Googling Tips

Needless to say, we all use this tool named Google in our day to day life but look at it as just an engine that acts as a facilitator for us to get our data. However, this so called engine is a powerful tool to get the relevant data in minimal time if used properly. There are various tips of using it in a way that will make our search more efficient and will help us save upon our important time.

Following are some of those;

· How does it search for the information?
Google places “AND” operator between the search terms entered in the search box. It also searches for plural and singular variants of the words.

If we enter: Cricket Player
Google searches for: Cricket AND Player OR Players. The result would be all the articles that contain the terms Cricket, Player, Players.

· How to eliminate unwanted results that come up when we type multiple terms in the search box?

Use Quotes “……”
If we enter: Cricket Player
The result would be as stated above. However,
If we enter: “Cricket Player”
Google will treat it as a phrase and will search for all articles that contain the term “Cricket Player” as it is.

· How do we find terms similar to the term that we have entered in the search box?

Use Tilde ~
If we enter: Infosys
The result would be all articles that contain the term Infosys.

If we enter: ~Infosys
Google will find all companies similar to Infosys. However, It doesn’t mean it will exclude Infosys from the search results.

· How do we eliminate specific terms out of the search results?

Use negation operator -
If we enter: Manufacturing Company
The result would be all the articles containing the terms manufacturing & company

If we enter: Manufacturing Company –Godrej
The result would be all the articles containing manufacturing & company excluding the articles that contain Godrej.

· How do we find stuff specific to file type, say only ppts or only pdfs?

Specify it in the search criteria
If we enter: Dubai Healthcare
The result would be all articles containing the above two terms.

If we enter: “Dubai Healthcare” filetype:ppt
The result would display only the powerpoint presentations containing the above terms.

· We can use Google as a Dictionary

We can use google as a dictionary to find definitions.
If we enter: define:management
The results would display all available definitions of Management on the web.

· How can we perform calculations using google?

What is the answer of ((56/2)x3)+4)?
Is it 88? Yes, it is 88.
Try typing the same in the search box and check out the answer.

These are some of the tips that I have used and am aware of. Will definitely add some more as and when I get to know more.
Do let me know if there are any more googling tips known to anyone of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!