Google search tips

Below are some basic tips as well as some secrets that can be used on Google to help improve your search results and discover only the results you want.

1. Group your search query for better results. For example, if you are searching for computer help, better results are returned if you search for an exact phrase by surrounding it in quotes: "computer help".
2. If your results have keywords you are not search for use a minus sign. For example, If you are looking for computer help but do not want pages containing "Windows" type: "computer help" -windows
3. Google supports number ranges, for example, if you are searching for computer help between the year 2000 to 2005 you can type: "Computer help" 2000..2005
4. See the Google operators page, which lists dozens of the available operators Google allows. For example, the below search would search for URL that contains the word computer: allinurl: computer
5. Visit the Google Features page, which lists hundreds of different examples of the things you can find through Google and how to find them.
6. See the Google dictionary definition for a listing of dozens of other Google services.

Below are some more advanced searches and what they do.

intitle:index.of + mp3 -asp -html -htm -php -pls -txt

In the above example, when entered into Google this search result looks for any index of MP3files that are not in an ASP, HTML, PHP, or PLS web pages. In the above example, you can also replace mp3 with avi or other file extensions to search for these files.

intitle:index.of + mp3 "<artist name, track, or  group>" -asp -html -htm -php -pls -txt

In the above example, you could replace "<artist name, track, or group>" with the artist's name, track, group, or the name of the MP3 you are trying to find. Keep in mind when downloading MP3 that you should own the track or song you are downloading otherwise it is considered illegal.

inurl:"ViewerFrame?Mode="

In the above simple example, Google returns results of insecure live web cams and with some of the services even allow you to control the cameras over the Internet.

The above three examples are just a few more advanced searches used to help illustrate how many different things can be found through Google.

-   computerhope