In Business / January 2007
How to Google
Not all searches-or searchers-are equal but a few tips can level the playing field and save time and trouble at the keyboard. Getting the most out of search engines and search sites is a challenge, but like a secret handshake, it’s all in knowing a few special moves.
According to the book, Googlepedia: The Ultimate Google Resource, when searching for an exact phrase, like a famous quote or person’s name, if some of the words or letters have flown out of mind, put the phrase in quotation marks and use the wildcard character (*) to stand in for the missing word. For example, if Richard Nixon’s middle name draws a blank, try the search “Richard * Nixon.”
It also isn’t necessary to try and think of every single synonym of the keyword in a search. Instead, tell Google to look for similar words by using the (~) symbol in front of the keyword. For example, a search for “~car” will also find results for “vehicle” and “automobile.”
It is helpful to know that most search engines, including Google and Yahoo, automatically excludes common words such as “the,” “where,” “what,” “and” or “how” from a search. To include those words, include a plus sign in front of the word, as in: “+where the red fern grows.”
Conversely, to exclude results that contain a particular word, cutting down on innumerable, irritatingly irrelevant results, put a minus sign in front of it.
For example, to search for a “bass” singer, not the “bass” fish, the search would read: bass-fish. Be sure and include a space in front of the minus sign or the fish will surface plenty.
If the specific file type of the item being looked for is known, the search can be narrowed by adding “filetype:” to the search query. For example, if the items needed are only Word documents, the search query would read: “filetype:doc.”
To look for a specific number within a range of numbers use the ellipsis to indicate the range: 100…300.
To find another web page like a previously discovered favorite, or that of a competitor, use Google’s operator “related:” followed by the original Web page address. For example, typing in: “related:www.cnn.com” will return news Web sites similar to CNN’s home page.
If words aren’t enough, Google can be used as a calculator. Just enter a mathematical equation into the search box and hit “enter” on the keyboard. Google will supply the answer for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and algebra. And, like a friend who always has the answers, on request, Google will provide the value of common but frequently disremembered constants, like Pi, Avogadro’s Number, and the mass of the sun. What a comfort!
Copyright © 2007 A Woman's View. All rights reserved.
Top • Home • Subscribe • Advertise • Submit • Distribution • Contact
Support Our Advertisers • Organization Resources • Women Owned Business
Designed by Livewire Studio
Send an Email About This Article