Reference Librarian, McMaster University
Wednesday, March 3, 2004

contact: amanda at etches-johnson dot com
presentation URL: http://www.etches-johnson.com/present/solos2004/
handout URL: http://www.etches-johnson.com/present/solos2004/handout.html

• Search shortcuts to get you the info you need faster.
• Google: conversions, calculator, definitions, etc.
• View the complete list of Google search features at http://www.google.com/help/features.html
• Synonym searching: ~ (tilde) in front of a word will search for that word and synonyms. E.g.: ~dietary captures dietary, nutrition, etc.
• Yahoo! also getting up to speed with search features. Complete list at http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/tips/tips-01.html

• We're in the golden age of search toolbars!
• Google released the latest version of their toolbar a few months ago. Features include a pop-up blocker, form auto-fill function, current site search, highlight search terms, etc.
• Dogpile's metasearch toolbar has won various awards. With Dogpile, you choose which search engines to retrieve results from.

• Takes the search function out of the browser and puts it on the desktop.
• Google & Hotbot are most widely used.
• ctrl+alt+g accesses your deskbar (particularly useful for when the Windows toolbar is set to "Auto hide").
• Results appear in a pop-up window so you might never have to use your browser again!
• Can use all the search timesavers listed above in the toolbars and deskbars as well. Particularly useful for quick information hits, such as definitions, conversion, etc.

• Handy for those who spend a lot of time in their browsers.
• Bits of Javascript code that are saved in Bookmarks or Favourites for one-click access.
• Right click the following links and select "Add to favourites" (in IE, add them to your "Links" toolbar for easy acess):
  • Search tools: Google, dictionary, thesaurus, acronyms, etc.
  • Page tools: e-mail links, page freshness, display images, etc.
• Two comprehensive sources of bookmarklets are bookmarklets.com and Jesse's Bookmarklets Site
• A couple of things to remember: bookmarklets often don't work on framed pages. Also, depending on your security settings, you might see a notice warning "you are adding a link that may not be safe." No need for concern here, since you are adding a javascript program, this message is a default warning.