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Tips on Searching the Web
with Hawaii Examples
This 40-page book not only explains tips on searching the Web,
but there are examples that are combinations of tips
which include various combinations of
different search operators, punctuation marks
and words to be typed for a search.
Since most of the of the examples are related to Hawaii,
you can learn about searching the Web and learn
about Hawaii at the same time.
Click here is see some sample pages
of the book (pdf) (0.1 mb).
Click here to purchase
the $3.00 downloadable PDF version (0.3 mb)
of the book through
eBookMall ( www.eBookMall.com ).
Click here to purchase the softcover version of the
book for $16.00 plus shipping and handling.
The purchase process is done through the
publisher, Lulu, Inc. ( www.Lulu.com ).
(Lulu is a slang for a remarkable person or thing according
to Dictionary.com (dictionary.reference.com ).)
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Below is a sampling of text
from Tips on Searching the Web With Hawaii Examples.
Table of Contents (pages iii and iv)
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Tip #23 |
Google Scholar (Beta). From the Google homepage, click more, then select Scholar. |
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Tip #24 |
Use link: to search for webpages that have a link to a webpage.
Other search operators may be added in a Google search, but not in a Yahoo! search.
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Tip #25 |
When searching for a resolution to an issue, use key words like: repair,
fix, problem, issue. May also use: can’t, doesn’t |
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Tip #26 |
For Yahoo! and Google search engines, use intitle: to search for a
specific keyword or phrase in document titles or indexed titles.
Google search engine also has allintitle: .
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Tip #27 |
For Yahoo! and Google search engines, use inurl: to increase your
chance of finding webpages with a certain subject.
Google search engine also has allinurl: . |
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Tip #28
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In a Google search, use related: to find related webpages. |
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Tip #29 |
Use the NEAR operator when 2 words are close to each other, but not next to each other. (Used on the Exalead.com website and maybe other websites.) |
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Tip #30
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In Yahoo!, click the Cache link on the results page, if none (or only a
few) of the keywords or phrases appear on the resultant webpage. |
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Tip #31
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In Google, use cache: to look at the webpage that Google has cached. |
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Tip #32
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In a Google search, use stocks: to find a recent quote or graph of the stock. |
Summary of Tables (page iv)
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Table #1
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Examples of searches, including combinations of tips, that work in
Yahoo!.
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Table #2
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Examples of searches, including combinations of tips, that work in
Google.
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Table #3
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Examples (5 pages) of searches, including combinations of tips, that work in Yahoo!, Google and other search engines.
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Table #4
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ABBREVIATED version (2 pages) of table #3.
Examples of searches, including combinations of tips, that work in
Yahoo!, Google and other search engines.
This table may be useful to some people who may only need a quick
reference—just to make sure they are using the correct syntax. In
other words, they just want to make sure if they need or don’t need to
type in periods, spaces and so on in their query.
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General Information
(page 1 and 2)
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Goal of Searching the Web
Typically, the goal of searching the Web is to display your desired number of good links for a particular issue or product with information you are looking for and to get that list of links in the least amount of time.
In some cases, you may just want one or just a few hits with the simple fact you are looking for.
For example, you may just want the correct spelling of a person’s name related to a certain
subject. Here is an example:
Duke "father of international surfing" "Citizens Savings Hall of Fame"
(Text using the above font indicates what should be typed in the search box.)
In other cases, you may want around 10 or 20 hits or more, because you want different points
of view or various comments by different people on a subject, issue or product.
General Information About This Document
Finding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial is the best up-to-date tutorial on searching the
Internet that I have come across. It is copyrighted by the Library, University of California,
Berkeley. It was developed by Joe Barker.
www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/FindInfo.html
(accessed July 15, 2009)
Yahoo! (homepage is www.yahoo.com ) and Google (homepage is www.google.com ) are the
2 main search engines that I use.
Currently, one thing I really like about Yahoo! is:
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Currently, some of the things I really like about Google are: |
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that Google usually has more search hits than Yahoo!, especially when both of the them don’t have a lot of them. |
Search queries on different search engines are not all exactly the same. For instance, some search queries require colons and some do not.
Use one or more of the four tables at the end of this document, which are summarized below, as desired.
Table 1 has examples, including combinations of tips, of searches that work in Yahoo!.
Table 2 has examples, including combinations of tips, of searches that work in Google.
Table 3 (5 pages) has examples, including combinations of tips, of searches that work in Yahoo!, Google and other search engines.
Table 4 is an ABBREVIATED version (2 pages) of table 3, which has examples, including combinations of tips, of searches that work in Yahoo!, Google and other search engines. |
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This table may be useful to some people who may only need a quick reference—just to make sure they are using the correct syntax. In other words, they just want to make sure if they need or don’t need to type in periods, spaces and so on in their query.
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Note 1: The higher the tip number is, it, normally, is because the feature is less-often used or may be more complex.
Note 2: Text using the font below indicates what should be typed in the search box.
Duke "father of international surfing" "Citizens Savings Hall of Fame"
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Tips on Searching the Web (pages 3, 4, 7)
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Tip #1 |
Put double quotation marks (“<phrase>”) around words.
Applicable in Yahoo! and Google. |
• Put double quotation marks (“<phrase>”) around words that will probably be together in your desired webpage.
• Multiple phrases are allowed in Yahoo! and Google searches (refer to example D).
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Example A: "best luau" Hawaii
(A luau, typically, is a feast with Hawaiian food and entertainment.)
Example B: "swim with dolphins" Oahu
Example C: Moloka'i "white sand beaches"
Example D: "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" "Waimea Canyon" Kaua'i
Example E: "World's Largest Marine Sanctuary"
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Tip #2
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Uppercase or
lowercase characters.
