Google has always been the most preferred search engine for most of us. There are some jokes which say that we use "www.google.com" just to check whether our internet is working fine.
From the very beginning, Google always targeted fast search. That is why Google always displays the time taken to search on the very first line after the search text box. This was what distinguished Google from the search engines those days. Google was the one which came up with the approach called Page Rank. Google has evolved a lot with time.
Searching things on Google is very easy. But if you want to search something precise, Google has some cool features that allow you to do so.
Some of the features were known to me. Later, I came across a post in my company portal which had it all!! :)
Do try to use them to optimize your search.
By far these few methods above are the best tools Google has provided me in making my searches more effective. However there are more methods that Google provides (but I use them only once in a while).
From the very beginning, Google always targeted fast search. That is why Google always displays the time taken to search on the very first line after the search text box. This was what distinguished Google from the search engines those days. Google was the one which came up with the approach called Page Rank. Google has evolved a lot with time.
Searching things on Google is very easy. But if you want to search something precise, Google has some cool features that allow you to do so.
Some of the features were known to me. Later, I came across a post in my company portal which had it all!! :)
Do try to use them to optimize your search.
Using Keyword 'Site'
The first big thing that helps is the site: keyword. This helps you to limit your searches to a particular site. For example:
This searches only the edu sites. Whereas this one
searches only the IBM site.
Using the Keyword 'Doc'
Similarly the next one that helps me is the doc: keyword. So
gives me only presentations while
gives me only pdf files. This keyword supports most of the popular document formats (it has helped me whenever I needed it, but I cannot vouch for all the formats).
Using Phrases for Searching
The next one is very useful when searching for a phrase. for example
allows me to search for the two words (use and case) together and in that order.
Using Hyphen to Negate
Using negation is possible by using a hyphen before a word as in
This means I am looking for a document which contains all the keywords but does not have realtime mentioned in it. By convention Google uses the AND operation for all the keywords you give. So in the above examples Google searches for documents that contain ALL the words I have mentioned ie. it applies the AND operator between keywords. The hyphen operator applies the NOT on the keyword realtime. And here is another example that is useful to exclude sites as needed.
Order of Search Keywords
Another little known aspect is the algorithms Google run give importance to the order in which we mention the keywords. It seems that the keywords at the start (left side of the search bar) are given more importance than the ones mentioned later. So sometimes changing the order of your keywords bubbles up the results you are looking for.
By far these few methods above are the best tools Google has provided me in making my searches more effective. However there are more methods that Google provides (but I use them only once in a while).
Other Logical Operators
You can use other operators as well. Google supports OR, parenthesizing, wildcard and ranges. So you can build some really complex expressions. For example:
collaboration OR (use case AND discovery)
collaboration OR "use * discovery"
collaboration product releases 2005..2010
collaboration OR "use * discovery"
collaboration product releases 2005..2010
Note how wild cards and number ranges are used in these searches.
Other Interesting Stuff
There are a host other interesting keywords one can use: intitle, inurl, intext, inanchor, link, cache, related, info, define, and so on. Some of these useful whereas others I find the others of only pedantic value. Here are some interesting examples that I have found useful in the past.
inurl:/web/guest - this search finds all websites which have the structure '/web/guest'!
link:persistentsys.com - this lists all sites that link to persistentsys.com. Find who is linking to our website, its a good research tool.
related:persistentsys.com or related:liferay.com - these queries give you competitors (according to Google) of Persistent and Liferay! This is very useful information for research
And then there are special syntax queries that Google supports to do the following
1 gbp in inr - this converts a pound (Great Britain) to Indian Rupees as the first line of the search results.
time in paris - gives the current local time in Paris.
sfo jfk - Check flight details, airfares, etc. Just enter the Airport codes of the cities you are interested in.
43323 * 32322 - 324 - Just enter Numeric expressions into the search bar and Google turns into a calculator.
define:central processing unit - Find Definitions by entering the keyword define followed by the term you are looking for and watch the first line of the results.
and many more. Overall Google is trying hard to be your everyday desktop tool beyond a search engine. I might have missed many others, please add any other interesting things that you have found.
Okay we dont need to restrict to Google - if you have tips like these with other search engines we can discuss those too! By the way you can get a list of other search engines by using related:google.com !!
Now, thats cool!! :)
Enjoy Googling..... ;)
Enjoy Googling..... ;)
~SunMit
