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The Google Search Hacks You Didn't Know You Needed
Refining your Google searches can save a lot time and effort; all it takes is a little know-how. Lucky for us, the wise people of Reddit can show you exactly how to find what you're looking for on Google by sharing some of their expert pro-tips. By utilizing these shortcuts, not only will you get more accuracy in your searches, but you will be able to filter out unwanted web results as well. Whether you're researching an important presentation or just want a simple questioned answered without having to scroll through multiple pages of results, these handy tips courtesy of the information-rich AskReddit subreddit will smooth the way to search success.
Today, the behemoth that is Google is the most-used search engine on the web, processing over 3.5 billion queries daily. There's no arguing that Google is a powerful tool — there's a reason it controls 64 percent of searches conducted worldwide. (Bing and Yahoo make up the others.) But while Google makes it fairly easy to find information, the pages of results sometimes can feel overwhelming. A few lesser-known tricks and hacks can help you refine your searches — and better yet, you don't have to know how to write code to use them! Here are some of Reddit's top suggestions for how to find what you're looking for using Google Search:
1Use The "Around" Function To Limit Results
Since 2010, Google's proximity "Around" search has been helping people isolate only "web pages that include words or phrases which are near to each other." To utilize this trick, make sure your search words are in quotes, with the capitalized word "Around" between them. The number in the parentheses signals to Google to only bring up the searches where the two words both appear within that number of words.
2Triple Quotes Will Give You A Verbatim Search
Using triple quotes around your search words or phrase will produce "real verbatim" results — that is, only websites and images using your exact search words in the order you put them will appear. Single or double quotes around your search will give you only close to verbatim results. —which means that the words of your search may not be linked together in the websites and articles, and the results may use synonyms for some of you search words or be missing one entirely. With anything less than triple quotes, Google will provide you with the results that it thinks is relevant to the gist of your search, which is good for broad information on a topic, but not if you are trying to find something specific.
3Filter Search Results By Site For Easy Navigation
You can use Google's powerful search function to find results specific to one website. Say you want to know everything Reddit has on dogs, and exclude any other sites from your results. Simply typing in "Dogs:reddit.com" or "site:reddit.com dogs" to the search bar will bring up a list of Reddit's postings involving dogs. This trick can also be handy when you are trying to find a specific article on a particular site.
4Filter Results By Domain Type
When searching for a specific type of resource, a useful hack can help limit your search results to just one type of website. Simply typing "inurl:" before your search query will provide .org results, while using the "edu:" preface will give you university pages, and "site:" will give you .com results. Including this little code in your search will provide vastly different results.
5Using The Minus Sign Will Eliminate Unwanted Results
You can eliminate results from your search by including a minus sign before the unwanted site or subject. This can be super useful when search Google images or even eBay. You can cull multiple terms from your search by putting a "-" before each one.
6Certain Key Search Words Can Help Solve Problems
For fast answers to questions (especially those related to tech or IT), include words such as "forum," "fixed," or "solved" in your search, and get to the bottom of the issue faster.
7A Few Handy Symbols
Search for unknown words using Google's wildcard suggestions. The symbol * stands for "anything" when used in a search, and will bring up whatever Google thinks you might be looking for. Putting a + before a word makes sure that it will appear in every result shown.
Now go out there and search for whatever you desire!
