Google Search Help

Google is more than a web search engine. Much more. It will search web pages, news articles, images, phone directories, books, and on and on. Google’s mission is to search the world. But in this section, we will be exploring only the web page search function. We won’t be touching on phonebook searches, movie searches, or any of the special searches here.

Google web search will search the millions of web pages stored on all the accessible servers on earth to find pages that match your search criteria. Although a simple program to use, if you don’t know anything beyond keying a few words in the search field you’ll have difficulty finding just what you are looking for. But by using a few simple techniques you’ll learn in the pages ahead, you can narrow your search down to a manageable set of results that most likely be what you require.

The techniques you must learn to master Google are not difficult. But, you need to spend a little time to get to know them. You need to know which tools work for what task.

Understanding the Search Results Page

The search results page lists your results by relevance, with each underlined item linked to the associated page.

We’ll describe the various parts of the Search Results Page here:

(A) Top links: Lists the links for the Google search services you want to use.

(B) Google search button: After entering any search criteria in the search field, you’ll click this button or simply hit the enter key.

(C) Advanced search: Click this link to bring up a fill-in form to perform an Advanced Search with many options.

(D) Search field: This is where you had keyed the search criteria.

(E) Preferences: Link to the Preferences Page from which you can set personal search preferences such as your language, filtering, number of search results per page and more.

(F) Statistics bar: This tells you the how many results the search found, the search criteria and a link to a definition if it is in the associated dictionary/encyclopedia with whom Google has partnered.

(G) Tip: There may or may not be a tip for searching more efficiently.

(H) OneBox results: Google’s search technology finds many sources of specialized information. Those that are most relevant to your search are included at the top of your search results. Typical onebox results include news, stock quotes, weather and local websites related to your search.

(I) Page title: Title of the web page listed. If the page has no title or has not yet been indexed by Google, it will show the URL.

(J) Text below the title: This snippet is an excerpt from the result page, with your query terms bolded. If Google has expanded the range of your search using stemming technology, the variations will also be bolded. If not yet indexed, there will be no snippet.

(K) URL of result: Web address of the returned result.

(L) Size: The size of the text portion of the web page. The size gives you an idea of how long it will take to load. Pages not yet indexed by Google will not show a size.

(M) Cached: Sometimes a page will not load due to either a server problem or a page that no longer exists. However, Google stores the last indexed version of the page in cache. Clicking on this link will show the cached page.

(N) Similar pages: When you select the Similar Pages link for a particular result, Google automatically scouts the Web for pages that are related to this result.

(O) Indented result: When Google finds multiple results from the same website, the most relevant result is listed first, with other relevant pages from that site indented below it.


(P) More results: If more than two results are found from the same site, the remaining results can be accessed by clicking on the “More results from…” link.


Setting Your Search Preferences

Before you get started using Google, you should check your preferences. You can do this by going to the main Google search page at Google.com, and clicking on the Preferences link to the right of the search field.

Here you will be able to change the the settings that will define your Google Web Search user experience.

Interface Language: Set the language in which you want the interface to communicate with you. Pretty self-explanatory. Note that the Google programmers had a little fun here and included the Elmer Fudd and Klingon languages. :)

Search Language: While English pages are the most prevalent, web pages are written in all languages. By default, Google will search without regard for language. It’s not going to translate a search word to search pages in another language, but it will look for the search term in any web pages written in any language. To keep this default selection make sure that Search for pages written in any language is selected.

Google recommends searching all languages, but why clutter up your search results page with site you won’t be able to read. I prefer to select only the languages I know how to read. You may select any number of languages here.

SafeSearch Settings: As everyone is aware, there are an overwhelming number of sites on the web that are not appropriate for kids, or most people for that matter. A search without safeguards in place can surely give you an unexpected eyeful.

Google’s SafeSearch setting lets you set up a safeguard to stop the inclusion of such sites in your search. Your choices are:

• Moderate filtering excludes most explicit images from Google Image Search results but does not filter ordinary web search results. This is your default SafeSearch setting; you'll receive moderate filtering unless you change it.
• Strict filtering applies SafeSearch filtering to all your search results (i.e., both image search and ordinary web search).
• No Filtering, as you've probably figured out, turns off SafeSearch filtering completely.

Number of Results: Set how many results you wish to see per page.


Results Window: Set whether or not to open search results in a new browser window. Default is no.

How to Use Google Like a Pro

Today I’m going to teach you how to use the world’s biggest search engine, Google. I use Google all the time! You just type what you want to search and hit enter!”

And that’s how most everyone uses Google. But there are much more efficient methods that you can use to improve your internet searches. So today, I’m going to teach you about operators. Operators are functions that a computer uses to understand what you want. In this episode, I’ll teach you to use these operators to spend less time searching the internet and more time finding what you want. 

