For the class:

CS 437 Intro to Information Retireval

Fall 2019

Sole Pera

Boise State University

Hi, I'm Ally!

Google may become a huge part of your life, so I'm going to give you a few tips on using it.

Tip #1

Know what you want from Google

Google is designed to solve something called information need, something a person needs or expects to gain. If you don't know what you want, Google will not be able to help you.

Examples of things you may want from Google are:

Do my cats, Tucker and Hazel, dream about me when they sleep?

What day was the United States of America founded?

Tip #2

Be straightforward and clear

Google can do a lot, but it can't read your mind. Be careful to use words in your query, a word or phrase used to express an information need, that relates to or describes what you want. Random words can give you strange and unwanted results.

Tip #3

Be short and simple

Too many words can overwhelm Google, so keep it short and sweet. Words called stopwords, words that have little meaning on their own, are often removed before Google uses your query so you can leave them out. Queries with one to five words are best.

For example, if your information need is:

Do my cats, Tucker and Hazel, dream about me when they sleep?

Your query could be:

cats dream about owner