Tiny, Important Google Tricks to Improve Search Results
Are you getting the most out of Google? If you’re just typing words into the search box without using these basic yet essential tricks to improve your results, you’re missing out. We like to think of ourselves as the Google ninja on Lifehacker, but even we need to be reminded of these important shortcuts from time to time.
Dash
If you want to exclude a word from search results, place a dash in front of it.
Example:
Watch West Wing Online – Netflix
Quotes
Use quotation marks to find the exact set of words, such as lyrics.
Example:
“You must remember this” song
Star
Speaking of the exact words, what if you can’t remember all of them? No problem – just use an asterisk instead of unknown words. Again, this is great for lyrics or quotes that you may have only heard halfway through. Alternatively, those that are frequently cited incorrectly are shown below.
Example:
“Play * Sam”
Tilde
Use a tilde before a word to include all synonyms.
Example:
Star Wars ~ Gifts
As you can see, the “gifts” were scraped off too:
Double period
Use a double dot between two numbers to indicate ranges. This is handy for pricing, dates, and sizes.
Example:
HP Specter buy 1000 $ .. 2000 $
Website: Request
You can search for something on a specific website using “site:”.
Example:
How I Work: lifehacker.com
Link: Request
You can find sites that are linked to a specific url using ‘link:’
Example: We wanted to find sites that link to this Lifehacker post on teens and teens .
Related: Request
If you are looking for websites related to a specific site, you can use “related:”
Example:
related: boardgamegeek.com
Reverse image search
This is incredibly handy when you want to find the source of a photo that you stumble upon on the Internet. For example, a plate of delicious looking food you would like to know the recipe for.
Reverse image searches are also great for tracking original photographers, identifying things (celebrities, flora and fauna, unmarked clothing or products you want to buy), determining where your own work might be used, and debunking fake social posts and profiles. networks.
You can reverse image searches by going to the Images tab in Google and clicking the camera icon in the search bar. Then you can either upload the image or paste the image address (right-click the image and select “Copy Image Address”). Google will then provide the best guess about the image.
Example:
I went to Pinterest, searched for “Ramen” and selected this image:
Then I searched the reverse image on Google to find the recipe.
If you have any search tips that everyone should know about, let us know in the comments.
This post was originally published on Lifehacker Australia.