Wildcard Search

The Wildcard Operator allows you to have Google fill in the blank. This is not only an easy skill, but can really start to change the way you think about looking for information on the Internet.

Wildcard Search
1. Place an asterisk in place of a term you do not know.
2. Use Phrase Search in combination to narrow your search.
3. For example: [“Starbucks has * employees”]

How it Works
Google identifies the term that appears between the term “has” and the term “employees,” placing it in bold. In the example demonstrated, you can see that different numbers are listed, depending if it is listing the number of employees globally, or just in the Seattle headquarters. This is quick way to determine the size of an opportunity.

You can also use more than one asterisk to have Google fill in multiple terms.

Quickly Find Images

Images can be used in a number of ways: learn what a person looks like

before the meeting, see a product of a prospect or a competitor, or

find images that can be reused in presentation and other documents.

Image Search

1. From the Google home page, click images in the top left of the

screen.

2. To the right of the Image Search box, click Advanced Image Search.

3. Use the different filters to find the image you are looking for.

How it works

Google tracks many different elements when "indexing" an image.

Google is able to scan the image for its size, content, usage rights,

and many more elements just like Google scans a page of text for words

to determine its content. See the Advanced Image Search page for the

full listing.

A word of caution on printing images downloaded from the intranet:

don't. Images that are on the internet are usually low resolution and

do not print well. If you have a photo editing application you can

adjust the resolution of the image, often with acceptable results.

Google's Real Time Search

Realt time search offers some real benefits that should not be overlooked, in the in face of spam concerns.

Real time search can be great for finding out what people are saying about your product or a customer's product. This sort of market feedback can be really beneficial. I can imagine a marketing team watching real time results for their product as a commercial air during the Super Bowl, as just one example.

For example, I have been using ["starbucks via" site:twitter.com] as a demo for months, well before Google introduced real time search. I saw that the results were really positive. When Howard Schultz announced Starbucks' earnings and mentioned how well received Starbucks Via was in the market place, the price of the stock shot up. In retrospect, I was crazy to not have purchased the stock earlier.

The other benefit it has, while prone to spam, is the ability to see what other people are saying about a specific topic. One of the problems of our web age, is that people can spend all day only getting news from organizations that take their political view. Real time search is one of the few places where you can sit back and view a cross sections. No need to flip from one station to another.

Spam will always be a problem. As will stores that sell shoddy merchandise. As Internet users become more sophisticated, they will better be able to distinguish between the real thing and spam. Think how far use of the Internet to access information has come, not just from a programming point of view but how your regular user finds information and shops. I think people will be able to adapt and get better at identifying spam, lessening the downsides and accentuating the benefits of real time search.

Easily discover definitions

Having a simple and easy way to find definitions can assist the knowledge worker who comes across a new word. The define operator allows you to easily find definitions from across the web. This feature allows you to see definitions from different sources allowing you to gain a broad understanding of a term, rather than from just one dictionary.

Define:

1. Type [define:term 1] Do not leave a space between the colon and the terms.

2. For example, [define:scorm]

How it Works:

Google scans every page on the internet to determine the page’s content. Google is able to find the term you entered, followed by words that introduce a defintiion, such as “is a.” Using define:, Google pulls all of the definitions on to one easy to read results page.

Google, Bing, and the new Caffeine

In Google's ever continuing quest for simplicity, I think the following home pages can tell volumes.

Here is Google's current home page, before doing a mouse over.



And Google's new update, called Caffeine based on the hack I found at Taranfx. Keep in mind, the fade in effect will probably start after the update takes effect for all data centers. Notice no shadow, and no gray buttons. The search bar looks a little bigger too. It reminds me of a comment someone made at the Xconomy forum in Seattle this past Monday, December 2: Google looks like Russia in the 1940s.

Here is Bing's showing for today:

Harry Shum, Corporate Vice President of Search Product Development at Microsoft spoke at the Xconomy forum. He said that while Google tries to get users off the search page as fast as possible and on to the information they are looking for, Bing tries to help users explore so they can "Bing and Decide." While I like that argument, because there is so much that can be done in search that users miss out on, and I think the new Caffeine interface will help give users more options, I don't think the Baboon was what Shum was talking about.

4 Searches the "Experts" Don't Know

I attended the Xconomy Forum: The Future of Search and Information Discovery. The panelists included Brian Bershad, Seattle Site Director for Google, and Harry Shum, Corporate Vice President of Search Product Development for Bing.

I had a question last night that I didn't get a chance to ask. Sort of like the kid in the back of the class that that got left when the bell rang... here it is.

Why are the advanced search features, particularly those available in Google, not more prominent? Specifically, nearly every "problem" that "can not be solved in search today" could be solved by using Google's advanced search features.

So, here are 4 "hard to solve" problems, which were mentioned by our panelists (I am not exactly sure who, as I was sitting too far back--please help me out if you remember) that I was able to have great results for in less than 60 seconds for all 4 searches.

1. "You can't find NFL Quarterbacks in Twitter."
Really? Type ["NFL Quarterbacks" site:twitter.com] in the Google Search Bar.

2. Steve Hall with Vulcan Capital, "What if you don't know what looking for? Show me news in general about computer science professors. Can't do that on Bing or Google." In Google you can. Enter [computer science professors inurl:news].

3. Oren Etzioni Professor of Computer Science at University of Washington, "I can imagine a day in the not too distant future, something that takes hours can happen in minutes. Have an engine that understands semantics, including what's being said in reviews -- positive review, negative?" How about today? For positive reviews, [sun valley ~good inurl:reviews]. For negative reviews, switch out the word good for bad. If you'd like to compare Sun Valley and Blackcomb lodging with prices in the $200 to $600 dollar range, type ["sun valley" OR Blackcomb ~lodge $200..$600 inurl:reviews].

4. I think it was Ken Myer, CEO of Washington Technology Industry Association, who mentioned that when he gets home he is going to look up the score of the Monday night Football game, and is going to get that morning's news. He clearly was not planning on clicking on the "Show options" features, then recent results, in Google.

Sure, there is a lot of room for venture capitalists, engineers, and entrepreneurs, to get together and come up with more elegant solutions. But for the time being, knowing how to use Google's advanced search features can let you solve nearly every search problem that was discussed last night.

Finally, as if the above where not enough of a case to wonder why there has never been any demonstration on using advanced search features, I will finish this rather long winded question with the following observation: Jan Pedersen, with Microsoft Core Search is quoted in The Huntington Post as saying, "A small fraction of the queries you do -- around 5 percent -- actually take up almost half the time you spend on searching." On Google's help page, there is a bit of a disclaimer when introducing the advanced search features, "Have in mind though that even very advanced searchers, such as the members of the search group at Google, use these (advanced search) features less than 5% of the time." If that 5% of the time saves them half the time the rest of humanity spends searching, isn't it worthwhile to do some training? Just because people use Google, or Bing, doesn't mean that they know how to.

I extend a complimentary single user license of the Boost eLearning Google Search Training course to Greg and the rest of the panelists. Just email me at jeff@boostelearning.com. Or Tweet me, @BoosteLearning . I look forward to hearing your responses.

Number Range

Use number range to keep your search terms tied to a specific range of numbers. This is a valuable aid when researching products, prospects, or any time when an amount is important to your search.

Number Range
1. Enter in your terms followed by the numbers with two dots in between each number.
2. Do not place commas in the numbers
3. For example: [term 1 term 2 30000..70000]

How it Works
Number Range is a feature that is built into Google's software. Google will place a higher value on these terms, ensuring that the results include the number range.

Try search for [technology companies 30000..70000 employees]. This can be applied to any department.