Using the Internet more effectively

11/04/23 www.rba.co.uk 1

Using the Internet more effectivelyWednesday, 6th November 2013

LVS Ascot

This presentation is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

Karen Blakeman, RBA Information Services

Karen.Blakeman@rba.co.uk, http://www.rba.co.uk/search/

twitter.com/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/

Gary's Social Media Count | PERSONALIZE MEDIA http://www.personalizemedia.com/garys-social-media-count/

Facebook

Facebook Graph Search

Change your language to English US under account settingsIncreasingly used by recruitment agencies and advertisers

Twitter

Flickr

Google Search?

11/04/23 www.rba.co.uk 9http://www.artofeurope.com/prints/poetical/homer_simpson_poster.htm

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’, shared, +1

1. Google personalises your search

Non-personalised search Personalised search

Google's Privacy Policy

"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"

Private browsing - quickest way “un-personalise”search

Chrome - New Incognito window - Ctrl+Shift+N

FireFox - File, New Private Window - Ctrl+Shift+P

Internet Explorer – InPrivate Browsing - Ctrl+Shift+P

Opera – 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.

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:’

public transport intext:algal biofuels

– Use Verbatim for an exact match search

Google Verbatim

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

“Normal search”1,555,500

Search after Verbatim is applied35,500,000

4. Google changes its algorithms several hundred times a year How Google makes improvements to its search algorithm

- YouTube http://youtu.be/J5RZOU6vK4Q

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/

Google gets personal

All searches lead to Google+ (they wish!)

Emphasis on individuals/authors

“Author verification” – linking Google+ profiles to other network profiles, websites, blogs, social media

Travel and local search results displayed in Google+

Searches on locations in Maps – information from Google+

YouTube users forced to set up Google+ profiles [videos made unlisted/private if you refuse]

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

If you do not have a Google account or are not signed in there will only be information about you in the right hand column

Changes to T&Cs 11th November 2013

https://plus.google.com/settings/endorsements?hl=en

Country versions of Google and local information

Country versions of Google give priority to local content

Useful if you are researching a person, company, or sector in another country

Go to the relevant country version of Google, for example www.google.fr, www.google.de, www.google.no

Google International Domains - List of Country and Language Codes

– http://www.distilled.net/blog/uncategorized/google-cctlds-and-associated-languages-codes-reference-sheet/

http://www.google.co.uk/

http://www.google.no/

Nutrition facts

Information from Wikipedia and USDA

Compare

compare spinach with cabbage

Compare

Exclusive to Google.com – recipes!

Choosing your search terms

Google automatically looks for synonyms and variations on your terms

– biofuels will find biodiesel, biogas, bio-ethanol etc.

– but do not get the same results if you use biodiesel instead of biofuels

– run searches using the other terms

– no information on how the synonyms are identified or implemented

The terms you use can radically change results– copper mining north wales

– copper extraction north wales

Choosing your search terms

Google Reading level

Changes the type of material that is returned

Run the search and from the menu above the results select Search tools, All results, Reading level

Google Reading level

Basic Advanced

define

" " around phrases

"Metadata mega mess in Google Scholar"

- to exclude a term Caversham –otago

OR to specify alternatives oil OR petroleum (sometimes better to run separate searches)

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

zeolites environmental remediation filetype:pdf

"north sea" deep water drilling filetype:ppt

"north sea" deep water drilling filetype:pptx

annual average global temperature filetype:xls

annual average global temperature filetype:xlsx

For searching large websites, or groups of sites by type for example government, NHS, schools, universities

organ donation statistics Wales site:nhs.uk

organ donation statistics Wales site:ac.uk

organ donation statistics site:wales.gov.uk

Can exclude sites using -site:

organ donation statistics Wales -site:au

Numeric range search

Anything to do with numbers and quantities: years, temperatures, weights, distances, prices etc

Type in your two numbers separated by two full stops as part of your search

world oil demand forecasts 2015..2030

Toblerone 1..6 kg

toblerone 1..6 kg

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

Images

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/

Images – “free to use....”

Google advanced image search

Use the usage rights, but always

double check the licence on the website

Images – use an existing image

Click on the camera icon in the search box and then either enter the URL of an image or upload the image

Creative Commons and public domain images

Flickr Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons

Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/ (check copyright statement on each photo – may not be creative commons)

MorgueFile.com http://www.morguefile.com/

Geograph http://www.geograph.org.uk/ “UK and Ireland photos of landmarks and buildings for every Ordnance Survey grid”

Wellcome Images http://wellcomeimages.org/

Most of the images on US government web sites

Nasa http://www.nasa.gov/

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Flickr creative commons

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons

Google Art Project http://www.googleartproject.com/

Google ArtProject Museum view

Bing.com

bingiton.com

DuckDuckGo.com

Million Short http://www.millionshort.com/

Bananaslug.com

What could possibly go wrong?

Google can get it wrong

Google "Henry VIII wives": Jane Seymour reveals search engine's blind spots http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/09/23/google_henry_viii_wives_jane_seymour_reveals_search_engine_s_blind_spots.html

Image courtesy of Will Oremus

Double check

Abbey Road not listed

Another list and Abbey Road is included

iPhone 4 to be recalled: it’s true – the Daily Mail says sohttp://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/2010/06/27/iphone-4-to-be-recalled-its-true-the-daily-mail-says-so/

Phil Bradley's webloghttp://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2010/06/fair-play-to-richard-ashmore.html

Genuine or fake?

http://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2013/09/fake-facebook-page-amazing-example.html

And finally..... the web time machine

http://www.archive.org/

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