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Most internet users scratch only the surface of what Google can help them with. Although entering several keywords may produce you results, knowing advanced search techniques can both multiply and rearrange your online information retrieval forever. These expert strategies help users to overcome digital noise and find exactly what they are looking for, whether that be song lyrics, technical terminology or something else entirely.

Use Quotation Marks

The site operator enables users to search within selected websites and domains. For example typing "site:edu artificial intelligence" provides results exclusively from educational institutions. It is especially good for academics who want or need research results that might appear on major news sites or bust large bureaucratic web-sites into manageable chunks. As well, it kills off extraneous information, focusing your search only on shell sites which tend to provide more-trust worthy data.

Don't Forget to Exclude Terms

The minus sign (-) helps restrict searches by ruling out words you want to avoid. When looking for jaguars the animal rather than cars that happen to be named after them, typing "jaguar -car" removes auto-industry results. This is particularly effective when you are dealing with words that have multiple meanings or after trying similar searches before turned up too many extraneous hits.

Use the Asterisk Operator

Asterisks (*) serve as cards for filling in unknown words in searches. For example if you know you want to find a particular phrase but can only remember part of it: searching "the best * is a good " will probably turn up at least something close to the original.

Search by File Type

Lecturers and pupils alike ought to be grateful for the filetype: operator. Simply include "filetype:pdf" in any search string and only PDF documents will be returned, which makes it ideal for finding scholarly articles or official publications at once. This works on many formats including DOCs, PPTs and XLS files.

Hint for Using the Related Operator The related: operator is a great little piece of discovery. Typing "related:nytimes.com" turns up alternative web-sites to The New York Times, which is useful when you want to find fresh news sources or rival businesses in your own industrial sector.

Set Time Limits

In the tools menu of Google, users can limit search results within specific time periods--past hour, day, week and so on or even set their own time limits. This means that searchers will be getting the latest information available on rapidly moving themes such as technology for example or outbreaks of disease or breaking news.