Operator 1: The Minus Sign
Let me give you an example of how operators can make your life easier. Say you type “salsa” into Google and hit search. What will you see? Probably a lot about salsa the food as well as about salsa dancing. What if you just wanted to find out more about the stuff you put on your tortilla chips? Simple, just type “salsa,” leave a space, type a minus sign, and then the word “dancing”

The minus sign will tell Google to exclude “dancing” from any search results for the word “salsa.” Using the minus sign is one of my favorite operators but there are a ton more to make your life easier.

Operator 2: The Tilde Sign
Next there is the tilde (~), which looks like a little mustache and often used in writing to signify an approximate amount of something (~30 feet long means approximately 30 feet long). The tilde allows you to search for words that are similar to one another. So if you put a tilde directly in front of a word, Google will find other search terms that have similar meanings, sort of like a thesaurus. For example if you put a tilde in front of the word “cat,” your search might return results that have to do with kitten, feline, kitty, etc. You get the idea.

Operator 3: The Quotation Marks
Say you’re trying to find an exact phrase. For example, who said “Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others”? Just type the whole thing with quotation marks around it, and Google will only search for that exact phrase instead of each word individually. This is extremely useful for movie quotes and famous speeches. And in case you were wondering, the author of that wise phrase is Groucho Marx.

Operator 4: Math and Conversion
Try putting 3 x 5 in the search bar. Google will interpret this and solve it for you. It can even convert most types of units. As an engineer, I can’t tell you how useful it is to be able to type “3 cubic meters to cubic inches” for a quick conversion.

This feature of direct answers goes even further. If you type “movie,” “define,” “stocks,” or “weather” followed by a colon and your search term, Google will bring back show times, a definition, a stock quote, and even the weather of your search term. This may save you valuable time and clicking effort…and it gets even better!


Operator 5: Site-Specific Search
Google can search within websites, too. So if you want to search for a tip from my earlier Tech Solutions, all you have to do is type the word “site” followed by a colon, and then the website you wish to search in. This will bring back results only from that website. It’s an invaluable tool that I use for research all the time.

Operator 6: File Search
If you are looking for a specific file, maybe a pdf of a product manual or a Word template, type “filetype” followed by a colon and the extension of that file into Google and it will return files with your specifications. So instead of having to hunt through a website to find the file you want to download, you can get to it in one easy click.

Here are my 3 Quick and Dirty Tips for faster and easier Google searches:

• Use the tilde, minus, and quotation mark keys to narrow down your results.
• Use Google for instant math solutions and even value conversions in one click.
• Search within individual websites to find a direct path to the content you’re looking for.

Resources
A list of Google’s simple operators Simple Operators

A list of Google’s more complex operators Complex Operators

A cheat sheet printable PDF of Google operators 

Top Most Popular Best Google Services

Google is a search engine which is developed by Sergey Brin and Larry page in 1996. First name of Google is Back Rub But in 1997 it changed to Google. Larry and Sergey book a domain google.com in 15 September 1997 and it authorized on 4 Sep 1998. After that google provide so many services which help users who use google. Here some of the best google services:

1. Blogger: – you can create own blog and join blogger’s community. This service of google is free and people can share their thoughts.

2. Flogger: – You can search a products in term of type, price and location.

3. Gmail: – This is free google online email services. It allow user 1GB Storage. Gmail is most popular service which used to send messages, documents and media files.

4. Google+: – this is google social networking site where people can share pictures, audio, video online chat etc. In this social networking site people join community and share their thoughts.

5. Google AdSense: – this service paid to publishers or blog developers for ads which is available in their websites. In this service google ads is publish in websites and when user click on this ads google paid to owner of this website.

6. Google Adwords: – this is a way of google earn money through advertisement. Through PPC, CPM, Text Banner and Rich media advertisement Google provide Adwords

7. Google Aliets: – With the help of this service you can create alert text messages and sent it to any email address.

8. Google Analytics: – this service is only for those people who run their own websites or blog. Through Google Analytics admin of website see total no of visitor come on their websites and it show location, keyword, landing page information how users come to your site.

9. Google App Engine: – Through This service users can create scalable web service using google resources.

10. Google Base: – this is a place where you can post any news and able to show on google search engine.

11. Google Buzz: - This is older google social networking site which is discounted now. Google + is the new social networking site of google.

12. Google Calendar: - This service help you to organize your schedule and share events in your friends.

13. Google Checkout: - This service is only for selling of buying products. In this service users and sellers can connect with each other to sell or buy product online.

14. Google Code: – This is used to show source code of any website.

15. Google Custom Search Engine: – this service allow You to create your own custom google search engine.

16. Google Docs: – This is free service of Google which allow you to open your Microsoft office documents and share them.

17. Google Drive: – This is Cloud Storage Service which is launched google 24 April 2012. In this service users can stored and edit their documents in Google Cloud(GCloud).