Google has been with us for more than two decades and there are still those who do not know how to get the most out of it. And it is that the most famous search engine on the Internet hides several secrets that only the most savvy know. Several of these tricks could save you a lot of search time and locate exactly what you want to find in a matter of seconds.
Do you want to learn some of them?
Here are eight hacks after Google celebrated its 23rd birthday:
1. “The power of quotation marks”
If you add quotes to a sentence, Google will find you exactly what you type and in that same order. Thus, it will exclude results that include only some of the words in the sentence.
For example, if you search for “Crisis in Venezuela”, Google will take you exactly to the results that contain that phrase and will not return those that include “crisis” or “Venezuela” in another context.
2. A dash (-) to skip results
If you add a simple “-” immediately before a word, Google will exclude that term from any of the results. For example, if you are interested in health-related topics but you are somewhat fed up with the news about the coronavirus, just type health –coronavirus in the search engine to get the information that interests you and avoid the one that bores you. You must add the hyphen without spaces immediately before the word that you want Google to exclude from the results.
3. Colon to find intervals (..)
If you want to search for James Bond movies, the famous British 007 agent, but released between 2008 and 2012, just Google James Bond 2008..2012. You can also do it with prices. If you want a new computer that costs between $ 200 and $ 800, just put $ 200..800 computer into the browser.
4. Search only on the website that interests you
By writing site after a term and before a specific website, Google will only show the results of that website. In case you want to know our coverage of the German elections last Sunday, if you Google elections Germany site: bbc.com/mundo, the search engine will prioritize our latest notes on Germany, its elections, and the legacy of Chancellor Angela Merkel after 16 years in power.
READ MORE: This Is Why Costa Rica Is So Attractive to Google
5. Results on a specific location
Google also offers the ability to focus your search for a term in a specific location. To do this, you must use the word location followed by a colon before a specific site. If you like to keep up with the news about the American tycoon and entrepreneur Elon Musk, and you want to know the latest that is known about him in San Francisco, you can write Elon Musk location: San Francisco. Most likely, the first thing Google shows you is that Musk put a luxurious home up for sale in this city.
6. Use | to search between two results
You may want to search for two terms at the same time without their being related. Try typing Mexico Peru first. It is very likely that Google will show an article about the relations between the two countries or possible flights from one destination to another.
If instead, you place a vertical bar like this | in between, it will search for relevant information between the two countries separately. It also works if you insert the word “or” between one term and another. I get their Wikipedia profiles and the official websites of the governments of Mexico and Peru.
7. Check a listed company
If you have investments in a company or you are interested in checking the state of the stock market, Google offers you the direct result with a simple command. You just have to write stock: in front of the specific company. For example: stock: Evergrande, and it will show you the performance of the Chinese real estate company that has made several troubling headlines in recent days.
8. Filter by text format
You may want to search for information on the history of the Taliban without going to any specific website. In that case you must put the filetype command followed by a colon and the chosen format. For example, doc for Word or pdf for Adobe. In that case, you would have to write history of the Taliban filetype: pdf
Google has been with us for more than two decades and there are still those who do not know how to get the most out of it. And it is that the most famous search engine on the Internet hides several secrets that only the savviest know. Several of these tricks could save you a lot of search time and locate exactly what you want to find in a matter of seconds.
Do you want to learn some of them?
Here are eight hacks after Google celebrated its 23rd birthday:
1. “The power of quotation marks”
If you add quotes to a sentence, Google will find you exactly what you type and in that same order. Thus, it will exclude results that include only some of the words in the sentence.
For example, if you search for “Crisis in Venezuela”, Google will take you exactly to the results that contain that phrase and will not return those that include “crisis” or “Venezuela” in another context.
2. A dash (-) to skip results
If you add a simple “-” immediately before a word, Google will exclude that term from any of the results. For example, if you are interested in health-related topics but you are somewhat fed up with the news about the coronavirus, just type health –coronavirus in the search engine to get the information that interests you and avoid the one that bores you. You must add the hyphen without spaces immediately before the word that you want Google to exclude from the results.
3. Colon to find intervals (..)
If you want to search for James Bond movies, the famous British 007 agent, but released between 2008 and 2012, just Google James Bond 2008..2012. You can also do it with prices. If you want a new computer that costs between $ 200 and $ 800, just put $ 200..800 computer into the browser.
4. Search only on the website that interests you
By writing site after a term and before a specific website, Google will only show the results of that website. In case you want to know our coverage of the German elections last Sunday, if you Google elections Germany site: bbc.com/mundo, the search engine will prioritize our latest notes on Germany, its elections, and the legacy of Chancellor Angela Merkel after 16 years in power.
5. Results on a specific location
Google also offers the ability to focus your search for a term in a specific location. To do this, you must use the word location followed by a colon before a specific site. If you like to keep up with the news about the American tycoon and entrepreneur Elon Musk, and you want to know the latest that is known about him in San Francisco, you can write Elon Musk location: San Francisco. Most likely, the first thing Google shows you is that Musk put a luxurious home up for sale in this city.
6. Use | to search between two results
You may want to search for two terms at the same time without their being related. Try typing Mexico Peru first. It is very likely that Google will show an article about the relations between the two countries or possible flights from one destination to another.
If instead, you place a vertical bar like this | in between, it will search for relevant information between the two countries separately. It also works if you insert the word “or” between one term and another. I get their Wikipedia profiles and the official websites of the governments of Mexico and Peru.
7. Check a listed company
If you have investments in a company or you are interested in checking the state of the stock market, Google offers you the direct result with a simple command. You just have to write stock: in front of the specific company. For example stock: Evergrande, and it will show you the performance of the Chinese real estate company that has made several troubling headlines in recent days.
8. Filter by text format
You may want to search for information on the history of the Taliban without going to any specific website. In that case, you must put the filetype command followed by a colon and the chosen format. For example, doc for Word or pdf for Adobe. In that case, you would have to write a history of the Taliban filetype: pdf
