You know how it goes ….. you’re on the computer looking for some information, or a service or just browsing around. If you are like the majority of the population you will bring up Google to help with your search (aside : Google is another word that has gone from being a proper noun to a verb).

For a tool that so many people use on such a regular basis there are a number of things that you can do that can improve your results.  Here are just 5 …..

Quotation Marks

This maybe obvious to any regular Google user, but every week or so I am surprised by someone who doesn’t know this one. If you type a number of words into your search engine then you will get results where those words are anywhere on the page, in any order. If you want to search for the specific phrase then you need to use quotation marks ” “.

For example - there is a big difference in results if you search for get more shoppers (as 3 separate words) versus the phrase “get more shoppers”

Exclusions

The English language being what it is there are times when words have more than one meaning. If you happen to be searching for one of those words then you might want to exclude the options you are not looking for.

For example - I’m searching for my friend Chris Owen’s website and know her business name is Pink Apple, but I didn’t want to get results for growers of fruit then I might enter -

“pink apple” -fruit

Calculations and Conversions

Need to know what the sum of a certain group of numbers is or need to convert centimetres into feet. Seeing that Google is just one click away for me then it is the quickest way I have found to do the numbers, especially when it comes to conversions.

All you need to do is enter what you need into the search box

213 centimetres in feet (the answer is 6.98818898 feet)

Restrict the Sites You Search

As we all know there is a lot of information on the web that is not worth reading, but buried in there is also good information from trustworthy sources (like educational institutions and government bodies). You can restrict your search to those types of sites by using the domain identifier that goes with the particular institution (.gov for government and .edu for educational institutions).

“small business” site:.gov

You might also want to restrict your searches to a particular geographic area.

skiing site:.co.nz

You can also restrict searches to a particular site.

design site:workingsolo.com.au

Definitions

I know that you are clever, worldly and wise but sometimes we all need a little help with what something means. And with the explosion of TLAs and FLAs (three letter acronyms and four letter acronyms, but you could have looked that up couldn’t you) it can come in very handy.

For example - define TLA

So there you have it 5 quick ways that you can use Google to speed up your search for information and answers.

What are you favourite Google shortcuts?