Mastering the Search Engine: Google

Have you ever typed in a description of something you're desperate to find online, and encountered a long list of websites that have nothing to do with what you're looking for? It's a widespread problem, and intimidates many people from freely exploring the Internet.

Search engines are like our brains; they process information differently. Your job is to find the search engine whose "brain" thinks like yours. Today, I'd like to introduce you to Google, and offer some quick, easy tips you can use to search the Internet easily, and find exactly what you're looking for.

It is sometimes necessary to use special symbols to find what you're looking for when using Google. If you're going "ideas shopping," and you're new to new ideas (for example, below I was looking for information on teaching multiplication), go ahead and type a very short description of what you need without any special symbols.

Here, I typed teaching kids to multiply in the search box, and Google was able to find 173,000 websites that contain the words "teaching," "kids," and "multiply" at least once. Unfortunately, I don't have time to navigate 173,000 websites, so I need to try something different.

Tip #1, Using Quotation Marks to Narrow a Search
If you're looking for a specific topic or method, try putting it between quotation marks. Let's say I need ideas for teaching times tables, so I type "teaching times tables" into the search box. Here's what I got from Google:

Google has collected a list of websites that contain the phrase "teaching times tables" and apparently there are 1,020 websites available. While 1,020 is still a bit overwhelming, I'll probably find what I'm looking for within the first 10 websites on the list, because I'm searching for a very specific phrase (by using quotation marks).

Tip #2, Similar Pages
Let's say you've found a really interesting website on Google, and you're looking for additional websites similar to the one you've found. Part of the Google entry of the website that you are interested in is a "Similar Pages" link. Clicking on this will produce a list of websites that contain similar keywords, or subjects to the website you've chosen.

Tip #3, Cached Websites
Have you ever thought you've found a website containing just what you wanted, only to visit the website and that little snippet of information is buried beneath pages and pages of other information? It's a bit like finding a needle in a haystack! Believe it or not, Google has conquered this too. Try clicking on "Cached," and Google will highlight the search words you initially entered into their search box, on the desired website. This makes it very simple to quickly scan the document for the highlighted words, and quickly find the information you need.

Next time you're on Google, looking for teaching ideas, worksheets, games, lesson plans, etc., try using these tricks, and you will save time and effort, and find what you're looking for.