Google Introductory
Training
This training session was provided in June and July 2004 by
Tom Peters (tpeters@tapinformation.com)
on behalf of the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center (www.mitbc.org) and the InfoEyes
Project (www.infoeyes.org), a
multi-state online reference and training service for the blind and visually
impaired.
Introduction to iVocalize
software
IVocalize is the software program we will use
today.
There are keystroke commands for every function.
Making an Audio Recording
If you wish to record today’s session for later playback, simultaneously
press the Alt and R keys on your keyboard.
This will open a “Save As” dialogue box.
The cursor already should be positioned in the input box for a file
name. Type in the name you wish to give
this file, then press the Enter key on your keyboard.
The file will be saved in the Windows Media Audio file format. WMA files can be played back in many of the
free media software programs, such as Windows Media Player, Real Player, and
Music Match Jukebox.
Please note that you need version nine of the Windows Media Player software
to be able to make an audio recording of a discussion in an iVocalize
room.
Text Chat
The text chat input box is located in the
left center area of the screen. You can
send your text chat to everyone in the room, or to a specific individual. Use the drop-down menu immediately above the
text chat input box to do that.
Transmitted text chat messages appear in the
box in the upper left corner of the screen.
The most recent message is at the bottom of the list of messages.
Voice over IP
If you have a microphone connected to your
computer, you can speak over the Internet by pressing and holding the Control
key.
Remember to release the Control key when you have finished speaking.
Only one person can speak at once. If you press and hold the Control key while
someone else is speaking, when it is your turn to speak you will hear a little
beep.
Synchronized Browsing
During today’s session we will use a feature
called synchronized browsing. Wherever I
go on the web with my browser, your browser will go there too.
[Inform people using JAWS or WindowEyes how to manage the TTS reading of the websites we
will visit.]
Saving the Text Chat File
To save the contents of the text chat messages into a file, simultaneously
press the Alt and Z keys. A “save as”
dialogue window will open up, with a default file name already suggested by the
software. Simply press the Enter key on
your keyboard to accept the default file name.
If you want to give the file a different name, type it and press the
Enter key on your keyboard.
The saved file is a simple text file.
Any word processing software or text editor should be able to open the
file.
Using JAWS, WindowEyes
and Other Screen Reader Software
[This is a good place to provide some basic information about using screen
reader software in conjunction with Google.]
A Little Bit About Google
A URL is a Uniform Resource Locator,
a unique address for a particular page or document on a website.
Index Size: Quoting from their website, “Google's index, comprised of more than 4 billion URLs, is
the first of its kind and represents the most comprehensive collection of the
most useful web pages on the Internet.”
Google’s
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Limitations of Google: tends to index only static web pages. The quality, validity, political slant, and
general truth of the content you will find requires
careful scrutiny and evaluation.
How a Google search differs from a
search of one or more FirstSearch databases.
Google Search Basics
Start your browser software (for example, Internet Explorer, Netscape)
Type this URL into the URL box on your
browser screen.
Description of the basic Google search screen
At the top center of the screen is a graphic
containing the word Google.
Below the Google
logo is a horizontal series of hotlinks to the various databases that can be
searched within Google.
The default database to be searched is the Google index of the web.
In many instances, you will want to search the default database. Other available databases include Google’s image database, Google
Groups, News, Froogle (a database for online shopping),
plus over a dozen additional specialized search services and tools. Many of these other databases and tools will
be covered in the intermediate Google training
sessions being offered as part of this summer series of online training.
Directly below the horizontal list of
databases is the actual search input box.
Move your cursor into this box and type in your search query.
Directly below the search input box are two
search buttons. The one on the left is
called “Google Search” and the one on the right is called
“I’m Feeling Lucky.”
Note that the default search mode is the “Google Search”. If
you enter a word or more into the search input box and press the Enter key on
your keyboard, Google will automatically conduct a
search of its entire index of the web and return a relevancy ranked set of URLs
with explanatory snippets of information from the retrieved pages.
The “I’m Feeling Lucky” Search Button:
Clicking on this button to initiate your
search automatically takes you to the highest ranked search result. You do not retrieve the ranked list of
websites with snippets.
This search feature can be useful when you
are looking for the website of an organization.
Example: NISO
Very Basic Search Strategy:
Input the unique keywords for the topic you
are investigating
Try
to choose keywords that are specific to your topic of interest, relatively
unique words, and likely to appear on websites focused on your topic.
Example: digital talking books
Boolean Operators: The three basic Boolean search operators are
“and” “or” and “not”. When two or more
words are “anded” in a search argument,
that means that all the words must be present in the page or document in
order to be retrieved. When you enter
two or more words into the basic Google search box, the
“and” operator is implied. In other
words, Google will find all the web pages and
documents that contain all of the words you typed into the box.
Phrases:
Put quotation marks around phrases to search for web pages and documents
containing the entire phrase exactly as you input it.
Word Order:
The order in which you input the keywords will affect the results. Put the more unique keywords before the less
unique keywords.
Common Words:
Do not use common words, single digit numbers, etc.
If you must search on a common word, either put a plus sign in front of it
or conduct a phrase search.
Capitalization: Capitalization does not matter when searching
Google.
Word Stem Searches: Google searches
automatically for variations on the stems of the words you enter.
Display of Results
Indication
of file type:
Snippets: Quoting from their website, “Google shows an excerpt (or "snippet") of the
text that matches your query.”
If
the website or the specific page or document is currently unavailable, Google usually has a cached recent version. The link to the cached version is after the
snippet.
Refining a Search that is Too Broad
(Too Many Irrelevant Hits Near the Top)
Quoting
from their website, “Since Google only returns web
pages that contain all the words in your query, refining or narrowing your search is as
simple as adding more words to the search terms you have already entered.”
This
is an entirely different way to find information on the Web.
Questions and Discussion
To leave the iVocalize online meeting room, simultaneously
press the Alt and the F4 keys.