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Guide to Google for Botanists and Gardeners
Author: Daniel Mosquin
Introduction and Comparison
The World Wide Web (WWW) has grown from thousands of web pages in the early 1990s to billions of pages today. The need to organize and search through the information available on web pages became apparent in the nascent days of the WWW. The past decade has seen both organization and searchability evolve and merge into the powerful search engines of the present day. Of these, currently the most popular is Google. Google combines usability, human judgment and a patented algorithm to produce search results that tend to be superior or the equal of its competitors.
Brief History of Organizing the Web
Organization of the Web developed rapidly, as it was easy in the early 1990s for one person or group to create a web page that contained a link to all pages pertaining to a particular topic. An example of an early attempt at organization that is still relevant today is the Internet Directory for Botany. However, many other directories have since collapsed under the weight of thousands-fold increases in the number of web pages relevant to the original mandate of the directory, with one notable exception being Yahoo!. Attempts at organizing the web have now generally shifted toward massive volunteer-run projects. Of these, the largest is the Open Directory Project (ODP). The ODP uses a hierarchical system to categorize web sites and pages within directories (e.g., Science > Biology > Botany > Botanical Gardens and Arboreta). The effort relies on volunteers who are responsible for different areas of the hierarchy. Volunteers review submitted sites and existing sites within the directory on a regular basis. Sites are included or excluded on the basis of content, so that it is reasonable for a user of the ODP to assume that sites listed within the directory are high quality. Google uses the judgment of the ODP volunteers as part of its algorithm for determining the relevancy of a page, by positively weighing sites and pages within the ODP.
Brief History of Search Engines
Early attempts to develop search engines (a tool for finding information on the web) were limited to computer programs that located web servers (computers that host web sites). The ability to search evolved, with it soon becoming possible to search for web page addresses and titles. In 1994, Webcrawler provided the first search engine that indexed the content of a web page and incorporated it into the results of a search. All present day major search engines index the content of a web page, including Google.
The Difference Between Search Engines
Different search engines yield different results for any given search. The algorithms determining search results for each search engine weigh factors including placement in the ODP or other directories, credibility and number of outside pages linking to a particular site, relevancy of content within the page and, for some search engines, amount paid. The most popular search engines, including Google, do not charge for placement in search results.
However, the success of Google is not limited to the strength of its algorithms. Google can credit some of its popularity to its ease of use and its simplicity. The lack of colourful ads and clutter on the page produce a quick loading page that is straightforward to use. Upon visiting Google, it is immediately apparent what one must do to begin a simple search - type text into the box and press the submit button.
Using Google
Some practice is required to determine what phrase or word to submit to the search engine, as a successful search depends on being specific, but not too specific. Generally, the fewer the words entered, the more general the search. This rule does not work well with uncommon words, like Rehderodendron, as they tend to be specific by their infrequency.
Google is case insensitive, so a search can be done with any combination of upper and lower case letters - even FlOrA SOUTH africa will work.
Google attempts to find pages that contain all the terms entered in the submission by default. For example, a search for hosta rid slugs will find the pages indexed by Google that contain all of the three words. Google ignores common words in a search. To include a common word, place a plus sign in front of it, such as hosta rid +of slugs. Alternatively, to search for a specific phrase that includes common words, put quotation marks around the phrase, e.g. "how do I get rid of slugs". To include that phrase while being specific to Hosta, search for "how do I get rid of slugs" hosta.
Exclusion of a term is also possible from search results. To search for a common term like garden, but to exclude many commercial web sites, search for garden -com. This eliminates all the ".com" web sites. Similarly, to search specifically for viburnum leaf, but exclude viburnum leaf beetle, search for "viburnum leaf" -beetle. As Google does not support wild card searches, to exclude both viburnum leaf beetle and viburnum leaf beetles from the previous search, the best search phrase would be "viburnum leaf" -beetle -beetles.
Google also supports "or" searches. For example, a search for Viburnum rhytidophyllum or leatherleaf viburnum should be entered as "leatherleaf viburnum" OR "viburnum rhytidophyllum". It is required to capitalize the OR.
Finally, it is possible to restrict Google to a specific site. This is done by prefacing the URL with site: to restrict the search. A search for "companion planting" on www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org would be done as follows: site:www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org "companion planting".