It doesn’t seem to matter when using Yahoo!, Google and some search engines. |
• For some search engines, it does matter if characters are uppercase or lowercase. |
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Tip #3
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It may be best to include punctuation marks in words or words in a- phrase.
Applicable in Yahoo! and Google. |
• It seems that search engines list webpages that have query words or phrases with and without the punctuation marks.
• For situations where you are looking for 2 words that sometimes have no space between them and at other times there is a punctuation mark, putting a hyphen in the search query will probably find both cases (refer to example C).
• It seems that resultant webpages often have words that not only have the same punctuation mark as the original query but any punctuation mark or even no punctuation mark at all.
• Examples of query words: can’t Maui’s |
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Example A: Lana'i dolphins
Example B: Hawaii "golf course's"
Example C: eco-tour
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Tip #4
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To page down in Internet Explorer, press the space bar.
You may have to click in a blank area in the webpage before it will work. |
• In Microsoft Internet Explorer in some situations (e.g. reading an article that must be scrolled down in order to read the whole article), it may be easier to scroll using this spacebar method.
• Page up can be done by holding down the Shift key and pressing the space bar.
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Tip #8
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In Google, putting a tilde ~ in front of a keyword will cause Google to search for similar words (synonyms). |
• Searching Google with the ~ tilde in front of the word skills in the example below will cause the results page to include skill, training, techniques, drills, etc.
(Refer to: www.pandia.com/goalgetter/9.html
(accessed July 13, 2009))
• Yahoo! doesn’t use the tilde, but having it in the search query doesn’t seem to negatively affect the resultant list of webpages. |
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Example A: "Duke Kahanamoku" Olympian ~skills
Example B: ~employee ~reward ~trip Hawaii
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Tip #9
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Find information, prices, user comments and merchant ratings on products through Yahoo!’s Shopping feature. |
• Searches can be refined by price range.
• Refer to examples C and D for an alternate way to look for prices for a product or category of products by using the inurl: operator (refer to tip #27).
Use examples A and B with the Yahoo! Shopping feature. |
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Use examples A and B with the Yahoo! Shopping feature.
Example A: "aloha shirt"
(Includes various products like aloha shirt key chains. aloha shirt notepads, etc.)
Example B: "Noni juice"
(The Noni (morinda citrifolia) plant is used to make various health and medicinal products. One of its common names is Indian Mulberry. One popular product is its juice.)
For an alternate way to find prices of products, refer to examples C and D.
Use a regular Yahoo! search for this alternate way.
Example C: ”bounce rooms" (inurl:shop OR inurl:store OR inurl:product)
Example D: ("bounce rooms" OR "inflatable bounce" OR "inflatable castle" OR "inflatable slide" OR "inflatable jumper") (inurl:shop OR inurl:store OR inurl:product)
(You may use the above type of search without parentheses.)
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Packing tracking for
US Postal Service
(USPS) shipments
(USPS number may
have about 22 digits) |
<should just have to type the
USPS number in the Yahoo!
search box,
then click on the link that
appears>
< < < Tracking number information. |
<just type USPS number in
the Google search box,
then click on the link that
appears> |
Sports scores
(professional) |
dodgers scores |
LA dodgers
(English Premier League,
National Football League,
National Hockey League, and
Major League Baseball) |
Sports scores
(college) |
Hawaii Warriors scores
[for college football and basketball
teams, add sport name] |
Hawaii Warriors
[will probably work for most
college teams] |
Stock quotes (add
ticker symbol) |
quote yhoo
(Yahoo! ticker symbol) |
Goog
(Google ticker symbol) |
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Time |
time in Hawaii
[This shortcut provide good links to
current time of cities and states.]
[World Time Engine at
http://worldtimeengine.com may
be a good alternative.] |
time Hawaii |
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Time zone |
time zone Hawaii
[World Time Engine at
http://worldtimeengine.com may
be a good alternative.] |
[Shortcut not listed on Google
shortcut webpage] |
| UPC code |
1573062820 |
[Shortcut not listed on Google
shortcut webpage] |
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Weather |
weather Waikiki |
weather Waikiki |
Weights and
measure converter |
(see next section) |
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Zip code |
zip code Lanai City |
[Shortcut not listed on Google
shortcut webpage] |
Table #2C: Searches that work in Google (page 34).
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Tips |
Summary of tips
that work in Google |
Example of queries utilizing various tips |
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#22 |
Google Advanced Search
page.
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#23 |
Google Scholar (Beta) |
(From the Google homepage, click the more link,
then select Scholar.) |
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#24 |
link: (In Yahoo!, it does not
seem to work in combination
with other keywords or search
operators.) |
link:www.bishopmuseum.org/exhibits/
onexhibit.html 60-foot shark Megalodon
(Additional query terms can be used in Google
searches.) |
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#25 |
Possible words to find webpages that may resolve an issue: diagnose, repair, fix,
resolve, remedy |
(Refer to the example for tip #8 above.) |
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#26 |
intitle: (Yahoo! or Google) |
Hawaii intitle:personalshopper
(The examples above and below produce links to many of the same webpages, but listed in different orders.) |
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#26 |
allintitle: (Google) |
Hawaii allintitle:personal shopper |
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#27 |
inurl: (Yahoo! or Google) |
inurl:Hawaii inurl:travel inurl:newsletter |
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#27 |
allinurl: (Google) |
allinurl:Hawaii travel newsletter |
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#28 |
related: (Google) |
related:www.honoluluacademy.org |
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#31 |
cache: (Google) |
cache:www.co.honolulu.hi.us |
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#32 |
stocks: (Google) |
stocks:HA
(HA is Hawaiian Airlines) |
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