When searching for a particular site, it is important to begin searching for the site in a specific domain. Popular domain sites include: .gov (United States government sites), .mil (United States military sites), edu (United States academic sites), .org (organizations), com (commercial sites), and .state.nc.us (for United States sites).
Use Boolean search terms.
Boolean terms refer to: AND, OR, NOT
These words tell a database how to do the search. "And" combines search terms; "OR" searches for either one search term or another; "NOT" ignores a particular word. (To see a visual representation of Boolean words, go here.)
AND: Google uses an implied "and" between search terms. For example, when you search for maryland constitution what Google does is look for maryland and constitution.
OR: Google will only recognize OR when it is in capital letters. maryland OR virginia
NOT: Google uses the minus sign to exclude terms. maryland -virginia
Restrict the Domain.
You can direct Google to look for particularly types of websites, such as government, military, non-profit or education. This is done by indicating what type of site you want, using the "site:" command such as:
shays' rebellion site:.edu
Use Quotes.
To find words in a web page or document in the exact same order, put quotes around them:
"Song of Solomon"
Exclude non-necessary words.
Use only those keywords that describe your topic:
How did Frederick Douglass affect the Civil War? should be Frederick Douglass Civil War or "Frederick Douglass" "Civil War"
Search synonyms.
You can search for the synonyms of words by putting a tilde in front of the search term:
~love would search for "marriage," "romantic," "romance," as well as "love."
Search singular and plural.
Google does not automatically search for the plural form of words. To makes sure it does you have to use the Boolean OR:
sculpture OR sculptures
Searching for common words.
Google ignores common words such as "how," "this," "where," "a." To make sure that Google does a search for a word like this use the + symbol before the word:
+who +are +you
Use the "fill in the blank" feature.:
Google can still look for something even if you can't remember the full name, or don't know a specific date, etc:
roe v * would search for court cases that began with "roe."
You may also want to search by a specific file type. The link provided will give a list of file types commonly searched for by users.
To search within a number or price range, you will need to follow this search function.
#..#
An example of performing a search within a number or price range is listed below.
HDTV's..$500 or to narrow down the search even more for a specific HDTV type try 720p..1080p OR 120Hz
Google translation allows you to translate words or web pages into other languages. You may also configure the Google interface in the language of your choice.