Become a Google expert
Become a Google expert
Google is probably the search engine that you are most familiar with but most of us only use a fraction of Google's full potential.
On this page we'll show you some ways to improve your Google searching skills in order to retrieve more useful search results for your research.
Google Searching
Use the search box below to try some of these modifiers to help refine your searches and get better results.
(From Google)
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What it does:searches for an exact phrase What to type: "I have a dream" What you'll get: results that include the exact phrase "I had a dream" |
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What it does: excludes search results with a particular word or phrase What to type: apple -fruit What you'll get: results about Apple that are not related to fruit |
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What it does: searches for a word and all its synonyms What to type: ~mobile phone What you'll get: results with "phone" and also "cell", "cellular" etc. |
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What it does: searches for pages that include either word What to type: diving Tioman OR Redang What you'll get: results with "Diving" and either "Tioman" or "Redang" |
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What it does: defines a word or phrase What to type: define:ubiquitous What you'll get: links to definitions of "ubiquitous" |
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What it does: searches only particular websites What to type: robotics site:.edu What you'll get: references to robotics found on .edu websites |
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What it does: searches for webpages What to type: link:tts.edu.sg What you'll get: websites that link to the tts.edu.sg website |
Access Google Advanced Search for many more options to improve your search.
Improve your search skills
Watch the video below to learn 10 tips and tricks to improve your Google searches
Boolean in Google
You have already learnt how to use Boolean operators for databases but they work slightly differently in Google:
AND - Is automatically included between every word you add to the Google search box so there's no need to include it.
OR - Works in exactly the same way in both databases and in Google
NOT - In Google you need to use the symbol - instead of the word NOT
Explore the interactive site, Boolify, to find out more about using Boolean operators in Google...
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