Google Scholar - tips & tricks

Gone are the days of searching dusty archives for those rare articles and special reference materials in the back room of a library. Google scholar now is the format for academic research. Google itself was an excellent tool for research for general study and fun, but google scholar actually takes it to the next level with a setup that is specifically geared for legal searches, patent searches and other industry unique articles and periodicals.
Research for a master or doctoral thesis used to require trips to libraries across the country looking for rare information or subscription to expensive journals in order to dig through and find one or two articles. Google scholar puts at your finger tips the ability to search for these small tidbits of specialized information in one location without leaving the comfort of your laptop keyboard.
The ability to search by author and restrict the dates allows you so search any of the disciplines that might interest you for the most abstract details of a minute area of study. The advanced search options should allow you to set parameters and narrow your search within google scholar for the most precise search to find the information that perhaps no one else would be interested but is crucial to the completion of your research.
In some ways this seems more like the original intent of the founders of the internet. I don't think they intended the web to become a place of entertainment and adult images, but rather they envisioned a place where serious scholars would be able to share their resources and have access to each others research and reports. Google has advanced the process in a way by going back to the roots of the internet. My specific graduate degree was very narrow and I am sure in the medical and legal fields that google scholar has capabilities and capacities that I do not have a grasp on and would not be able to explain.
If you are a professional and are doing continuing education or research, google scholar will become better and better like all of the google family of products. If you participate by allowing your research results and theses to be indexed by google scholar the next generation of scholars and academia will stand on your shoulders and the whole world will be a better place.