Search Exercise #2: Boolean Search Strategies
Part 1
Using the Google search engine, construct TWO search queries (for each of the 5 query statements below) using Boolean operators (NOT, AND, and/or OR). Look at the results on the first page only (first 10 results) and see if they are what you expect. If not, alter your queries to improve your search results using keywords, phrasing (with quotes), parentheses, and/or ordering to see if you can produce at least one result you expect on the first page. You may also want to try using " Google's Advanced Search" page ( ) to see if you can improve your results.Then, record your results in a table (Word) - see below – with an explanation of the results, which will be submitted to this Canvas Assignment. Note: There is almost always more than one good way to formulate a query – your goal is effectively construct queries to obtain the information you are seeking.
1. Find the name of the coach of the German Women’s World Cup football team.
2. Find web pages that discuss the spouse of one of the corporate heads of Facebook.
3. Find web pages that talk about the television ratings for the news program on which Walter Cronkite was an anchorman. Reminder: do this with one query; formulate your query such that there is at least one matching result within the first ten hits.
4. Find pages that compare childhood diabetes and adult diabetes.
5. Find recipes for eggnog that do not contain eggs.
Note: Keep in mind – generally, the order of operation is NOT–> AND–> OR when you are using them all together in a set of search queries. Be aware that "AND" is not needed with a Google search and Google also accepts " -term" for "NOT" (e.g., dogs cats -birds).
Part 2
Report and Analyze Your Findings (in a Word Document) in a Table AND with Overall Observations and submit to the Canvas Assignment. Be sure to include the proper 'heading' at the top of the paper as found in the . Your overall findings will also be discussed in the upcoming Discussion.
Complete the Table below to report your findings (copy-and-paste the Table in your Word document) for EACH of the five query statements and provide TWO search queries (for each query statement) using Boolean operators (NOT, AND, and/or OR) and other techniques such as keywords, phrasing (with quotes), parentheses, and/or ordering. Record your results and observations for each query in the table.
Consider the following when recording your "observations":
· Did you find useful information?
· How did you change your search strategies to improve/maximize your results?
· Which “tricks” and/or specific options worked and which didn’t?
· Did you use Google's Advanced Search page with enhanced search options? If so, did this improve your results?
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Query Statements |
Search Queries 1 & 2 |
Results Produced & Observations |
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Find the name of the coach of the German Women’s World Cup football team. |
1. |
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Find the name of the coach of the German Women’s World Cup football team. |
2. |
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Find web pages that discuss the spouse of one of the corporate heads of Facebook. |
1. |
|
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Find web pages that discuss the spouse of one of the corporate heads of Facebook. |
2. |
|
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Find web pages that talk about the television ratings for the news program on which Walter Cronkite was an anchorman. |
1. |
|
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Find web pages that talk about the television ratings for the news program on which Walter Cronkite was an anchorman. |
2. |
|
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Find pages that compare childhood diabetes and adult diabetes. |
1. |
|
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Find pages that compare childhood diabetes and adult diabetes. |
2. |
|
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Find recipes for eggnog that do not contain eggs. |
1. |
|
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Find recipes for eggnog that do not contain eggs. |
2. |
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Overall Observations (include in the same Word document)
Based on what you have learned in this unit, why do you think you received the results you did based on the search queries you submitted? Specifically, what "inner workings" (such as crawling, indexing, querying/retrieving, and/or ranking) of search engines (in this case, Google) affected your search results? Make reference to the lecture(s), readings, and/or media in this unit to support your perspective (cite the lecture, reading, or media with the author) to support your observations.
