The Google search bar is a powerful tool that allows users to quickly find the information they are looking for and search online. Google indexes billions of web pages, offering a variety of knowledge at your fingertips.
It has become a valuable gateway for anyone seeking information about solving their problems, learning about news, recipes, decision-making, and more. It also allows users to access valuable resources and save time while researching anything quickly.
In this blog post, I will provide tips on using Google to refine your search and uncover precise information quickly and effectively.
Tips to Use the Google Search Bar Like a Pro
The tips below will help you use the Google search bar like a pro and find the information you are looking for in the deep Google database.
1- Use Quotations (“”)
Usually, when you type your keyword in the Google search bar, it will show you the relevant results related to your queries, but if you are looking for something or a particular term, you can use quotation marks (“”) around your phrase.
After this, Google will show you the result pages that contain the exact phrases and terms in the order you use while searching.
For example, if you type ‘cold coffee’ into the Google search bar, the results will appear in the exact order you entered.
2- Use Colon (:)
If you want specific information on a particular website, you can use ‘site:’ before entering the URL.” This can also help you find something specific on a particular website, whether it be an article, review, or recipe.
For example, if you want to find iPhone reviews on CNET, type ‘site: https://www.cnet.com iPhone reviews’ into the Google search bar. Google will show you the results of all the CNET website iPhone reviews.
3- Use an Asterisk Wildcard (*)
Use an asterisk (*) while searching anything on Google if you have forgotten any terms or are unsure about a part of your search query or question. While typing the (*) character, Google will fill in the word where you put the asterisk.
For example, search ‘* fashion in the world’ on Google. It will fill in the gaps and give you results like the global fashion industry, top fashion industry, Indian fashion industry, etc.
4- Use Related:
If you want to find out which websites are similar to a particular website on the Internet, you can use the ‘related:’ tag when conducting a Google search. This technique will show you alternative sources to gain different perspectives and find additional information about the topic you are looking for.
For example, if you want to find SEO-related websites, you can use” ‘related: SEOwebsites.com”‘ to find similar websites that provide SEO related content.
5- Search for Filetype
You can use the ‘filetype:’ operator in the Google search bar to quickly find file types and formats. This is helpful when finding documents in a specific file type, such as PDFs, Excel sheets, Word files, etc.
You can find search results for files with the desired extension using a ”filetype” operator in your search terms. Let us understand this with an example:
If you want to find documents in PDF about comfortable office chairs, you search through ‘comfortable office chair filetype:PDF’ to get PDF results.
This will also help you save time searching for Word files on search engines’ result pages (SERPS) and show you relevant results.
6- Use Image Size:
If you are searching for an image of a particular size, you can use an ‘image size:’ tag in your search query. This can help you specify the width and height of your image in pixels.
For example, you can search ‘imagesize:1200×675’ on Google; it will show you results with images that are 1200 pixels wide or 675 pixels high.
7- Use Minus – And + Signs
You can refine your search term by utilizing your search by using minus (-) or plus (+) signs on the Google search bar. Using a minus (-) before your search query means you give Google a sign to exclude that word from your search. This approach can be helpful when searching for a topic or a phrase with multiple meanings.
For example, if you want information about Androids but not Samsung, you can search on Google like this: ‘Android -Samsung,’ Which will show you the results for Android phones rather than Samsung phones.
8- Use After: and Before:
You can use ‘after:’ and ‘before:’ tags to find the information published before and after a particular year or time.
For example, if you want to find reviews about any product before 2023, you can try ‘Google Pixel Tablet review before:2023’. This will show you product reviews published before your selected year like 2022.
Similarly, with the’ after: ‘ tag, you can access information published after a specific time.
9- Use AND Logic:
You can search on Google for two terms using ‘AND’ in your search query. You can use ‘AND’ between the keywords you write using the Google search bar.
For example, you can search ‘before AND after’ and get all those results on Google that contain both keywords in the same order you search.
10- Use the ‘‘Advanced Search’’ Feature
If you don’t want to use all modifiers, you can use Google’s ‘Advanced Search’ feature to refine your results by entering a keyword in a specific field. To access this, go to the result page on Google, click on the ‘gear’ icon in the upper right corner, and select ‘advanced search.’ This feature also allows you to narrow your search results by region, domain, language, file type, and more.
Also, if you want to access a particular image, you can narrow your search by using the following features: image size, color, image type, etc. You can also filter your image search on a mobile device if you can’t create an advanced search. To do this, go to the slider icon at the top. You can search your image and filter through HD images, GIFs, colors, usage rights, etc.
Wrap Up:
Google is the most powerful search engine, with a huge database that provides users with valuable information and helps them answer their queries. Because of this huge data collection, users mostly get confused about how to access the information they are looking for and don’t even know how to use Google correctly.
Usually, users use the Google search bar to type their queries, and then Google shows them all the relevant results. However, it may take time to find the exact information users seek. In this article, I provide the most effective tips and shortcut methods so that you can access the exact search results.
You should try these tips to get the exact search results for anything you search for on the web from anywhere in the world.
