Curious to know google search tricks? Google Search is much more than a public search engine. It gathers data from all over the internet, looks for meaningful information, stores the information in its data centers, and makes it available to us in seconds.
However, most Google users can’t take full advantage of Google Search as they don’t know how to use it. That’s why we have produced this article where we are going to share the best Google search tricks that can help you get the most out of this incredible tool in 2022.
Table of Contents
ToggleBasic Google Search Tricks for Better Search Experience
Use quotes to search for an exact phrase
This one’s a well-known, easy trick: searching a phrase in quotes will yield only pages with the same words in the same order as what’s in the quotes. It’s one of the common vital search tips, useful if you’re trying to find results containing a specific phrase.
Use an asterisk within quotes to define unknown or variable words
Here’s a lesser-known trick: searching a term in quotes with an asterisk replacing a word will search all variations of that phrase. It’s helpful if you’re trying to decide a song from its lyrics, but you couldn’t make out the entire term (e.g., imagine all the living for today), or if you’re trying to find all forms of an expression (e.g. is thicker than water).
Use the minus sign to exclude results containing specific words
You’ll want to exclude results with specific words if you’re trying to search for a term that’s generating many results that aren’t of interest to you. Conclude out what terms you’re not interested in (e.g., jaguar -car) and re-run the search.
Search websites for keywords
Think of the “site:” function as a Google search that searches only a particular website. If you want to see every time ABC.com mentioned Google, use the search “Google site:ABC.com.”
Search news archives going back to the mid-1880s
Google News has an option to search over 100 years’ worth of archived news from newspapers around the world.
Compare foods using “vs”
Can’t decide between a burger and pizza for dinner? Type in rice vs. quinoa, for instance, and you’ll take side-by-side comparisons of the nutritional facts.
Filter search results for recipes
If you search your favorite food and then click “Search Tools” right under the search bar, you’ll be able to filter recipes based on ingredients, cook time, and calories. It’s the perfect tool if you have specific dietary restrictions.
Use DEFINE: to learn the definition of words—slang included
Streamline the dictionary method by using, for example, DEFINE: mortgage. For words that look in the dictionary, you’ll be able to see etymology and a graph of its use over time alongside the definition. Google will even sift the web to explain slang words or acronyms. Try out “DEFINE: bae” or “DEFINE: SMH.”
Tilt your screen by searching “tilt”
This is one of the fun extensions built-in by Google engineers. Try it out yourself (search without quotes).
Play Atari Breakout by exploring it on Google Images
The legendary brick breaker game is available for easy access on Google. Just search Atari Breakout (without quotes) on Google Images and use.
Search images using images
You have ever come across a photo that looks strangely familiar? Or if you want to know where it came from? If you save the image and then search it on Google Images (with the camera button), you’ll be able to see similar images on the web.
Track your packages
Our last trick is to utilize Google search to find out where your packages are. You can access any UPS, USPS, or FedEx tracking number directly into the Google search bar, and it’ll show you the tracking information about your package.
This is much more comfortable than going to the specific sites, waiting for them to load, then searching for your packages there.
No examples are needed for this one. Just type your tracking number in and understand where your package is.
Could you keep it simple?
Now we’re getting into the general tips. Google search identifies how to search for a lot of things. What this means is you don’t need to be too precise. If you require a pizza place nearby, use this to search.
- Pizza places nearby
Google search will grab your location and deliver different results about pizza places near you.
Use a hyphen to exclude words
Sometimes you may discover yourself searching for a word with an ambiguous meaning. An example is Mustang. When you Google search for Mustang, you may get outcomes for both the car made by Ford or the horse. If you want to cut one out, use the hyphen to tell the engine to disregard content with one of the other. See the example below.
- Mustang -cars
This tells the search engine to search for mustangs and remove any results with the word “car” in them. It can be wildly helpful when getting information about something without getting information about something else.
FAQs
Q: How do I turn on advanced search in Google?
A: Do an Advanced Search On your Android phone or tablet, enter Advanced Search: google.com/advanced_search. Below Find pages with, choose the query field/s to: Enter the words that you need to include or remove from your results. Under then narrow your results by, prefer the filters you want to use. Tap Advanced Search.
Q: What are the Google search operators?
A: Google search operators are special characters and commands (sometimes called “advanced operators”) that extend regular text searches’ capabilities. Search operators can be helpful for everything from content research to technical SEO audits.
Q: How do I search without a word?
A: You can eliminate words from your search using the – operator; any word in your query introduced by the – sign is automatically excluded from the search results. Remember always to include a space before the – sign and none after.
Q: Can you tell if someone has Googled you?
A: Unfortunately, Google doesn’t reveal this type of information. The truth is you can’t legally find out precisely who is using a search engine to look up information about you. However, you can obtain out when and where someone is searching for you. To obtain this data, you have to set up a trap.
Conclusion
Google search is a potent search tool. Using the tips outlined over, you can find anything and everything you could ever need on the World Wide Web. Share your thoughts in the comment box section below.