Get Better Google Search Results

Web searches are changing. Since Google's inception in the late 90s, the amount of information on the web has grown exponentially. With websites, blogs, images, music, videos and social networking from all over the globe, the amount of information online is simply astonishing. Sometimes, finding that information can be tricky. A recent trend is to crowd source searches on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook by asking your network to answer your question instead of searching the web. Sites like Yahoo! Answers have also made a strong play in the crowd sourcing arena.

Because of this, search must constantly change with the information in order to stay relevant. According to searchenginewatch.com, in August of 2009, Google still made up the majority on internet searches with almost 65% of the searches, Yahoo! came in second with 16%, and Bing was bringing in third with almost 11% but was making great strides. All of these search engines have different types of search like image searches, video searches, and now real-time social networking searches.

During an opening exercise during the first few days of a computer applications class, I noticed that my students (9-12 graders) had a hard time finding information online. Sure, they were all very adept at finding things on Wikipedia and Yahoo! Answers, but they had a hard time finding pertinent and relevant information. So, I put together a Google Docs presentation to help them get better search results with Google. My school's librarian found it on my website and started implementing it into her library introduction and the English teachers began using it during their research papers. The response was so positive, I went back and added a Mobile Search section and decided to share it with the masses. I've embedded the presentation below for anyone who wishes to use it. Feel free to download it and edit it to meet your needs. I hope you find it as useful as I did.