How to search Google like an expert
I use the Google search engine numerous times a day. In my opinion it is the best search engine out there, always finding what you are looking for in no time. But the web is truly like a jungle and sometimes it can be hard to find the information you are looking for immediately. Here are some basic tips to help you maximize the effectiveness of your search:
- Explicit Phrase: Lets say you are looking for content about internet marketing. Instead of just typing internet marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase. To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.
Example: “internet marketing”
- Exclude Words: Lets say you want to search for content about internet marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising. To do this, simply use the “-“ sign in front of the word you want to exclude.
Example Search: internet marketing -advertising
- Site Specific Search: Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase. Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the “site:somesite.com” modifier.
Example: “internet marketing” site:www.smallbusinesshub.com
- Similar Words and Synonyms: Let’s say you are want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms. To do this, use the “~” in front of the word.
Example: “internet marketing” ~professional
- Specific Document Types: If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier “filetype:”. For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to internet marketing.
Example: “internet marketing” filetype:ppt
- This OR That: By default, when you do a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search. If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator. (Note: The OR has to be capitalized).
Example: internet marketing OR advertising
- Domain Search: You can use Google to search only within one specific website by entering the search terms you’re looking for, followed by the word “site” and a colon followed by the domain name. For example, here’s how you’d find admission information on the Stanford University site:
Example: admission site:stanford.edu
- Fill in the blanks “*” search: Sometimes the best way to ask a question is to get Google to ‘fill in the blank’ for you. You can do this by adding an asterisk “*” in the part of the sentence or question that you want filled in. For example, here’s how you’d search for who invented the parachute:
Example: the parachute was invented by *
- Numeric Ranges: This is a rarely used, but highly useful tip. Let’s say you want to find results that contain any of a range of numbers. You can do this by using the X..Y modifier (in case this is hard to read, what’s between the X and Y are two periods. This type of search is useful for years (as shown below), prices or anywhere where you want to provide a series of numbers.
Example: president 1940..1950
- Stock (Ticker Symbol): Just enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumb-nail chart for the stock.
Example: GOOG
- Calculator: The next time you need to do a quick calculation, instead of bringing up the Calculator applet, you can just type your expression in to Google.
Example: 48512 * 1.02
- Word Definitions: If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the “define:” command.
Example: define:plethora
Hope you found some of these tips useful, and that it will help you on your search. It sure helped me. Now, all I am waiting for is for Google to come into my house and my real life helping me find all lost items, like where is the blue pants of my husband, where did my son leave his bottle and where the hell did I leave my Parker pen?!
Source: google.com and smallbusinesshub.com
2 comments June 29th, 2007