Google advanced search gets query preview
Shortly after we talked about Google’s advanced search interface, someone in class pointed out that Google had changed their advanced search interface. I was re-visited their advanced search tonight and noticed that it now also shows you how your query would be formatted using Google’s syntax. This seems like a fabulous UI tool for teaching people how to construct better queries. For example, if you type ‘School of information’ in the “this exact wording or phrase” box, it shows that term in quotation marks in your query preview. Through observation, people can then recognize that quotation marks indicate exact phrases. The interface also teaches you how to specify the file type of results and how to restrict your search to a specific site.
Google Advanced Search
Not all elements of advanced search are represented in the search box itself, so the product isn’t making itself dispensable, but the interface does make it much easier to learn some of Google’s tricks. I learned that you can search for a range of numbers with “\d..\d”. The first result for ‘cars $500..$1000′ find $690.