Focusing Your Search

November 8, 2002 -- Updated February 1, 2004

Practically everyone uses Google these days, due to its ability to find the search results most relevant to your search. Well, here are some tips for using Google that you may not have known. (If you use other search engines, like Yahoo, try these tips there, too!)

Case doesn't matter

Search engines don't take capitalization into account, so searching on PATIO FURNITURE will return the same websites as patio furniture.

Use quotes for phrases

If you're searching for an exact phrase, enclose it in quotation marks. Example: "outdoor patio furniture" is more likely to return pages selling outdoor patio furniture than typing outdoor patio furniture (without the quotes), which will return pages containing all three words, even if they don't appear next to each other.

Use '+' to include "common" words

Sometimes you don't want to limit results to a precise match of your phrase. In that case, keep in mind that search engines usually exclude very common words, like "and," "to," and "in". They also exclude single letters, like "I" and "a". If a "common" word or letter is important to your search, make sure it's considered by preceding it with a plus sign (+).

Example: If you search for websites about how to bake pies by entering how to bake a pie, the words "how" and "to" will be excluded if you leave off the quotes. Typing +how +to bake pies is more likely to point you to "how to" pages about baking pies. Of course, you could just put the phrase in quotes, but that will exclude pages that contain phrases such as how to bake apple pies, and how not to bake a cobbler.

Use the '-' sign to exclude words

To exclude pages that contain a certain word, place a minus sign (-) immediately before it.

Example: Suppose you are looking for software made by someone other than Microsoft. That's pretty hard to do. But, just search on software -microsoft, and you will find only web pages that don't mention microsoft.

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