The ever-expanding Internet is almost limitless in information, but when you’re looking for specific answers, it’s not unusual for a Google search to yield several hundred thousand hits.
One of the simplest ways to refine your search is to be precise in your search terms. Assuming youve done that, here are some additional tools to get results that are most relevant to what youre looking for.
1. Use Google’s full capacity: Advanced Search and Google Options.
Advanced Search: If you are unfamiliar with Boolean logic (i.e., using + and - signs to include or exclude words in your search) click on “Advanced Search” next to the search button. You will land on a page where you can specify various search parameters.
Google options: Above Google’s search box are links that limit your search to images, newsgroups, news items, and shopping. Click on the link, “more” to see the full range of options. Of particular interest to curious psychologists are Google Scholar and Google answers:
Google Scholar gives you results from research papers and other academic articles. You can access it directly by going to this URL: http://scholar.google.com
At Google Answers you can pose questions that will be answered by a live researcher who has been tested and selected by Google. There is a fee, ranging from $2.50 to $200. You offer what you think the search is worth, and if you’re not satisfied, youll get a refund. All answers are posted for the public to read. Before plunking down your money, search within Google Answers to see if your question has already been addressed. To access Google Answers directly, go to this URL: answers.google.com
2. Google is not always the best search engine to use. Here are some others that offer features that Google does not:
Vivisimo: www.vivisimo.com. Vivisimo clusters results into categories, which helps you quickly narrow your search to a subgroup of relevant websites. By using the drop-down menu next to the search box you can also search specifically for news, medical articles, government publications and more.
A9: http://a9.com. This search engine from Amazon shows not only web pages, but also information from inside books, from movies, images and online reference sources.
Scirus: www.scirus.com. Scirus searches only for scientific, scholarly, technical and medical information. It finds reports, peer-reviewed articles and journal articles. There are also advanced search options not available at Google Scholar.
Questia: www.questia.com. Questia is a fee-based service ($109/yr) aimed mainly at an academic audience. It claims to have full text of over 50,000 books and 399,000 journal & magazine articles. There are additional features, including allowing you to highlight text, to automatically generate APA-style citations for selected quotes, and to save your workspace.