• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Internet
    • Browsers
    • Cloud Computing
    • Online Video
    • Search Engines
    • Web 2.0
  • Mobile
    • Android Apps
    • Apps
  • Software
  • Funny Stuff
  • Social Networks
  • Web Tools

Daily Bits

  • Home
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Advertise

6 Better Ways to Search Google

June 30, 2008 by Admin 17 Comments

Everyone uses Google these days and often multiple times each day. We use it for work, for fun and for general interest. It has made our researching so much easier. Google makes looking up the most mundane detail simple. Need a phone number for the pizza place down the street? Google it. The possibilities are endless. However, did you know you can get more from your Google searches? It’s true and here are six tips to achieving more productive Google search results:

1. Don’t leave out synonyms
. Suppose you want to perform a search but wish to broaden your search to include similar words to your initial keyword. To achieve optimum results, place the “~” symbol in front of the synonym. For example: “baseball” is your keyword and you want to include “pitchers” in your search. Type in: baseball ~ pitchers.

2. Find out who called you. If an unfamiliar number calls you on your cell phone you can use Google to find out who called you. For example: this number (555-555-5555) called you and you don’t have the number in your list of contacts. All you have to do is search this number in Google by typing: phonebook 555-555-5555. This is the Google phonebook feature.

3. Narrow down your search. Suppose you want to search movies but want to exclude horror movies from your search. When you type in “movies” in your search bar, add “-horror.” Your search will look like this: movies – horror. This will refine your search and eliminate searches yielding any reference to horror.

4. Zero in your search on a specific site. Suppose you want to find out what a particular site has to offer about baseball. Use the “site:whateversite.com” modifier. For example: “baseball” site:whateversite.com. This will search your specific site for references to baseball. This works even if the specific site doesn’t have a search option.

5. Search by file type. The file type modifier allows you to search for documents fitting a particular file type. Suppose you want to find files about baseball that are in PowerPoint. All you have to do is search: “baseball” filetype:ppt.

6. Search by numeric ranges. This feature is rarely utilized but can be very useful. This is perfect if you’re searching a range of years or prices or whatever you want to narrow your search by. For example: Massachusetts governors 1900..1990. This will yield a search of governors in Massachusetts from 1900 up to 1990.

Crowd-funded gadgets, tech, games and other awesome Kickstarter products at the Forevergeek Kickstarter Store

Filed Under: Search Engines

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. SATISH says

    July 1, 2008 at 1:24 am

    Nice tips.
    Google really makes our life easy, by saving lot of our time in searching.And these tips will surly enhance that.

  2. devjargon says

    July 1, 2008 at 4:44 am

    Google has certainly come a long way 😛 Google processes something like 70 petabytes of information every hour or so. It’s by far the most usefull search engine out there.

  3. Sachin says

    July 2, 2008 at 4:57 am

    great tips. I can’t imagine life without Google.

  4. Tom | Easy Googler says

    July 2, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    Thanks for the tips!

    It’s amazing how many little things you can do to alter your search results. Although it might be more amazing to find out how little people take advantage of Google’s more advanced features.

  5. Karthick says

    July 3, 2008 at 8:15 am

    Great stuff, I have put a redirect on my blog to this post.

    http://karthickgopal.blogspot.com/2008/07/some-awesome-google-search-help-tags.html

  6. Cindy King says

    July 5, 2008 at 5:38 pm

    I just stopped by to tell you that I’ve just published your article on the most recent Marketer Review Blog Carnival.

    Come by to vote on the best post of the 31 posts this week. Yes, you can vote for your own post. Use the social media of your choice to help get traffic back to your site. I stumbled your post just now. It seems I was the first to do so.

    Remember that Friday is our deadline for new articles, so mark this Friday on your calendar as the latest that you can get to Blog Carnival to submit for next week.

  7. Predrag Stojadinovi? says

    July 6, 2008 at 7:14 am

    7. Use all six tips on http://www.PeekStr.com which has actual google results but gives them to you “with a view” 😉

  8. Dean says

    July 14, 2008 at 12:47 pm

    May I add that typing in “define:word” into Google gives you definition(s) of that word. For example, typing in “define:resource” sends you to this page. 🙂

  9. Shah Newaz Alam says

    September 19, 2008 at 7:30 pm

    Good tips. It didn’t take much time to search for these tips and my future searchs will probably be more easy, fruitful and to the point. Thanks man.

  10. Yuan says

    January 1, 2009 at 7:52 pm

    Google is going to take over the world one day. It knows everything and is expanding its reach to every business. There’s its own cell phone, its own 411 service, and now even a better way to stalk people haha. Type in “worst band in the world” and it asks “Did you mean: Creed.” Google knows all…

  11. Daniel says

    February 25, 2009 at 9:52 am

    is there a list of countries where the google phone book service is available for? is it only landline?

  12. Tom | Easy Googler says

    March 18, 2009 at 3:28 pm

    @Daniel

    I’m fairly certain that it only works for United States phone numbers. Also, it only works for landline numbers that are listed through a residential phone company.

    For example, it won’t work for cell phones, unlisted phone numbers, and VOIP residential numbers (such as Vonage).

Trackbacks

  1. View 100 Serps in Google | Mammoth Solutions says:
    July 4, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    […] make sure you read Daniel’s post on 6 Better Ways to Search Google. In Tips and Tricks 4 Jul 2008 by a Mammoth Mammoth Solutions is proudly powered by […]

  2. Crash Test Dummy says:
    July 6, 2008 at 8:35 am

    Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Categories…

    A Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plan can be created for anything. Natural disasters, business plans, infrastructure projects, daily operations of a business, sports teams, really anything that has the possibility of not running righ…

  3. Cheap Keywords says:
    July 7, 2008 at 7:00 pm

    How To Identify Your Keyword Or Keyword Phrase – SEO Tactics…

    How to identify your Keyword or Keyword Phrase. That was something I had never really thought about. Originally, I thought design a web page, buy a domain name, upload the HTML to my domain and I was done. But when reality sank in and I could not find…

  4. Cheap Keywords says:
    July 7, 2008 at 7:00 pm

    SEO copywriting – Single Keyword Versus Keyword Phrase…

    As a rule of thumb, it’s easier and more effective to target keyword phrases than single keywords in your SEO web copy. Why? Because:

    The more specific the keyword, the fewer websites there will be targeting it. This means you’ll move up …

  5. Répertoire d'Articles says:
    July 14, 2008 at 3:01 pm

    Plusieurs mots clés pour votre eBusiness…

    Aujourd’hui il ne faut pas rester sur un seul mot clé. Il vaut mieux développer une petite série de mots logiques par rapport avec votre activité sur le web.
    N’oubliez pas ! Il s’agit des mots évoqués par votre lecteur ou client idéal.
    Vos mots clés do…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2022 · News Pro On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in