A few tips for more specific and faster searches in Google. Designed as introduction to search tips for journalism students. Given in association with Google Cheat Sheet. Feedback welcome.

1. Search Tips
Julie Starr | evolvingnewsroom.co.nz

2. When you enter keywords into Google, it searches web pages from
across the world wide web. That’s great if you want a wide search
that catches any page or document that contains those words
“Flight of the Conchords”

3. But what if you want specific information and you’re in a hurry?

4. There are ways to make Google searches more specific.... and faster

5. Let’s say you’re researching the Flight of the Conchords and you
want to find a story that ran in the NZ Herald newspaper. You
can search nzherald.co.nz from the Google search box
site:

6. Use this syntax to ask Google to search only nzherald.co.nz for
“flight of the conchords”
site: www.nzherald.co.nz “flight of the conchords”

7. Compare the results of these two searches. The search on the right
immediately gives you results from nzherald.co.nz – and hopefully
just what you were looking for
“flight of the conchords” site: www.nzherald.co.nz “flight of the conchords”

8. If you wanted to know about a music download, you might search
the Conchords’ MySpace page
site: www.myspace.com“flight of the conchords”

9. You can also search particular kinds of sites such as university
websites (perhaps if you wanted to know whether there was any
academic research into the Flight of the Conchords)
site: .ac.nz

10. Or government websites
site: .govt.nz
site: .govt.nz “flight of the conchords”

11. You can quickly find websites that link to the one you’re
interested in
link:

12. In our example, the link search might help find fan clubs of the
Flight of the Conchords
link: www.flightoftheconchords.com

14. You can find what information Google has about a particular
website using an info search
info: www.flightoftheconchords.com

15. And a related search will list websites similar to the one you name
related: www.flightoftheconchords.com

17. What if you’re stuck for the first line of a book or a phrase you only half-remember?

18. You can find websites that refer specifically to a book
book

19. Imagine you want to know the opening line of Jane Austen’s
Pride and Prejudice
book “pride and prejudice”

20. Which of these two searches will be most helpful in finding the
novel’s opening line?
“pride and prejudice” book “pride and prejudice”

21. Forgotten how a phrase goes? Try using an asterisk in the spot
where the missing word goes
how now * cow

22. If you’re researching breast cancer and don’t want any dubious
search results, try this...
safesearch:

23. safesearch: “breast cancer”

24. Auto? Automobile? Truck? Dodge? Vintage? Classic? If you’re not sure
what to call what you’re looking for...

25. ...try putting a tilde (~) in front of your keyword. Google will look for
‘auto’ and for synonyms of ‘auto’
~auto

26. Imagine you want to upgrade your phone but you have a
limited budget

27. Try typing the phone you want into the Google search box alongside
a number range
#...#

28. iphone $400...$600

30. Google is also a calculator

31. Use these symbols for common equations
+ - * /

32. 25 + 258

33. Percentage
Raise to a power
Old measure in new
Equation
% of
^
old in new
5*9+(sqrt 10)^3
25 % of 978
10 ^2
45 Celsius in Fahrenheit
5*9+(sqrt 10)^3=
Here are some more

34. 25 % of 978

35. 45 Celsius in Fahrenheit

36. 5*9+(sqrt 10)^3=

37. There you are.
A handful of search tips to help
you work smarter and faster.

38. You can find many more Google search tips on this website:
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/134479?hl=en

39. The End
Julie Starr | evolvingnewsroom.co.nz