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.
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SATISH says
July 1, 2008 at 1:24 amNice tips.
Google really makes our life easy, by saving lot of our time in searching.And these tips will surly enhance that.
devjargon says
July 1, 2008 at 4:44 amGoogle 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.
Sachin says
July 2, 2008 at 4:57 amgreat tips. I can’t imagine life without Google.
Tom | Easy Googler says
July 2, 2008 at 12:22 pmThanks 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.
Karthick says
July 3, 2008 at 8:15 amGreat 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
Cindy King says
July 5, 2008 at 5:38 pmI 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.
Predrag Stojadinovi? says
July 6, 2008 at 7:14 am7. Use all six tips on http://www.PeekStr.com which has actual google results but gives them to you “with a view” 😉
Dean says
July 14, 2008 at 12:47 pmMay 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. 🙂
Shah Newaz Alam says
September 19, 2008 at 7:30 pmGood 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.
Yuan says
January 1, 2009 at 7:52 pmGoogle 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…
Daniel says
February 25, 2009 at 9:52 amis there a list of countries where the google phone book service is available for? is it only landline?
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).