The possibilities of search engine Google are endless and there are many tricks to search even more effectively. In this article we give 20 tips to get more out of your search results.
01 Search with Google
When you search with Google, you don't want to get as many search results as possible. Rather not even, because are you going to sort them all out? You actually want to have as few as possible. Namely precisely those websites where you will find the information you are looking for. So it's not about more, but about better. That's why it's important to think about the fastest way to get to the right websites with every search. You search for keywords in Google. They are therefore crucial to your success. The right keywords help you find relevant content faster. Therefore, think of some simple but concrete keywords with which you can define the question well. Not where can i eat greek food but something like greek restaurant amsterdam.
02 Beetles and beetles
You can start with a simple search of a few keywords. Depending on the results, you can always refine the search afterwards. Suppose you are looking for information about a black beetle. Google shows a lot of pictures and information of a cute (or nasty?) little animal when you black beetle typing. Or did you perhaps mean a car? Always be careful with words that have multiple meanings. Are you looking for black volkswagen beetle then it will be much better. You see some nice pictures and references to marketplaces. Apparently there are quite a few for sale. Don't want to buy a Beetle, but want to read more about its history? Then add a keyword like history to the search. Number two on our result list is immediately hit.
03 Open separately
As soon as you click in the list of search results, the browser jumps directly to a website where you will hopefully find the answer to your question. If not, or if you need more information, you'll need to scroll back to the Google search results page. That's a bit cumbersome. It is better to open the website in a separate tab by clicking the Ctrlbutton. You can then return to the search results page at any time. You can also open several websites in tabs that seem interesting to you, and then read them at your leisure. Do you always want the websites open in new tabs? On a search results page, click the gear and choose Search settings. Add to Where results are opened a checkmark Open any selected result in a new browser window. It is also useful that you have the number of Results per page can be specified in the settings.
04 Ignore websites
In tip 2 we were shown a lot of advertisements for the Volkswagen Beetle, while we were only looking for information. Do you also see websites that are of no use to you, making the list of search results unnecessarily long? You can tell Google to ignore a common website while searching. You do that through the assignment -site to your search. For example -site:marktplaats.nl or -site:wikipedia.org. Make sure you don't use spaces in this part of the search. If you want to ignore multiple websites, you can do that too. Then you simply add such an assignment for each website. As -site wikipedia.org -site kieskeurig.nl.
05 Ignored Words
You don't have to use capital letters in searches. Google ignores them. So feel free to type everything in lowercase. Punctuation is also not necessary, so you just leave out periods and commas and the like. Words that Google does not find relevant to the search are automatically omitted. Think of words such as 'the' and 'and' and 'van'. If words are important to your search, put those search terms in quotes. Google will then know that they are important. For example, are you looking for willem the orange, you will find a wagon load of information about William of Orange. The word 'de' has been ignored and Willem van Oranje appears to be just a bit more famous than Willem de Oranje. You can solve this by searching for "willem the orange".
06 Wild card
When you put something in double quotes, you're telling Google that it should be on a website verbatim and in that order. That goes a bit wrong when we press"Armin van Buuren" search. We get a lot of results, but we still miss pages because we didn't know in advance that his full name is Armin Jozef Jacobus Daniël van Buuren. You solve this by using a so-called wildcard. By using an asterisk (asterisk) to add, you indicate that additional words (in this case names) may appear there.Armin van Buuren" provides even more search results. Another example: tap "make a quick phone call" then you will find more and different results than when you "just Cal the insurance company" enters.
07 Search website
Not every website has its own search function, or you can search there, but the effect is limited. Fortunately, you can also search within a specific website with Google by using the command site to use. This time without the minus sign in front of it (as in tip 4). If you want to find information about the Ivy Bridge architecture at Intel, you can do so via the search ivy bridge site: intel.nl. Because Intel has several websites such as .nl and .com, you can use the wildcard from the previous tip to not only search the Dutch website. you tap ivy bridge site: intel.* in.
08 Exclude
You can also specify what you are not looking for by adding a minus sign to a keyword. For example photo printer -all-in-one. This way you exclude search results that are of no use to you. You have to be careful with it. Because are you looking for intel processor -amd then you run the risk of missing out on interesting pages. Because if there is even anywhere on a page amd you will not see this page. Even though it has a lot of useful information about Intel processors on it. In the example of the photo printer, you also miss pages when the pros and cons compared to an all-in-one are discussed.
09 Synonyms
Some words have multiple meanings. Like the beetle from tip 1. It is also possible that several words are used for the same thing. Such as dessert, dessert and dessert. Or bicycle, two-wheeler and bicycle. Of course you can enter all these keywords yourself, but there are probably synonyms that you can't think of in a second. Fortunately, Google comes to the rescue. To automatically include all kinds of synonyms in the search, use the tilde. You then search ~dessert or ~bike.
10 Important word
We saw in tip 6 that you can put keywords in double quotes if they all have to appear exactly like this in the text. Sometimes you just want to indicate that a word that Google ignores by default is essential to your search. For example an article. Articles are common in company names, but they are ignored by Google by default. Unless you put the word in single quotes. So use 'the garage for example, to find a shop, theater, or restaurant with this name.
