Resources For Journalists: Tips From Google

At the recent AAJA conference in Los Angeles, a few members of Google's communications team held impromptu presentations on how Google can help journalists, beyond the basic searches, email and directions we all use it for. Here are a few lesser-known tools that might make your information-gathering and research easier, faster and more targeted.

Smarter Searches

• Site searches:
  Looking for keyword references on a particular site? For example, do you want to find all the mentions of "journalists" on the Marketwire site? If so, use this format: journalists site: . The results will provide those pages within that site that include the word "journalists."

• US government searches:
  Google has a specific search function that searches across governmental websites. Go to: www.google.com/unclesam and type in your keyword.

• Academic searches: If you're looking for an impartial expert in a certain field, Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com) can help you locate sources or academic articles.

Trends and Insights

• Public Data Explorer:
  Google provides links to datasets that can help you visualize complicated statistics. Go to: www.google.com/publicdata.

• Trends:
  Google Trends (www.google.com/trends) shows you the hottest search terms and topics that are trending in the US, which can help journalists optimize their articles for their audiences and identify news behind those searches.

• Insights for Search Although the future is hard to predict, Google's Insights for Search (www.google.com/insights/search) can make it easier. You can compare search terms, locations and time ranges and apply different filters to determine what's trending.

YouTube Do's and Don'ts

• Mid-video:
  When forwarding YouTube video links, help people cut to the chase. Note the timestamp of the part you want them to see and paste it at the end of the link. Use the following code, replacing the minute and second with the timestamp in your video: #t=0m29s. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXIi-Hqy1kk/#t=1m31s.

• Contacting users:
  No, Google won't release that information. The best you can do is to create an account for yourself and read users' profiles. Sorry--privacy issue.

• Using content on air:
  Google's only stipulation for using YouTube content is to credit both YouTube and the user who posted the video.

Google News
There are various ways to keep up with what Google's doing and how it's moving and shaking the worlds of business and journalism:

• Google Blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com
• Google on Twitter: www.twitter.com/google
• Press Center: www.google.com/press

These tips and links only cover a few of the helpful Google resources that journalists can take advantage of. Dozens more can be found at http://www.google.com/options/. For a recap of the conference, visit the Marketwire blog.