Search Engines

How much of technology forms part of your daily routine ? Research at UCLA points to increased brain activity from technology – in this case using search engines.

An excerpt from TechNewsWorld:

Web search novices also showed increased activity, but to a lesser extent than their more technologically savvy counterparts.

“The other part of the study we are analyzing the data on now is that when we took the computer naive people and gave them a chance to practice searching the Internet, within a week their brains started looking like the people who had done it for years,” Small explained.

Locating the relevant piece of information from the barrage of results returned by a search engine can be an intensive mental activity. This is owing to the fact that results returned by search engines seldom the most desired and a lot more tweaking, query refining and browsing is required to locate the exact information.

It would take many more years before a conclusive research can be done on the effect of technology on mental development. But it would suffice to say that a small dose of technology could do a lot of good.

Everyone uses Google these days and often multiple times each day. We use it for work, for fun and for general interest. It has made our researching so much easier. Google makes looking up the most mundane detail simple. Need a phone number for the pizza place down the street? Google it. The possibilities are endless. However, did you know you can get more from your Google searches? It’s true and here are six tips to achieving more productive Google search results:

1. Don’t leave out synonyms. Suppose you want to perform a search but wish to broaden your search to include similar words to your initial keyword. To achieve optimum results, place the “~” symbol in front of the synonym. For example: “baseball” is your keyword and you want to include “pitchers” in your search. Type in: baseball ~ pitchers.

2. Find out who called you. If an unfamiliar number calls you on your cell phone you can use Google to find out who called you. For example: this number (555-555-5555) called you and you don’t have the number in your list of contacts. All you have to do is search this number in Google by typing: phonebook 555-555-5555. This is the Google phonebook feature.

3. Narrow down your search. Suppose you want to search movies but want to exclude horror movies from your search. When you type in “movies” in your search bar, add “-horror.” Your search will look like this: movies – horror. This will refine your search and eliminate searches yielding any reference to horror.

4. Zero in your search on a specific site. Suppose you want to find out what a particular site has to offer about baseball. Use the “site:whateversite.com” modifier. For example: “baseball” site:whateversite.com. This will search your specific site for references to baseball. This works even if the specific site doesn’t have a search option.

5. Search by file type. The file type modifier allows you to search for documents fitting a particular file type. Suppose you want to find files about baseball that are in PowerPoint. All you have to do is search: “baseball” filetype:ppt.

6. Search by numeric ranges. This feature is rarely utilized but can be very useful. This is perfect if you’re searching a range of years or prices or whatever you want to narrow your search by. For example: Massachusetts governors 1900..1990. This will yield a search of governors in Massachusetts from 1900 up to 1990.

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