POWER SEARCHING WITH GOOGLE
Top Ten Search Tips
Solving a problem?
“How Search Works” #1
GENERAL SMART QUERIES

In Google searches:
Capitalization does not matter
 Punctuation does not matter – Google queries will
ignore most special characters
 Every word in your query makes a difference
 The order of words in your query makes a
difference

OPERATORS
An operator is something extra added to your
search query to filter (limit, reduce, focus, etc.)
results.
 There are many different kinds of operators that
can be used in combination with one other.
 Two of my favorite operators:

(site:) – use to narrow search results to a single
(ex. Abraham Lincoln site:archives.gov)
 (site:) – use to narrow search results to websites
within a specific top-level domain (.gov, .edu, .com)
(ex. socratic seminar site:.edu)
 (filetype:) – use to narrow search results to files and
documents of a specific extension only (xls, ppt, doc)
(ex. Socratic seminar filetype:pdf)

FINDING TEXT ON A WEB PAGE
(CONTROL – F)
Use Control – F to find a word or text on a page
 Using Control – F speeds up search
 Using Control – F puts you in the Top 10%
 How to use it:

Windows computers: press the Ctrl and F keys at
the same time
 Apple computers: press the command and F keys at
the same time

IMAGES

Search Google Images and filter results by
Color
 Visually similar results


Search By Image

Drag and drop and image from the web or your
computer into the search box
THE DEFINE FUNCTION

Use “define” to:
identify the meaning of a word
 hear how a word is pronounced

Some words may not be in traditional
dictionaries but are in common use throughout
the world. Example: define pwned
 Click the “More info” link for additional
information about the word including:

Web definitions: the word “in context” as it appears
around the web (being extracted live from multiple
web pages)
 Translate to: the word the different languages

DIFFERENT KINDS OF CONTENT

Maps





Google Scholar


Streetview
Traffic
My maps
3D
Search scholarly papers!
Books
Full text
 Magazines/newspapers

Tips & Tricks
 http://www.google.com/insidesearch/tipstricks/all.
html

SEARCH FEATURES
SHORTCUTS
Calculator
 Shortcuts:

Weather, Time
 Define
 Sunrise/sunset
 Inside Search-all tips

Translate
 Time/Date Range – many uses

Search
 Videos
 blogs
 Interview

News
Books
Images
COMBINING METHODS
Combine operators for stronger searches
 Example – Tab can
 (searching image, color and date)

MORE RESOURCES
Inside Search
 http://www.google.com/insidesearch/
 Certification Process – Power Searching Class
 Advanced Search Certification
 Official Google Blog
 http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/becomegoogle-power-searcher.html
 A Google a Day game
http://agoogleaday.com/#game=started
