chrome browser, you can do this right from the address bar otherwise you need to head over to Google and type in the search phrase in its search box. For instance, to look for the definition of the word ‘antonym’ type in “define antonym’ as shown in the screenshot below.

2- Search for synonym
Students can also use Google integrated dictionary to search for word equivalents.For instance if they are writing an essay and want to avoid being redundant by using the same word over and over. They can instead use one of its equivalent.
To look for synonyms on Google simply type in “synonym’ followed by the term whose synonyms you are looking for.

3- Search for antonyms
Similarly, students can use Google integrated dictionary to search for words that have opposite meanings. To do this they can type in “antonyms” followed by the word whose antonyms they are looking for.

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