Making The Most Of Google Searches

[DrewKaree]

Google has become very popular because of its ease of use and the ways that it has made searching fun. But, if you just want to get quick, accurate results, you probably find yourself frustrated on a regular basis. Here are a couple of tips that will help your search followed by a few links if you hunger for more information:

There is an advanced search link you can use to narrow down words, dates and more. The link is in text and at the time of this writing, it is to the right of the search box. This can take longer, but can be very helpful if your looking for something very specific.

A shortcut to using advanced search is to put your search words in "quotes". Heres why; by simply typing in big black dog Google will return websites with ALL of the words big, black OR dog in them returning 4,330,000 websites at the time of this post. If you wanted information on big black dogs, you will need to sift through a lot of websites to find them. Now, by putting "big black dog" in quotes it returns websites with only the words big, black and dog in a sentence. In this case it now returned only 7,020 websites. Fewer website hits, more accurate results. I have been using this trick since I can remember with other search engines as well, including Alta Vista, Yahoo, etc.

Those 2 tips will help you the majority of the time, but as I said earlier, Google looks so simple, just go there, type in your search and your off, but Google is much more elaborate then that. When you have time, heres a few links for you to check out that make Google not only more functional, but fun to use as well!

Google Guide:
http://www.googleguide.com/

Some third party helpful links:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Google.html
http://www.g4techtv.com/callforhelp/features/26502/Google_Tips_and_Secrets.html

[lucindrea]

a few more

big black dog will return big or black or dog
"big black dog" will return the PHRASE       big black dog
+big +black +dog  will return pages with big AND black AND dog
+black +dog -zepplin ,  will return pages with black and dog BUT NOT pages with zepplin (why on earth you would want that i dont know )

[pointdablame]

Make those last 3 links tinyurl's because they aren't working as they are now.

Good post though Drew, it'd help everyone if people would just take 10 mins to learn how to use Google... once you know how to use it, its indispensible.

[Pacific Ripper]

Google is great, but sometimes it omits words that are commonly used like "about" and "who". If you were searching for a band called "Everything But the Girl" or a song called "About a Girl" by Nirvana, you may run into problems.

[shmokes]

for anybody who is not aware, Google also has a fantastic image search feature.  Click the "images" link right about the search box and you're there.  The great thing is that if you click the advanced link from the image search you get some REALLY useful stuff.  Like you can specify whether you only want results containing large pictures (for example, if you're looking for something to use as desktop wallpaper).  The advanced search also lets you turn off the content filter (for example if you are doing an image search for Jenna Jameson)

[El Bucle]

If you've got nothing better to do-
http://www.googlewhack.com/

Go onto google and do a search using no quotes and only two words, and get it to yield one result.  It's addictive, sort of.  Ok, well maybe it's just me.

[DrewKaree]

Make those last 3 links tinyurl's because they aren't working as they are now.

Fixed 2, removed 1 - it was only an amazon link to a book about how Google works, if someone cares THAT much, they need a hobby, like building their own arcade controls or something 

[Sephroth57]

i found a googlewhack!!!

im on the top of the list right now http://www.googlewhack.com/tally.pl

i was looking for a weird word written on something in my room.. i saw my chapstick which said "windburned" , i thought that was a great word so i kept pairing things with it, eventually i saw my japanese-english dictionary on my desk and it said romanization, it worked WOOT!

[str1der]

Google used to be great until they changed the news groups search. I can't stand it now. I've changed my Google default page to the UK site because they haven't changed to this new crap yet. There have been so many complaints that you'd think they would wise up and change it back.

[lucindrea]

ohh! .. uk didnt change the news groups ! cool ... trying to find anything usefull has been a lost cauz with the "new and inproved" groups 

[mnm1200]

Google is great, but sometimes it omits words that are commonly used like "about" and "who". If you were searching for a band called "Everything But the Girl" or a song called "About a Girl" by Nirvana, you may run into problems.

that's not really a problem. try "Everything +but +the girl" and "+about +a girl"

[thrash242]

Uhm, good point, but inaccurate in several areas.

If you search for big black dog, it will search for websites with all those words in the site, then it will return sites with any of those words after the sites with all the words.  If you search for "big black dog", it will search for sites with that exact phrase (not black big dog, but only big black dog).  If you want to find sites with any one of big, black, or dog, then search for big OR black OR dog.  If you want to exclude a word, you want to find black dogs, but not big ones, search for -big black dog.

I have a book all about Google (Google Hacks), if you're wondering where I get this info.

And, PacificRipper, if you're looking for an exact phrase, like a band called The Morbid Cheese Monster, search for "the morbid cheese monster", in quotes, and you'll find that exact phrase, rather than any site with those words in it.  It will also include words that it normally omits, like how, about, the, a, etc.

[Sephroth57]

so did anyone else try to get a google whack? its pretty hard

[El Bucle]

If done 5 of them, I think.  There are some people who can do 10+ in a row, if you look at the "recent whacks" section or whatever it's called.

[Nailz]

The advanced search also lets you turn off the content filter (for example if you are doing an image search for Jenna Jameson)

Jenna Jameson, who is that??   

[DrewKaree]

Jenna is the ULTIMATE Google "whack" 

 

[wboy]

Here's a nice trick I saw somewhere that helps you find http "parent directory" listings on your topic of interest.

For example..... MAME:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22parent+directory+%22+mame+-html+-htm+-php+-shtml+-md5+-md5sums

....can find interesting stuff like http://www.weblab.com/mame/ , or even roms!

simply change MAME with MP3 to search for music.