Tuesday, January 17, 2006

How to search on Google?


Most people are overwhelmed when getting results from a google search and think they simply can't find anything on the internet.

Here's a quick guide on how to search with google (also applies to Yahoo! and other search engines):


1. Using simple boolean operators helps, like with the following example:

  • searching for [ludovic windsor] (without the square brackets) returns fourty-thousand and one hundred results
  • the same query but for the exact phrase ["ludovic windsor"] (with the quotes but not the square brackets) only returns 98 results, so this filters
  • using the boolean operator AND plus another search term, we finally find this blog out of only 3 results: ["ludovic windsor" AND Richmond]

2. A search is like a funnelling process: you need to refine your query to reduce the search results more and more, by iterations. So keep adding relevant keywords, synonyms to get a more specific answers.

3. You can use more advanced functions by simply clicking on "advanced search", exclude terms, etc...

4. Finally, check this great resource: Google Help : Cheat Sheet