Some Great Google Tips

Kevin, MD posted some great tips for using google to search through the medical literature. I wanted to post a few of my own.

1. Use Google Scholar (scholar.google.com). I use this all the time. It searches specifically for "scholarly" hits. In fact it appears to incorporate pubmed into its search routine as many pubmed references come up. However, unlike pubmed, it appears to order its results by relevance rather than chronologically. In fact, each citation includes a hyperlink to a search of references that themselves cite that citation.
   
   To see what I mean, do a Google Scholar search on a particular topic. Then check the lower left hand part of each reference. Click on the hyperlink there and you'll see what I mean.
   


2. Do conventional searches with Google but include the search term "differential". That word rarely if ever appears in the layperson's lexicon. This effectively filters out the vast majority of layperson's websites and focuses your search on more technical references.
   
   For example, Googling on fibromyalgia will yield some 1,510,000 references most of which are probably the inevitable fibromyalgia support groups. Throw "differential" into the search and it miraculously cuts your results down to 71,900 generally academic citations.
   


3. Use Google to search for images. Go to the main Google search page and type in your search terms. Just above the text box, there is a short list of hyperlinks. Click the one labeled "Images". Then click the "Search Images" button. The references that come up will all be images. This is great for seeing what specific diseases and anatomy look like (also for finding pictures of your colleagues).
   


4. Get the book Google Hacks. Many of the tricks described are advanced and require programming skill. However, many are quite straightforward and practical even for the technologically-challenged.

I hope this helps!