How to Google Like a Ninja

“Google” has become de facto verb in any modern day dictionary defined as “search for information about (someone or something) on the Internet using the search engine.” People now also use it in everyday sentence like “google it, to learn more”. Believe me, the internet is really big big and we rely on search engines to navigate our path through the net. But, there is so much you can do on google and only a few professional and net savvy people are taking advantage of it.

Google is a powerful search engine processing over 4 billion queries every day. In this article we will share 10 important tips to make you google like a ninja.

1. Search Operators: An operator is a symbol that modifies the words or numbers around it. Example +, – , “ ”, * OR etc Operators may help you adjust, refine or narrow down your search. The following are some important Google search operators and their functions
2. Inclusion ( + ): The plus sign (+) will instruct Google to make sure that the search result must include a particular word. Lets say you were looking up HP laptop on Google.com.  If you just type in “HP Laptop” you get 79 million returns.  A few more sites than you can check in a day so lets narrow the search down.  Let’s say that what you’re really interested in is HP laptop pavilion model.  To see all the websites about HP laptop that also have the word “pavilion” on them type this:

Now you will only see those websites about HP laptop that also have the word pavilion.  However may be you are interested in getting a driver:

1. Exact phrase (“ ”): Double Quotation mark instructs Google to include only the exact phrase –the exact words, in the exact order you typed them– in your search results. In the example above, we can further narrow down the search result by using quotes to include an exact phrase. For example if what we’re really interested in is driverwe can add that to the search like this

Now you will only see websites that have the words “driver” on them in that order spelled the way you spelled it. Using quotes is a great way to narrow a search and in our example, we were able to go from 79million web pages to 202 pages result in the last example.

1. Exclusion ( – ): The minus sign (-) excludes words from your search results.

You can narrow the search even more using the minus (-) operator to eliminate a word.  For example, Lets assume you want to perform search on the word “apples” show a result of over 119 million pages. Some of the websites in the result are also about Apple Computers and assume you are rather interested in apple fruit, so lets get rid of them by typing this:

That reduced about 13,400.

1. The asterisk wildcard (*)

The star or asterisk character (*) indicates a “wild card” for a missing word in your search results. When you use an asterisk in a search term on Google search, it will leave a placeholder that may be automatically filled by the search engine later. This is a brilliant way to find song lyrics if you don’t know all the words. Let’s look at the syntax.

* don’t have to go 360* open your eyes

To you or me, that may look like nonsense. However, Google search will search for that phrase knowing that the asterisks can be any word. More often than not, you’ll find they are lyrics to Asa song “360” and that’s what the search will tell you.

1. Multiple words at once (OR)

Google considers all the words in a search. If you’d like to specify one or several words in the search results, you can use the OR operator (remember to use capital letters).

Try this search: [dance folk music]

Then  include the OR: [dance OR folk music]

In this instance, these two exact phrases will be searched. It can be done by word too, like the example below.

2. Specific Sites (site:) eg site:website.com

There may be an instance where you need to Google search for articles or content on a certain website. The syntax is very simple and we’ll show you below.

Voters card site: inecnigeria.com

This will search for all content about voters card, but only on inecnigeria.org. All other search results will be removed. If you need to find specific content on a particular site, this is the shortcut you can us

3. Use the Tabs

On the top of every search are a number of tabs. Usually you’ll see Web, Image, News, and More. Using these tabs, you can help define what kind of search you need to do. If you need images, use the Image tab. If you are looking for a recent news article, use the News tab. The tabs can cut search times dramatically if utilized properly.

4. Calculator: Use Google do Maths

Google search can actually do math for you. This is a rather complex one to describe because it can be used in so many ways. You can ask it basic questions or some more difficult ones. It is important to note that it won’t solve all math problems, but it will solve a good number of them. Here are a couple of examples of the syntax.

8 * 5 + 5

700000 / 89 = ?

If you search the first one, it’ll return 45. It will also show a calculator that you can use to find answers to more questions. This is handy if you need to do some quick math but don’t want to do it in your head. If you search the second term, it will return 7865.17. So it can do math!

5. Find a specific file

Google search is the ability to search for a specific file or file type. This can be infinitely useful if you need a specific PDF or PowerPoint file that you previously viewed or need to use for another project. The syntax is quite simple.

*Search term here* filetype:pdf

In the above example, you simply replace the search term with whatever you’re searching for. Then use the filetype command and enter the extension of any file type you can think of. This can mostly be useful for scholarly purposes, but business presentations and other assorted presentations can benefit from this kind of search as well.

6. Money and unit conversions

Google search can quickly and accurately convert both measurement units and currency value. There are a variety of uses for this, like checking to see the conversion rate between two currencies. If you happen to be a math student, you can use it to convert from feet to meters or from ounces to liters. Here’s how to do it.

• miles to km – This will convert miles to kilometers. You can put numbers in front to convert a certain number. Like “10 miles to km” will show you how many kilometers are in 10 miles.
• USD to Naira – This will convert a US dollar to Naira. Like the measurements above, you can add numbers to find exact conversions for a certain amount of money

7. In Keep it simple

Now we’re getting into the general tips. Google search knows how to search for a lot of things. What this means is you don’t need to be too specific. If you need to find an Restaurants nearby, use this to search.

Restaurants nearby

Google search will grab your location and deliver a variety of results about Restaurants that are near you.

Summary

Google search is a very powerful search tool. Using the tips outlined above, you can find anything and everything you could ever need on the internet. Knowing these tips will definitely help you make Google search work for you and make you a “Google Ninja” . To learn more about visit http://support.google.com/websearch