Google Search Tips

I found a blog  post about Google searching tips (link at bottom) and while I knew some of these tips, there are many I did not and wanted to keep the information flowing.  Strengthen your searching prowess using these tools and see better results.

12 Google Search Tips

1. Explicit Phrase:
   Lets say you are looking for content about internet marketing.  Instead of just typing internet marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase.  To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.

   Example: "internet marketing"

2. Exclude Words:
   Lets say you want to search for content about internet marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising.  To do this, simply use the "-" sign in front of the word you want to exclude.

   Example Search: internet marketing -advertising

3. Site Specific Search:
   Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase.  Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the "site:somesite.com" modifier.

   Example: "internet marketing" site:www.smallbusinesshub.com

4. Similar Words and Synonyms:
   Let’s say you want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms.  To do this, use the "~" in front of the word.

   Example: "internet marketing" ~professional

5. Specific Document Types:
   If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier "filetype:".  For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to internet marketing.

   Example: "internet marketing" filetype:ppt

6. This OR That:
   By default, when you do a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search.  If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator.  (Note: The OR has to be capitalized).

   Example: internet marketing OR advertising

7. Phone Listing:
   Let’s say someone calls you on your mobile number and you don’t know who it is.  If all you have is a phone number, you can look it up on Google using the phonebook feature.

   Example: phonebook:617-555-1212 (note: the provided number does not work – you’ll have to use a real number to get any results).

8. Area Code Lookup:
   If all you need to do is to look-up the area code for a phone number, just enter the 3-digit area code and Google will tell you where it’s from.

   Example: 617

9. Numeric Ranges:
   This is a rarely used, but highly useful tip.  Let’s say you want to find results that contain any of a range of numbers.  You can do this by using the X..Y modifier (in case this is hard to read, what’s between the X and Y are two periods.)  This type of search is useful for years (as shown below), prices, or anywhere where you want to provide a series of numbers.

   Example: president 1940..1950

10. Stock (Ticker Symbol):
    Just enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumb-nail chart for the stock.

    Example: GOOG

11. Calculator:
    The next time you need to do a quick calculation, instead of bringing up the Calculator applet, you can just type your expression in to Google.

    Example: 48512 * 1.02

12. Word Definitions:
    If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the "define:" command.

    Example: define:plethora

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/1264/12-Quick-Tips-To-Search-Google-Like-An-Expert.aspx#ixzz1liCUPv7L

SOPA: Anti-Piracy or Anti-Internet?

You have to wonder, at least I did when I was younger, as to why control of the internet is valued so greatly by the government bodies of this world.  From China to the Middle East's "Arab Spring" last year, there is great power in controlling what your people can (or even more so cannot) see or do on the internet.  Controlling the gathering of your people, in any sense, also controls independent thinking and the collective powers that happen when a people gather.  You're probably asking, "What does this have to do with SOPA?"  I'm getting to that part but first let me build a "platform" of understanding for those who don't clearly realize how the most powerful tool in the world originated. 

As a bit of history (sorry to those of us who know this already) that the internet was founded in this country in the 1950's by ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency), under the Department of Defense.  Thanks to some really bright fellas at MIT, the first networks and email were created shortly after.

Also, the truest forms of "freedom of speech" were founded in this country as well.  So it makes sense that the highest volume of internet traffic with the largest percentage of websites is located at the home of the internet.

The irony here is the internet was initiated (in part) by a Department of Defense initiative during the tail end of the cold war as an answer to the governments fear of losing military communication systems if we were bombed by Russia.  Those fears never came to pass but because of it, we now have the worlds most connected and most powerful tool, the information super highway.  Countries who control this flow of knowledge and connectivity also control their people's understanding of everything around them.  They control the global community influence and their peoples connectedness to the world around them. 

Now enters two bills, SOPA, an anti-piracy bill that has seen many attempts at passing since the Bush administration and PIPA, a protect IP initiative. 

