Information is the key resource of the 21st century, and knowing how to search for it is a must-have skill for the modern person.
Chances are you use Google at least a few times a day to search. Your queries include everything from finding nearby restaurants to everyday chores. Google usually does a great job, even if you haven’t entered the phrase correctly.
However, when it comes to using Google search for research purposes or needing a more narrow and precise result, it’s worth taking advantage of advanced settings.
You can use hidden search modifiers to get more accurate results much faster. These are the most useful ones.
What Are the Quotes for?
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Are you looking for something specific, such as an author’s name, a long quote, a text, or a phrase? By default, Google is likely to give you results where only part of your query will match the information on the site. Put the phrase you want in quotation marks so that the search engine only shows results that match it completely.
For example, while searching for the newest casino site, use quotes for the word “newest” to find the most recently-launched platforms.
Using Dashes
Sometimes a certain word can ruin your search results. If you don’t want sites where it occurs frequently, you can literally remove it with a dash.
Search for a Specific File Format
This is especially useful if you’re looking for a specific type of document on the Internet: type in the search phrase and then just add “filetype:pdf” at the end. That way, you will only be shown files in PDF format. You can also find PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, and Excel sheets by specifying the appropriate format.
Why Add an Asterisk
Sometimes you google the lyrics of a song and can’t remember a few words. That’s where the asterisk comes in handy. Google treats it as a wildcard that gives you search results based on the gaps in your knowledge.
Search for Similar Sites
Let’s say you found a site you like and want to see more similar resources. You can simply ask Google to do this hard work for you by using the search query “related:site address”.
Search for a Specific Site Directly in Google
Usually, website-specific searches are not fully thought out. However, since Google indexes web content anyway, you can use it to reliably search for a specific resource. Use the “site:link to site” format the next time you want to find something on a particular web site.
Search Two Items at Once
Do you want to search for two queries at once? For example, are you looking for series from Netflix or Amazon Prime. You can do this with a vertical slash symbol that tells Google to perform two searches at once and give you the appropriate results.
Search Within a Range of Numbers
When you use Google to do research, searching in a range of numbers can help you narrow down the number of results found related to certain timeframes. You can use two points to search within a range of two numbers.
