MAXIMIZING YOUR SEARCH ON GOOGLEWritten by Gini Graham Scott
Continued from page 1
The entire database is updated on a regular basis, though exact time isn't stated in Google's literature or recent articles, though a few Google users advised me it does this updating process daily. Each time Google crawls Web, it not only adds new pages, but it discards dead links and updates links automatically. Then, outdated links typically fade out of Google's index on next Web crawl. Conducting a Search on Google I conducted my own search for organizations involved with organizational behavior, and more specifically with psychological profiling, which is a field within organizational behavior. However, as I discovered, term "psychological profiling" is not always used together; instead two words are often used separately. I also decided to focus search to programs these organizations offer in California. I chose this subject, since I plan to work in this area and was interested to see what types of organizations and programs I might become more involved with in this field, especially in California. To assess effectiveness of this search engine, I tried experimenting by starting with a broader search and then making it more focused. When I listed just words "organizational behavior" without quotes, I came back to 490,000 entries, and by put these words in quotes: "'organizational behavior'" narrowed search to 116,000 entries. When I added term "organizations", since I was interested in organizations dealing with this subject, search returned 309,000 entries when I didn't use quotes around "organizational behavior," and 60,500 entries when I did. To narrow down search still further, I tried various combinations with "'organizational behavior'" and "organizations", including "California" by itself (10,400) and "psychological profiling" without quotes (242) and in English only (239) and with quotes (7), which was too narrow, and with "workshops OR seminars" in "California" (3380). When I tried adding "organizations OR organizations" instead of just "organizations" to see if alternate spellings made a difference, there were a few hundred additional entries (3760). When I tried to limit search to more recent references, I found there was no way to request entries after a certain date other than putting in each date individually. However, when I put in a reference to years 2000 or 2001, I found this too limiting, since Google searched for actual dates in a page, not for entries after a certain date. As a result, search primarily resulted in my getting listings for college catalogs in PDF files, even though number of entries was reduced (to 118 when I listed both 2000 and 2001, and 70 when I listed just 2001). It didn't matter whether I restricted search to only English or not. Then, since many of references were to academic offerings of classes at schools, including PDF catalogs, whether I used dates or not, I expanded listings of "workshops" or "seminars" to include "conferences" or "meetings". Ultimately, I found most targeted search in English only to be as follows: "organization OR organizations" "'organizational behavior'" "psychological" "profiling" "workshops" OR "seminars" OR "conferences" OR "meetings" "California", which resulted in 111 listings (176 if I dropped California). I found that including additional options of "conferences OR meetings" effectively expanded search, since without these there were only 89 listings, mostly referring to school and university programs. Then, I went through listing of these 111 items, listed by default 10 to a page, though I preferred 20 to a page option (other options included 30, 50 or 100 to a page) to pick out selected organizations which offered programs I found of interest. I found most useful listings on first page, such as International MBA for Executives, Society for Human Resource Management Foundation, and Prometheon: Trainers on Management. Google also had a related advertising banner for "PlaceWare Web Conferencing" that featured Web seminars and live events.Some Limitations of Google However, while my search on Google was effective in pointing to some programs, it was not possible to screen out pdf files (which would have eliminated most of academic catalogs), and it was not possible to limit search to more recent files after a certain date, since using specific years (ie: 2000 or 2001) didn't work well. By contrast, when I used some of these words in Alta Vista, I got a greater proportion of non-academic listings, although it was most effective to use just a few of search terms, since most relevant listings were in beginning. However, when I used all or most of search terms, this resulted in a very small number of listings (from 1-13). Alta Vista additionally came up with some interesting links, such as linking through HotBot and Lycos to an organization that did personality testing on its Web site, which wasn't referenced by Google. Another advantage with Alta Vista I was able to limit search to listings since 2000 more effectively. However, there was some overlap in listings, in that Alta Vista also noted International MBA for Executives program and Society for Human Resource Management Foundation.
Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D., J.D. She is the director of CHANGEMAKERS, and a business and organizational consultant, speaker, and workshop-seminar leader, specializing in creativity, conflict resolution, and organizational behavior. Her own Web site is at www.giniscott.com. She is also the co-founder of an international corporation with its Web site at www.doyoulooklikeyourdog.com.
| | Who said nothing is for free?Written by Nicole Seekely
Continued from page 1
consumers to redeem a coupon. For freebies, request or return rate is often higher. When asked about kind of feedback they get, some companies said they generally see an increase in response rate from 5 to 50 percent. Some days there are lots of requests, and other days it's steady. It all depends on who finds out bout freebie. If publisher of a large newsletter hears about an offer, a company can expect more requests than usual if they publish offer in their newsletter. There are also other reasons or ways of offering freebies. One company, Girl Power! (health.org/gpower) is a national education campaign that was developed and supported by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They are able to give free materials because government recognizes that those items are good for health of people in America. There are a lot of other U.S. Government organizations that provide free materials. Lastly, most companies that give away freebies don't anticipate high response rate that they receive; therefore a lot of times they can't afford to give away all of their freebies. Freebie hunters can help this by only requesting freebies they are really interested in. Also, freebie hunters use unethical practices such as giving out wrong e-mail addresses, or other information which is what helps marketer afford to give out freebies. If you don't want to be added to someone's mailing list, then don't request freebie.
Nicole Seekely is the publisher of The Panda Pages weekly e-zine. You can contact her at gymaholic7@pandapages.f2s.com Also, visit her website at http://www.pandapages.f2s.com for freebies, cool sites, and more. To subscribe to her e-zine send an e-mail to gymaholic7@pandapages.f2s.co
|