What is SOPA?  As quoted from Luke Johnson at The Huffington Post:

"...it is to force ISP's to shut down any website that may contain copyrighted content as outlined by the issuing entertainment bodies. The legislation would allow copyright holders and the Justice Department to seek court orders against websites associated with copyright infringement. SOPA, the House version, applies to both domestic and foreign websites.  If that court order is granted, the entire website would be taken down. Internet users who typed in the site's URL address would receive an error message, and for all appearances, the site would never have existed. Importantly, the court does not need to hear a defense from the actual website before issuing its ruling. The entire website can be condemned without a trial or even a traditional court hearing.
Copyright holders, like movie studios, simply invoke the "private right of action" against just about any company that does business with a website that copyright holders believe to be involved in copyright infringement. Copyright holders can demand that payment processors cutoff the flow of money to a website or that search engines eliminate links to it -- without ever entering a courtroom. Movie studios and record labels can also require online advertising networks on the website and Internet service providers from hosting the site."
Companies can protest any of these directives from copyright holders, but must get involved in a court action to object. If they choose to simply follow orders from movie studios, both SOPA and Protect IP would give these companies legal immunity for cutting off any legitimate websites that were falsely accused of copyright infringement. Internet service providers and payment processors could not be sued for taking action against sites that were not, in fact, doing anything improper.
For example, if a website was streaming "The Hangover" without permission, Warner Bros. could ask the Justice Department to obtain a court order for to shut down the entire site -- not merely remove the specific film, as required under current law. Alternatively, Warner Bros. could force credit card companies to stop processing payments to the site, make Google to remove it from search results, and the force the site's ISP from hosting it on the Web.
The language in the bill is vague, however, and could spark the shutdown of many websites that accidentally use snippets of copyrighted material that they believed to be available for free under "fair use" standards.
The legislation poses a significant risk to social media. If links to pirated movies were posted on Twitter or Facebook, the Justice Department could seek to shutdown the entire social media website, while Hollywood and other copyright owners could use their private right of action to severely limit the site's functionality.

Critics emphasize that copyright holders frequently abuse even existing copyright infringement tools that require websites to remove improper content, and believe those problems would be dramatically escalated by SOPA and Protect IP. "We would get a lot of erroneous...takedown notices, even on our own trailers for our own films put up on YouTube, because keywords would match," said Reddit general manager Erik Martin recently, who previously worked at an independent film production company. "Especially when companies are using automated tools -- it's a script, and human beings aren't even looking at this -- the potential for abuse [under Protect IP and SOPA] is huge."

The Justice Department would engage in a process called DNS (Domain Name System) blocking to shut down sites, a tactic which internet experts warn could harm the functionality and stability of the web. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has said that he will include a provision in the final bill requiring a study of the potential effects of the practice--however, it would still require DNS filtering after the study concludes.
SOPA makes it a felony to stream copyrighted video without permission, punishable by prison time.
Under current law, companies that think that their material has been improperly used can request for it to be removed, but cannot ask for entire websites to be taken down--hence the frequent sight of videos no longer available on sites like YouTube."

That's quite a mouthful but the end result is one of the harshest and most unbelievable attempts to control websites in America on record.  To take down a business because of an unproven belief they may have copyrighted content rolls us legislatively back nearly 70 years to when it was legal to charge, indict and convict people because it was a "common belief" (cough{{hearsay}}) they may be a communist. 

I'm not against finding a way to control copyrighted content from being illegally reproduced or used for purposes other than it's intent but to forgo proper legal channels of timely notice and legal action is absurd to me.  America built this great legal "empire" steeped in pleadings, complaints and summons that encourages all people to believe their personal rights are protected with the many layers of the legislative processes at hand, and all under the guises of fairness.

To me, SOPA has completely ignored the basic rights of its people, the right to defend themselves before a judgement is passed.  Innocent until proven guilty.  This bill needs a re-do.

