Lesson 3.3 Activity

1 point
Search Tips:

  • Use the minus sign (-) to eliminate irrelevant results.
  • There must be a space before the minus sign.
  • There must not be a space between the minus sign and the word you want to eliminate.
  • A plus sign (+) does not mean “and” nor does it force inclusion of a word. Google can search for certain plus signs after a word (for example, C++ or Google+). A plus sign before a search term, used as an operator, looks for a Google+ Page by that name.

1. You are helping a neighbor’s child find information on penguins. Since it is hockey season, when you simply search for [penguins] you get many pages on the Pittsburgh Penguins mixed in with results about the bird. Which of these is a way you can narrow your results to focus on the animal?

1 point

2. You want pages that talk about Jane Austen books. When you search for [jane austen books] you get a lot of pages selling books by Jane Austen mixed into the results, but you don’t want to buy anything right now. Luckily, you notice that pages selling stuff almost always have the word price on them, so you decide to try rewriting the query so that it eliminates the word price from all your results. What would that query look like?

3. Can you think of a time that the minus sign operator would help you find what you need faster? Try it out before proceeding to the next lesson and share your story in the forum.