Information and insight are the two keys that open doors to winning more business in today's knowledge-based economy.
The "info:" operator is a little known and powerful tool in Google that serves you unbelievable insights into any market, and should be in the back pocket of every knowledge worker at every company.
Here's How To Do It:
1. Type info:www.companyname.com into the Google Search Bar.
2. This opens up several options. Click on the "links to" option.
From this view, you are able to see which companies the organization you are researching link to.
This can give you a great view of the organization’s relationships, giving your knowledge workers the inside information to better understand a prospective client, or the competition, and to win more business.
The info: lesson is fully taught as part of the Boost eLearning Google Search training course. Click here to view the full lesson.
Here's How it Works:
Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, developed a way of measuring the quality of a website known as PageRank. Basically, PageRank determines the quality of a website based on who it is linked to (sort of similar to measuring popularity). The ability to identify and track links is basic to Google's system of determining the quality of a website.
Jeff, this can help knowledge workers at any organization more fully understand an opportunity, develop closer relationships, and increase profitability.
Next week learn how to save time by conducting several searches at once.
Learn. Think. Find.
Be well,
Jeff Alhadeff
Boost eLearning
Research Desk
Friday, September 25, 2009
Region Search Tip of the Week
Dear Knowledge Worker,
Boost eLearning is pleased to introduce our “Tip of the Week” series. Based on the interest you demonstrated in Boost eLearning we are including you this limited mailing.
The tip of the week gives a fast tip that will immediately boost your productivity.
A short, "How does it work?" section is also added, explaining the behind the scenes of how the technique works. This is original content that is hard to find anywhere else.
In addition, a link to the full Boost eLearning Region Search lesson is include below.
Knowing the local news and information of a potential client can really separate your sales, marketing, or research and development teams from the competition. By limiting your results to a specific country, you can find information that is inaccessible to someone who is not using enhanced search techniques. Getting to Know What the Locals Know
Google Region Search allows you to limit your results to a specific country of origin. Follow these steps to learn what the locals are talking about and discover high value information.
Region Search
1. Go the Advanced Search Page (the link is to the right of the Google Search bar).
2. Type in the terms you want to search, maybe the name of your company’s (or a competitors’) product.
3. Expand the Advanced Search Page (click on the blue link with the text Date, usage rights, numeric range, and more.)
4. Next to region, select the country you want to limit your search to.
How it works
Google uses two factors to determine the location of a website, its URL extension and its internet protocol (IP) address. The URL extension is the part of the web address that comes after the company name. For example, “.com” is the extension for the United States; “.ca.com” is the extension for Canada. The IP address is indicated based on where the computer that is hosting the website is located.
Using Region Search (fully taught in the Boost eLearning Google Search Training Course, click on the link below) can help your company get a better idea of what is happening around the globe to tailor products or marketing campaigns for a specific region.
Next week’s tip: leveraging info links to see who a competitor or potential client is doing business with.
Learn. Think. Find.
Have a great week,
Jeff Alhadeff
Boost eLearning
Research Desk
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Jan Pedersen: Try Searching on Google
Jan Pedersen, Chief Scientist for Core Search at Microsoft, wrote an article titled "Search as a Dialog" for The Huffington Post.
While many of the points ring true about the nature of search, such as, "According to our research, only 1 in 4 web queries you do gets you a satisfactory answer," I think his solution to the problem is off base, far off at best, and most likely inconceivable.
He envisions a world where search engines will be able to understand our language so thoroughly that people will be able to enter in a few words and get the results they are looking for.
He says that this functionality is far off. It is. It is hard to imagine a search engine that can understand how people speak, by country, by region... Sentence structure is highly variable with where a person lives, even when speaking the same language, and it is hard to imagine a search engine that can understand how each person speaks.
Maybe there is some sci-fi cap that you need to put on before searching.... Okay, that scares me.
To illustrate his point on the difficulty that search engines have, Pedersen says, "Today, if you ask a search engine for 'recent, positive reviews of the Amazon Kindle,' it will completely ignore the nuances of the request because it understands relatively little of what we say."
