Make the most of a Google search

Over the years the names of many companies have become generic terms for a product or service, for example Hoover and Thermos. Recently Google has joined this illustrious band as a verb.

In short, for very many people Google is the first port of call for when they want to search for something on the internet.

Of course, Googling is as simple as typing a word or two into an empty search box, but there are many ways to improve results. In this Back to Basics guide we’ll look at how to get the best out of Google, and make searches faster and smarter.

Introducing Google
We’ll begin with the basics. If you know how to execute a simple Google search, skip this paragraph.

If you don’t, launch a web browser such as Internet Explorer, click once in the address bar at the top, replace what’s there by typing www.google.co.uk and press Enter. This is the home of the Google ‘search engine’ – a method of searching for stuff online.

Type ‘Computeractive’ (without the quotes) into the search box in the centre of the page and press Enter: a list of search results will be displayed. To visit a site, just click its link.

Now let’s try that search again, but differently. Return to www.google.co.uk and type ‘Computeractive’ slowly – one character at a time – and watch what happens: as each character appears, Google starts to guess what’s being searched for.

Using the ‘Computeractive’ example it tries Currys (the electrical retailer), followed by Comet, then the Commonwealth Bank, Companies House etc. By the time we’ve typed ‘Computera’ the Computeractive website has appeared at the top of Google’s search results.

Click the ‘Computeractive’ entry with the mouse or tap the down arrow (cursor) key to select it and then press Enter.

Many people search for the same words or phrases and Google knows this, so this technique can save time when typing longer search terms.

Everyday searches
Of course, brands such as Computeractive are easy to find but for something more ephemeral try to think of words that are included on the website: searching for ‘backache’, for instance, is likely to produce more relevant results than ‘my back is a bit sore’.

Google doesn’t distinguish between upper and lowercase letters and ignores most punctuation and characters and symbols. To find something local, such as a takeaway restaurant, try typing what you are looking for plus the name of the town or postcode – for example, ‘takeaway Brighton’ – or otherwise Google is likely to return results from all over the world.

Remember Google uses each word included in the search box to refine its results, so to include as many sites as possible keep the number of words in a search to a minimum – searching for ‘reviews in Computeractive magazine’, for instance, will find our main website, but limiting the search to ‘Computeractive reviews’ puts the link to our reviews page right at the top of the results list.

Google recommends avoiding loose words like ‘company’, ‘document’, ‘website’ and ‘info’ and to think about the meaning of the search terms they’re using.

Other types of search
The Google homepage also has a series of headings across the top: Images, Video, Maps and News. To see how these work, try searching for ‘swimming pool’ in the normal way and then click through the various headings to see relevant results of each type: you’ll see pictures and videos of swimming pools, news about swimming pools and locations of swimming pools displayed on a map.

Now click the More link on the right to see more search types: Books, Finance, Blogs, Shopping and so on. Click the Web heading to return to the main results.

Smarter searching
To make Google find web pages that include a specific phrase, as opposed to pages that include the words in any order, enclose the search term in double quotes. Searching for “Welcome to the Hotel California”, for instance, will probably return results for the lyrics to the Eagles song.

However, bear in mind that this technique may exclude pages that could be relevant (because the relevant Eagles’ album was simply called ‘Hotel California’).

Similarly, it’s possible to get Google to exclude pages that contain certain words by putting a minus (‘-’) sign in front of them without a space. Search for ‘Lion’, for instance, and right now the first result is likely to be Apple’s new operating system.

That’s fine but not much use if you’re looking for information on predatory felines, so instead try typing ‘Lion -Apple’: this time the king of the jungle should be right at the top of the results’ list.

Want to search for something on a specific site? Try adding ‘site: [website address]’, after the search term. For example, searching for ‘Computeractive site: bbc.co.uk’ will produce a results list with only mentions of Computeractive magazine on the BBC’s UK website.

Google also understands wildcard searches, where the asterisk (‘*’) character represents an unknown quantity. Type something like ‘Facebook was invented by *’, for instance, and the first result will often answer the question.

Google can also tot up sums. Type 34 * 10, say, and press Enter and Google will also do the multiplication.

Finally, there’s a way of performing complex searches without knowing any tricky syntax. Click the cog icon at the top right-hand corner of the main Google search page and choose Advanced search.

Google displays a search form with fields that have logical labels next to them, like ‘Find web pages that have... this exact wording or phrase’. Use the options in the dropdown menus below to narrow the search to a specific file format or language; or click the ‘Date, usage rights, region, and more’ link for even more refinements. Click the Advanced Search button to execute the query.

Search and you will find
There’s always a bit of trial and error involved when searching with Google because of the variables. But following the simple examples here and thinking a little more carefully before filling in that empty box will vastly improve the chances of finding what you’re after.