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Understanding the Search Results Page

Written by: The Tutor
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< Google Manual

The search results page lists your results by relevance, with each underlined item linked to the associated page.

Search results page

Image from Google Help Center

We’ll describe the various parts of the Search Results Page here:

(A) Top links: Lists the links for the Google search services you want to use.

(B) Google search button: After entering any search criteria in the search field, you’ll click this button or simply hit the enter key.

(C) Advanced search: Click this link to bring up a fill-in form to perform an Advanced Search with many options.

(D) Search field: This is where you had keyed the search criteria.

(E) Preferences: Link to the Preferences Page from which you can set personal search preferences such as your language, filtering, number of search results per page and more.

(F) Statistics bar: This tells you the how many results the search found, the search criteria and a link to a definition if it is in the associated dictionary/encyclopedia with whom Google has partnered.

(G) Tip: There may or may not be a tip for searching more efficiently.

(H) OneBox results: Google’s search technology finds many sources of specialized information. Those that are most relevant to your search are included at the top of your search results. Typical onebox results include news, stock quotes, weather and local websites related to your search.

(I) Page title: Title of the web page listed. If the page has no title or has not yet been indexed by Google, it will show the URL.

(J) Text below the title: This snippet is an excerpt from the result page, with your query terms bolded. If Google has expanded the range of your search using stemming technology, the variations will also be bolded. If not yet indexed, there will be no snippet.

(K) URL of result: Web address of the returned result.

(L) Size: The size of the text portion of the web page. The size gives you an idea of how long it will take to load. Pages not yet indexed by Google will not show a size.

(M) Cached: Sometimes a page will not load due to either a server problem or a page that no longer exists. However, Google stores the last indexed version of the page in cache. Clicking on this link will show the cached page.

(N) Similar pages: When you select the Similar Pages link for a particular result, Google automatically scouts the Web for pages that are related to this result.

(O) Indented result: When Google finds multiple results from the same website, the most relevant result is listed first, with other relevant pages from that site indented below it.

(P) More results: If more than two results are found from the same site, the remaining results can be accessed by clicking on the “More results from…” link.

< Previous: Introduction | Next: Setting Your Preferences >

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4 Responses to “Understanding the Search Results Page”

  1. # Graceon 09 Jan 2008 at 11:50 pm

    This page was very helpful for me.

  2. # kellyon 13 Jan 2008 at 3:52 pm

    wow! i learned some interesting things about Google that I never knew before! Proved helpful.

  3. # zachon 13 Jan 2008 at 4:03 pm

    Google is very useful i am glad to know a bit more so i can better use this amazing resource

  4. # nameon 02 Mar 2009 at 7:29 pm

    It’s very interesting for me =)

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