Google Search Tips: Part Two

How to use operators and some common mistakes a lot of users make while using them.

opERATOR USED FOR SEARCH	If you will type (examples)	Google will SEARCH FOR PAGES cONTAINING	COMMON MISTAKES
No Operator (Simple search)	a. rental hotel b. world war Hitler	a. Words rental and hotel b. Words world and war and Hitler
OR	a. rental OR buy b. world OR war OR Hitler	a. Either word rental or buy b. Either word world or war or Hitler	a. Use of lowercase i.e. writing or instead of OR between two words. b. Leave a space before and after OR.
AND	a. rental AND buy b. Microsoft AND Google AND best	a. Both words rental and buy b. All three words Microsoft, Google and best.	a. Use of lower case i.e. writing and instead of AND. b. Leave a space before and after AND.
“ ” (Quotes)	a. “Love is blind” b. “I feel lucky”	a. Return pages with Love is blind phrase in exact order. b. Search for pages with phrase I feel lucky in the same order.	a. Use of single inverted comma ‘’instead of double inverted comma” ”
-(minus sign)	a. Virus –computer b. world –human -tree	a. Word virus but not computer. It will give results of biological viruses. b. Word world but not human and tree	a. Word1(space)-word2 i.e. Virus –computer There has to be a space before using minus sign and do not add a space between minus sign and word to be excluded. Do not write as Virus–computer (- will work as hyphen sign) or Virus – computer (simple search)
+(plus sign)	a. world +win	Plus sign will make sure that word win must be included in the search with word world and plus sign tells Google to search for pages containing word win precisely not for plural, any tenses, or its synonyms.	a. Do not add a space after the plus sign. Otherwise, it will be a simple search.
*(star sign whereas I call it fill in the blank sign)	a. Obama *award	Google considers * as a blank and it finds pages that can fill this blank with best matches. Search for pages that can fill the blank between words Obama and award
~	~auto loan	loan info for both the word auto and its synonyms: truck, car, etc.	a. Do not add a space after ~ sign.
site:	a. admission site:www.harvard.edu b. recession site:www.cnn.com	a. Search only within Harvard University site or domain for word admission b. Search for word recession only within cnn website.	a. Don’t add any space between operator site: and www. b. Use operator site: in lowercase
link:	a. link:www.harvard.edu b. link:www.cnn.com	a. Find pages that link to the Harvard University website b. Search pages that link cnn website.	a. Don’t add any space between operator link: and www. b. Use operator link: in lowercase
info:	a. info: www.harvard.edu b. info:www.cnn.com	a. Find information about the Harvard University website b. Find information about the cnn website.	a. Don’t add any space between operator info: and www. b. Use operator info: in lowercase
related:	a. related:www.harvard.edu b. related:www.cnn.com	a. Find websites related to the Harvard University website b. Search websites related to the cnn website.	a. Don’t add any space between operator related: and www. b. Use operator related: in lowercase
I'm Feeling Lucky radio button		By clicking on it, this will take you directly to the first page returned for your query.

Google Search Tips continues in next post.....