Virtually everyone who uses the internet use google for searches. However, many of us are unaware that there specific search tips to help improve the result of your search query. I will give some best tips and tricks in this write-up for best search result when googling and other hidden benefits of Google.
i. Google is very good at guessing what you're looking for, but to be a better user, you should use operators to tell Google bots exactly what you want.
Like a phrase in quotation marks searches for that exact text, also adding a minus sign excludes the word, and using OR gives Google bot a choice, such as Who won the world cup 2010 OR 2014. Ensure Boolean operators such as AND or OR are in upper case.
ii. Google can help if you are trying to remember the lyrics to a song or get a list of the things a famous inventor created, just include an asterisk in your query you want Google to answer.
For example, "Albert Einstein invented" followed by an asterisk will search for the inventor's many ideas, while "Ni ojuelegba lyric" followed by an asterisk will bring up Wizkids hit track complete lyric.
iii. By default Google bot searches its entire index for your search, but you can limit this with a few simple commands. If you want to restrict your search to a particular website or domain, "site:" does that – so for example "site:slyprof.com windows 10" restricts searches to slyprof.com while "site:Nigeria" limits the search to Nigerian domains.
"source:" does the same for news sources while "intitle:" looks only at web page titles, and "inurl:" restricts searches to the actual page addresses.
Combining these commands with normal search operators – AND, OR, site: and so on allows you to be a search master and craft very precise search queries.
iv. Google utilizes long and descriptive website addresses as they make it easier to classify pages, but they are suitable if you want to share the address in a document or in something you're going to print. A URL shortener such as Goo.gl changes long page or site addresses with something much easier to handle.
Goo.gl also allows link tracking: it enables you to track the short link's performance to see how many users clicked on it, where they came from and what they were using.
v. The "filetype:" operator command looks for particular kinds of files and "site:" can restrict searches to particular domains. By using the filetype command to look for PDFs can help a lot to uncover product manuals and various official documents, while restricting searches to particular kinds of media files makes searching for music or video much simpler.
vi. If you are interested in something within a numeric range, such as events between two dates or prices, you can restrict Google's bot search to a specific number range by using two dots, example: "1990..1996" or "$500..$600".
Like searching for "cars $2000..$5000" works fine and returns useful car-buying advice with this command.
vii. If you are trying to get the customer service number of a company, allow Google to help: just type "CCC customer service" where CCC is the name of the firm you want to call.
A similar option for customer service emails is not yet available, but a query such as "CCC complaints email" often turns up the correct answer.
viii. You can use Google Calculator by typing 'calculator' into the search box. Google will display its calculator widget.
However, this isn't the only way to perform calculations online – an option to search using natural language terms such as "how much is 33% of £500?" or just type the calculation in the search box using traditional computer operators such as the plus sign for addition or the asterisk for multiplication is available.
This is just not limited to basic arithmetic, either Google's calculator can recognize and graph complex equations including trigonometric, exponential and logarithmic equations. If your browser supports WebGL, Google can help create 3D graphs too.
Read the second part in my next post...