Agreed. A search engine, if you just do a basic search, will give you garbage results if you enter in those key words.
Apparently Jan Pedersen doesn't understand all of the filters and operators available on Google.
Do the following:
1. On Google, type in "Amazon Kindle" ~good. Press search
2. Click the show options button.
3. Select Reviews
4. Select past week (or enter your own date range).
See the image below, or see the results in Google
And while there are some irrelevant results in there, I'd just remove them using Not Search.
So, short of waiting for the folks in Redmond or Mountain View to come with a way to be able to read our minds, I'd suggest just paying attention to the search filters and operators that Google already supports.
While many of the points ring true about the nature of search, such as, "According to our research, only 1 in 4 web queries you do gets you a satisfactory answer," I think his solution to the problem is off base, far off at best, and most likely inconceivable.
He envisions a world where search engines will be able to understand our language so thoroughly that people will be able to enter in a few words and get the results they are looking for.
He says that this functionality is far off. It is. It is hard to imagine a search engine that can understand how people speak, by country, by region... Sentence structure is highly variable with where a person lives, even when speaking the same language, and it is hard to imagine a search engine that can understand how each person speaks.
Maybe there is some sci-fi cap that you need to put on before searching.... Okay, that scares me.
To illustrate his point on the difficulty that search engines have, Pedersen says, "Today, if you ask a search engine for 'recent, positive reviews of the Amazon Kindle,' it will completely ignore the nuances of the request because it understands relatively little of what we say."
Agreed. A search engine, if you just do a basic search, will give you garbage results if you enter in those key words.
Apparently Jan Pedersen doesn't understand all of the filters and operators available on Google.
Do the following:
1. On Google, type in "Amazon Kindle" ~good. Press search
2. Click the show options button.
3. Select Reviews
4. Select past week (or enter your own date range).
See the image below, or see the results in Google
And while there are some irrelevant results in there, I'd just remove them using Not Search.
So, short of waiting for the folks in Redmond or Mountain View to come with a way to be able to read our minds, I'd suggest just paying attention to the search filters and operators that Google already supports.
Google Introduces 3 New Time Features
Google has added three new filters to search by time. They are Timeline, Date Range, and Recent Results.
Time is one of the most significant factors when conducting business or professional research. When conducting a search on a business, a product, a scientific topic, a person, or virtually any search topic, time plays an essential factor in the quality of the search results you obtain.
When using Google NASDAQ:GOOG (www.google.com) you can use one of seven time filters, including three new time filters. Bing NASDAQ:MSFT (www.bing.com) does not have the functionality to allow users to sort results based on time.
Boost eLearning (www.boostelearning.com) has conducted an extensive review of the search functionality of Google and Bing. As a result of recent changes that Google has implemented in its functionality to Search by time, Boost eLearning has updated the Boost eLearning Google Search Training Timeline Lesson.
Boost eLearning confirmed with Bing Technical Support, and as you can clearly see below, that at this time Bing does not support the ability to filter results based on time.
Time is one of the most significant factors when conducting business or professional research. When conducting a search on a business, a product, a scientific topic, a person, or virtually any search topic, time plays an essential factor in the quality of the search results you obtain.
When using Google NASDAQ:GOOG (www.google.com) you can use one of seven time filters, including three new time filters. Bing NASDAQ:MSFT (www.bing.com) does not have the functionality to allow users to sort results based on time.
Boost eLearning (www.boostelearning.com) has conducted an extensive review of the search functionality of Google and Bing. As a result of recent changes that Google has implemented in its functionality to Search by time, Boost eLearning has updated the Boost eLearning Google Search Training Timeline Lesson.
Boost eLearning confirmed with Bing Technical Support, and as you can clearly see below, that at this time Bing does not support the ability to filter results based on time.
The following is a report of Boost eLearning’s analysis of Google Search Functionality based on time.
All of the time filters are powerful tools to limit results to highly relevant information based on time. Boost eLearning is uniquely impressed by the power of the new Timeline filter.
