{"id":10893,"date":"2014-07-14T19:55:23","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T00:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johntedesco.net\/blog\/?p=10893"},"modified":"2018-06-16T13:24:01","modified_gmt":"2018-06-16T18:24:01","slug":"new-search-tips-for-2014-from-google-research-scientist-daniel-russell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johntedesco.net\/blog\/2014\/07\/14\/new-search-tips-for-2014-from-google-research-scientist-daniel-russell\/","title":{"rendered":"New search tips for 2014 from Google research scientist Daniel Russell"},"content":{"rendered":"

I couldn’t attend the 2014 Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in San Francisco this year. But thankfully, Google researcher Daniel Russell<\/a> was there. He gave another excellent presentation about search-engine strategies and posted his advice online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"DanielAs the Uber Tech Lead at Google, Dan studies how people search the web. He started sharing little-known search techniques three years ago at the IRE conference in Boston. Since then he’s annually offered tips at IRE that can help everyone — not just reporters — find exactly what they’re searching for online.<\/p>\n

Here are some of Dan’s new strategies and tools for 2014, and a recap of the most useful tips from his past presentations that I’ve used myself. You can check out posts about his other talks here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Go back in time<\/h2>\n

One of the coolest new tools offered by Google this year allows you to jump in a time machine in Google Maps’ Street View<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let’s say you’re walking around downtown San Antonio and you’re curious about the site of a historic building on Commerce Street across from Main Plaza. An inferno destroyed the building a few years ago and now there’s nothing but a vacant lot:<\/p>\n

\"Commerce<\/a><\/p>\n

In Google Street View, click on the clock symbol in the corner of the screen to check out how that spot looked over the years. In this case, you can look at what the Wolfson Building looked like before the catastrophic fire<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/a><\/p>\n

The Wall Street Journal used this time-machine effect to illustrate dramatic growth in Brooklyn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The cool thing about this is how you can pan around and get different perspectives of the sites you’re interested in.<\/p>\n

Gallery of Google Map Mashups<\/h2>\n

The Google Maps Gallery<\/a> allows organizations to mesh their data with Google maps. All these mashups are searchable, and Google links to the original sources if you want to download the information yourself.<\/p>\n

Let’s say you’re curious about which counties in the United States are prone to tornado strikes. A search of “tornado” in the Google Maps Gallery shows a map based on federal data showing tornado strikes, total property damage, injuries and deaths by county:<\/p>\n

\"tornado<\/p>\n

Wildcards in Google Maps<\/h2>\n

(Update: Google dropped this map feature, which is a bummer. It was extremely useful and I hope they bring it back.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Type an asterisk in the search bar of Google Maps and it will show you every business and significant, named place it knows about in the area you’re viewing.<\/p>\n

If you plan on using any of this information in a news story, you’ll want to take steps to confirm what you’re seeing in the map. But this is a really quick way to get a sense of what’s in the area.<\/p>\n

For example, if you’re writing about the Wolfson Building fire and want to get a quick idea of what businesses were nearby, in Google Maps, focus on the site on Commerce Street and try the wildcard search:<\/p>\n