Update: 1st September 2016 – Verbatim seems now to be working as it should. I hope it stays that way but on three occasions this year I have seen it work one day, then not the next and then back to working again. We have become accustomed to Google rewriting and messing about with our … Continue reading Google Verbatim on the way out?
It looks as though Google’s daterange: command really has gone for good. Over the last 6 months it has been a case of “now it works, now it doesn’t” but I’ve been testing it regularly over the past couple of months and it seems to have permanently stopped working . People have been reporting the problem in … Continue reading Google’s ‘daterange:’ command gone for good
Two of the services I cover in my workshop for researchers on alternatives to Google are Carrot Search and eTools.ch, and recently one of the people who had attended the session in April asked me to confirm what Carrot Search used to provide its main results. Strictly speaking, neither Carrot Search nor eTools are Google free: … Continue reading Alternatives to Google: Carrot Search and eTools.ch
This collection of Top Tips is a combined list nominated by those who attended the UKeiG workshop on “New Google, New Challenges”. The next UKeiG Google workshop will be run on 8th September 2016. 1. Do not trust Google’s facts and answers Google tries to provide facts and quick answers to your queries at the … Continue reading Advanced Google workshop – Top Tips
It has been a while since I did a Top Tips from my workshops so here is the first of two that came out of a couple of recent UKeiG events. This collection of Top Tips is a combined list nominated by those who attended the workshop on “Essential non-Google Search Tools” on 12th April … Continue reading Essential non-Google Search Tools – Top Tips
When running advanced search workshops, and especially Google sessions, I prefer not to dwell on commands and search options that are no longer supported. They are gone and that is that, and it is far better to concentrate on how to get the best out of what is left. Of course it is unavoidable when your … Continue reading Google advanced search – get it right!
Many thanks to Emily Scott who alerted me on Twitter to a priceless example of Google Knowledge Graph getting it totally wrong. For those of you who don’t know what the Knowledge Graph is, it is the box that sometimes appears on the right hand side of your results, which pulls together information on your topic … Continue reading Google’s Knowledge Graph a total fruitcake
I have just been alerted by fellow search expert Alison McNab to an article by Samuel Gibbs (@SamuelGibbs) in the Guardian on top search tips for Google. I had to double check the date of the article because although it is OK for the most part it has got a few things wrong, one of … Continue reading Guardian’s top search tips for Google not quite tiptop
We’ve known for some time that Google has been buying heavily into artificial intelligence and looking at applying it not only to its robotics and driverless cars projects but also to search. Now it is official: artificial intelligence and machine learning plays a major role in processing Google queries and is, Google says, the third … Continue reading Google introduces RankBrain
There have been reports (http://searchengineland.com/google-tests-new-mobile-search-design-people-also-ask-box-219078) for several months that Google has been testing a new query refinement box called “People also ask”. It now looks as though it has gone live. The feature suggests queries related to your search after the first few entries in your results list. It doesn’t appear for all queries and it is dependent … Continue reading Google rolls out “People also ask”