Some Lesser Known Google Search Tips
Posted on March 1, 2007
Google’s Matt Cutts recently appeared on Episodes 137 and 138 of DL.TV with a handful of not so well-known but very handy Google search tips. Some highlights from the list include (paraphrased):
- Include quotes around your query to get results that contain exactly the text you enter, in the order you enter it. This is helpful when you want to narrow down your search and you know the exact expression you are searching for. For example, type “loose lips sink ships” to find all exact matches (returned 193,000) of that phrase. If you search for loose lips sink ships without the quotes, you will likely get many more results (returned 583,000), since you will be including pages that contain all those words but not necessary that exact phrase.
- Phrase your query in the way in which the result might appear. For example, if you want to find out the height of Mount Everest, try the query “mount everest is * feet high”. The query is written in a way in which the result is likely to appear on a web page. The height (the variable piece of information you are trying to find) is specified as an asterisk. In the results, the height will replace the asterisk. Note that I included quotes since I expected the results to appear exactly as I wrote in the query.
- Search for ranges of numerical values in a query. For example, you are interested in Mount Everest base camps between 10000 and 20000 feet. Include the range separated by a “..” as in the query mount everest base camp 10000..20000. Note that I left off the quotes since I didn’t really know how the words would appear. Alternatively, you could search for DVD players in the $100 to $300 range with the query dvd player $100..$300.
- Exclude certain keywords by using the minus sign. For example, you are interested in ribs, but not the pork variety, you could query on ribs -pork. This will return results containing the word ribs but not pork.
These are just a few of the many Google search tips that are available.
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