WeenieCampbell.com

The Unwound Third => Site Announcements, Tips & Trouble Reports => Topic started by: Rivers on October 02, 2018, 08:42:01 AM

Title: Google Search tips
Post by: Rivers on October 02, 2018, 08:42:01 AM
You might know this already but if you don't this is for you. This is not about the search box on weenie, it's about using Google search.

I thought it might be useful to post this after reading through the "shake sugaree" thread. Here's a tip when using Google to search for something on the web. The problem is the results you get are swamped by "noise" references, in this case to a Grateful Dead song, if your search term is just "sugaree".

To eliminate such noise you can tell google search to explicitly exclude it. To do this, type a dash (think of it as a minus sign), in front of words or phrases you want excluded from the results. In this example, the search should be for the following:

Code: [Select]
sugaree -"grateful dead"
Here are the cleaner results returned with "Grateful Dead" filtered-out: sugaree -"Grateful Dead" (https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&client=firefox-b-1-ab&ei=CI2zW8OyF4jPjwTF3afoCA&q=sugaree+-%22grateful+dead%22&oq=sugaree+-%22grateful+dead%22&gs_l=psy-ab.3...226827.234689..236778...0.0..0.124.1613.14j3......0....1..gws-wiz.......0j0i71j0i20i264j0i20i263j0i67j0i22i30.6OkHJnIfLPM)

To see the noisy search results returned without the filter click this: sugaree (https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&client=firefox-b-1-ab&ei=7oyzW_ndBsqijwT0i5GAAg&q=sugaree&oq=sugaree&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i20i264j0i67j0i20i263i264j0i7i30l2j0i67j0i7i30l4.22250.23088..25009...0.0..0.145.761.0j6......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71j35i304i39.zmjTQ9L-Byg)

Note that you can exclude multiple distractions, just add more -"exclude" commands on the end of your search terms. For example, the filter doesn't catch other noise items, so here's a cleaner result set: sugaree -"grateful dead" -"dead and company" -garcia -tedeschi -bakery -"ice cream" -jdarks -dylan (https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&client=firefox-b-1-ab&biw=1440&bih=781&ei=vMnLW6_4MtKp_QaUkZPYCA&q=sugaree+-%22grateful+dead%22+-%22dead+and+company%22+-garcia+-tedeschi+-bakery+-%22ice+cream%22+-jdarks+-dylan&oq=sugaree+-%22grateful+dead%22+-%22dead+and+company%22+-garcia+-tedeschi+-bakery+-%22ice+cream%22+-jdarks+-dylan&gs_l=psy-ab.3...20586.286568..288067...0.0..0.117.853.0j8......0....1..gws-wiz.......0i71.iZrNGhbu1Qw)

Still not totally clean but getting better. Sugaree is a very noisy search term. Just keep adding filters until the noise is bearable.

I hope this helps make google search a more useful tool for researching things that have mega distractions crowding-out the meat in your results.
Title: Re: Google Search tips
Post by: Rivers on October 02, 2018, 09:06:17 AM
Oh while I'm at it, here's another "use case", where you only want results that contain a specific word or phrase. Use a plus sign instead of a minus in your filter. So for example you want sugaree references that mention Marty Robbins: sugaree +"Marty Robbins" (https://www.google.com/search?safe=off&client=firefox-b-1-ab&biw=1440&bih=781&ei=v5azW-HhFMGijwTXzrygCg&q=sugaree+%2B%22Marty+Robbins%22&oq=sugaree+%2B%22Marty+Robbins%22&gs_l=psy-ab.3...23663.29603..30474...0.0..0.100.747.7j1......0....1..gws-wiz.ujRjAXExPBc)
SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2024, SimplePortal