The Tekblog

Its obvious that the Internet is a great information tool. The purpose of a Search Engine like Google is to help us to find this information more quickly. Sometimes knowing how to find an answer to something is just as important as actually knowing the answer…

The most simple example is the usage of a Quotation Mark in your search query. When you use a Quotation mark, Google will match exact phrase in that order, instead of just the individual words in the phrase. There are many other such things you can do to fine-tune your search:

Searching within a specific site (site:)
If you know you like MSNBC you can search that specific site for specific information. For example the query [ pirates site:msnbc.com ] will return pages about Pirates but only from msnbc.com. Queries missing the ’site:’ operand [ pirates msnbc.com] will still work as well, although they might return results from other sites that mention MSNBC.com. You can also specify a whole class of sites, for example [ iraq site:.gov ] will return results only from a .gov domain and [ iraq site:.iq ] will return results only from Iraqi sites.

Excluding Specific Terms (-)
Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates that you do not want pages that contain this word to appear in your results. The minus sign should appear immediately before the word and should be preceded with a space. For example, in the query [ anti-virus software ], the minus sign is used as a hyphen and will not be interpreted as an exclusion symbol; whereas the query [ anti-virus -software ] will search for the words ‘anti-virus’ but exclude references to software. You can exclude as many words as you want by using the – sign in front of all of them, for example [ jaguar -cars -football -os ]. The – sign can be used to exclude more than just words. For example, place a hyphen before the ’site:’ operator (without a space) to exclude a specific site from your search results.

Use of ‘Wildcards’ (*)
The *, or wildcard, is a little-known feature that can be very powerful. If you include * within a query, it tells Google to treat the star as a placeholder for any unknown term(s) and then find the best matches. For example, the search [ Google * ] will give you results about many of Google’s products. The query [ Obama voted * on the * bill ] will give you stories about different votes on different bills. Note that the * operator works only on whole words, not parts of words.

Google Phone Number Lookup (phonebook:)
Who wants a big fat ugly yellow book sitting around anyway – a phone book? What’s that??? Google allows you to look up phone numbers directly from the search bar. If you start your query with phonebook:, Google shows all public U.S. residence telephone listings (name, address, phone number) for the person you specify. For example, [ phonebook: John Doe New York NY ] will show phonebook listings of everyone named John Doe in New York, NY.

Google Calculator Functions:
Google can do a host of mathematical calculations – even trigonometry! For the rest of us – here are the basics.

 Here is a link to a more comprehensive list of calculation capabilities and usages:

http://www.googleguide.com/help/calculator.html

Google Unit Conversions:

No – not done yet. Unit conversion can be very helpful with currency and even conversion between unit types:

Convert from one set of units to another by using the notation, x units in y units.

• [ three quarters of a cup in teaspoons ]
• [ 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit in degrees Celsius ]
• [ 130 lbs in kg ]
• [ 130 lbs in stones ]
• [ 65 mph in kph ] or
• [ 65 mph in km/h ]
• [ 2 meters + 5 feet ]

Convert from one numbering system to another.

• [ 1500 in hex ] or [ 1500 in hexadecimal ]
• [ 64 in binary ]
• [ LVII in decimal ]
• [ meters per mile ]
• [ furlongs per fortnight ]

Google is a great tool for technicians and business-people alike. With a bit of education we can be just that much more productive withour searches. There are several more things I will consider going over in another blog entry… I hope this is helpful!

Thanks!

-Justin