From recent years, ever since Google made that big changed, Panda Update, in 2011, Google search has started to become vague and inaccurate.
In the search bar, you need to type in several key words to get the exact result you want. And sometimes, even so you can’t get the right result on your mind. This sucks.
Google has started to lean more and more on simple and easy, simply dumb, inquiries for the vast majority people who have constantly entered dumb and vague key words for their questions.
Hence the nowadays situation where you type in simplest key words and hope, for the result is right for you. But in many cases, it’s not like this at all.
So, the time compels us to use additional means to get our results accurate.
Before we start,
- Google Search usually ignores punctuation that isn’t part of a search operator.
- Don’t put spaces between the symbol or word and your search term. A search for
site:nytimes.comwill work, butsite: nytimes.comwon’t.
The Most Useful Search Techniques
Search for an exact match
Put a word or phrase inside quotes. For example, "tallest building"
Using quote marks will specify the results to match exactly the order, the words inside the quote marks ” “. Mostly using this technique you will get results, for example:
same values
It’ll get you the results either on titles or content that include exactly same values, even if it couldn’t find any exact match, it’ll go for something like
same, values
some punctuations would get between them.
Exclude words from your search
Put - in front of a word you want to leave out. For example, jaguar speed -car
This is most helpful when your inquiry has ambiguous meanings. For example,
how to find same values people
You will get Excel results, yeah not gonna like, Excels and SQL, totally irrelevant.
So you need to amend it to this:
how to find same values people -excel
And sometimes you can combine the above 2 techniques, like this:
how to find "same values" people -excel
This will output the results that have the exact same values and exclude Excel content.
Less Useful Techniques
Combine searches
Put “OR” between each search query. For example, marathon OR race.
Google has integrated this into Google search already, the space you put between your key words equals to OR. But it also can put two inquiries together, for example:
how to find same values people OR life
This will combine two inquiries into one result, meaning, two searches results will appear on the same page, so the outcome will not be accurate enough for you. So instead of using OR, you can just use space.
how to find same values people life
Weird right? But this is today’s Google, it’s really hard for people trying to get specific and detailed results.
Search for related content
Put “related:” in front of a web address you already know. For example, related:time.com.
This does not limit on websites, you can put your category of your inquiry behind the inquiry. For example:
how to find same values people related:relationship
This will show you the results that include websites that have relationship as their titles or in their urls.
Search for wildcards or unknown words
Put a * in your word or phrase where you want to leave a placeholder. For example, "largest * in the world".
This is useful if you have something on your mind but you don’t exactly know what the words are. For example, if you are trying to get a new idea and see what it will be on the Internet:
how to find * people
This will give you the results of all kinds, talented people, storytelling people, interesting people… You can see for yourself what the Internet got.
Lesser Useful Techniques
Search for a specific site
Put “site:” in front of a site or domain. For example, site:youtube.com or site:.gov.
If sometimes you want to search a conversation, use this one. Because normally Google doesn’t care for discussions and mostly useless discussions.
The best place for English to have conversations is Reddit. So when ever you want to search inquiries like, Trump is going to destroy America, How is Bernie’s education policy gonna benefit college students? You go for this:
Trump is going to destroy America site:reddit.com
How is Bernie's education policy gonna benefit college students? site:reddit.com
This will get you every post on Reddit that “relates” to the inquiries.
Get details about a site
Put “info:” in front of the site address.
See Google’s cached version of a site
Put “cache:” in front of the site address.
Useless Techniques
Search social media
Put @ in front of a word to search social media. For example: @twitter.
Search for a price
Put $ in front of a number. For example: camera $400.
Search hashtags
Put # in front of a word. For example: #throwbackthursday
Search within a range of numbers
Put .. between two numbers. For example, camera $50..$100.
Try to combine the techniques together to produce the most accurate results on your mind.