Chris Nolan's Talk

Chris Nolan’s lecture provided many tips about finding high quality information on the web and limit searches to better suit individual needs. Most of his advice was applicable for the number one search engine used: Google. Although I am avid Google user, I did not know how intricate the searches could get. For example, the “Advanced Search” option grants the user access to result lists that are more specific than regular searches on Google, such as limiting the dates of the results lists, the language, or even limiting the entries by country of origin. Additionally, Chris Nolan introduced Google Scholar to the class, which presents only highly academic papers in the results list and is useful for research. I was surprised by fact that you can set entries to eliminate results with certain words that are irrelevant to the search. For instance, if you’re searching for articles from the country Mexico and a Google search yields many results with the US state of New Mexico, which is irrelevant to the search, then you can type in the words “:-new” at the end of your search. No articles with the word “New” will subsequently appear in the result list. Another fact I found surprising and somewhat humorous is that under the language tools one of the options is Pirate. I be feelin’ lucky!