Google Tips and Tricks

GOOGLE TIPS CUG 160511 Page 1 of 5

Google tips and tricks

SUMMARY OF A TALK TO U3A NORTHERN RIVERS

COMPUTER USERS’ GROUP BY GRAEME EGGINS IN MAY 2011

WE ALL KNOW about Google – the world’s most used search engine. Here are some tips and surprises from the world of Google.

First, if you like, make your own personal Google search page. Just go to www.shinysearch.com

Now, want to find something online but too lazy to type? Just stare into the spinning circle on Google Mentalplex, and project an image of what you want to find.

Google claims that the results are "smarter and faster" than normal searches, and generated by an algorithm that factors in your recent browsing history and mouse movements, plus the current air pressure and astrological configuration.

This was an April Fool's Day prank in 2000 that has been kept online - MentalPlex is a great example of Google's prankish sense of humour.

Here are some others:

Open Google search and type “pig Latin” then click “I’m feeling lucky”

Alternatives: Type ‘Elmer Fudd’, type ‘googoth’ or type ‘google loco.’

Tips for better searching

Here are some of Google’s own tips for better searches

Keep it simple:

If you're looking for a particular person or company, just enter his or her name, or as much of its name as you can recall. If you're looking for a particular concept, place, or product, start with its name.

Think how the page you are looking for will be written. Use the words that are most likely to appear on the page.

For example, instead of saying “my head hurts” say “headache” because that's the term a medical page will use. The query “in what country are bats considered an omen of good luck?” is very clear to a person, but the document that gives the answer may not have those words.

Instead, use the query “bats are considered good luck in”or even just “bats good luck” because that is probably what the right page will say.

Describe what you need with as few terms as possible:

The goal of each word in a query is to focus it further. Since all words are used, each additional word limits the results. If you limit too much, you will miss a lot of useful information.

For example, “weather Lismore” is a simple way to find the weather and it is likely to give better results than the longer “weather report for Lismore new south wales.”

Choose descriptive words:

The more unique the word is the more likely you are to get relevant results. Words that are not very descriptive, like 'document,' 'website,' 'company,' or 'info,' are usually not needed.

Keep in mind, however, that even if the word has the correct meaning but it is not the one most people use; it may not match the pages you need. For example, “celebrity ringtones” is more descriptive and specific than “celebrity sounds”.

Other search tricks

Use Google as a spelling aid. Entering a word into Google is a quick way to see if you have the right spelling. If it’s incorrect, Google will suggest the correct spelling instead. For example type ‘Missippi’ and see what you get.

Additionally, if you want to get a definition of a word, you can use the “define: key word” to return definitions from various dictionaries (for example define: emolument).

Use Google to do conversions.
Some examples:
100mph in kph
1 month in seconds
280 Kelvin in Celsius
50 Fahrenheit in Celsius

Search for specific document types. Google can search the web for specific types of files using the “filetype:” operator. If you’re looking for PowerPoint files about flower arranging, for example, you could try: flower arranging filetype: ppt
Currently officially supported file types include pdf, ppt, doc and wks but many others are supported.

Fill in the blanks with an asterisk
The *, or wildcard, is a feature that can be very powerful. If you include * within a query, it tells Google to try to treat the asterisk as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches.

For example, the search “Australian flag *” will give you results about news items, flag designs and manufacturers. Note that the * operator works only on whole words, not parts of words.

You can use wildcard words to help complete the phrase when you know almost all the words, such as "The quality of * is not strained," or "A penny * is a penny earned."

You can also use the asterisk to find variations of common phrases: "the devil is in the *", or "what a piece of work is *".

Phrase search ("")
By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to consider the exact words in that exact order without any change.

Google already uses the order and the fact that the words are together as a very strong signal and will stray from it only for a good reason, so quotes are usually unnecessary.

By insisting on phrase search you might be missing good results accidentally. However it can be handy in searching for a particular person such as Tom G Smith rather than just Tom Smith.

Try the tilde ~

This instructs Google to find related terms and documents. For example, Googling ~nutrition returns results with the words nutrition, food, and health in them.

You can tap the wisdom of the crowds by searching for like items using key phrases. You can

search for, in quotes: "better than _keyword_"

For example “better than ipad”

The results will almost always lead you to discovering alternatives to whatever it is you're searching for.

Using the same concept, you can use this trick to discover new music or movies. For example "reminds me of Frank Sinatra" may pull up artists people have thought sounded similar to the one you typed in.

Similarly, search for music by typing ‘sounds like’ as in “Sounds like God save the Queen”

Other ways of finding stuff

Blogs

Search blogs using Google blog search.