Navigating and getting library links in Google Scholar

Google Scholar is really useful, but I hate the so-called "advanced" search interface, I cannot combine my searches and thus use any intricate search strings in Google Scholar to try and filter through the immense amounts of information out there systematically and not just by whatever happened to be on the first two screens...

But the powers that be at Google Scholar have at least made some of the interface easier to navigate by introducing the drawer as an eased access to various features. The drawer contains the settings, which is handy for getting your library links. The library links is what lets you go directly through the pay-wall to the full text via your Hull, York login (for those items one or both university libraries have bought access to).

Go to the drawer top left (three horizontal bars left of the colourful "Google Scholar"), go to settings (the cog-wheel now visible to the right of the ever colourful Google Scholar), click Library links, search for University of York and University of Hull, tick them and click "save". Lo and behold you should now have blue links appear to the right of some of your search hits in Google Scholar saying something boring but useful like "Full Text @ York" or "Find@Hull". Tadaaaa....

But don't forget all the wonderful paid for search resources where you can refine your search results to get fewer, more useful hits ;)

Google drops synonym search

The synonym search functionality on Google has disappeared. Previously, it was possible to carry out a synonym search using the tilde"~" character. Prefixing a word with ~ would automatiaclly include alternative terms in the search. For more information and opinion about this, see Phil Bradley's blog entry, and Google's explanation of why this search function has been lost.

How to remove your Google web history

Ahead of the March 1, 2012 Google privacy policy changes, users of Google accounts may want to consult the article on how to remove your Google web history at https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/how-remove-your-google-search-history-googles-new-privacy-policy-takes-effect, though it is worth noting that you may find that the instructions do not work quite as the article suggests.