Datasheet

The Search Results Page
Once you click the Google Search button, Google launches a new page displaying the results of your search.
The first thing you notice in the results page is the number of results Google found in response to your
query. For example, if you searched on dogs, the page tells you that it is displaying the first 10 results of
about 183 million links for dogs. Next to the number of results there is a link to read the definition of dog.
To the right of the definition link Google tells you how long it took to perform the search. Perhaps this is
bragging rights but I can see no real purpose for this metric.
Search results
Each search result displays the name of the Web page, a short description of the page contents, the link you
will navigate if you choose that result (the Web page address), the size of the page, the cached version of the
page, and another link called Similar Pages
.
Occasionally you may click a link attempting to see one of the results and find that it no longer exists, or
that the information on the page has changed since Google last indexed it and the information you are
interested in no longer appears on the page. Google keeps a snapshot of the indexed page in a cache (histor-
ical storage space) on the Google servers. The cached version of the page is what Google uses to set the
PageRank for your query. Use the Cached
link when you are unable to access the page containing the infor-
mation in which you are interested. When the cached link is missing it’s because Google has either not yet
indexed the page or the owner of the page requested that the page’s content not be cached. This often hap-
pens with commercial content for which the owner of the Web page expects you to pay.
When you see results that are indented, this means that Google has found your keywords within other pages
from the same Web site. Remember your results will not necessarily appear on the site’s home page. Clicking
the links in the indented results help you jump to different pages within this Web site. You may not find
exactly what you are looking for on the page that contains your keywords. You may want to navigate to other
pages in the resulting Web site. Navigating through the site can often be challenging. Some Web sites don’t
provide a menu or simple mechanism for navigating the site. In those cases it is often easiest to start at the
site’s home page. After navigating to the resulting Web page, look at the URL in the address bar of your Web
browser. Copy only the domain name portion, for example,
www.google.com, and forget everything that
appears after the .com, .org, or whatever suffix might appear in the domain name. Paste this back into the
address bar of your Web browser and press Enter. That should take you to the site’s home page.
Oops
When you receive the result that states: Your search – keyword list – did not match any results, it means
that your keywords or phrases matched no Web pages within the Google index. That doesn’t mean they
don’t exist, they have just not been indexed by Google’s Web crawlers. Here are three good suggestions:
n
Make sure all words are spelled correctly.
n
Try different keywords.
n
Try more general keywords.
Google is really good about catching misspelled words. Unless the keyword is very obscure, Google usually
suggests an alternate spelling. Trying different keywords or more general keywords is probably your answer.
If you are have used quotes to create an exact phrase, try doing the search without the quotes.
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Searching the Web
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