googling tips?

googling tips?

[John Heim]

I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in sharing googling tips. For 
instance, when I'm trying to use a tool I've never used before, I google 
for "tutorial OR howto <whatever>".

For example, this weekend, I was trying to figure out rsync, so I googled 
for "tutorial OR howto rsync". Note that the "OR" is in capitals. That 
tells google to use it as a logical operator rather than as a search term. 
So google will look for documents with either 'tutorial' or 'howto' and the 
word 'rsync'.

But I'm thinking other people might have little tricks they use to find 
stuff on google.

Actually, another great tip is just to use google.  I always google before 
asking a question here. First of all, it saves time for the readers of this 
list. But secondly, you often get more complete answers via google. People 
have taken the time to document a lot of these things because of google. In 
other words, people create docs so that other people can find them with 
google. Naturally, those documents tend to be more complete than what 
someone would type in in response to an email question.

Re: googling tips?

[Glenn at home]

When I use Google, I usually use just quotes and the plus sign.
For example:
If I was investigating some tips on how much yeast to use for making wine, I 
would use:
"making wine" + yeast
In the above example, the quotes will treat "making wine" as one thing, 
keeping them together, and it will find web pages that also include the word 
yeast, but not necessarily next to the term "making wine".
I know that there a lot of other forms of punctuation to use in a similar 
way, but this has been working pretty good so far.
Glenn
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Heim" <jheim@math.wisc.edu>
To: "speakup" <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 8:50 AM
Subject: googling tips?


I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in sharing googling tips. For
instance, when I'm trying to use a tool I've never used before, I google
for "tutorial OR howto <whatever>".

For example, this weekend, I was trying to figure out rsync, so I googled
for "tutorial OR howto rsync". Note that the "OR" is in capitals. That
tells google to use it as a logical operator rather than as a search term.
So google will look for documents with either 'tutorial' or 'howto' and the
word 'rsync'.

But I'm thinking other people might have little tricks they use to find
stuff on google.

Actually, another great tip is just to use google.  I always google before
asking a question here. First of all, it saves time for the readers of this
list. But secondly, you often get more complete answers via google. People
have taken the time to document a lot of these things because of google. In
other words, people create docs so that other people can find them with
google. Naturally, those documents tend to be more complete than what
someone would type in in response to an email question.


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Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup 

Re: googling tips?

[Sean M McMahon]

I think google has a tips section one tip is use the + (plus) sign between 
words without spaces to say you want to find info which contains both 
words.  Like speakup+debian searches for topics on debian which are also 
about speakup.  searching for debian speakup, without the plus sign 
searches for all documents with speakup and all documents with debian 
which may not bive you the specific search you wanted.  hth

Re: googling tips?

[Steve Holmes]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: RIPEMD160

Another thing is in the preferences.  You can change the number of hits
per page from the default of 10 clear up to 100 and save these as a
cooky so it is remembered next time.  When I was using Firefox in
Windows with this setting at 100, it made the google pages much easier
to use and FireFox loads pages so quickly.  I would think this would be
advantagious with a text browser too.

On Thu, May 04, 2006 at 10:16:39AM -0700, Sean M McMahon wrote:
> I think google has a tips section one tip is use the + (plus) sign between 
> words without spaces to say you want to find info which contains both 
> words.  Like speakup+debian searches for topics on debian which are also 
> about speakup.  searching for debian speakup, without the plus sign 
> searches for all documents with speakup and all documents with debian 
> which may not bive you the specific search you wanted.  hth
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 
> 

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The best solutions for the best price!
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=l7zi
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Re: googling tips?

[John Heim]

Another tip:

You can put a google search form on your own homepage so you don't have to 
tab through to the search field on google's homepage each time you want to 
do a search.  For example see my homepage:

http://www.math.wisc.edu/~jheim/

When I want to do a search, I hit the hotkey for returning to my homepage 
and since the search form is the first thing on the page, I'm already in 
the search field. Type in a search term, press enter, done.

Next thing I'm going to do is write a screen scraper program to connect to 
the google server, get search results, parse the results page, and display 
just the results. I'm going to get rid of all that dreck google has added 
over the years.

At 03:18 PM 5/4/2006, Steve Holmes wrote:
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>Hash: RIPEMD160
>
>Another thing is in the preferences.  You can change the number of hits
>per page from the default of 10 clear up to 100 and save these as a
>cooky so it is remembered next time.  When I was using Firefox in
>Windows with this setting at 100, it made the google pages much easier
>to use and FireFox loads pages so quickly.  I would think this would be
>advantagious with a text browser too.
>
>On Thu, May 04, 2006 at 10:16:39AM -0700, Sean M McMahon wrote:
> > I think google has a tips section one tip is use the + (plus) sign between
> > words without spaces to say you want to find info which contains both
> > words.  Like speakup+debian searches for topics on debian which are also
> > about speakup.  searching for debian speakup, without the plus sign
> > searches for all documents with speakup and all documents with debian
> > which may not bive you the specific search you wanted.  hth
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
> >
>
>- --
>HolmesGrown Solutions
>The best solutions for the best price!
>http://ld.net/?holmesgrown
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
>Version: GnuPG v1.2.7 (GNU/Linux)
>
>iD8DBQFEWmGKWSjv55S0LfERA3+cAJ9EtJXOfGVrgapFi2xFFLGn98Oj1QCgyrMp
>J/X+44LXz7sbOIQQBxR39To=
>=l7zi
>-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
>_______________________________________________
>Speakup mailing list
>Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: googling tips?

