Google is one of the most intelligent search engines and hence most widely used. No matter how vague your search query is, it tries to give the most accurate results you can expect. But did you know that by using some tricks you can enhance the efficacy and accuracy of the findings and much more? Here is the list of the top 15.
1) Search by Voice
Google allows you to search the content using your voice or speech. If you are browsing on a Google application such as Chrome on a PC, Android, or iOS, just click on the Microphone button and speak what you what to search. Google will display the results after getting the input from you.
2) Search by Image
Besides speech, Google can search using an image. This feature is useful when you don’t know about the context of the image or want to search the related images. On Google Images, just click the Camera button given in the search bar and upload a picture from your system to make an image search.
3) Search using Keywords
Searching is all about matching the keywords. The more appropriate keywords you feed to the search engine, the more accurate results you get back. For example: “cooking hacks” is better than “what are the hacks for cooking?” as it provides Google to look for the right words without incorporating the avoidable words.
4) Search using Location
Appending the City name or Postal code after your query enables you to make location-specific searches. This overrides the set response of Google to produce results for the location as per your network’s IP address. For example: “shops in New Delhi” or “shops in 110033” gives a list of shops specifically in New Delhi.
5) Words in the Text + Title, or URL
If you are looking for a webpage on which one term arises in the context of that page and another term shows up elsewhere on the page, such as the title or URL, then you should type the first term followed by intext: followed instantly by the other term.
Example Search: High School intext:Seventh Season
6) Words in the Title
If you wish to get a webpage with specific words contained in the title. They may not necessarily be located next to each other. Just type in allintitle: followed instantly by words or phrases.
Example Search: allintitle:Telephone Matches
7) Search Within a Website
Sometimes you need to search a particular website for content that equates to a certain phrase. Even though the site doesn’t carry a search feature, you can ask Google to search the site for your term. You just have to use the site:somesite.com modifier.
Example Search: site:https://en.wikipedia.org/“NASA”
8) A Page That Links to Another Page
If you want to search for all websites that cite an article on their website, use the link: command followed by the name of a webpage. Google will offer you all webpages that link to that official website.
Example Search: link:Wikipedia
9) Similar Words and Synonyms
If you want to include a word in your search and wish to consider the results that have similar words or synonyms. You can do this by using the ~ right in front of the word.
Example Search: “Taxation in India” ~GDP
10) Word Definitions
If you wish to swiftly find the definition of a word or phrase, simply type the define: command. You can also listen to the word’s pronunciation by clicking the megaphone icon.
Search Example: myriad
11) Missing Words
If you forget a word or two from a particular phrase, lyrics, or movie quotes, you are free to use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard to assist you to find the missing word in that phrase.
Example Search: 12 Years a *
12) Specific Document Types
If you’re seeking the results that are of a specific kind, you can implement the modifier ‘filetype’:. For example, you may wish to get only PowerPoint presentations related to Taxation in India.
Example Search: “Taxation in India” filetype:ppt
13) Drop the suffixes
It is the best practice to fill the base word so that you include relevant webpages. For example, snake and not snakes, park and not parked. However, if you are searching for websites that concentrate on the act of parking, you will need to enter ‘parking’ as it is.
14) Use the minus (-) sign to exclude what you don’t want in your result
If you want a specific word not to be included in your search results, use a minus (-) sign before the word or phrase you don’t expect in your results.
Example: searching for matrix – movies will give you the results that have the keyword matrix alone but will not include any finding that includes matric and movies.
15) Use the “Site” keyword in your search phrase
This is a trick to search within a website. This restricts your search term to only the mentioned website.
Example: searching for technologysite: https://en.wikipedia.org/ will look for the term “technology” from the https://en.wikipedia.org/ website.
For the latest gadget and tech news, and gadget reviews, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For newest tech & gadget videos subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You can also stay up to date with the Gadget Bridge Android App.
