Chances are, you already know these Google tricks, in which case, it is always good to be reminded what they are and how they work. If you don’t know these tricks, as the title suggests, you HAVE TO know about them by now as they will improve the effectiveness of your searches on Google (and just about all other search engines!) exponentially.
BTW, these are basic search options that I use on a daily basis. If you learn them your searches will be more effective because:
- Instead of doing 5 searches with 5 different keywords, you are likely to find your answer in the first search, thereby saving you time and effort
- At times, you simply can not zone into the correct combination of keywords to get what you are looking for, chances are you need to apply some basic operators to open the right door, read on !
- At times, you simply do not know how to include all the possible keyword synonyms in your search so that you are not missing out on your results, well, you don’t have to!
This is normally the class 1 of any Search 101 classes, and I believe probably solve 50% of search deficiencies experienced by inexperienced searchers. Lets say you are looking for content about Stock Valuation. Instead of just typing Stock Valuation 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: “Stock Valuation”
Lets say you want to search for content about Stock Valuation, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term broker. To do this, simply use the “-” sign in front of the word you want to exclude.Example Search: “Stock Valuation” -broker
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: “Stock Valuation” site:www.nytimes.com
It is often recognised that the Google search engine is far superior than the one provided on Wikipedia, and you can use this option run search against the Wikipedia database by doing searches on Google
Example: “Stock Valuation” site:www.wikipedia.com
Not only will it return your the best match on Wikipedia (in this case, the term “Stock Valuation”, it will also return all related terms on Wikipedia.
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: “Stock Valuation” ~Academic
Did you know you can limit your Google search results to a specific file type? This is useful when you know what you are looking for is likely to be found in a PDF document or PowerPoint Presentation. You can do this with use the modifier “filetype:”. For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to Stock Valuation.Example: “Stock Valuation” filetype:ppt
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: “Stock Valuation” OR “Pricing”
What do you think ? Do agree that these are the 6 most useful Google search operators ?
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Nice! Always good to be reminded of such things, as well as learn a few more. I didn’t know about the “tilde” support. Very cool. Thanks Felix!
this is nice, thanks for sharing. I usually do only exact phrase or words search
thanks for sharing, will come back more.
My Google searches only track down internet/online subjects. How can I also search for prior Hotmail messages I have sent? (So I don’t have to scroll the menu of in/out messages.)
The advanced version of Hotmail provides a search box that allows you to search for all of your emails including sent ones ! Try it out !
The site specific search has done wonders for me. If you are into researching specific niches or competition you can use the site: tag and use sites like Ezine Article or other article directories to find the latest articles published and they will give you a solid reference.
Absolutely! I also find the site specific operator one of the most powerful and useful. I’ve never used it in combination with sites such as Ezine, but will definitely be checking it out next time, thanks for the tip!
nice, usefull, keep share.. thanks