Google Search Tips You May Not Have Known
Just about everyone uses Google to search the web. It is used to much that “Google” has become a verb for looking up something online. But did you know that you can have a lot more luck “Googling” something by using some enhanced search techniques to fine tune your search? Instead of just simply typing the word or phrase that you want to google, you can use symbols or words in your search to make your search results more precise.
Exclude words from your search
Say you want to know how fast a jaguar is. Are you talking about the cat or the sports car? In this example you could search for jaguar speed -car. This would exclude sites that are about the Jaguar automobile.
Exact matches
If you are searching for a phrase and want your results to match the exact phrase and not just certain keywords, put your phrase in quotation marks. For example, “best sony tvs” if you are only looking for reviews for Sony televisions.
Searching for unknown words
Simply use a “*” in your phrase to use as a placeholder. Example, “world’s * cat” to search for a variety of cats from world’s fattest cat to world’s oldest cat.
Combine Searches
Put “or” between each search query if it doesn’t matter which word is needed. For example, marathon OR race.
Search social media
Put “@” in front of a word to search social media names. For example: @twitter.
Search for a price
Put “$” in front of a number. If you are looking for a television for $600 and don’t want to wade through expensive televisions that you cannot afford, then you can search for television $600.
Search hashtags
Put “#” in front of a word. For example: #fanfriday
Search within a range of numbers
Put “..” between two numbers to search a range. For example, that television you wanted needs to be between $600 and $800? Search for television $600..$800.
Search on a specific site
Say you read a blog post about overclocking your cpu on Tom’s Hardware a couple of months ago and need to reference it again. You can type site:tomshardware.com cpu overclocking to perform your search only within the tomshardware.com domain.
See a cached version of a website
The site you are looking for is down or not responding? Put cache: in front of the site address to see a saved copy of the site (cache:epicloodrop.com)
Search for a similar website
Add related: in front of a website to search for websites related to the one you searched for. Example, related:amazon.com gives you other online shopping retailers.
So there you go. The next time you and your buddies are trying to be the first to find the answer to some obscure question, you will have a one-up on them with these simple tricks!