20 Great google Tips and Tools for Better Research

(and Fun)

Valerie Koenigwww.BusinessPlansHawaii.com

Google Punctuation

1. Google Ignores Most Punctuation Marks:

?,{,[,],},&,%,$,#,!

2. But NOT:

Hypens: Hawaii-based v. Hawaii based

Apostrophes (or Okina): Hawaii v. Hawai’i v. Hawai`i

Accents: Cafe v. Café

Google Punctuation

3. Don’t Worry about Case

Google is indifferent to case usage (upper or lower case)

gEorGe wASHingTon = George Washington = george washington

Save your keystrokes!

Very Useful Tip

4. Search for Answers, Not Questions

Put your search query in the vocabulary of the answer phrase.

Bad Search Example: “how many Americans drive SUVs?”

Good Example: “percent of Americans drive SUVs”

Google Punctuation

Punctuation Marks with Meaning:

5. + (And)

6. | (Or)7. - (Not)8. “l” (Phrase Search)9. * (Wildcard)10. ~ (Synonym)

Google Boolean Logic

5. Google Default is “And”. Symbol Plus Sign (+) is rarely necessary, used to force numbers “Star Wars +1”

6. Not = - (Minus Sign). Word NOT does not work as operator.

7. Or = | (‘bar’ above backslash). Uppercase word “OR” works as operator.

More Refined Searches

8. Phrase Search (“i”)

Useful for Phrases with Common Words (“employment discrimination”)

9. Wildcard (*)

Represents one single word (can use more than one)

Useful for Name Searches (especially foreign/Hawaiian)

Useful for querying “answers” (example: “apple has * calories”, “haley’s comet appears every * years)

Good to replace punctuation marks or abbreviations (“bed * breakfast”, “rice * cayatano”)

More Useful Tips

10. Synonym (~): “women’s ~apparel”, “~contact site:norton.com” (contact ~= support ~=customer service ~=help)

11. “Define:” - returns only definitions

12. Google Alert: www.google.com/alerts: track companies, issues online

Site:

13. Google Operator used to restrict searches to specific URLs

Useful when site has poor search function: searches within the given site, example: “dave smith site:hawaii.edu”, “condominium site:hawaii.gov/dcca”, “ptsd site:va.gov”

Can use to exclude sites, example: “hear loss -site:com”,

Great with Google Images: “site:goodsill.com”

Filetype:

14. Used to restrict search results to specific filename extensions.

Example: “restaurant “business plan” filetype:pdf”, “retail profit * loss filetype:xls”

Works with most common filetypes: Adobe (pdf) , Excel (xls, xlsx), Word (doc), PowerPoint (ppt)

Others: rtf, txt, php, asp, jsp, html.

Not: mp3

Useful Tips

15. Calculator / Converter

Simple & Complex Math

Currency / Measurement Converter:

5 kilometers in miles

teaspoons in cups

dollars in rupiah

Useful Travel Tips

16. Weather: Hilo

17. Time:London

18. Flight Tracker: HA 102, UA 319

Useful Tips

19. Special Number Look-Ups:

Area Codes

Patent Numbers

Packages: UPS, FedEx, USPS tracking #

VINs

20. Movies with Zip: “Movies 96813”

Extra Credit

“I’m Feeling Lucky” button on Google homepage

In Closing

The best answers are only a few pages deep.

There’s lots we didn’t cover today.

Google keeps coming out with new stuff.

If you’re not getting the results you need, try something new.