Google is a really powerful search engine. Not only for speed, but the ease and simplicity is a big winner among other search engines. Here are the 20 most useful tricks on how to search Google like a Pro.

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Have you tried searching phrases like:

1. “blogs similar to huffingtonpost.com”
2. “what are the best books from 2011 to 2014”
3. “article in juaninvestor that contains the word colfinancial”

Quite amazing, there are shorter and faster ways of searching these keyword phrases and save a few seconds in striking your keyboard. Read on.

Related Search

This is the answer to example 1. To search for web pages that have similar content to a specific site, type “related:” followed by the website address into the URL.

Ex. related:huffingtonpost.com

Dash (to exclude term)

If you want to exclude a term or a phrase, use the “-” symbol. -big fat liar will show pages that contain “fat” and “liar” but don’t contain “big”

File type

If you want to search for .avi files or powerpoint documents or any type of file, use the “filetype:” operator. Ex. travel filetype:pdf 

Definitions

To find the meaning of a word, use the “define:” operator. Ex. define:tenacious

Calculator

To do a specific calculation, simply type in the URL box and you can get the answer instantly. Use the basic operators like +, -, /, * and parenthesis. Ex. (4^7/23+45)

Site Specific

This is faster than example 3. This is used to search for a particular word or phrase only in a specific site. site:juaninvestor.com colfinancial will search for “colfinancial” only in this blog

Exact Phrase

If you are searching for the exact phrase, use quotes. “best video compilation” returns pages that contain the exact phrase “best video compilation”

Find Backlinks

Find pages that link to a specific site or page by using the “link:” operator. Ex. link:lifehack.org

Numeric range

This feature searches for a range of numbers. Use the “..” operator to execute. In example 2, we can search for it like best books 2011..2014 and the results will be the best books from 2011 to 2014

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Weather

Search the weather for any city worldwide. Type “weather” followed by the city, state, zip code or country. Ex. weather talisay city, cebu

Unit Converter

Convert weights, lengths and other units of measure. Ex. 34 days in hours

Types of numbers

Google algorithms can recognize the pattern of numbers entered into the search bar. It can search for:

Telephone area codes

Zip codes
Package tracking 1Z9999W99999999999

Local Search

Search anything in your city using the zip code. mexican food 90210

Vertical Search

To search for a phrase in a specific category, use the vertical search. If you like search for a term specifically in the book category, use book search.
Book Search
Code Search
Finance
Images
News
Video

Location of Term

By default, Google searches for the term within a web page. But if you just want to search it in specific locations, you can use the operators like “inurl:”, “intitle:”, “intext:” and “inanchor:”. Those will search for a term only within the URL, title, the body text and the anchor text (text used to describe a link) Ex. intitle:sleepwalking

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Similar Terms

Use the “~” operator to find similar terms. Ex. ~juaninvestor – juan will return results containing “investor” like investor juan but not juaninvestor

Wildcard

The “*” symbol is a wildcard. This is used if you are trying to find a song but can’t remember the exact lyrics. Ex. “shower *love lyrics” will return to the song by Surface – Shower me with Your Love. You can also use it to find the term in a certain domain such as dogs *.edu

Either / OR

If you want pages that contain one or both of the terms, use the “|” (pipe symbol).
Ex. crazy | love will return pages containing crazy and/or love

Answer to life the universe and everything

Search the phrase and Google will give you the answer!

Advanced Search

If you can’t remember any of these operators, you can always use Google’s Advanced Search

Conclusion

Google is a very powerful search engine. Armed with these 20 amazing tricks, you should now be able to browse and Google efficiently!