Google Search Engine Tips

Anyone can search using Google, but can you search and get the results you need?

Before you start: Too few words may give you a bad result. The Google search box will allow up to 32 words. Try to use nouns...other words end up being "stop words". These are words that cause the search to go awry.

• To search a specific phrase, use "quotation marks". This is especially helpful when looking up poetry or song lyrics or specific names. Ex. "Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain".
• Word order does matter, so, put the most important word/words first. Meanwhile case (singular, plural doesn't). There is no real wild car for Google either....so diet will be diets, dieted, dieting when searching.
• Punctuation is ignored for the most part too, except the dollar sign, underscores or hyphens (Example: $500, mother-in-law, time_to_go).
• Plus sign (+) helps your search be more specific. Mona Lisa+Artist brings up a bit about the Mona Lisa and the artist Leonardo Da Vinci.
• Meanwhile a (-) minus sign before words to be left out of the search provides more specific searches....For example, search Michelle Obama -Barack -Obama and you will get Michelle but not Barack.
• Find a specific site that really had good info? Find related webpages by adding the word "related" and the name of the website. (Ex: related:Caneyvalleyschools.org)
• Periods..but just two of them... not three or more. Periods define a range of numbers such as prices, years, or measurements. (Ex. Oscar winning movies from 1950..1960)
• Dashes-these awesome little items when placed BEFORE a word indicate that you want to exclude it from the search. (Ex. Mustang -car) Just a word of caution, there needs to be a space before the dash.
• Tildes~you know, that little squiggly looking dash. Used just before the word, it will allow the search to include any synonyms for that word. (Ex. Instant pot recipes ~chicken)
• Asterisks let you have a memory lapse. Don't know all the lines of a lyric, but some of it, use an asterisk. Ex: "imagine all the * Living in the * today" will fetch you the Beatles lyrics to Imagine (Imagine all the people living in the world today...the asterisk becomes sort of a wild card).
• Site...Use this trick when you want to search specific websites for keywords. For example if you want to know how many times Times Magazine online mentions Google, then you would enter Google site:Time.com (place the term you are searching first, then the word "site", then the website address you are searching for the term in, in this case Time Magazine).
• Search Google News for news articles going back to the 1880s. Most want be local, but you will find some information from the past.
• Just for fun try using the word "Define" then a word or phrase. For example Define bae will give you the definition of the slang word bae. You can use this for any term or even slang like smh.
• Even more fun...type in "Google tilt" (without the quotation marks, then choose the result that says askew).
• Looking for an image but just don't have quite the right one? In images use the image similar to what you are looking for then click the camera symbol....you'll get similar images.
• Using the microphone feature, you can do two more fun things....1. tell it flip a coin and it will provide a coin flip for you. 2. Tell it find me a love quote (or some other kind of quote). You'll get the appropriate quotes.
• Search using specific websites in mind (.org, .edu, .com, .net, ). .com websites are usually a for profit website and not as reliable for information. .net usually works for networks, often used for companies or businesses who have a network of computers. .edu is reserved for education and is mostly used by colleges. .org is used for organizations and is often reserved for places like public schools and non-profit businesses. The most reliable of these as far as research goes will be the .org followed by the .edu, then the .net and least reliable is the .com. To search for a specific thing. Example: Art:.org Tulsa, Oklahoma gets you museum information around Tulsa, Oklahoma
• allintext: This phrase placed before the a phrase defines the search down to a very specific set of words and nothing more. Google will only show searches with those words. Example: allintext: Oklahoma State Pistol Pete brings links to pages with Pistol Pete information but not info about Oklahoma State itself.
• filetype: This phrase before your search term helps you look up specific documents. Example: filetype: 1040 IRS pdf
• stocks: This before the letters of a particular stock will get you the current quote. For example: stocks: ticker symbol ONeOk will get you the ticker symbol and current stock information for that company.