Mary Ellen Bates - Tip of the Month

Mary Ellen Bates - Tip of the Month:
Good tips...
"...try Google's synonym search. Add a tilde (~) at the beginning of the words child and obese (~child ~obese), and Google retrieves web sites that use any of those synonyms."
Google Personalized
Personalized Google is still in beta, but it's an interesting tool. Once you go to the Google Labs page and select Personalized, you will be sent to a new search page, that includes a link to [Create Profile]. You can specify the type of searching you typically do, ranging from biotech and pharmaceuticals to dentistry to classical music. Click [Save Preferences], and then type your search terms in the Google Personalized search box.

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At the search results screen, you will now see something new -- a slider bar that lets you specify how much you want the search results sorted by those interests you specified. The default is minimal personalization; move the slider bar toward maximum, and you will see the search results change on the fly, as Google re-ranks the results based on your personal interests.

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Specialized Searches
In addition to the well-known Google search tabs for searching the web, news and images, there are several specialized search tools for commonly-search subjects, including UncleSam for searching federal government information; University Search for searching within the sites of major colleges or universities;