Boolean Operators

12 Expert Google Search Tips

Explicit Phrase:
Lets say you are looking for content about internet marketing. Instead of just typing internet marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase. To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.
Example: "internet marketing"
Exclude Words:
Lets say you want to search for content about internet marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising. To do this, simply use the "-" sign in front of the word you want to exclude.
Example Search: internet marketing -advertising
Site Specific Search:
Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase. Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the "site:somesite.com" modifier.
Example: "internet marketing" site:www.smallbusinesshub.com
Similar Words and Synonyms:
Let’s say you want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms. To do this, use the "~" in front of the word.
Example: "internet marketing" ~professional
Specific Document Types:
If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier "filetype:". For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to internet marketing.
Example: "internet marketing" filetype:ppt
This OR That:
By default, when you do a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search. If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator. (Note: The OR has to be capitalized).
Example: internet marketing OR advertising
Phone Listing:
Let’s say someone calls you on your mobile number and you don’t know who it is. If all you have is a phone number, you can look it up on Google using the phonebook feature.
Example: phonebook:617-555-1212 (note: the provided number does not work – you’ll have to use a real number to get any results).
Area Code Lookup:
If all you need to do is to look-up the area code for a phone number, just enter the 3-digit area code and Google will tell you where it’s from.
Example: 617
Numeric Ranges:
This is a rarely used, but highly useful tip. Let’s say you want to find results that contain any of a range of numbers. You can do this by using the X..Y modifier (in case this is hard to read, what’s between the X and Y are two periods.) This type of search is useful for years (as shown below), prices, or anywhere where you want to provide a series of numbers.
Example: president 1940..1950
Stock (Ticker Symbol):
Just enter a valid ticker symbol as your search term and Google will give you the current financials and a quick thumb-nail chart for the stock.
Example: GOOG
Calculator:
The next time you need to do a quick calculation, instead of bringing up the Calculator applet, you can just type your expression in to Google.
Example: 48512 * 1.02
Word Definitions:
If you need to quickly look up the definition of a word or phrase, simply use the "define:" command.
Example: define:plethora

http://web.appstorm.net/roundups/tips-tricks/25-awesome-google-search-tips-and-tricks/

25 Awesome Google Search Tips and Tricks

We all love Google. It’s a great place to search and find things that we do not know about. The beauty of Google is its all powerful algorithm that executes billions of search queries. In addition to showing top notch search results, Google’s algorithm has a few interesting features.

We’ll be taking a look at a few tips that can help us tap into the full power of Google.

World Time

time cityname
cityname time

Want to know what’s the current local time in a city across the globe? Google can help you.

Currency Conversion

USD EURO
USD in EURO

You wont have to go WSJ‘s web page or use a mobile app. Google can tell you the real time currency conversion rates.

Unit Conversion

km mile or km in mile
inch feet or inch in feet
sec in ms

The following search strings can help you convert units pretty quickly. You can try out a lot more on your own.

Mathematical Calculations

cos(10)
sqrt(100)

In addition to unit conversions, mathematical conversions can also be done with the help of Google.

Search for similar keywords

Linux ~Tutorial

For those of us who do not know technical jargon, Google lets us to search for keywords that could be similar or synonymous to the one you are using.

Google will search for similar keywords like guides, how tos, manuals etc.

Excluding Keywords

software -paid

You can easily eliminate a particular keyword from the search.

This search string will not include paid software in the results.

Accessing blocked websites

cache:tmz.com

Want to catch up on the latest celebrity gossip from a site banned in your corporate firewall? Google can help you.

Removing specific sites from results

ipod -site:wikipedia.org

Google makes it very easy to eliminate results from a particular site that you don’t want to be listed.

This string can be very helpful when you want to eliminate links from ecommerce sites when searching for product information.

Title Search

intitle:tips for interior design

If you are tired of the search farm results with their useless keyword stuffed articles, you can choose to search the titles instead for better results.

