Google like a pro.

You probably use Google every day. And you probably fancy yourself a good googler too. And you might just be one. But, chances are there are some little tricks that you don’t know about that can make sure you’re googling even more efficiently than you ever thought possible. Saavy?

Outside of normal ‘word matching’ searches (aka, what we all normally do), you can also use some of the tips below to help get you answers even quicker:

Bonus: if you’re a Google-hater, these tips should work in any search engine you prefer. No guarantees for Ask.com however, but that’s what Jeeves is for, right?

  1. Exclude a word from your search query

    justin beiber -talented

    If you prepend a minus sign to your query on a word, this will update the search to look for results that do not include that term.

  2. Search only a specific domain

    site:jefff.co justin bieber

    If you specify the domain first, you can then search for anything that Google has indexed on that site more easily.

  3. Related words

    justin beiber ~terrible

    Start with a main search and append and ~(tilda) before the last word to tell Google you want to search for the main phrase and anything the kind of relates to the latter.

  4. Wildcard searching

    justin beiber * butt *

    The wildcard, much like Charle Kelly, is both powerful and small. Use this in place of literally anything inside a search phrase.

  5. Within a time period

    justin beiber 2012..2013

    Simply put, this searches for results of a search phrase within a certain time period.

  6. Search a specific file type

    filetype:pdf justin bieber

    Like the site specific search above, this looks for your search phrase in a specified filetype; aka PDFs, Word Docs, images, etc.

  7. One word or the other

    justin OR beiber

    A blanket either or search, this will look for any result with word a OR word b.

  8. Quickly define a word

    define:overrated

    A simple shortcut to define a word you specify; superb.

  9. Calculate something

    (8+2) * (3/2)

    H8te math? Fear not, if you type the syntax correctly, Google will handle the calculation(s).

  10. Convert units to other units

    6 kilometers in miles

    Who hasn’t forgotten what X converts to in Y? I have. Use this little search tip to figure all kinds of unit conversions out.

© now; passionately made by jefff.