Add Global Perspectives to your Google Search
When you are multilingual, you are used to the fact that news is being reported differently (from another point of view/perspective) in different countries. Before the Internet, you only knew this, when you were traveling between countries, spoke to friends or relatives on the phone, or were able to get you hands on old media (newspapers or magazines). Since the advent of the Internet and World Wide Web, we are finally able to connect to information and web sites without having to cross any geographic borders or time zones.
When news happens or when I am researching a specific topic, I always like to get more than one perspective. I make sure that I search for the topic in Google, Google.de (Google Germany) and Google.com.ar (Google Argentina).
Even if you are not a speaker of German or Spanish, you could use Google Translate to translate your keywords, search and then return to translate the search result links back into your language. If you are using Google Chrome, the translator can be directly activated within the browser.
Another way of finding sites about a topic, but filter out the results to come only from one specific country, is to search within that country’s domain extension.
Every country has it’s own domain extension. For example, sites from Germany have the “.de” extension. Sites from Mexico use the “.mx” extension. (List of country domain extension)
If you would like to search for keywords and only receive results that originate from that specific country (in English), then go to Google Advanced Search.
Enter the keywords (Ex. “Christopher Columbus”) and then enter the domain name extension in the “Search within a site or domain”. (Ex. “.mx”). The search results will be in English, but will only come from domain names originating in Mexico. How is that for different points of view compared to sites that might originate from “.es” (Spain)?
Give it a try. Give your Google searches a global perspective. Teach your students how to search with a global mind.
Silvia,
Thank you for sharing these country domains. In exploring culture, the most difficult aspect with my students is tackling perspectives (from the 3 Ps: Practices, Products, Perspectives; Adapted from ACTFL Model). These domain searches will make this concept of perspectives from different cultures more concrete for my students. I am always amazed (and grateful) at how technology connects us to the world.
Thank you for a very interesting articles. For us, Indonesian, we usually only search what we need in Google (.com) because most of us understand English better than any other languages around the world.
Will be there so much different perspectives toward certain news or something happen, if we compare those from Google.com and Google from other country?
Berita,
As a multilingual and multi-cultural person, I can’t stress enough that there is a significant difference how ONE event is being perceived by people with different cultural and language backgrounds. Do an experiment… Pick a news article about an event in Israel for example. Read an article from the USA reporting the event and then pick one from an Israeli newspaper then from an Egyptian newspaper. Finally see if there is an article about the same event in a newspaper originating from Venezuela (for example) ? What does the absence of a world news event in a country even say?
Ms. Tolisano,
My name is Deana Nunn. I am in Dr. Strange’s EDM310 class at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama, U.S. I really enjoyed reading your post. Dr. Strange has recently opened my eyes as to what Google can do, but I had no idea that Google could provide articles from other countries, that originated in those countries. I assumed that there could be a way to get them, but Google has made it so easy. I am also taking Anthropology 100 this semester, so I have also learned the importance of considering another country’s perspective. What a great tool! Google has so much to offer. Now I can add this to the list of wonderful things Google can be used for.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I’ll be following your blog, and I appreciate all of the hard work that you put into it.
Deana Nunn
@deananunn
Deana,
I am glad the post was useful to you. Google is so much more than meets the eye initially. I am glad that the importance of globally connected learning and perspective is shining through in your college classes. Once you are in the classroom, your students will rely on you to bring the world to them.
This is an important post. Not only do our students need to experience world perspectives on events, but they need to become aware of issues that affect other countries that don’t get reported at all or are things our American students never experience. Also, they need to learn How the world perceives us so that they can become better global citizens. Finally, they need to interact with maps, ads, and other common products in that culture or society to better experience and understand that culture.