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Effective Web Search Using Google

By Umair Abid Minhas, M.Shan ur Rehman

INTRODUCTION

The project highlights the searching features of Google and how do we use them in a befitted manner for our search. The project comprises of different techniques and ways through which it can be useful for the users of every kind. Search engine play an important role in the way people browse the internet.

A Web search engine is a tool designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. Information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in news books, databases, or open directories. Unlike Web directories, which are maintained by human editors, search engines operate algorithmically or are a mixture of algorithmic and human input.

GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE

Google developed in late 1990’s by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page by fulfills all the essentials features of becoming an ideal search engine. Google has emerged as a number one search engine in a very short span of time. It can be illustrated by the fact that up till 2006, Google indexes over 25 billion web pages, 400 million queries per day, 1.3 billion Usenet messages. Moreover, it also caches much of the content that it indexes.

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Sergey Brin (up)

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Lawrence Page (up)

HOW GOOGLE WORKS?

Google has a very unique architecture and a matchless algorithm. It has crawl based architecture. Google’s architecture aims to provide an effective search by performing effective crawls of the Internet, and indexing documents in such a way that they are easy to retrieve later on. Google also uses what they call “Cluster Architecture”, which features geographically separated clusters of many computers. Each query is handled by one cluster, which contains replicated servers that can process a query in parallel by dividing the index into smaller, easier to manage, effectively speeding up the processing and also providing a level of fault tolerance.

Aside of its exceptional working techniques it has facilitates its users with different searching options which include blog search, book search, image search, blog search, Google scholar etc. Adding more in the suppleness of the user, Google has introduced some inventive products. These products also facilitate the users through their services. Some of the products Google offers is Google videos, Froogle, Gmail, Google chrome etc.

WHY GOOGLE IS IMPORTANT?

"On a survey performed on SearchBoth.com by over 1,000 voters, 70% of voters prefer Google over any other search engine, 16% preferred Yahoo!, 8% preferred Ask and 5% preferred MSN. The results were staggering. More than two thirds of the voters prefer Google for search engine results. What most people do not know is that on average 70% of the first 100 results show on Google and Yahoo! are completely different."

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This clearly makes Google a distinctive web search engine in the queue of today’s search engines.

[[size x-large]]HOW TO SEARCH EFFECTIVELY USING GOOGLE?

This gives us the main idea of using Google to get appropriate search results in very short span of time.

  • Choosing search term:-

Choosing the right search term is the key to finding the information you need.

  • Capitalization:-

Google is case-insensitive. It means search for capital case key words and small case key words will produce the same results.

  • Basic Boolean:-

Google's Boolean default is AND, which means that if you enter query words without modifiers, Google will search for all your query words.

  • Word variations or related search:-

Google uses “STEMMING TECHNOLOGY”. It will not only search for your search term but also for words that are similar to some or all of those terms that constitute your search term.

  • What is I’m Feeling Lucky TM?

The I'm Feeling Lucky™ button is a thing of beauty. Rather than giving you a list of search results from which to choose, you're whisked away to what Google believes is the most relevant page given your search (i.e., the first result in the list).

  • How to get results in your desired language?

To get results in your desired language click on the advanced search button placed on the right side of search box (in google.com) and in this form use the pull-down button and select your desired language from the list.

  • How to search for a specific file format?

To get the results in your desired or specific file format use the following syntax for searching your query.
<your query > filetype:<desired filetype>
Example: EE tutorials filetype:pdf (note that there is not any space after colon)

  • How to get results between your desired dates?

Date allows you to specify search results updated in the last three, six, or twelve months. Go to advanced search page and in date range drop down menu, select your desired choice i.e. 3, 6 or 12 months.

  • How to get results with in a specific number range?

Again go to advanced search page and enter your desired numeric range in the boxes given in the form. It will give you the result in that mentioned specific range.

  • Where my query would occur on the page?

Again use the same query form given in advanced search page and use the “occurrences” option and select your appropriate choice from the given options.
OR allinurl<your query> (for url occurence)
OR allinbody<your query> (for occurence in page) etc.

  • How to search within a specific domain?

Use the following syntax to search within a specific domain name.
<Your Query>site:<desired domain name>
Example: admissions site: www.nseecs.edu.pk (it will return the admissions page from nseecs.edu.pk site)

  • How to do related search using Google?

Use the following syntax to search not only your query but also the something related to your query.
related:<your query >
Example: related: www.cnn.com

  • How to avoid erotic material?

Yes, you can do it by selecting safe search option given in advanced search page. Select the ‘filter using safe search’ radio button given at the end of the advanced search form. It will block all the erotic material in your search result.
Be aware that Google's automated filtering doesn't guarantee that you won't be shown offensive content. In an effort to return as many useful results as possible, Safe Search doesn't currently filter out hate speech, anarchy, criminal activity, crude and tasteless material, illegal weapons, bomb making, etc., content that other filtering systems attempt to exclude.

  • How to search images?

To search the images use the following syntax:
<your query>filetype:<jpg,gif,png,bmp etc.>
Or go to http:\\image.google.com and in the search box of this page enter your query it will return the images only with supported file types only.

CONCLUSION:

Google through its unmatchable utilities, facilitates its users to search everything they want in any format. It is only, the specification of the Google that it searches a huge database and gives the most relevant results. It satisfies its users. The results shown at the end is considered to be satisfactory by the majority of its users. It is probably not a coincidence if this system has become in a few years the absolute reference as a research engine. Actually, it satisfies the human beings which is however a challenge that few data-processing programs manage to take up. Google is undoubtedly the pioneer of today’s search engines. Google provides universal information. It is a universal search engine. Its usage that it provides to the Electrical Engineers is very essential. Google can provide a great help to engineering fields. From finding tutorials to their research help it provides complete information.
It is possible that such or such easy ways still allows, during sometimes, gaining artificially some points in the results. But Google evolves each day and is likely to penalize its users tomorrow for what works today.

By, Umair Abid Minhas & M. Shan ur Rehman

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