If you use a computer on a daily basis, I’d say the chances of you using Google at least once in a day to look something up are pretty high. Billions of Google searches are carried out each day, but many people don’t find what they’re looking for straightaway and end up scrolling through pages of unrelated links. Though it seems pretty easy and straightforward, the art of googling can be refined to help you find exactly what you need in an instant.
There are many ways to ensure your Google search is accurate and gets you the results you need at the top of the pile, and we’d like to share some with you. You may already use some of the tips in this article, but we’re sure there’s something here for everyone to pick up and use to their advantage.
Refine results to a single website
If you’re looking for an article or page and you know the website, or if you need something from a particular company or publication, you can add a simple prefix to your Google search in order to refine results to ones specifically from one website. To do this, you add ‘Site:’ before your search. For example, you could enter the following to find articles on the iPad 3, specifically from our blog:
“Site: blog.gadgethelpline.com iPad 3”
Search for an exact phrase
If you enter in a phrase or question into Google, the search engine will list results featuring each of the individual words, hence you may end up with links to unrelated websites which merely contain one word of your search term. To avoid this, put your phrase into speech marks to tell Google to find results containing the whole phrase. For example:
“iPhone 4S Screen Replacement”
This little trick is especially useful if you’re searching for a quote, or song lyrics.
Exclude similar words or phrases from your search results
To help you refine your search results yet further, you can add another little section to your search query to cut out results containing a similar phrase, product or word. To do this, you simply add ‘-‘followed by the word or phrase that you wish to have omitted from your results. So for example, if I wanted to find the best tablet computers but excluding the iPad, you would enter the following:
Best tablet –iPad
We often use this method if we’re searching for something that shares a similar name with another product, for example the ASUS Transformer Prime, which often throws up search results about the Transformers movie series in amongst the stuff we really want.
Searching for a song or user manual? Specify the file type
If you’re searching for a particular file to view or download, such as a song or perhaps a user manual, you can tell Google to filter your search results by files of a certain type. We’re often looking for the user manuals for new products to update our knowledge database, and we prefer the manuals to be in a PDF format. Therefore, if we wanted to find a PDF manual for a product, we could enter the following search terms:
Filetype:pdf “Motorola Defy”
This works for all sorts of file types – from PDF to MP3 to MPEG-4 video files. Simply use the tag ‘filetype:’ followed by the file type suffix, then a space and your search term. You can incorporate the speech marks tip we mentioned above to ensure you get more exact results too.
Combine all of the above
The individual tips above can be used together in one Google search, thus narrowing the results down even further to exactly what you need. You just need to remember to leave a space between each section of your search and Google will understand. For example, let’s say we’re searching for the manual for the Samsung Galaxy S 2. You want to find the manual in PDF form, and you don’t want the manual for the similarly named but different Galaxy S, so you need to filter your results to the exact phone you need. The best way to search for the manual would be as follows:
Filetype:PDF “Samsung Galaxy S II User Manual” –Galaxy S
This should result
Definitions and Calculations
Believe it or not Google will give you an instant definition for any word entered, and can perform calculations for you as well. To do a definition, simply type ‘define:’ followed by the word you want explaining, eg;
Define:gadget
If you’re already on Google, sometimes it’s easier to type a simple equation into the search bar and have Google solve it for you, rather than opening Calculator or, you know, using your noggin. Google can add, subtract, multiply and divide. Simply type in your equation, hit search and the result at will appear at the top. For example:
14 divided by 6
You can enter numbers or the worded version, either works a treat.
There are many, many more tips out there, some of which we will bring to you in the second version of this very article. In the meantime, if you have any tips for better googling of your own, why not share them with us by writing a comment below.
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.
Tags: better, Calculator, Define, google, guide, Hints, how to, Refine, search engine, Tips, Tricks