Google - More Than Web Pages
On the main Google page, several tabs appear above the box for entering search terms: Web, Images, Groups, Directory, News. Clicking on any tab evaluates the search within the context of that category. For example, clicking on the images tab and then searching for "leatherleaf viburnum" OR "viburnum rhytidophyllum" results in pictures. At any time, a different tab can be selected and the search terms in the box will carry over to the new category.
The Web tab searches web pages. However, it also includes other documents that are accessible over the Internet. These include PDF, Microsoft Office (DOC, XLS, PPT), and Corel WordPerfect file types.
The Images tab restricts the search to GIF, JPG and PNG file types. Image searches are imperfect, particularly for terms that have multiple meanings, like magnolia or rose. A search for rose flower yields better results, but then excludes many rose images from a search for rose that Google can not infer to be an image of a rose flower based on image name or context.
Google Groups is an archive of postings to newsgroups from the beginnings of Usenet to the present day. Usenet is a worldwide bulletin board system that consists of over 14 000 forums. It has generally fallen into disfavour with the advent of web bulletin boards (due to spam and email address collecting) but searching Google Groups is still particularly useful for "advice" searches, such as growing oaks advice.
The Directory tab is useful for browsing within subject areas. However, as Google bases its directory on the Open Directory Project, the most up to date directory listings are found on that site rather than on Google. Browsing the Google Directory can also be helpful for determining search phrases for a Web search.
Lastly, the News tab searches web sites of news organizations for stories containing the search terms. Good examples include "sudden oak death" or "gardening tips".
Google Tips
Tip #1: Google will occasionally suggest an alternate spelling to a search term. This is often useful when the search term is difficult to spell, for example, a search for secrateurs yields a few results, but Google suggests (the correct) secateurs. However, a search for Rehderodendron yields a suggestion to search for rhododendron, which isn't applicable. Spelling can generally be one character off for Google to give a good suggestion. A search for secreateurs (two additional incorrect letters) yields a very incorrect suggestion. It is worth noting that if Google does not find any results for a search and it believes it has an alternate spelling, it will automatically perform the search.
Tip #2: The results of a search often allow a user to see a cached version of the page (a link to Cached appears on the bottom right of a search result). Cached means that the page has been partially saved as a copy on Google's computers, so that a duplicate of the original page exists. This has a double benefit to users of the search engine. First, if a web page has been moved or deleted, the cached version will display the text of the original page. Secondly, Google will automatically highlight the search terms that were used in the cached version of the page. For text-heavy web pages, this is invaluable, as it allows a user to scan a web page quickly for the relevant terms.
Google and Web Browsers
Extending Google - The Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer Users
Windows users of modern versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (versions 5 and higher) can directly integrate Google with the web browser. The tool that enables this is called the Google Toolbar.
The Google Toolbar provides the user a way to search Google without having to first visit the Google web site. After installation, the toolbar becomes accessible at the top of the web browser immediately above the web page disply area. After entering search terms into the text entry area of the Google Toolbar and pressing enter, the Google search results are displayed. Of particular use is the ability to highlight search terms after visiting one of the pages that Google has found. Clicking on one of the search terms used in the Google Toolbar will highlight the term in the page.
The default installation of the Google Toolbar also allows a user to select a word or phrase that appears on the web page the user is browsing, right-click, and select Google Search to quickly search Google for that term. For example, visit http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/ and select the text "Centre for Plant Research" at the centre of the page by clicking and holding down the left mouse button and dragging it to the right until the text is highlighted. Then, right-click on the highlighted area to reveal a menu. Select Google Search with a left-click to search Google for Centre for Plant Research.
Extending Google - For Mozilla Users
Users of the Mozilla web browser can also integrate Google into their browser. However, instead of using the Google Toolbar, Mozilla users have to select Google as their default search engine under Edit > Preferences > Navigator > Default Search Engine. Once this has been set, Mozilla users can type in a search term into the URL locator bar and press "Search" or the down arrow to select "Google search for xxxxx" and Enter to search Google.
Mozilla users can also select text that appears on a web page they are browsing, right-click and select "Web Search for..." to quickly search Google for the word or phrase highlighted.