If you're not finding what you're searching for after using some basic search tips, try a search operator. Add these symbols or words to your search terms in the Google search box to narrow down your results. Don’t worry about memorizing the operators - you can use the Advanced Search page to generate many of these searches.
When you search using an operator, don't add any spaces between the operator and your query. A search forsite:nytimes.com will work, but site: nytimes.com will not.
| Search for an exact word or phrase | Use quotes to search for an exact word or set of words. This option is handy when searching for song lyrics or a line from literature.
"imagine all the people"Tip: Only use this if you're looking for a very precise word or phrase, because otherwise you could be excluding helpful results by mistake. |
| Exclude a word | Add a dash (-) before a word or site to exclude all results that include that word. This is especially useful for synonyms like Jaguar the car brand and jaguar the animal.jaguar speed -car or pandas -site:wikipedia.org
Tip: You can also exclude results based on other operators, like excluding all results from a specific site. |
| Search within a site or domain | If you are looking for more results from a certain website, include site: in your query. For example, you can find all mentions of "olympics" on the New York Times website like this:
olympics site:nytimes.comTip: Also search within a specific top-level domain like .org or .edu or country top-level domain like .de or .jp.
olympics site:.gov |
| Search for pages that link to a URL | Using the link: operator, you can find pages that link to a certain page. For example, you can find all the pages that link to google.com.
link:google.comTip: You can also search for links to specific pages, like google.com/images.
link:google.com/images |
| Search for pages that are similar to a URL | To find sites that are similar to a URL you already know, use the related: operator. For example, when you search for related sites to the New York Times, you'll find other news publication sites you may be interested in.
related:nytimes.com |
| Fill in the blank | Use an asterisk (*) within a search as a placeholder for any unknown or wildcard terms.Tip: Use with quotation marks to find variations of that exact phrase or to remember words in the middle of a phrase.
"a * saved is a * earned" |
| Search for either word | If you want to search for pages that may have just one of several words, include OR (capitalized) between the words. Without the OR, your results would typically show only pages that match both terms.
world cup location 2014 OR 2018Tip: Enclose phrases in quotes to search for either one of several phrases.
"world cup location 2014" OR "world cup location 2018" |
| Search for a number range | Separate numbers by two periods without spaces (..) to see results that contain numbers in a given range of things like dates, prices, and measurements.
camera $50..$100Tip: Use only one number with the two periods to indicate an upper maximum or a lower minimum.
daytona 500 winners ..2000 |
Punctuation
When you search, most punctuation and special characters are ignored. However, there are some punctuation and symbols that are work in searches
Activity #1
Use Google Advanced Search to help you answer the following multi-step questions.
1. On what day of the week and in what year is Justin Bieber's 21st birthday?
2. How long is it to drive from here to Edmonton? How many litres of gas would you use if you were driving a 2013 Honda Civic? How many litres of gas would you use if you were driving a 2013 Dodge Ram pickup truck?
3. How much money does it cost to book a flight aboard the Virgin Galactic? How many bitcoins would you need to cash in to pay for this flight?
Activity #2
Google Advanced Search Challenge Activities:
1. Perform a basic Google Search then open the "advanced" menu.
2. Refine your search by reading level.
3. Refine your search by location.
4. Refine your search by publication date.
5. Open the Advanced Search menu then refine your search by excluding words from your search.
6. In the Advanced Search menu refine your search to just results from a domain such as ".edu"
7. In the Advanced Search menu refine your search to a file type.
8. In the Advanced Search menu refine your search by using a country code such as ".ca" Then compare results coming from different countries.
9. Refine your search by usage rights.
10. Create your own search engine using Google Custom Search.
google.com/cse
Activity #3
Activity #4
Try these searches and notice the differences
Activity #5
*You will need to take some notes
Watch then solve....
