Google is a powerful tool that can help you find almost anything you’re looking for on the internet. But with billions of web pages, images, and documents available, it’s important to know how to search effectively to get the best results.
Here are some tips and tricks for searching on Google smartly:
- Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase: If you want to search for a specific phrase, enclose it in quotation marks. For example, searching for “chocolate chip cookies” will only return results that contain that exact phrase, rather than results that contain the words “chocolate,” “chip,” and “cookies” separately.
- Use a minus sign to exclude certain words: If you want to exclude certain words from your search, use a minus sign (-) before the word. For example, searching for “chocolate chip cookies -peanut butter” will return results that contain the phrase “chocolate chip cookies,” but exclude results that contain the word “peanut butter.”
- Use the OR operator to search for multiple terms: If you want to search for multiple terms, use the OR operator (written in all caps) between them. For example, searching for “chocolate OR vanilla” will return results that contain either “chocolate” or “vanilla,” or both.
- Use the asterisk () as a wildcard: If you’re not sure of a word in a phrase, you can use an asterisk () as a wildcard. For example, searching for “the * is a powerful tool” will return results that contain the phrase “the X is a powerful tool,” where X can be any word.
- Use the site: operator to search within a specific website: If you want to search for something within a specific website, use the site: operator followed by the website’s domain. For example, searching for “chocolate chip cookies site:allrecipes.com” will return results for “chocolate chip cookies” that are only from the Allrecipes.com website.
- Use the filetype: operator to search for specific file types: If you want to search for a specific type of file, such as a PDF or PowerPoint, use the filetype: operator followed by the file extension. For example, searching for “presentation filetype:ppt” will return results that are PowerPoint presentations.
- Use the intext: operator to search for specific words within a page’s text: If you want to search for a specific word or phrase within the text of a webpage, use the intext: operator followed by the word or phrase. For example, searching for “intext:chocolate chip cookies” will return results that contain the phrase “chocolate chip cookies” within the text of the page, rather than just in the page’s title or URL.
- Use the inurl: operator to search for specific words within a page’s URL: If you want to search for a specific word or phrase within a webpage’s URL, use the inurl: operator followed by the word or phrase. For example, searching for “inurl:chocolate chip cookies” will return results that contain the phrase “chocolate chip cookies” within the URL of the page.
- Use the inanchor: operator to search for specific words within a page’s anchor text: If you want to search for a specific word or phrase within the anchor text of a webpage (the text that is used to link to another page), use the inanchor: operator followed by the word or phrase. For example, searching for “inanchor:chocolate chip cookies” will return results that contain the phrase “chocolate chip cookies” within the anchor text of the page.
- Use Google’s Advanced Search page: If you want to specify more advanced search criteria, such as the language of the page or the date it was last updated, you can use Google’s Advanced Search page. To access it, click on the “Settings” gear icon in the top right corner of the search results page and select “Advanced search.”
By following these tips and tricks, you’ll be able to search on Google more efficiently and get more relevant results.
I have learned a lot from the above trick by doing targeted searches on google. Was able to search for competitions, patents, tools and many more. So requesting all of my students and educators learn this its one of the most important skills to learn in this digital world.
Happy searching!