Schema.org: The Big Three Search Engines Working Together

On June 2, 2011, Google announced on the official Google Webmaster Central blog a very interesting titbit:

"Today we’re announcing schema.org, a new initiative from Google, Bing and Yahoo! to create and support a common set of schemas for structured data markup on web pages. Schema.org aims to be a one stop resource for webmasters looking to add markup to their pages to help search engines better understand their websites."

Since that time, I've been reading and implementing the tools suggested on a dummy website that is simple HTML/CSS just to see what the results would be.  The concept is simple really.  You categorize your content with their "labels"(or categories) so each search engine can identify it.

It is definitely working with Google, my dummy site was picked up immediately and I was able to actually see where my site is categorized and how the search engine sees it.  The jury is still out on whether its a worthy tool but I plan to use it and see what happens.  As for Joomla sites (content management systems), I am not convinced.  I am testing the schema on a Joomla site and so far Google managed to find 3 of the 11 citations but has still missed authorship, a fairly large part of why I believe this will really work for Webmasters.  This is an interesting idea and if all three are really working towards a set of standards that assist developers, it is a great beginning.

I do have one question:  is this the death of organic SEO or is this their way of levelling the playing field?

Now if they everyone would give Microsoft a huge smack down so they would fix their browser to render all CSS equally....the world would be a blissful place for web developers.

Google +1 Silent Launch of Chrome Extension

The Google +1 Button extension allows you to “+1" a web page, but you already knew that.  Recently, they opened up browser wide so virtually anywhere you go on the web, you can plus pages. That’s important. 


You no longer have to rely on a site to implement the +1 Button, you can invoke the functionality through your browser. Imagine if Facebook partnered with Google and made an extension to “Like” any page on the web through it, it's kinda the same idea.

For now the +1 Button just shares content you "plus" on the web. But I have no doubt they will use this data as a way to affect Google Search itself and likely even more important, effect Google ratings. That’s huge. The button also is starting to play a role in how Google serves up advertising to you. But this concept may make people wary of such a button.


Google describes +1 as:

In addition to the practices described in the Google +1 Button Privacy Policy, by installing this extension, all of the pages and URLs you visit will be sent to Google in order to retrieve +1 information.

You read that correctly, “all of the pages and URLs you visit will be sent to Google”  and it doesn't matter if you don’t click the button. Hmmm.  


So, like it or not, here comes Google +1, another factor in driving sites up the Google search engine or a de facto way to monitor what people are reading on the web.  You decide.

Is Google lord of the world wide web?

Consider the recent turn of events regarding Google's latest mass judgement towards users, shutting off ALL of your Google accounts because of their "real name" policy. Pseudo-names are not allowed, therefore, Google will freeze all of your Google assets, not just Google+.

According to many, this feels like an invasion of privacy. Many want some form of anonymity when it comes to the internet and their privacy. They feel Pseudo-names are a form of protection from identity theft.

The flip side of this is that maybe...just maybe Google is trying to prevent the very thing that these people are angry about, identity theft, amongst many other troubles that plague our internet experiences every day. Dissidents, individuals who want to politically take a stand but do not want the negative (or positive) ramifications that come with speaking up to be personally attached to who they really are especially sensitive to this issue as it leaves them prone.

Say for instance, TROLLS, you know, those losers on the internet whose sole purpose is to talk smack in any public setting because the have "anonymity" living behind their pseudo-name.

Google has frozen thousands of accounts under this "real name" stance, an not just your Google+ account is frozen. It includes everything Google has control over. So, for many of us webmasters who rely on the scores of Google tools out there, fear has taken on a new name. It's called "Lord Google" and if the pesants do not play nice with the court, Lord Google will banish your existence until such time as you comply with his wishes.

That last bit is quite extreme but truly for some it may seem this to be a horrible invasion into their private internet life.

For me, I tend to ride the middle on this issue. My Google accounts are safe because I'm me online as well as in real life, for better or for worse. And I hate trolls...I abhor the ridiculous wastes of internet space these spineless people take up. And I also wonder, how many of us walk into a party or the mall and start introducing ourselves as "Sam the Slayer" or "BabyKillerZeb". Just saying is all.