10 Ways to Search Google for Information That 96% of People Don’t Know About

1. Either this or that

2. Searching using synonyms

3. Searching within websites

4. The power of the asterisk

When our cunning memory decides to prevent us from recalling that one key word, phrase, or number we need in order to find what we’re looking for, you can turn to the powerful "*" symbol. Just use this in the place of the word/phrase you can’t remember, and you should be able to find the results you’re looking for.

5. When lots of words are missing

If it’s the lengthier half of the phrase you can’t remember rather than a single key word, try writing out the first and last words and putting “AROUND + (the approximate number of missing words)“ between them. For example, ”I wandered AROUND(4) cloud."

6. Using a time frame

Sometimes we urgently need to acquaint ourselves with events that occurred during a certain period of time. To do so, you can add a time frame to your search query with the help of three dots between the dates. For example, if we want to find out about scientific discoveries during the 20th century, we can write:

7. Searching for a title or URL

To help find the key words and name of an article, type “intitle:“ before the search term, without any spaces between them. In order to find the words from a URL, use ”inurl:".

8. Finding similar websites

If you’ve found something you really like online and want to find similar websites, type in "related:" and then the address of the site, again without a space between them.

9. Whole phrases

Framing the search term within quotation marks is the simplest and most effective way to find something specific and in the exact order you typed it in.

For example, if you type in the words I’m picking up good vibrations without quotation marks, the search engine will show the results where these words appear in any order on a website, as opposed to the specific order in which you typed them.

If, on the other hand, you type "I’m picking up good vibrations" within quotation marks, you’ll get only those results where these words appear only in the order you typed them in. This is a great way to find the lyrics to a song when you only know one line from it.

10. Unimportant search words

To remove unimportant search words from your query, simply write a minus symbol before each one. For example, if you want to find a site about interesting books, but you aren’t looking to buy them, you can write the following: