Article Getting more out of Google searches

[Becky]

Becky submitted a new article:

Getting more out of Google searches - Making the most of Google search tools and advanced operators

Do you ever have times when you’re trying to search for something on Google, and no matter what combination of words you try you come up short? Frustrating, isn’t it. The good news is that there are lots of ways you can search more efficiently, so read on to find out more…

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The basics

First things first. Google is a pretty intuitive search engine nowadays, and there are some things you don’t need to worry about getting right. Spelling...

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[V_R]

Good article, Some of the advanced stuff I'd forgotten all about, a handy reminder.

You have a rogue smiley that crept in though.

• Specific site: You can limit your search to a specific site by putting "site:" in front of a site or domain. For example, “sitecreview.co.uk ryzen” will bring up all mentions of ‘Ryzen’ on pcreview.co.uk. This can be a useful way to find what you’re looking for on a site that doesn’t have a good search feature.

 

[Becky]

You have a rogue smiley that crept in though.

Haha! Guess the editor missed that one...

Glad to hear you found it useful

 

[V_R]

Yeah I had honestly forgotten about wildcards and number ranges. Just don't use them enough I guess...

Will make a point of doing so now!

 

[nivrip]

Nice little refresher course there, Becky.

It's amazing what you forget.

 

[Becky]

Thanks @nivrip!

Wildcards are really useful, but I think the search operator I use the most is 'site:' - it's great for places like reddit that have an awful built-in search. Quote marks for finding an exact group of words is pretty handy too

 

[V_R]

Indeed I use the site operator a lot, a lot of sites built in search is God awful!

 

[Abraham Andres Luna]

I got frustrated with Google when I couldn't find the exact info I was looking for, and then I read an article that Google is a horizontal search engine. The executives at Google knew that a vertical search engine would be a serious threat to there dominance, so they put anti-competitive practices to hide other more effective search engines in their results. This is a web site explaining the issue: www.searchneutrality.org/