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20 Great google Tips and Tools for Better Research
(and Fun)
Valerie Koenigwww.BusinessPlansHawaii.com
Google Punctuation
1. Google Ignores Most Punctuation Marks:
?,{,[,],},&,%,$,#,!
2. But NOT:
Hypens: Hawaii-based v. Hawaii based
Apostrophes (or Okina): Hawaii v. Hawai’i v. Hawai`i
Accents: Cafe v. Café
Google Punctuation
3. Don’t Worry about Case
Google is indifferent to case usage (upper or lower case)
gEorGe wASHingTon = George Washington = george washington
Save your keystrokes!
Very Useful Tip
4. Search for Answers, Not Questions
Put your search query in the vocabulary of the answer phrase.
Bad Search Example: “how many Americans drive SUVs?”
Good Example: “percent of Americans drive SUVs”
Google Punctuation
Punctuation Marks with Meaning:
5. + (And)
6. | (Or)7. - (Not)8. “l” (Phrase Search)9. * (Wildcard)10. ~ (Synonym)
Google Boolean Logic
5. Google Default is “And”. Symbol Plus Sign (+) is rarely necessary, used to force numbers “Star Wars +1”
6. Not = - (Minus Sign). Word NOT does not work as operator.
7. Or = | (‘bar’ above backslash). Uppercase word “OR” works as operator.
More Refined Searches
8. Phrase Search (“i”)
Useful for Phrases with Common Words (“employment discrimination”)
9. Wildcard (*)
Represents one single word (can use more than one)
Useful for Name Searches (especially foreign/Hawaiian)
Useful for querying “answers” (example: “apple has * calories”, “haley’s comet appears every * years)
Good to replace punctuation marks or abbreviations (“bed * breakfast”, “rice * cayatano”)
More Useful Tips
10. Synonym (~): “women’s ~apparel”, “~contact site:norton.com” (contact ~= support ~=customer service ~=help)
11. “Define:” - returns only definitions
12. Google Alert: www.google.com/alerts: track companies, issues online
Site:
13. Google Operator used to restrict searches to specific URLs
Useful when site has poor search function: searches within the given site, example: “dave smith site:hawaii.edu”, “condominium site:hawaii.gov/dcca”, “ptsd site:va.gov”
Can use to exclude sites, example: “hear loss -site:com”,
Great with Google Images: “site:goodsill.com”
Filetype:
14. Used to restrict search results to specific filename extensions.
Example: “restaurant “business plan” filetype:pdf”, “retail profit * loss filetype:xls”
Works with most common filetypes: Adobe (pdf) , Excel (xls, xlsx), Word (doc), PowerPoint (ppt)
Others: rtf, txt, php, asp, jsp, html.
Not: mp3
Useful Tips
15. Calculator / Converter
Simple & Complex Math
Currency / Measurement Converter:
5 kilometers in miles
teaspoons in cups
dollars in rupiah
Useful Travel Tips
16. Weather: Hilo
17. Time:London
18. Flight Tracker: HA 102, UA 319
Useful Tips
19. Special Number Look-Ups:
Area Codes
Patent Numbers
Packages: UPS, FedEx, USPS tracking #
VINs
20. Movies with Zip: “Movies 96813”
Extra Credit
“I’m Feeling Lucky” button on Google homepage
In Closing
The best answers are only a few pages deep.
There’s lots we didn’t cover today.
Google keeps coming out with new stuff.
If you’re not getting the results you need, try something new.