12 Advanced Google Search Tips
1) Exact words and Phrase
One of the most basic and widely known search tricks is using quotation marks to search for an exact phrase. To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.
Example Search: "search engine optimization"
2) Exclude Words
The minus sign allows you to specify words that shouldn’t appear in your results. For example, if you’re looking for pages about mobile phones that don’t mention Android, use the following search
Example Search: mobile phones -android
3) Site-Specific Search
Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase. Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the "site:somesite.com" modifier.
Example Search: "brain facts" site:www.funhands.blogspot.com
4) Similar Words and Synonyms
Let’s say you want to include a word in your search, but also want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms. To do this, use the "~" in front of the word.
Example Search: "inbound marketing" ~professional
5) Specific Document Types
If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier "filetype:". For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to inbound marketing.
Example Search: "phonebook" filetype:ppt
6) This OR That:
By default, when you conduct a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search. If you're looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator. (Note: The OR has to be capitalized).
Example Search: inbound marketing OR advertising
7) Phone Listing
Let’s say someone calls you on your mobile number, and you don’t know who it is. If all you have is a phone number, you can look it up on Google using the phonebook feature.
Example Search: phonebook:623-585-1232
8) Area Code Lookup
If all you need to do is to look up the area code for a phone number, just enter the 3-digit area code and Google will tell you where it’s from.
Example Search: 623
9) Numeric Ranges
This is a rarely used but highly useful tip. Let’s say you want to find results that contain any of a range of numbers. You can do this by using the X..Y modifier (in case this is hard to read, what’s between the X and Y are two periods). This type of search is useful for years (as shown below), prices, or anywhere where you want to provide a series of numbers.
Example Search: president 1940..1950
10) Stock (Ticker Symbol)
Just enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term, and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumbnail chart for the stock.
Example Search: GOOG
11) Calculator
The next time you need to do a quick calculation, instead of bringing up the Calculator applet, you can just type your expression into Google.
Search Example: 48512 * 1.02
12) Word Definitions
If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the "define:" command.
Search Example: define:plethora
13)The Wildcard
The asterisk (*) is a wildcard that can match any word. For example, if you wanted to see what companies Google has purchased and how much they paid, you could use this search:
Search Example: “google purchased * for * dollars”
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