Part II

Part II: Understanding Results

Google strives to make it easy to find whatever you’re seeking, whether it’s a web page, a news article, a definition, or something to buy. After you enter a query, Google returns a results list ordered by what it considers the items’ relevance to your query, listing the best match first. (Sponsored links may appear above and to the right of the search results.) This part of Google Guide describes what appears on a results page and how to evaluate what you find so you’ll be better able to determine if a page includes the information you’re seeking or links to it.

How Google Works

If you aren’t interested in learning how Google creates the index and the database of documents that it accesses when processing a query, skip this description. I adapted the following overview from Chris Sherman and Gary Price’s wonderful description of How Search Engines Work in Chapter 2 of The Invisible Web.

Results Page

The results page is filled with information and links, most of which relate to your query.
Google Logo: Click on the Google logo to go to Google’s home page.
Statistics Bar: Describes your search, includes the number of results on the current results page and an estimate of the total number of results.

Spelling Corrections and Suggestions

Not sure how to spell something? Don’t worry, try gessing or speling any way you can. In just the first few months on the job, Google engineer Noam Shazeer developed a spelling correction (suggestion) system based on what other users have entered. The system automatically checks whether you are using the most common spelling

Dictionary Definitions

Want a definition for your search terms? It’s just a click away.
Google looks for dictionary definitions for your search terms. If it finds any definitions, it shows those words as underlined links or includes a definition link in the statistics bar section of the results page (located below the search box showing your query).

Cached Pages

Google takes a snapshot of each page it examines and caches (stores) that version as a back-up. The cached version is what Google uses to judge if a page is a good match for your query.
Practically every search result includes a Cached link. Clicking on that link takes you to the Google cached version

Here’s how to find results similar to another Google search result. Let’s say you’re interested in finding sites similar to that of Consumer Reports. First, search for their site.

Click on the Similar pages link that appears on the bottom line for the Consumer Reports result.
The link may be useful for finding more consumer resources

News Headlines

When Google finds current news relating to your query, Google includes up to three headlines that link to news stories above your search results. Why at most three? So as not to push the web search results off the page.
Of course, since news by definition reports recent events, you’ll see the most recent headlines

Product Search

When Google finds products relevant to your query, above your search results, you may find up to three links to items that merchants list in Google’s Product Search service.

Product Search is also called Shopping. There are two Shopping links near the top of the screen shot above.
Exercises
These problems give you practice in searching for products.

File Type Conversion

Google converts all file types it searches to either HTML or text (unless, of course, they already are in one of these formats). Google searches a variety of file formats including
File Format
Suffix
Description
Adobe Acrobat PDF
pdf

Translation

As the web has spread across the world, more and more web pages are available in languages other than English. Google provides a translation link and language tools to enable you to read pages written in unfamiliar languages.
Google translates pages by computer.

Customizing Your Results: Preferences

Whenever I run a new piece of software, … I [first] … look at the program’s ‘preferences’ panel. By clicking through the options, I rapidly learn what a program can do and what its shortcomings are. Google is no different. — Simson Garfinkel, Getting More from Google, Technology Review, June 4, 2003

Tracking

One of Google’s corporate philosophies has always been not to “do evil.” Google’s Privacy Policy Highlights explain more. (You’ll also find a link to their complete Privacy Policy on that page.)
Whether you trust Google or not, it’s good to know something about how Google tracks you. What does Google do to remember your Preferences?

Google Accounts

A Google Account is free of charge. The easiest way to get one is by visiting . There you’ll be asked for information like your email address and a password.
Note: If you’re planning to get a Gmail account, and you’d like to use your Gmail address as your primary email address, you should sign up.

Cookies

As we said in our earlier introduction, Tracking, a cookie is a bit of data from a web server. (Think of “fortune cookies” you might get after a Chinese meal, with little bits of wisdom inside each one.) Each web browser keeps its own set of cookies.

Last Results Page

Though the statistics bar may estimate that more than 1000 results match your query, Google doesn’t serve more than 1000 results for any query. You can get to the 1000th or last result by setting your Preferences to display 100 results/page and clicking on the highest number or last.

Some search engines sell their search results, in addition to showing ads. A sold result means that a link to the buyer’s page is put at or near the top of the results page, just as if the search engine thought it was one of the best results.

Evaluating What You Find

Google’s web-page-ranking system, PageRank, tends to give priority to better respected and trusted information. Well-respected sites link to other well-respected sites. This linking boosts the PageRank of high-quality sites. Consequently, more accurate pages are typically listed before sites that include unreliable and erroneous material.

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