11 Making choices
By default, Google searches for all the words you enter. However, sometimes you want to look for one or the other. This is possible through the assignment OR to use. For example, if you don't know yet whether you want to go hiking in the mountains of Switzerland or France. Then add to your search switzerland OR france up. be aware that OR so it must be in capital letters. Preferably use parentheses to clarify your search. As hiking (switzerland OR france) or to make it even more complicated (walking OR cycling) (camping OR hotel) (switzerland OR france). Instead of OR can you by the way | so the vertical bar, also known as pipeline.
12 Search files
You can also search for files, rather than information stored somewhere on a web page. You do this by using the command file type. Suppose you are really only interested in figures about the growth of the population. Then you type something like population growth filetype:xls. You will now only find spreadsheets with information. Similarly, you can search for presentations (ppt) or documents (such as doc or pdf). If you want to avoid encountering something like spreadsheets in the search results, you should use population growth -filetype:xls.
13 Number sequences
Are numbers important to your search? Such as the period in which a car or house must have been built, or the price range in which a product is? Then it is useful to know that you can search Google for numbers that are in a certain range. You indicate this with two dots. As summer magazine edition 100..200 to search for issue one hundred through two hundred. All characters in the string must be joined together. There may also be no dots in the numbers (thousands). You may also replace either number with an asterisk. Of *..200 are you looking for two hundred or lower and with 100..* are you looking for a hundred or higher.
14 pressing questions
There are also a few nice tricks built into Google Search. For example, do you tap time in, Google will show the date and time. Tap you sunset then you what time the sun sets at your location. You can of course also sunrise typing. Want to know for another location? Then you enter a place name, such as sunset bern or time moscow. This way you can also request a pretty detailed weather forecast of your own location or another place on earth with again or las vegas again.
15 (Conversion) calculation
There's even a calculator in Google's search engine. So you can quickly calculate all kinds of things, without leaving the browser. You may use parentheses so that you don't get into a fight with Mr. van Dalen. The answer is shown in a scientific calculator on the results page. So you immediately have an extensive virtual calculator at your disposal. You can also convert units with Google. Just tap 20 Celsius to Fahrenheit or 5 miles to kilometers or 30 centimeters to inches (or shorter: 30 cm in inches) in. Calculating a percentage is also possible, for example 25% of 1200.
16 Advanced Search
Of course you can also use Google's built-in helpers. Enter a search term, click Google search or press Enter and then use the buttons below the search bar. You have the choice of Images, Shopping, Videos, News, More and Search Tools. The first terms are obvious but behind Search Tools there are some useful aids. Here you can filter the search results by country, language or period. Can't quite find what you're looking for? Then use the related searches at the very bottom. After all, Google proposes refined assignments for every search. Do you think all this is too much hassle? Here you will find a handy form for advanced searches.
Tip 17 Filter images
To search for images, all you need to do is enter your search term and click Pictures to click. Or you use this url directly. Via the button Search Tools you can then filter the results. Thanks to Size you can indicate whether you are looking for a large image, an icon or an image larger than 4 megapixels. Colour get filtered by Full Color, Black & White or Transparent. Here it is even possible to click on one of the twelve color blocks and search on the basis of a specific color. You can also indicate the type of file you are looking for. Choose under Type in front of Face, Picture, Clipart, Line Drawing or Animation. Through Time If you wish, you can still search for images that match the last 24 hours or Last week have been added.
Usage rights
Do you want to use a photo for your blog or website? Then know that due to copyrights you are not allowed to use just any image that you find via Google. Don't want to pay for stock image? Google can help you too. At least if you take the user rights into account. For example, search for an image on 'spring' and then click on Search Tools / Usage Rights. Make your choice between Labeled for reuse (including modification) or Labeled for non-commercial reuse (including modification).
18 Similar photo?
Not only can you search for images, but you can also upload your own images to learn more about them or find similar photos. Surf to //images.google.nl and click on the icon with the photo camera in the right corner of the search bar. Then you can choose between Paste Image URL or Upload an image. A desert landscape photo immediately gives you a lot of photos with many similarities. If you describe the photo in the search bar with one or two keywords, the comparable images will be even better. Do you use this often? Then you can install the Search by Image extension for Firefox or Chrome.
19 Search Settings
On the Google homepage you will see at the bottom right Institutions to stand. Through Search settings you can, among other things, set SafeSearch filters to block inappropriate or explicit images. You can also indicate whether you want to use Google Instant Predictions You can also change the number of results per page. Google Instant is only recommended if your computer is fast enough. Thanks to this feature, you will be presented with dynamic search results or suggestions as you type. At the very bottom you will find another function to request your search history. This is only possible if you are logged in with a Google account. In your search history you can see, among other things, how many searches you enter per day and which pages it leads to most often.
20 Cache
Google makes a kind of copy of every discovered page and caches it in case the original page is not reachable. This means that you can still look up information from a website or webpage that is already offline. In addition, Google Cache is also interesting to check how a certain page used to look like. For example, do you want to look up an advertisement that has disappeared from Marktplaats? For example, search for 'Nintendo DS Dora' and then click the small triangle next to the url in the search results and choose cache. Then you have the choice of Sufficientversion, Text version and Show source.
