More awesome search
tips from Google expert Daniel Russell, with real-world examples
Daniel Russell,
research master at Google
When a research
scientist at Google offers to show you how to unlock the full potential of the
powerful search engine, you pay attention.
Last year Daniel Russell spoke at the Investigative Reporters and Editorsconference in Boston. Dan showed us search
techniques that can make anyone a better researcher. Some tips I already knew.
Others I thought I understood but didn’t. And some I had no idea existed.
I thought Dan’s talk
was eye-opening — and others had the same reaction. My post about his presentation
last year was widely shared, so there’s enormous interest to learn more
about how Google works and how to use it effectively.
You gotta know a
little bit about how to make Google dance. This is all mother’s milk for
investigative reporters.”
Since that conference
a year ago, Dan began offering online classes.
I’ve had a year to practice many of these techniques. And about a week ago, Dan
spoke again at the IRE conference in San Antonio with even more advice.
“You gotta know a
little bit about how to make Google dance,” Dan said at his panel, Digging in with Google. “This is all mother’s
milk for investigative reporters.”
I thought it’d be a
good idea to compile some of the interesting new techniques, and revisit tips
Dan discussed last year with some real-world examples of how journalists used
them in actual news stories. Many of these methods also work on other search
engines, such as Yahoo! and Bing.
These tips are for
journalists, researchers, librarians and anyone else who wants to learn new ways
to find information. Google will never replace the importance of shoe-leather
reporting — knocking on doors and talking to real people. But Google can help
reporters find the right doors to knock on and reveal surprising details about
the people you’re talking to. Knowing how to find obscure information on the
Internet is a vital skill for any journalist.