KEYWORD SEARCHING

Why has the Google search box disappeared from Chemguide's front page?

The Google search box suddenly started giving problems outside my control. Even if the current problem is solved, it could obviously occur again in the future. I hate things not working properly or being unreliable, and so I have simply removed the search box to get rid of the problem.

How do I do a keyword search without the Google search box on Chemguide?

You can actually do this from Google itself, by going directly to the Google website, or by using the Google search box on your browser toolbar. Not all browsers have this, of course.

Enter your search in the following format:

your keywords site:chemguide.co.uk

For example, to search Chemguide for the reaction between benzene and nitric acid, you would type:

benzene nitric acid site:chemguide.co.uk

Take care to use a colon (:), but no spaces, between the word "site" and "chemguide.co.uk".

In other words, type in your keywords as usual, but add the extra term site:chemguide.co.uk

This is a standard Google format, and you can use it to do a keyword search on any site.

Is it better to use a keyword search or the Chemguide menu system?

It depends how good you are at keyword searching. Unless you can define exactly what you want in terms of keywords, you are going to get a huge list of results, even from within Chemguide.

Unless you want a specific small bit of information, you may well find what you want faster using the menus, especially once you get used to them.