Google Master Class: Improve Your Online Search Skills in 8 Weeks

Praise for this Class

“I loved taking this course. It was so well laid out, with plenty of information to help with my research. The content and assignments made me dig deep for back stories.”

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• The basic guidelines for successful searching—including Google’s limitations
• How to identify historical books and articles about your family and view them online (or offline)
• Techniques to refine your searches and ferret out irrelevant results
• How to automate your Google searches so the search engine finds new information for you
• Techniques to deal with challenging surname searches and other genealogy search dilemmas
• How to use Gmail to become a more efficient researcher
• How to use Google’s translation tools for overseas research

WHO SHOULD TAKE THIS COURSE

• People who are familiar with Google but want to deepen their knowledge and hone their skills
• Researchers who would like to gain confidence in navigating the web
• Genealogists looking to save time in their Google searching

WHAT YOU’LL NEED: REQUIREMENTS & SUPPLIES

• A free Google account
• This course assumes you understand the basic principles of genealogy and have done some investigation into your family history. If you are a total beginner, consider taking the Discover Your Family Tree course before enrolling in this class.
• Students should have a basic understanding of how to use their computer and the web. If you’re new to the web, consider taking our Computer Boot Camp class first.

Outline

A. Basic Search

B. Incorporating Operators

C. Advanced Search Strategies

D. Keys to success

E. Quiz

A. Search Options Column

I. What the Search Options Column can do 

II. Switch up your view

III. What’s not in the Search Options Column

B. Google Alerts

I. Creating Google Alerts

II. Editing your Google Alerts

III. Alerts That Will Further Your Research

C. Keys to success

D. Exercise

E. Quiz

A. Google Site Search

I. Site Search Syntax

B. Bringing Websites Back From the Dead

C. Keys to Success

D. Exercise

E. Quiz

A. Images Search

I. Conducting an Image Search

II. Conducting an Advanced Image Search

B. Pictures From the Past

I. How to Retrieve an Image That Is No Longer Available

C. Similar Images Search

D. Looking to the Future

E. Keys to Success

F. Exercise

A. Overview of Google News Archive

I. Types of content

B. The Timeline feature

C. Sample search

I. Basic family history themed search

II. Incorporating the timeline into the search

D.  Advanced archive search

E. Keys to success

F. Exercise

A. Overview of Google Books

I. Types of book content

II. Accessing content

B. Sample search

I. Advanced search

II. Viewing books

III. Search within the book

C. Keys to success

D. Exercise

A. Overview of YouTube

I. Concentrating on the search

II. Playlists 

III. Favorites

IV. Video sharing

B. Sample search

C. Keys to success

D. Quiz

A. Overview of Google Earth

B. Locating ancestral homes and locations

C. Historical imagery and map overlays

D. Photos

E. The power of street view

F. Family history tour maps

G. Keys to success

H. Exercise

A. Introduction

B. The new Caffeine indexing system

C. Gmail 

D. Quiz

A. Introduction

B. Challenge #1: Too many low-quality results

I. Advanced Search 

C. Challenge #2: Last names that are common words or shared by famous people

I. Using Operators

II. Searching Within Results

D. More challenges and strategies

E. Quiz

A. iGoogle: Your personal genealogy homepage

I. Everything you need to know, step-by-step

II. Adding genealogy gadgets

III. Google gadgets and other gadgets

IV. Organization and layout

V. Adding Tabs

B. Exercise

A. Google Translate

B. Google Translation Toolkit

C. Google Script Converter 

D. Tips for trip planning

E. Quiz