Google is pervasive in our lives. You can hardly find a person who has never consulted the all-knowing Google for solving their problems. But what if I tell you most of us haven’t been googling effectively?
How is that even possible, right? How could there even be an effective way of googling? After all, all you need is a problem!
But well, it turns out there indeed is an effective way of googling to get the best desired results.
In an in-depth study conducted in 2011 by academic librarians, it was found that the majority of students of all levels, exhibited significant difficulties in nearly every aspect of the search process.
That’s not just one study making such claims. A recent Stanford study says that almost 80% of students and many adults can’t even determine if a website is credible.
So what now? How can you use google in a more effective way? Well here comes our google scientist to rescue.
The secrets of effective google search
The secrets of effective google search have been revealed by Daniel Russel, a research scientist at Google. Russel has spent the last 14 years studying how people go wrong when using Google.
Russel has written various articles explaining how you can improve your Google search skills. He explains various ways to deal with this in his book, ‘The Joy of Search’.
But not everyone has got enough time to go through his book or all of his articles. So for people with a tight schedule, we have explained Russel’s top five tips here.
Russel’s five tips on effective google search
If you are only looking forward to the recipe for dinner or your nearest restaurant, you might not need this guide. For those who need solutions to more complex problems, read on!
1. Do not settle with the first answer
Many people are satisfied with the first answer they get but that’s not enough. According to Russels, “Conducting two or three searches offers a number of perspectives and credible sources for a well-rounded view on the subject.”
2. Ask, ‘Who says and Why?”
Russel advises that you should consider the primary purpose of the website. You should know what that website is helping you with and what’s their goal in providing this information. Do make sure that the information given on a certain website does align with other credible sources.
3. Do not include the possible answer in the search
And why not? According to Russel, you’ll get results that will confirm that answer, true or not. He gives an example, “If you search for ‘do golden retrievers weigh 85 pounds,’ you may find ‘85 pounds’ baked into the web pages. Instead, search for the ‘weight of golden retrievers.’
4. Use keywords
Russel says, “Very experienced searchers often open multiple browser tabs or windows to pursue different avenues of research, usually investigating slightly different variations of the original query in parallel.”
5. Know about the basic operators
If you put quotes around a certain search term, that makes google search for that exact phrase. If you type “site:” then that limits your searches to a certain webpage
So that’s all for now! We have revealed to you the top five hacks of Russel to make your content searches more effective. So go on and don’t forget to apply these hacks next time you want to search for something. Goodbye!
Amazing information @ Astha Mishra!
Thank you very much, I’m glad you liked it.