Using the Timeline filter you are presented a bar graph of dates that you can select. For example, you can search your topic of choice from 1909 to 2009. The bar graph will have bars for each year with indexed content. When you click on a year, it will then display results by month. When you click on the month it will expand and present all results for that month. This in-depth sorting by month is available for any month where content is indexed by Google.
Google indexes over One Trillion URL’s. The ability to obtain your results by time is exceedingly powerful for any type of business research. The Timeline feature is new as part of standard Google. It was available for some time in the experimental labs as can be seen below.
All of the time filters are powerful tools to limit results to highly relevant information based on time. Boost eLearning is uniquely impressed by the power of the new Timeline filter.
Using the Timeline filter you are presented a bar graph of dates that you can select. For example, you can search your topic of choice from 1909 to 2009. The bar graph will have bars for each year with indexed content. When you click on a year, it will then display results by month. When you click on the month it will expand and present all results for that month. This in-depth sorting by month is available for any month where content is indexed by Google.
Google indexes over One Trillion URL’s. The ability to obtain your results by time is exceedingly powerful for any type of business research. The Timeline feature is new as part of standard Google. It was available for some time in the experimental labs as can be seen below.
The version that is now available is highly refined and more powerful tool for the professional seeking to obtain high value information where time is a factor. As can be seen below, the time line feature no longer has a “show results circa” box as the results are now presented nearly exactly with their true date. In addition, the user no longer needs to type view:timeline into the search bar in order to access the time line view.
In addition Google allows one to search by:
1. Recent- This sorts the results based on most current results first, then all results are sorted based on date indexed in descending order from most current result. This filter is new and takes advantage of the functionality of Google Caffeine. This filter is also responsive to Twitter, providing results on Google that may be just a few minutes old.
2. Past 24 Hours – Limits results to last 24 hours – This sorts the results based on most current results first, then all results are sorted based on date indexed in descending order from most current result but limited to results for the past 24 hours
3. Past Week – Limits results to past week – This sorts the results based on most current results first, then all results are sorted based on date indexed in descending order from most current result but limited to the most current week.
4. Past Month – Limits results to last month – This sorts the results based on most current results first, then all results are sorted based on date indexed in descending order from most current result but limited to results for the last month.
5. Past Year - Limits results to last month – This sorts the results based on most current results first, then all results are sorted based on date indexed in descending order from most current result but limited to results for the last year.
The above features are demonstrated in the image below:
1. Recent- This sorts the results based on most current results first, then all results are sorted based on date indexed in descending order from most current result. This filter is new and takes advantage of the functionality of Google Caffeine. This filter is also responsive to Twitter, providing results on Google that may be just a few minutes old.
2. Past 24 Hours – Limits results to last 24 hours – This sorts the results based on most current results first, then all results are sorted based on date indexed in descending order from most current result but limited to results for the past 24 hours
3. Past Week – Limits results to past week – This sorts the results based on most current results first, then all results are sorted based on date indexed in descending order from most current result but limited to the most current week.
4. Past Month – Limits results to last month – This sorts the results based on most current results first, then all results are sorted based on date indexed in descending order from most current result but limited to results for the last month.
5. Past Year - Limits results to last month – This sorts the results based on most current results first, then all results are sorted based on date indexed in descending order from most current result but limited to results for the last year.
The above features are demonstrated in the image below:
6. Specific Date Range – This option lets you limit your results to the exact date range that is relevant to your search. This filter is also new. This filter is extremely valuable and easy to use when the desired search results are between two specific dates, as can be seen below:
The web is a direct marketing medium. Results are presented based on relevance and heavily impacted by Search Engine Optimization, an area of heavy investment by many corporations. However, when performing research you most likely are seeking information about a person, product, company, event, or service. To effectively find high value information Google has 9 Filters and 5 Operators that empower the user with the functionality to perform highly targeted search. The ability to search by time is just one powerful example of the power of Google for business research.
Google Search is a Powerful Tool for Business Research. Knowledge workers seeking to effectively find high value information can utilize Google Search filters and operators to dramatically improve search results.
Google Search is a Powerful Tool for Business Research. Knowledge workers seeking to effectively find high value information can utilize Google Search filters and operators to dramatically improve search results.
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