Introduction

The Internet is a great resource. It provides access to businesses, news and sports articles, shopping, and lots of interesting facts about all sorts of topics. To find this information will often require you to perform a search.

To search the Internet requires you to use a search engine. And one of the most popular search engines is Google. In fact, Google has become so synonymous with searching the web that the word "google" is now a verb with terms like "google it", "keep googling", and "have you googled her yet" - all recognisable phrases associated with searching the web.

Below you will find instructions on how you may use the Google search engine with your browser, and review the accompanying results.

Tip: Other search engines are available including Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and many more. Each search engine applies its own algorithms to optimise its search capabilities, has its own policies for use, and shows its results in its own webpage layout.

Getting ready

You will require two browser windows open; one to read the instructions on this webpage and a second to perform the recommended steps.

To open a second browser window: Press CONTROL + N.

And, to switch between the open browser windows: Press ALT + TAB.

If you are unfamiliar with switching between open application windows, then spend a couple of minutes switching back and forth to ensure you are comfortable with the process.

It is important to ensure you are comfortable performing this task before proceeding.

Performing a search

In this exercise, you’ll be taking advantage of the browser’s address bar to perform a search. Using the address bar means you do not need to return to the Google webpage each time you want to perform a search. Instead you just need to go to the Address bar, enter your search query and away you go again.

To perform a search, please read the following instructions and then switch to your second window to carry them out. Once done, switch back to this page to learn about ways you can navigate the search results webpage.

To perform a search using the Address bar:

1. Press ALT + D (or CONTROL + L) to move focus to the Address bar.
2. Type "chocolate cake recipe" and press ENTER.

In a fraction of a second, your search results appear on a new Google webpage. Once this page loads, the Dolphin Cursor turns on and is positioned at the top of the page ready for you to review the webpage content.

If the search results are presented using a different search engine, and you would like to switch to Google, then one quick way to make this change is to do the following:

• In Google Chrome, go to the address bar, type " chrome://settings/searchEngines" (without the quotes), select the "More actions" button beside your search engine, and choose "Make default".
• In Microsoft Edge, go to the address bar, type "edge://settings/search" (without the quotes), select the "More actions" button beside your search engine, and choose "Make default".
• In Mozilla Firefox, go to the address bar, type "about:preferences#search" (without the quotes), and select your preference from the "Default Search Engine" list box.

How to review your results webpage?

In these help pages you have learnt ways you can navigate a webpage using the Dolphin Cursor. Often the best method to adopt depends upon the way the webpage is structured, and it is often only through a bit of trial and error that a suitable approach can become recognisable.

It is also important to remember that websites can change overnight making step-by-step instructions difficult to provide. For example, Google could launch a new website tomorrow, making any instructions today obsolete. For this reason it is important to remain open and dynamic in your approach towards browsing webpages with the Dolphin Cursor.

This means the question is really…

"Can you find an approach that enables you to navigate the Google search results webpage in a way you consider effective with the Dolphin Cursor?"

If you are not sure, then the following tips may be of help:

• Google makes extensive use of Headings on its results webpage. You will often find main sections are marked at Heading level 1, subsections at Heading level 2 and results at Heading level 3. This enables you to use H, 1, 2 and 3 Quick Navigation Keys to move the Dolphin Cursor through the webpage.
• Google makes use of ARIA Landmarks, using Search, Navigation, Main and Content regions to split up its results webpage. This enables you to use the SEMI COLON Quick Navigation Key to move the Dolphin Cursor through the webpage.
• Google provides consistent heading text on its search results webpage, which enables you to use the Dolphin Cursor F3 Find option to search for the text you require on the webpage, for example, a search for "Web results" will jump you to this text on the webpage. Also, remember you can also use F2 to find a previous match and F4 to find the next match of your search term.
• The SuperNova and Dolphin ScreenReader Item Finder enables you to view, select and navigate to parts of a webpage. You can view a list of Headings on the webpage, list of ARIA Landmarks and list of Links in an easy to navigate form. You can open the Item Finder by pressing CAPS LOCK + TAB.

The above suggestions give alternative ways to quickly navigate the Dolphin Cursor through the webpage to help you more quickly reach the section you require. But, for some that can be disorientating so please remember there is also simply using the Arrow Keys to move the Dolphin Cursor through the webpage line-by-line. The approach you choose should be one that works for you.

Summary

In this section you learnt how to perform a search using your browser’s address bar and the different methods you can adopt to review the resulting webpage.

Quiz

1. To perform a search using the Google search engine, requires you to first go to www.google.com. Is this statement true?
2. You can press CONTROL + L to move focus to the address bar. Is this statement true?
3. You should review the results of a web search using the method you feel appropriate and The Google’s search results webpage offers good accessibility, enabling you to navigate by headings to view the results of your search. Is this statement true?

End of section

Select the link below to continue to the next section.

To revisit a previous section, please scroll to the top of this page and choose the section from the Available Content menu.

But before you move on, here are the answers to the quiz questions:

1. False.
2. True.
3. True.