Search Google Like An Expert |
1. Site Searching: Google accepts “cryptic” searches for highly specific information. One such example is entering “site:usa.gov Your search criteria” and Google will only search Usa.gov for your search criteria.
Example: “site:usa.gov wildlife effects and climate change”
2. Explicit Phrase: Let’s say you are looking for content about climate change. Instead of just typing climate change into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase. To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.
Example: “climate change”
3. Exclude Words: Lets say you want to search for content about climate change, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term hurricanes. To do this, simply use the “-“ sign in front of the word you want to exclude.
Example Search: climate change -hurricanes
4. Similar Words and Synonyms: Let’s say you are want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms. To do this, use the “~” in front of the word.
Example: “climate change” ~animals
5. Specific Document Types: If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier “filetype:”. For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to climate change.
Example: “climate change” filetype:ppt