Alan DraperNow that you know the fundamentals of Google searching, let’s move on to refining your search query for more narrow and specific search results. Open up an empty browser, navigate to Google.com and try these techniques as you read through them.
1. Exact phrase searching
Use quotations marks around “[any word]” to tell Google you want to see results that contain those exact words in that exact order. Caveat: you may exclude relevant results – a search for “Franklin D. Roosevelt” won’t return pages that refer to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
2. Specific site searching
Are you looking for results only from a specific site or type of sites? End your query with site: to get those results. Google search graduate mba site:edu and graduate mba site:forbes.com to see this one in action.
3. File type searching
Use Google to find a PDF, PPT, or XLS file by adding filetype: and its 3-letter abbreviation, for example, declaration of independence filetype:pdf.
4. Find related pages
Say you found a website you like, use the related: function to find similar websites. Just enter related:[insert URL] into the Google search box.
5. Similar terms
Use a ~ in front of a search term to tell Google it should return results that include synonyms of that word. See what yummy treats come up when you Google search Christmas ~dessert recipes.
6. Search numbers in a range
Find products on a budget by including .. in your search query. Are you looking for a led tv $600..$800?
7. Hone in on a particular range
Find that muscle car you’ve been dreaming of by searching for 400.. horsepower to find cars with more than 400hp.
Stay tuned for part 3 of our 7 part Google Search Shortcuts & Tricks, where we’ll teach you how to use Google to quickly find top of mind information.
Source: http://www.google.com/insidesearch/tipstricks/all.html
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Alan Draper.
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