Searching Google: tips & tricks

Searching Google 

This guide covers selected tips and tricks to refine your search technique – for more information, consult Google’s various help screens. Please note: 

•  The tips and tricks described on this guide are subject to change.
•  Google can personalise search results. Your search results may be different from someone else’s and may vary according to the computer you are using.
•  This guide is based on the Chrome browser - Firefox and Internet Explorer are similar

Default search settings include: 

not case sensitive	capital letters of search terms are ignored
AND	search terms are automatically combined using AND
search	keyword
word order	enter the most important search terms first
truncation	automatic - no additional symbol required to find alternative endings for search terms
search results	display by relevance
compound words	searches both the compound word and with a space between the words airline air line

Options to refine your search include: 

synonyms	Google automatically searches for matching and similar meaning words	tourism finds tourist
“phrase searching”	use quotation marks around phrases	“adventure tourism”
OR	results include either search term. OR must be in capital letters.	tourism OR travel
exclude	use – immediately before a search term you want to exclude	tourism –wine
includ	e use quotation marks around automatically excluded search terms (e.g. the a)	“the tourist”
exact spelling	use quotation marks around a single search term to prevent automatic truncation	“tour”
intitle:	finds results with your search term in the document title	intitle:tourism
allintitle:	finds results with all your search terms in the document title	allintitle:tourism adventure
related:	finds results with content related to a specific website	related:www.tourism.org.nz
filetype:	limits your search results to a specific file type Examples of file types include; doc xls ppt mp4 docx pptx xlsx	filetype:pdf
site searching	limits your search to searching within a specific site	site:https://techglab.blogspot.com/
link:	use to see what sites link to a specific website	link:https://techglab.blogspot.com/label
define:	find definitions sourced from a range of online resources	define:tourism
search preferences	select options from ‘Search settings’ to set your search preferences	e.g. language
domain searching	limits your search to a specific domain Examples of domains include; Site  India  Australia  UK  America Commercial  co.in  com.au  co.uk  com Not for profit  org.in  org.au  org.uk  org Academic/Educational  ac.in  edu.au  ac.uk  edu Government  gov.in  gov.au  gov.uk  gov	site:gov.in

Advanced Search 

To use Advanced Search to build complex searches: 

1. Click the Options icon (below ‘Sign in’) and select Advanced search 

2. Enter your search terms and select narrowing functions 

3. Click Advanced Search

 Refining your search from the results screen 

Date ranges 

Date range options are found by clicking Search tools > Any time. 

Type of information 

The default search is Web. Click Images, News, Videos, Maps or More, to select a type of information to refine your results by.

Verbatim 

Verbatim is found by clicking Search tools > All results. Verbatim is a tool that instructs Google to only search for the specific terms you enter in the search box. Either click Verbatim, enter your search terms then click the search icon (magnifying glass), or do a search then click Verbatim to apply the Verbatim settings to that search. 

Searching with Usage rights filters 

To use a Usage rights filter to search for material (e.g. text, images, video) that you want to reuse or modify: 

1. Go to Advanced Search

2. Enter your search terms in the search boxes 

3. Select a Usage rights filter from the pulldown menu 

4. Click Advanced Search 

For more information about Usage rights filters, click usage rights on the Advanced Search screen.