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University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

A Student Researcher's Guide to Google Searching: Search Tools for Comm. and Media

Journalism

- Using the cache (cache:[url]) search function can sometimes yield invaluable results, especially if you believe a webpage has been taken down or altered in an attempt to delete or conceal information. The Wayback Machine can also view old version of websites, though these are updated with much less frequency than Google's cache.

- As it was mentioned in the Useful Google Tools section of this Libguide, Google's News Archive Search can be a powerful tool that can customize the information you receive in a search. While the University's newspaper databases such as Proquest Historical Newspapers and LexisNexis Academic should be your starting point when looking for archived newspapers, Google's News Archive Search is a good option for more recent content, or for content appearing on online news websites.

- Google's Public Data Explorer, as it was mentioned in the Useful Google Tools section, can be a big asset if you're looking for numbers to support a claim. This tool might be a good place to check first if you're looking for a statistic since it both aggregates data and give source information.

Communication

- Many of the tools that can be used overlap with the tools that can be used for other disciplines. Be sure to make good use of Google Scholar and Google Books. Google Cinema can also be helpful for research involving film.

- Sentiment Analysis -- Sentiment analysis is the process of identifying the attitude or tenor of a piece of text--i.e., by saying of a bit of text is "positive" or "negative". While creating a sentiment analysis model is an advanced process that takes time, the link at the beginning of this section provides a walkthrough for this worthwhile process.

Advertising

- It's no secret that most of Google's revenue is generated from advertising. If you're trying to get an idea of how advertising through Google works, here are three places to start:

1) Google AdSense -- With AdSense, owners of webpages earn money by allowing companies to advertise on their webpages. Ads are customized to fit a website's site-content and audience.

2) Google Adwords -- The opposite of AdSense and Google's main source of revenue. With Adwords, companies pay Google to advertise on results pages of searches and on webpages.

3) DoubleClick -- A Google subsidiary which manages advertising and provides tools for improving ads.

- Google Analytics -- A Google tool that tracks how users interact with webpages. This tool can be used to analyze the success of ads on a page and can be linked to AdSense and AdWords.

- Google Consumer Surveys and Think with Google -- Google Consumer Surveys is a handy tool that can be used to easily create consumer surveys. Think with Google provides, among other resources, facts and statistics, insight into markets, and industry research.

Media and Cinema Studies

- While not the greatest research tool, Google Cinema pulls data mainly from IMDB and Youtube. This can be useful if you're looking for film clips, film trailers, or are trying to see if a public domain film is available to stream.

- Many of the tools that can be used overlap with the tools that can be used for other disciplines. Be sure to make good use of Google Scholar and Google Books.

Subject Guide

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