[This article originally appeared in the July 25, 2002, issue of the Online Job Search Guide, Job-Hunt's free twice-a-month e-mailed newsletter.]

Related Articles : Using Google Alerts Google-izing Your Job Search Great Google Toolbar Tricks Finding Jobs on Employer Websites

The top search engine, Google, can be a powerful partner in your job search. You can use it to help you find find potential employers, research those employers (financial stability, competitors, etc.). Some of the ways that Google will work for you:

1. Searching the Web (the most obvious way to use Google)
   Type your search terms into the Google Toolbar (see more details on the Google Toolbar below) or Google homepage search bar if you aren't using the Toolbar, and hit the "Enter" key or click on the "Search Web" button. Google considers in-bound links pointing to a Web site as "votes" for the quality of the Web site - the greater the number of in-bound links, the higher the quality of the site. This usually means that Google's search results are more "relevant" to the search terms used, so a Google search is frequently a better quality search.
   
   Other ways to improve the quality of your search results:
   
   
• Use several different variations of your search terms to find the terms that return the best search results. Try searching with standard abbreviations as well as complete words (e.g. telecom and telecommunications). Also test both plural and singular (job and jobs)
  
  
• Change the order of the search terms used. Searching on "jobs california" (without the quotes) gives you different search results than "california jobs" (without the quotes).
  
  
• Enclose phrases inside quotation marks (e.g. "entry level jobs"), and Google will look for that exact phrase rather than the default search, which is to select Web pages that contain all of the words, regardless of proximity with each other.

For example, if you want to find a job in a bank in Florida, type the words "bank" and "florida" (without the quotes) into the search window, and click on the "Search Web" button in the Google Toolbar.

Note that you don't have to capitalize the word "Florida" And, you can modify the search results by substituting the USPS state code (FL) for the full state name.


2. Excluding some results
   If your Google search results have some entries mixed in that have nothing to do with what you are seeking, you can exclude many extraneous entries by excluding words used commonly on those pages you want to avoid.
   
   For example, if we continue with the Florida bank search, our first search results contains not only the financial institutions that we want, but also entries for fishing banks, blood banks, and food banks that we don't want (this time). How to exclude them? We expand our search terms by including words from the kind of sites we want to exclude (e.g. fish, blood, food, boat) but attaching a minus sign (-) to the front of each word. So "fish" becomes "-fish" and so on for all the terms to be excluded.
   
   Thus, our final Google search query looks like this (without the quotation marks) -
   
             "florida banks -fish -food -blood -boat"
   
   - and Google returns results that include pages that DO contain the words "florida" and "banks," but do NOT contain the words "fish," "food," "blood," or "boat."
   
   
3. Finding similar Web sites
   When you have identified a site that is providing the kind of information you want, Google provides you with a way to find similar sites:
   

   Similar Pages: Most Google search results entries also contain a link to "Similar Pages." Clicking on that link usually provides you with - surprise - similar Web sites.
   
   Using the Google Toolbar, you can find "similar pages" for any site you have in your browser. Just click on the Toolbar's "Page Info" link, and select "Similar Pages" from the drop down menu.
   

4. Searching inside a Web site (Google Toolbar function, see below)
   Google enables you to search WITHIN the Web pages of a Web site, as long as you have the home page of that site visible in your browser window and the Google Toolbar installed on your computer (see below).
   
   Type your search term into the Toolbar search window, and click on "Search Site" in the Toolbar. Google will search inside the pages of that Web site for your term.
   
   For example, to continue our banking example from above, let's assume that you have found the Web site of a bank that looks like a good employer to you. If you don't seen any obvious link for "Jobs" or "Careers" or something similar, type those terms (e.g. jobs, careers, etc.) into your Google Toolbar's search window and click on "Search SITE" rather than "Search WEB." Or, click on the Search Site button, above. Google will search for the words only within that specific Web site, and will show you the results of your search in a typical Google search results page.
   
   Want more ways the Google Toolbar can help you? Read Job-Hunt's Google Toolbar Tricks article.
   
   [Note: if a site is not included in Google's database of Web sites, and some sites are not included because they are new or are designed in such a way that Google cannot catalog the site's contents, then this search won't work because Google, like all search engines and directories, can only search through its own database of Web contents.]
   
   
5. The Google Phone Directory
   They called you, and you have an interview scheduled, but you don't know what the address is? If you have the phone number, you can usually find the name and address.
   
   Type the phone number, with Area Code, into the Google search bar, and hit the "Enter" key. The Google results will provide the address and name associated with the phone number unless it's a new or unlisted phone number. This is called "Reverse Lookup."
   
   [Note the privacy implications of this capability! If you think you are preserving your safety and/or anonymity by giving someone only your phone number, you are very mistaken. Your phone number is all that is needed to find your name and location.]
   
   Links to online maps of the location usually appear following the phone number results entry. Click on any of these links to find a map of the location associated with the phone number.
   
   
6. The Google Map Lookup
   You have the address, but you don't know how to get there. Type the complete address, (street, city, and state) into the Google serch bar, hit the "Enter" key, and Google's search results will contain a small map image. Click on the map to enlarge it. It can be adjusted to look very closely at each street or to look at the "big picture" of the whole area with only the major routes, like highways, identified.
   
   If Google has a photo image of the area available, a "Street View" option will be visible. See views of the buildings and streets by clicking on the "Street View" button
   
   
7. The Google Dictionary
   Is there a term in a job description or on the company's Web site that you don't understand? Type that word (or phrase) into Google's search window (or the Google Toolbar). If the word is misspelled, Google asks, "Did you mean...[the correctly spelled term]"
   
   Google's search results page will print the search terms in the blue bar ABOVE the list of Web sites results. Click on the word (it will be bolded and underlined), and Google will take you to a page with definitions of the word.

The Google Toolbar
If you use a Windows PC and the Internet Explorer browser (version 5.0 or above), download and install Google free Toolbar. It is VERY handy! You can search from any page of any Web site -- you don't need to be AT Google to search using Google.

(NOTE: Be sure that you read and agree with Google's Toolbar Privacy Policy before you install the toolbar!)

If you can't, or don't want to, install Google's toolbar, you can still do the research with Google. It will just be a little more awkward than with the Toolbar.

Please note - Google is a trademark of Google.com. NETability, Inc., owner of Job-Hunt.org, has no relationship with Google. Google has no relationship with Job-Hunt. We just like Google a lot, use the Toolbar constantly, and thought that we'd share some tips on using Google to make your job search easier.

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About the author...

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff "graduate" who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 1998, her company, NETability, Inc. purchased Job-Hunt.org, and Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt since then. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg.

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