URL Search

inurl:tips for interior design

URL search works the same as Title Search except for the fact that the words in the URL (Permalinks) alone are searched.

Finding Weather

Weather Report

weather NYC

Weather reports for your local city or for any city in the world can be found using the following search string.

Tracking Flight Status

Flight Search

delta flight 1587

If you know the flight number, you dont have to be calling the airline to check the status.

Searching for specific filetypes

robotics filetype:ppt

If you are looking for a specific filetype, say a PowerPoint file to learn about Robotics, this is the right search string for you.

Searching within a Specific Website

Site specific search

giveaway site:web.appstorm.net

Google indexes almost all websites in the world. Now if you know that a particular is available in a website and you dont want to search anywhere else use the following search string

Searching for related websites

Related Websites

related:www.wikipedia.org

Google can act as a recommendation engine if you like a particular website.

Daterange Search

daterange:1234567– 1234569 “apple”

You can search for results from a particular date range using this search string. The catch is that you will have to use the Julian date format and you can know more about it here.

Phonebook Search

phonebook:dell nyc

Google can be your very own online phonebook.

Definitions

define:guru

Want to know the politically correct definition for a term? There is a string for that!

Calculator

10+12
10*2

Google can be a great calculator if you like using your keyboard and not a mouse pointer in the native calculator app of the operating system.

Wildcard Search

Aint no *

The following search string can be very useful if you forgot the words in a lyric of a song you listened earlier. the wildcard symbol “*” will compare the possible results using the Google algorithm.

Movie Listings

movie:nyc

Google can list the movies playing in your town with showtimes.

Stock Prices

Stock Search

GOOG

If you know the ticker symbol of a listed company, you can have their financial data in seconds.

Range Search

ipod $300..$400

Be it numbers, years or price, Google lets you search withing numerical ranges.

Maps

maps: upper east side

With the maps keyword, there is no need for you open a Google Maps window to find your location.

Area Code Lookup

212

If you know an area code and want to know more details abut the same, just type in the three digits and the details will be shown. Works within US only though.

IMAGES

Pics4Learning - Very popular site to find free, safe-to-use images for teachers and students.
Cyclo.ps - Search engine that searches the most popular free image engines around and provides one-stop shopping.
School Clip Art - Great site for free school clip art.
Ookaboo - Creative commons (free) site for finding great images for class work.
Picsearch - Excellent image search engine, if used with a district's filtering solution.
Veezzle - Wonderful free stock photo search engine.
Google Swirl - Innovative way to search for images and see their relationships with each other (use with Google Safe Search enabled).
Free Photo Bank - Easy way to find creative common images.
Open Clip Art - Great way to find free clip art.
Find Icons - Nice site for free icons.

Qwiki

Qwiki at TechCrunch Disrupt from Qwiki on Vimeo.

Ten Items All Should Know When Using Google Basic Search…. Far From Basic!

http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/ten-items-all-should-know-when-using-google-basic-search-far-from-basic/

Sweet Search - A group of experts, including librarians and teachers, evaluates all content from this search engine.
Top Marks - A great site developed in the UK by teachers who approved everything on this site.
Quintura for Kids - An innovative search engine for kids that displays results in a cloud-based style. Also, has apps for mobile devices.
Kid Rex - Wonderful search engine designed around Google's safe search. Very nice visual appeal for kids.
Ask Kids - Search engine designed for kids ages 6-12.
Yahoo Kids - Previously known as Yahooligans, Yahoo Kids is a fun site for kids to gather information on the internet.
Famhoo - Family-friendly search engine that filters all content.
One Key - Developed in 1996, One Key, in collaboration with Google, does a nice job of creating a safe search engine.
Google (safe search) - Google has a safe-search setting which can be locked into place at the browser level for those that use Firefox.
Nettrekker - Great paid site for searching the web -- not only for students but for teachers as well.

Search Engines