Having problems with Google? Fed up with it ignoring your search terms and giving you something completely different? Or confused by irrelevant postings from complete strangers appearing in your results? Personalisation, localisation, social networks and semantic search are all being used by Google in an attempt to “enhance” your results but it can go horribly wrong. Austria suddenly becomes Australia and Google decides that buttercups are really goats! There are many tricks that we can use to make Google return better results and this workshop will look in detail at what is available.
Topics will include:
- how Google works – what Google tells us and what we have to guess
- recent developments and their impact on search results
- how Google customises your results and can you stop it?
- how to focus your search and control Google
- Google’s specialist tools and databases
- what Google is good at and when you should consider alternatives
You will have ample opportunity to experiment and try out the techniques for yourself. Exercises will be provided to help you test out the search features but you are free to explore and try out searches of your own.
This workshop is suitable for all levels of experience. The techniques and approaches covered can be applied to all subject areas.
The workshop leader is Karen Blakeman.
Date: Thursday, 28th June 2012, 9.30 – 16.30
Venue: Agriculture Building, Reading University, Reading, UK
Cost: £150 +VAT (Total £180). A limited number of places for unwaged and students are available; please contact karen.blakeman@rba.co.uk for further details.
Further details: http://www.rba.co.uk/training/Google.htm