Google is the
world’s largest search engine . With it, you can find almost any information. That’s
a double-edged sword. It takes skill to use this tool properly. You don’t want
to waste hours and hours sifting through search results, looking for the
specific information and webmaster tools you need. With skilled searching, you’ll be able to
quickly find what you need and thereby speed up your learning. Are you making
the most of this GOOGLY resource ?
The best search habits and making some improvements.
TIP #1: Use Multiple
Keywords You can immediately start getting better search results if you use
multiple keywords. If you’re interested in finding great cat videos, don’t just
search for “cat.” Make a quick list of related words: cat, kitty, video, funny.
Now, don’t go writing out an entire sentence. Don’t write “I want to see funny
cat videos, please.” You’re not asking a person - you’re sending a query to a
search engine. You have to think like Google thinks. And Google thinks in terms
of tags. Keywords. Classifiers.
TIP #2: Use
quotation marks If you’re looking for something specific you’ve seen before, and
you remember an exact phrase involved - USE that specific phrase. Put it in
quotation marks. That way, Google will search for that exact string, rather
than breaking it up into individual words. So if you search for “I am Maru,” in
quotes, you will find that very specific cat you’re looking for, out of all the
millions of adorable kitties. Need to find that song you just heard on the
radio? Search for a little bit of the lyrics, IN QUOTES, and you’ll find it. This
tip is also especially helpful if you’re searching for a concept that’s easily
confused with something else, or shares some of the same words. If you find
you’re not getting back the results you need, try including quotes. For
example, searching for “heavy metal chemistry” in quotes will give you that exact
phrase back, but if you leave the words separate, you might get some heavy
metal bands mixed in. Searching with quotation marks also works great for
names. You’ll have a much better chance of finding information about a person
if you put their entire name in quotes - otherwise, you’re actually searching
for the parts of the name separately, and all the combinations of those terms.
TIP #3: Use the -
minus operator ( to exclude) For example, Washington minus-DC if you just want
search results about the state, and you want to exclude all the results about
that ...OTHER Washington. Make sure the minus
sign is right next to the word you want to exclude. You can also exclude a
phrase by putting it in quotes. Quotes are the best.
TIP #4: Use the OR
operator This is for when a couple different things would do the trick, and
you’d be happy with either. Google lets you search for them both at the same
time using this operator. “Apple pie
recipe” OR “pecan pie recipe” will return results for both of these delightful
desserts. You can get the same results with a vertical bar.
TIP #5: Use ..the
number range operator. What if you want to buy a car, but you only have $1000
dollars. And someone told you you really need to spend at least $500 to get a
decent used car. You can search for “used car” $500 dot-dot $1000. This works
great for dates, too. Music 1941 dot-dot 1945 gets you some very fine tunes.
TIP #6: Use the
site: operator. This one is a real powerhouse searching tip. If you’re looking
for great astronomy photos, you don’t want pictures of aliens from the History
Channel. Go straight to the source, and search NASA directly. Type in site
colon NASA dot gov horsehead nebula. You won’t be sorry.
TIP #7: Use define:
Not sure about what a word means? You don’t have to haul out the dictionary, or
even go to a dictionary website. Type in define, colon, and then your word. Google
will return a definition, as well as the derivation, and even a timeline of how
commonly this word has been used.
TIP #8: Use the
around operator. This is a way to find articles that contains two terms, which
are not necessarily right next to each other in a sentence.
For instance, “Jane
Austen” AROUND(10) “Bath”. This would let you find articles about Jane Austen,
having to do with the time she spent in Bath,England or wrote about Bath. The
word Bath will appear within 10 words of the phrase “Jane Austen.” Note that
this operator is really picky about quotes and spacing. Both search terms have
to be in quotes, and the number is in parentheses, with no spaces. But this
operator returns GREAT search results.
TIP #9: Use the wildcard operator (an
asterisk).
This is another
great one to use to find songs, or other things you can’t quite remember. Minnie
the asterisk? Minnie the Moocher. Here, Google will fill in the blank for you! This
is actually a pretty fun game to play if you’re bored. Google largest asterisk
in the world ,Oldest asterisk ,Tallest asterisk.
TIP #10: Use the
filetype operator. You can use this operator to tell Google to only return
certain types of files: Pdfs, jpegs, powerpoints...What if you want an audio
recording of your favourite poem, and not a written page. Search “The Raven”
followed by filetype mp3. NEVERMORE will you be troubled with bad search
results .
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