Googling can be fun. With this article, we share with you some common use expression or tips and tricks to get your expected result when perform search in Google.
Search is always case-insensitive
Miniature Donkey Talk Magazine Is the same as miniature donkey talk magazine.
Punctuation including @#$%^&*()=+[] and other special characters are generally ignored.
Google employs synonyms automatically
“afraid” of “garden gnomes”
Google employs synonyms automatically. Afraid will include search results for [fear] and [scared].
Double quotes around a single word tells Google to match that word precisely.
Quotes around a set of words tells Google to search those exact words in that exact order.
Search Filetypes
filetype:ppt Samuel L. Jackson
Find documents of the specified type. filetype:ppt Samuel L. Jackson will find powerpoint presentations on Samuel L. Jackson.
The secret of ~ & *
my ~kitten thinks it’s a *-.gov
The tilde symbol before search terms will give search results with similar words. ~kitten will also search for cat, kitty, etc.
The asterisk * tells Google to treat the asterisk as a wildcard and then find the best matches.
The – sign can be used to exclude more than just words. The – sign can even exclude types of websites.
Search for related websites
related:spacejam.com
The related: operator will give you related websites.
The power of numbers
site:reddit.com icesoap 2010...2012
Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website. site:reddit.com icesoap will return pages about icesoap but only from reddit.com. Putting ... between numbers shows results for numbers in that range.
Specify your domain
site:.net leisure suit larry -download
You can also specify a whole class of sites.
A minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages that contain this word to appear in your results.
Give yourself options
China population 2004 OR 2005
[China population 2004 OR 2005] will give you results about either one of these years, whereas [China population 2004 2005] (without the OR) will show pages that include both years on the same page.
Search in Title
intitle:macgyver
"intitle" only searches web page titles containing that search term.
allintitle: the big lebowski review Find pages whose title contains all words in the search.
Search for words in Text
allintext: holidays hot bargain Find pages where the all terms appear in the text.
john lennon intext:liverpool Find pages where the one term appears in the text, and other terms appear elsewhere in the document (e.g. title or URL)
Search only URL
inurl:gob bluth
The modifier inurl only searches the web address of a page. inurl:gob bluth will search urls containing both “gob” and “bluth”.
allinurl: bbc news Find pages with the search query mentioned in the URL.
Indexed page for specific domain
site:wolverineclaws.com
This will give you how many pages of this site is indexed.
Search by specific authors
author:degrasse tyson universe
In Google scholar, you can search for papers by specific authors.
Gets definitions of words
define:brouhaha
Gets the current time at any location
time Crapstone, UK
Find news related to a particular location
location: Use this on Google News to find stories coming from a particular location.
Convert unit
150 horsepower to donkeypower
Converts units of measurements including length, mass, time, temperature, currency, etc.
Keep an eye on your stock
stocks:goog
Shows stock information for the given ticker symbols.
Look up weather
weather Pyongyang
Look up the current weather of any city.
Calculate math problems
cos(pi / 4) + ((13 + 6) * 3) - 53.5
Search flight prices by entering in airport codes
SFO BOS
Image Search
You can search by an image by simply dragging a picture right into the search bar.
Click the camera icon, then select “Upload an image.” Select the image you want to use or the URL of an image to start your search.
Sports Scores team name
Sunrise and Sunset Times sunset city
Translations translate word to language
IP address IP address will give your public IP address.
Film Showings movies postcode
Flight Statuses flight number
Package Tracking tracking number
Aside from the examples above, Google doesn’t usually recognize punctuation and grammar. However, punctuation and symbols that do work in Google search include:
- + When searching for things such as blood type
- @ when searching for social tags
- & when searching for strongly connected ideas and phrases
- % when searching for percent values
- $ when searching for prices
- # when searching for trending topics that use hashtags
- – when searching for words that are strongly connected
And besides using search terms, Google also offers you a host of other ways to search:
Google Search Tricks: A useful app for enhancing your Google searches and getting the most from the search engine.
Google Images: Lets you search for images related to a particular word or phases. You can also upload or link to an image to find more about it, or similar images.
Google Goggles: Lets you search the web using your mobile phone’s camera instead of words. Simply take a picture of the item you want to search for, and look at the results.
Google Trends: Lets you explore trending search topics on Google and see what other people are searching for.
Google Books: Lets you search and preview books from millions of publishers around the world.
Google Scholar: Lets you search for theses, abstracts and articles.
For most, Google is already an incredibly useful resource, but by following these tricks and tips, you can transform it into your most valuable research tools.
