[Sca-librarians] Fwd: Bates InfoTip: Google Can Do That?

[Jennifer Heise]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mary Ellen Bates <mbates at batesinfo.com>
Date: Nov 8, 2007 1:36 PM
Subject: Bates InfoTip: Google Can Do That?
To: jenne.heise at gmail.com


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           * * * Google Can Do That? * * *

I recently spoke at the Internet Librarian conference in Monterey, CA and
one of the presentations I enjoyed doing the most was on the hidden features
of some of the major search engines. I have covered some of them in early
Info-Tips, but the following are a few of my new Google favorites.

* Google lets you search for a range of numbers, in any format. To include a
number range in your search query, type in the lower and upper numbers,
separated by two periods - e.g., 15..50 I had a chance to try out this
feature in a real-life search; I wanted to find a set of wireless headphones
on Amazon.com costing between $50 and $100. I typed in the query
(wireless OR cordless) headphones $50..$99 site:amazon.com
and, sure enough, I retrieved a wide selection of wireless headphones within
my price range.

Note that Google is smart enough to recognize decimal points - some of the
items I retrieved weren't an even dollar amount but were, for example,
$57.83. This feature could also come in handy if you are looking for a
mention of a range of years.

* Speaking of date-searching on Google, you can limit your search to only
those pages added or changed within the past [whatever] days. This can be a
useful feature if you re-run a search regularly; just limit your search to
the pages added or modified since you last ran your search. You can do this
not by adding text in the search box but by modifying the search results
page URL by adding the following text to the end of the URL and clicking
[Search]:
&as_qdr=dn (where n is the number of days you want searched)
So, for example, to limit my search to the last 18 days, I would add
&as_qdr=d18 to the end of the search results page URL.

Keep in mind that this isn't a perfect date-limiting search. Some web
content management systems automatically refresh a web page frequently,
without necessarily making any changes to the page. Those pages will have a
recent date but the content within them may have been unchanged for months.

* If you are based in the US, you can search for local companies through
your cell phone, regardless of whether or not your phone has web capability.
If you call 1-800-GOOG411 (1-800-466-4411), you will be asked to say the
city and state you want information on - Boulder, Colorado, for example -
then you say the type of business or specific business name you want - for
example, "book store" or "Barnes and Noble". A text-to-speech program will
read you the top eight results from its local search (
http://local.google.com). If you want, Google can automatically dial any of
the first eight businesses' phone number, or you can ask to have the address
and phone number read to you.

You can also get quick answers to simple queries by texting Google from a US
cell phone. Send a text message to 466 453 (GOOGLE)  and then type your
query in the text box and send it. Within seconds, you will receive a text
message with one of Google's Quick Answers. The default is for Google to
take your query and attempt to find a Quick Answer. If you want a search of
the web, put the word   web  at the beginning of your search, such as  web
avian flu.  This will return you a text message with a snippet of the first
search result, along with a link to mobile-formatted page of the search
results. See http://sms.google.com for more information on this service.

****************************

"Can I publish or reproduce this InfoTip?" Be my guest. Just make sure you
credit the source, Bates Information Services, and include the URL,
www.BatesInfo.com/tip.html.

In addition to InfoTips, I've got a personal blog, Librarian of Fortune (
www.LibrarianOfFortune.com)

A version of this InfoTip with live links is available at
www.batesinfo.com/tip.html  An RSS feed for my InfoTip is at
www.batesinfo.com/tip.rss

If you want to see where I will be speaking next, check out
www.BatesInfo.com/new.html

Do you need value-added research or training services?

Contact me at:
Mary Ellen Bates
Bates Information Services Inc.
+1 303.772.7095
mailto:mbates at BatesInfo.com
www.BatesInfo.com
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