Ever wish there was a better way to do a Google search? Google is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web.
While the dictionary gives a definition of the word “Google”, it does not give tips on how to do a Google search. So here are 7 ways to do a better and more meaningful search using Google. Note that the actual characters to type are in bold to not confuse you since there are times you want to use quotes in doing a search. Also searches are not case sensitive so it doesn’t matter if your search is in upper or lower case characters.
- Use quotes - Want to search for a quote, a name, phrase? Put it in quotes. Your search results will show only the same words in the same order of how the words are quoted. I use this when I am searching a name. My results are more concise than if I did not use quotes. Not using quotes will show results with all words that are in my search. For example if I do a search using the words hole in one without quotes, I will see results with all of the following in it: hole, in, one. This does not matter where they appear on the webpage. If my search is “hole in one” I will only see results with that exact phrase.
- Use a – sign. What this does is to eliminate the results from any search with a word that is right after the minus sign. For example if I did a search on the word mantle, I may see results that would include Mickey Mantle. If my search is mantle -mickey unless it is a paid ad I will not see results for mantle that include mickey.
- Search within a website: Want to search for Mickey Mantle but only on a site such as CNN? There is a way to do so. By typing, Site:CNN.com Mickey Mantle I will only get results containing the words Mickey and Mantle within the CNN.com website
- Get a definition for a word. You may get a definition for a one word search. To be sure you get the desired definition type the following: Define:Google
- Search within a selected period of time. From a Google search page below the search bar are various menu items including “All” and “Images” The last choice is “Search Tools”. By clicking on that, there is a drop down menu that includes “Any Time” Click on that and there are pre-determined time period choices or by selecting “Custom Range” you can select the date range you wish to search. I find this effective when doing a search for remedies to computer issues.
- Use #and# separator. Let’s say I want to do a search about baseball great Tom Seaver and only have results about the world series. I would do this Tom Seaver#and#world series. To do a better search, I would incorporate quotes in my search as such, “Tom Seaver”#and#”world series” The 1st example talks about using quotes.
- Want to see specific showtimes for a movie in your area? In the Google search bar just type the movie name in and voila, the movie theaters and times it is showing will show on the page. If you want to see showing times for an area not near you, type the movie name and also type in the zip code of the area you wish to see the movie in.
If you wish to know more about using Google or other technology issues I can be reached at (917) 572-3468 or email me at mike@computerconciergeny.com .
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Making Your Computer Personal by Mike Klubok - Computer Concierge NY LLC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.