Tip of the Week: How to Customize Your Google Search for Better Results

You probably use Google more than you care to admit, so what if we told you that you could be getting even more value out of your Google searches? Today, we want to share some strategies to customize your Google search results by making your searches more effective from the outset.

Use Quotes to Find Specific Instances

Here’s a trick that teachers use to catch plagiarism in papers and essays. You can search for a specific phrase, wrapped in quotes, to discover where it came from. Google will then return searches for known quotes and passages, helping you find out where exactly the phrase came from in the first place.

Use Asterisks If You’re Unsure of a Word

This one’s helpful for finding lyrics, quotes, or phrases, but mostly if you’re unsure about a specific word or instance. Just replace the instance of the word with an asterisk. The search engine will then show you results, taking into account that there should be a word in place of the asterisk.

Use the Minus Sign to Narrow Down Search Results

It’s easy to run a Google search only to get results that have nothing to do with what you’re looking for. You can omit certain words or phrases through the use of the minus sign in your search. 

Use a Colon to Search Specific Websites

If you want to run a search on a specific website, you can use a colon in conjunction with your chosen search query to narrow down the results. This is helpful if you don’t want to see results from other sources and are instead trying to find something from one specific website.

We hope you find these tips helpful! Make sure you keep an eye on our blog for more great ways to make the most of your technology.

White Mountain IT

Related Posts

Tip of the Week: Worried About Phishing? Use the SLAM Method

So, what is the SLAM method? The SLAM Method is a Simple Practice to Help Spot Phishing The SLAM method is a framework to help keep phishing prevention practices in mind. Sender: Who supposedly sent the message? Check the email address to make sure the address matches the supposed sender, with no misspellings or suspicious URLs. Links: Before clicking on any links, make sure you hover over...

Strategies to Control Your Passwords

Passwords are the keys to digital access, but they're often not treated as keys; meaning they aren’t always protected by their users. Unfortunately, people don’t always do everything they can to protect their passwords and there are a lot more scammers out there than pickpockets. Effective password management is crucial for any business. It works to maintain the security of online accounts and se...

Tip of the Week: Three Practices to Reduce Consternation About Your Technology

Technology plays a massive role for most organizations nowadays, and not everyone always grasps the importance of it. Most of the time, there is so much built into today’s enterprise software that it can often be overwhelming for workers to use it effectively. Today, we will give you three tips on how to help employees get a grasp of the technology their productivity depends on. Help Them Under...

You Need to Have a Business Continuity Plan for Your SMB

Business technology is known to be remarkably finicky, particularly if you do not have the requisite knowledge to manage and maintain it. After all, there is a reason why you hire an IT department or a managed service provider to handle this role. What happens if your technology fails, though? Do you have a plan in place? What does a plan like this even look like, anyway? Let’s dig into the detail...