Among search engines, Google is one of the best and easiest to use. However, getting really useful results can be a tricky thing, especially if one or more of the terms you want to use is a very common word.

Fortunately, Google has several features that let you refine your searches for better results.  Google ignores case for searching, so these examples use all lower-case.

• Quotes. If a phrase appears in double quotes, Google will search for pages that contain exactly that entire phrase.
  

Example: "polar bears"

This search only returns results that contain the phrase "polar bears".  It will not list pages that only say "grizzly bears" or "polar and grizzly bears".

• Minus signs. If a word is preceded by a minus sign, Google will eliminate any pages that contain that word.
  

Example: japan wombat -australia

This search returns results that contain both "japan" and "wombat", but skips any pages that contain "australia".

• The site: prefix. The site: keyword allows you to search within a specific site. It must use the domain name, not the name of the site (www.swcp.com, not Southwest Cyberport).
  

Example: site:www.swcp.com eudora

This search returns articles from the SWCP Knowledge Base about using Eudora and personal SWCP customer pages referencing Eudora.

• The link: prefix.  The link: keyword allows you to find sites that link to another site and see what they say about you and your site.  Links to you are one of Google’s measures for determining site rankings.
  

Example: link:www.swcp.com

This finds sites that link to our SWCP site.  Many of the first few links are from us, linking internally.

Google also has several familiar features beyond website searching, such as maps and cached copies of sites, and several less familiar features, such as a built in calculator, currency converter, phone book, and package tracking information. 

Find out more about these features and even more at: http://www.google.com/help/features.html

 
Written by Victoria Lesanges