Journal # 1, "Your Google Guide", by Doug Johnson

The article "Your Google Guide", by Doug Johnson provoked some rather intricate thoughts on my current and past uses of Google as a search engine. I previously became aware of some of the points made in the article but the article was more precise and more easily understandable than my previous instructions and guides. For instance, the order that the search results are listed was explained to me by the designer of my first website for my office. He went into great detail about how PageRanks operated and how effective his abilities were in compiling the appropriate page links which would increase the traffic to my website. Of course he explained all of this to me to justify the high cost of his services. Unfortunately after learning of this I did not use that information to my benefit in my subsequent search queries.

Online legal libraries work in a similar manner. The word or concept searches are more easily found by using the right words and using the most correct words for the concept. The experiences I had with those online libraries benefits me when I use Google searches. The confirmation I received by reading this article makes me more confident that I am searching the Internet in a semi-competent manner.

I rarely use the operators suggested by the author. The legal libraries had the same type of useful connectors and limiters but I stayed away from those also. I have used the "+" operator from time to time but I believe that is the only one I previously have used. From now on I will attempt to remember to use the operators especially when I am doing class research or when the first results of my initial search do not yield the appropriate subject matter.

Question One: Do we need to use operators in our daily searches? As I have stated above I will attempt to use the operators when performing searches for this class and others but on my daily searches I doubt that I will use the operators. It just does not seem to make that much of a difference when using Google for personal purposes.

Question Two: Do we need to keep this article in our library to insure that our students will have a basic understanding of the Google Search process? I for one have put this in a permanent file for my future students. Although our students will know about Google I do not believe that their exposure to it would include this type of detail. It is a good starting point. At least it is for me.