[hank]

what is the code you used?
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Heim" <jheim@math.wisc.edu>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 1:46 PM
Subject: Re: googling tips?


> Another tip:
>
> You can put a google search form on your own homepage so you don't have to
> tab through to the search field on google's homepage each time you want to
> do a search.  For example see my homepage:
>
> http://www.math.wisc.edu/~jheim/
>
> When I want to do a search, I hit the hotkey for returning to my homepage
> and since the search form is the first thing on the page, I'm already in
> the search field. Type in a search term, press enter, done.
>
> Next thing I'm going to do is write a screen scraper program to connect to
> the google server, get search results, parse the results page, and display
> just the results. I'm going to get rid of all that dreck google has added
> over the years.
>
> At 03:18 PM 5/4/2006, Steve Holmes wrote:
>>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>Hash: RIPEMD160
>>
>>Another thing is in the preferences.  You can change the number of hits
>>per page from the default of 10 clear up to 100 and save these as a
>>cooky so it is remembered next time.  When I was using Firefox in
>>Windows with this setting at 100, it made the google pages much easier
>>to use and FireFox loads pages so quickly.  I would think this would be
>>advantagious with a text browser too.
>>
>>On Thu, May 04, 2006 at 10:16:39AM -0700, Sean M McMahon wrote:
>> > I think google has a tips section one tip is use the + (plus) sign 
>> > between
>> > words without spaces to say you want to find info which contains both
>> > words.  Like speakup+debian searches for topics on debian which are 
>> > also
>> > about speakup.  searching for debian speakup, without the plus sign
>> > searches for all documents with speakup and all documents with debian
>> > which may not bive you the specific search you wanted.  hth
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Speakup mailing list
>> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>> >
>> >
>>
>>- --
>>HolmesGrown Solutions
>>The best solutions for the best price!
>>http://ld.net/?holmesgrown
>>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
>>Version: GnuPG v1.2.7 (GNU/Linux)
>>
>>iD8DBQFEWmGKWSjv55S0LfERA3+cAJ9EtJXOfGVrgapFi2xFFLGn98Oj1QCgyrMp
>>J/X+44LXz7sbOIQQBxR39To=
>>=l7zi
>>-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Speakup mailing list
>>Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>>http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
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> This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
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> 

Re: googling tips?

[Hart Larry]

Well, some weeks ago I looked in google trying to find out how to increase the 
fidelity in zinf, but I sure didn't get anywhere.
2nd, I notice if I use their linux only page, the number of results per page is 
less, but at least the search field is on link #2 insteadof 9
Hart

Re: googling tips?

[Justin Ekis]

On Thu, May 04, 2006 at 03:46:37PM -0500, John Heim wrote:
> Next thing I'm going to do is write a screen scraper program to connect to 
> the google server, get search results, parse the results page, and display 
> just the results. I'm going to get rid of all that dreck google has added 
> over the years.

There is already a google scraper program like you're talking about. Try 
the search form on this page.
http://www.scroogle.org/scraper.html
It seems to have a very clean and minimal interface, loads fast and 
there are no cookies or search term records kept. The only downside is 
you can't bookmark result pages. Not too sure why that is.

On Thu, May 04, 2006 at 03:46:37PM -0500, John Heim wrote:
> Another tip:

> You can put a google search form on your own homepage so you don't have to 
> tab through to the search field on google's homepage each time you want to 
> do a search.  For example see my homepage:

> http://www.math.wisc.edu/~jheim/

> When I want to do a search, I hit the hotkey for returning to my homepage 
> and since the search form is the first thing on the page, I'm already in 
> the search field. Type in a search term, press enter, done.

> Next thing I'm going to do is write a screen scraper program to connect to 
> the google server, get search results, parse the results page, and display 
> just the results. I'm going to get rid of all that dreck google has added 
> over the years.

RE: googling tips?

[Sina Bahram]

See this link for the answer:

http://www.scroogle.org/scget.html

*Snip*

Some searchers like to bookmark their searches, and couldn't do this because
we prefer the POST method instead of the GET method. There is a reason
behind
this: the POST method keeps your search terms out of the logs of webmasters
on sites that you reach from our scraped results. Search engines use the GET
method, and many searchers are accustomed to the convenience of turning
searches into bookmarks or shortcuts. For one thing, you can email a
complete search
link to someone. But there is a privacy penalty with the GET method, which
is why we prefer the POST method.

*End snip*

By reading further: you can find their explaination of how to make
bookmarks.

Take care,
Sina

-----Original Message-----
From: speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca [mailto:speakup-bounces@braille.uwo.ca]
On Behalf Of Justin Ekis
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 7:25 PM
To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: Re: googling tips?

