Google Searching: The Power of the Advanced Search Form

How much time have you wasting searching for something on the Web? You type in keywords after keywords only to result in pages that are too broad, outdated, or not at all what you are trying to find.

Google’s Advanced Search provides greater control over the results.  You just need to know how to locate it!

Go to www.Google.com, and type in your key word or phrase and click enter or the search icon. Locate the gear on the right side of the screen (see the illustration below). Click the gear to open the Advanced Search form.

Many options are available in this Advanced section to help you find the information you need quickly. Use some or all of the features  to narrow your results.

For example, if you wanted to look up resources to share information with your students about Susan B. Anthony, you can use some of the options to help.

• First fill in the key words you want to use.
• You can then put these into phrases and use quotation marks around them so that the key words will pull together as a phrase.
• Use the any of these words option to add additional  words to your search.
• To exclude words, use the  none of these words option, put a dash (-) before a word that you don't want to include. Separate multiple words with a comma.
• For searches containing ranges of numbers, you can use this feature to add additional narrowing data like with dates or dollar amounts.

Then, there are additional filters you can apply to narrow your results even more. Use the drop down menus to make selections.

• Language - results displayed in the language you specify.
• Region - narrow the results by country.
  
• Last updated date - to make sure your results are current.
• Site or domain - if you are looking only within a certain website.
• Where the search terms appear on the page - like in the title or text body.
• SafeSearch - turn the filter on or off to eliminate sexually explicit content.
• Reading level - basic, intermediate, advanced levels.
• File type - like a website page, PDF or PowerPoint.
• Usage rights - filtered by usage guidelines.

Advanced Search options will help you and your students hone in on the results you need!