Interesting Ways ESL/EFL Teachers Can Use Google.com (Charles Kelly)

Interesting Things for ESL Teachers
Ways ESL/EFL Teachers Can Use Google.com Basic Search Techniques & More Advanced Useful Ideas
By Charles Kelly

Basic Techniques

1. Search using only one word

2. Search using multiple words

3. Search using OR (in capital letters)

4. Search using + and -

5. Search using OR (in capital letters) and "quotes"

More Advanced Techniques

6. Try Some Searches

7. Try Your Own Searches

Efective Ways to use the "Minus Sign"

Here are some additional ideas on using the minus (-) sign. Try adding one or more of these to your search string.

-advertise Avoid those sites put together for the purpose of selling advertising.
-advertising
-"reciprocal links" Often sites with this phrase are trying to artificially increase their "popularity rating" in Google and similar search engines.
-"sponsored links" This helps cut down on the amount of advertising you have to look at.
-free Certain sites seem to emphasize the word "free."
-store This may help cut down on the number of links returned from sites whose primary purpose is to sell you something.

These are a few searches, I've selected for you that are likely to give fewer pages by money-motivated webmasters.

Note: This kind of searching may eliminate some good pages. Aren't we all somewhat motivated by money? However, it also eliminates a lot of those pages that we like to avoid.

8. More Searches

Same Search as #6 with JHS Word List

Efective Ways to use "Quote Marks"

Using quotes around parts of sentences will usually find many examples of similar sentences.
The "*" wildcard is very useful:
- "Have you ever * with *" will likely find sentences like the following with the blanks filled in. Have you ever ___ with ___ ?