Google Searching Learning

A Guide to Using www.google.com


What is Google
Google, for the main part is a very fast and powerful search engine, although it now also shows you maps and street views of practically anywhere in the world, known as Google Maps. Google are also currently launching their own web browser, called Google Chrome and the company is busy digitising millions of books.
As Google is so quick and convenient, many choose to have it set as their home page, so when you open your web browser, it’s the first thing you see. Google is therefore a great learning tool.

Using Google
After opening WebbIE, go to:
www.google.com

At the top of the page in WebbIE there are a series of links, such as video, images, shopping. These are all more specific search functions, for instance, if you were searching for street dancing – you’d use standard Google to get a range of results, click on video to search specifically for videos, etc.
Near the bottom of these links, is something called Search Settings.

Search Settings
Many people will never have to touch these, but for those who wish to, they basically provide a range of options, such as language, results displayed per page, and parental controls, which filter out explicit sexual material, either fully, partially, or not at all.
To navigate, press enter from the home page on the link that says Search Settings.
Find the first heading on this page, which is Global Preferences.
Alternatively, locate this by cursoring around, or use the find function (control plus F) to search for the words Global preferences.
From here its best to arrow down, reading the options, and editing as necessary, by either ticking the relevant box, changing the number of search results in the combo box, etc. Once you’ve done this, press enter on the save preferences button.

Searching Option one (Novice)We understand that not everyone is comfortable using quick keys and shortcuts straightaway but here is an easy way to quick results:
Press Control with the letter W, from anywhere on the web.
Type in your search, for instance, Liverpool FC. Press enter.
You will then have a simple list of results in front of you, simply arrow up and down through these, until you hit the one you require, if you don’t find this immediately, you may need to press enter on the bottom line text that says "next page of results".
If you wish to do another search, press alt S to enter new text, type, enter, arrow to what you like and select by pressing ENTER.
If you then decide to search again, press control W. This will then bring up the list of results, for the thing you last searched, so press Alt S to search again.
This is quite a useful feature as it operates from any website, thus pressing control W whilst looking on the BBC website will enable you to do a Google search.
There is, however, a slight downside to searching this way, the list of results displayed are in essence the links of the search results, thus no extra information is given. So, unless you search very specifically, you may find it hard to locate the correct information.
So, searching simply for someone’s name, Simon Hawke could give you too many results simply entitled "Simon Hawke" – this could be the author we’re looking for, or indeed some other Simon Hawke. You would do better searching for "Simon Hawke Author".
But the advantage of using the method outlined below is that you get a little more information from Google, thus making search results clearer. It is good to have choice.
Searching Option two
On the Google home page, press F6 to take you to the first edit box. This is the search form. Press enter, then type whatever you wish to research, for instance, "growing vegetables". Press enter again. Then arrow down to the search button.
Here, you have two choices. Pressing enter will conduct a web-wide search. If you press F6 again – or arrow down, however, you will come across two radio buttons. The first one is set to the web, by default, entering on the second one will make your search UK only. Go back up, and then press ENTER on the search line.

Results
Each result is indicated by a heading. Once the new page has loaded, simply press F7, This first gives you the Heading, Google, and then a bunch of sponsored results. Whilst these can be interesting, and sometimes useful, they are often less specific as they are the links the advertisers pay for to have prioritised on Google’s search feature. Skipping past these by F7 presses, until the heading says "Search Results" will often be more beneficial.
Your first result, in the case of Growing Vegetables, might be:
Planting, Growing, Storing and eating vegetables. This is from the website vegetableexpert.co.uk.

Viewing results
Arrowing down after the heading has been announced will provide you with a brief summary of what that website contains, relating to your search. In this case, we can see that vegetableexpert.co.uk will provide information on reducing your carbon footprint and give guidance on growing, harvesting, storing and eating vegetables.
Directly on the line underneath this brief description, is the website address itself.
If we want to look at this website, we arrow back up, or Shift +H, and enter on the link stated. This will take us away from Google and to the chosen website. This won’t open in a separate window, by default, so you would have to go back to the Google page ALT with left arrow and start again if this website wasn’t suitable. You can change things in the settings, so that all websites open in a new window, or press shift + enter on your chosen link, as a temporary solution.
If this result is not suitable, however, then we continue going through the results as mentioned above.
By default Google will display 10 results per page, this keeps things moving nice and quickly. If, therefore you haven’t found what you were looking for on page one, you will need to press "Next". This is located underneath the final search result on page one, however if you accidentally skip past it, use the find function, Control +F, to locate the word "Next".

Other Google functions
Google is not just a super search engine, however, it can also be used in other ways, such as converting money or measurements.
Typing "£30 in US dollars" in the search box will give you a quick estimate of the exchange rates. The best result, with the converter is often the third or fourth heading down, and will say something like, for instance: "UK£ 30 = 49.49100 US dollars."
Exactly the same practice can be used for converting, weights, distances and measurements. Try "100 pounds in kilos" or "75 miles in KM".

Navigation suggestions
As Google puts each search result as a heading, this is the quickest way to navigate this website.

Things to Remember
If you decide to search UK pages only for your first search, it will stay on this setting for any subsequent searches unless you close the page, this, obviously can be changed by entering on the radio button to make it web-wide, or vice-versa.
This document is only a guide, websites change daily and so the quoted results may not remain the same.
As with any website, take your time, experiment, and have fun!