On Thu, May 04, 2006 at 03:46:37PM -0500, John Heim wrote:
> Next thing I'm going to do is write a screen scraper program to 
> connect to the google server, get search results, parse the results 
> page, and display just the results. I'm going to get rid of all that 
> dreck google has added over the years.

There is already a google scraper program like you're talking about. Try the
search form on this page.
http://www.scroogle.org/scraper.html
It seems to have a very clean and minimal interface, loads fast and there
are no cookies or search term records kept. The only downside is you can't
bookmark result pages. Not too sure why that is.

On Thu, May 04, 2006 at 03:46:37PM -0500, John Heim wrote:
> Another tip:

> You can put a google search form on your own homepage so you don't 
> have to tab through to the search field on google's homepage each time 
> you want to do a search.  For example see my homepage:

> http://www.math.wisc.edu/~jheim/

> When I want to do a search, I hit the hotkey for returning to my 
> homepage and since the search form is the first thing on the page, I'm 
> already in the search field. Type in a search term, press enter, done.

> Next thing I'm going to do is write a screen scraper program to 
> connect to the google server, get search results, parse the results 
> page, and display just the results. I'm going to get rid of all that 
> dreck google has added over the years.

_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: googling tips?

[John Heim]

At 03:52 PM 5/4/2006, hank wrote:
>what is the code you used?


No code -- unless you consider HTML code. Go to 
http://www.math.wisc.edu/~jheim/ and do a view source.

Actually, you can go to www.google.com and do a view source too. I copyied 
their search form so long ago that I don't  remember how difficult it was 
for me to figure out how to cut the search form out of their document. It 
might be  easier to use mine.

But somewhere on google's site, there is probably a document that tells you 
how to put a google search form on your own home page. They encourage it. 
And why not? It's good advertizing for them.

Re: googling tips?

[John Heim]

At 06:25 PM 5/4/2006, Justin Ekis wrote:
>There is already a google scraper program like you're talking about. Try
>the search form on this page.
>http://www.scroogle.org/scraper.html
>It seems to have a very clean and minimal interface, loads fast and
>there are no cookies or search term records kept. The only downside is
>you can't bookmark result pages. Not too sure why that is.



that is a good resource. In fact, I changed the search form on my home page 
to point there instad of directly at google. But there is another drawback 
besides the one you listed: No  link to google's cache. Often, pages move 
or are removed and then you can access google's cached version of the page.

Also, I don't think it provides a linke to google's "View as HTML" link. I 
use that a lot when I get a bunch of pdf files in the search results.

But, i think I'll try it for a while and see how it goes.

Re: googling tips?

[Janina Sajka]

My favorite is to use the Linux specific starting point for Google:

http://www.google.com/linux

That way all searches are LInux specific.

Another tip is the Google book available on BookShare.Org. Lots of fun
stuff in there.

John Heim writes:
> I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in sharing googling tips. For 
> instance, when I'm trying to use a tool I've never used before, I google 
> for "tutorial OR howto <whatever>".
> 
> For example, this weekend, I was trying to figure out rsync, so I googled 
> for "tutorial OR howto rsync". Note that the "OR" is in capitals. That 
> tells google to use it as a logical operator rather than as a search term. 
> So google will look for documents with either 'tutorial' or 'howto' and the 
> word 'rsync'.
> 
> But I'm thinking other people might have little tricks they use to find 
> stuff on google.
> 
> Actually, another great tip is just to use google.  I always google before 
> asking a question here. First of all, it saves time for the readers of this 
> list. But secondly, you often get more complete answers via google. People 
> have taken the time to document a lot of these things because of google. In 
> other words, people create docs so that other people can find them with 
> google. Naturally, those documents tend to be more complete than what 
> someone would type in in response to an email question.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 

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Partner, Capital Accessibility LLC	http://CapitalAccessibility.Com

Marketing the Owasys 22C talking screenless cell phone in the U.S. and Canada--Go to http://ScreenlessPhone.Com to learn more.

Chair, Accessibility Workgroup		Free Standards Group (FSG)
janina@freestandards.org		http://a11y.org

RE: googling tips?

[Dawes, Stephen]

A little trick that I often use is to put the search in quotes. 
E.G. 
"rsync howto"
Google then treats this as a single search condition, and you eliminate
all the results that are not related to the search string.
So, you don't get a list of howto's that are not relating to rsync, and
you also don't get a lot of chatter about rsync that you aren't
interested in anyways.

You can also expand this method of searching by having more then one set
of quoted text in the search field. 
E.G.
"rsync howto" linux
"initial search string" "another specific search string"

You can also have the site key word added into the search field to have
google look at a desired location:
"search string to look for" site:linux-speakup.org

The best way to learn what google is doing, is to read the address line
in your browser after you have completed a search. This will tell you
all you need to know about how google builds its search string.

At least, that is how I do it.


Steve Dawes
Phone: (403) 268-5527
Email: SDawes@calgary.ca
 
 


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