Search Tips: Google

I composed some of the tips to search in Google. The thought of this idea may be lame to many like one of my friend asked me “who doesn’t know how to search in google?” . I replied I do. I use Google very often, say as many times as I scratch my head in a day or even as many times as my other friend sneezes next to me(Yes, He sneezes more than I scratch my head) and many times I end up with popping contents, irrelevant to what I expect. So I searched in Google on how to search in Google and started to collect as many tips as possible and I try to use them. Now I am really using Google effectively. And I thought of sharing this to you. Some of them are really amazing; trust me you will feel like “Yea this is cool”.



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.

USE: "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.

USE: "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.

USE: "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.

USE: "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).

USE: internet marketing OR advertising



Phone Listing:
Let’s say someone calls you on your mobile number and you don’t know how it is. If all you have is a phone number, you can look it up on Google using the phonebook feature.

USE: phonebook:617-555-1212 (note: the provided number does not work – you’ll have to use a real number to get any results).



Area Code Lookup:
If all you need to do is to look-up the area code for a phone number, just enter the 3-digit area code and Google will tell you where it’s from.

USE: 617



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.

USE: 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.

USE: 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.

USE: 48512 * 1.02



Word Definitions:
If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the "define:" command.

USE: define:plethora



Lyric:



USE: Song line :lyric



Local search:



Use city name or Zip code or Airport code to search local



USE: Shuttle BWI



CONVERTER:

To convert metric’s use the following format

USE:



1 meter= ?inches

36F = ?C



IN OPERATOR:



1 USD IN INR

36F in C



TIME:



To search the local time



USE: Time in chennai





WIKI:



To search in wikipedia

USE: rock :wiki





FORUMS and BLOGS:



To search in forums

USE: rock :forum





DIFFERENT MEANINGS AND NEGATIVE SIGN



Lets assume u want to search for rock. Rock has different meanings like rock music , stone, ice etc.



To search rock music:



USE: rock music



To avoid music but include all others

USE: rock -music



Now this search term



rock -music -soil -minerals ice



will result with contents involving no music no soil no minerals but about ice.



"I'm Feeling Lucky"



will directly take u to the first search returned page.





Also consider these:



site:

Search only one website

admission site:www.stanford.edu
(Search Stanford Univ. site for admissions info.)

[#]…[#]

Search within a
range of numbers

DVD player $100..150
(Search for DVD players between $100 and $150)

link:

linked pages

link:www.stanford.edu
(Find pages that link to the Stanford University website.)

info:

Info about a page

info:www.stanford.edu
(Find information about the Stanford University website.)

related:

Related pages

related:www.stanford.edu