Back when I used to be on the phones for an ISP technical support helpdesk it was essential to research those more obscure problems. These days, most people know how to get to Google and type in a few search terms but, more importantly, being able to cultivate those results quickly and accurately is an entirely different matter.
So here are a few tips to help you refine your Google search results.
- Suppress unwanted search results:
- Upon your first or subsequent searches you may notice that there are particular terms that are the opposite of what you are attempting to find or from an unwanted branch of information. To suppress these results, simply precede the unwanted search term with a hyphen (i.e. “-“) to refine your search results.
- Search for phrases instead of individual words:
- When you are dealing with content such as quotes and error messages you can more accurately target your search through the use of phrasing. For instance, Windows XP Error 691 access was denied would return slightly different results than “Windows XP” “Error 691” “access was denied”.
- Restrict your search to particular domain name spaces:
- If you remember the site or top-level domain from which you found a webpage you are trying to find again, you can narrow your search by typing in “site:” followed by the domain name. For instance, to find something in this blog on Google you can place “site:mingersoft.com” at the end of your search string to refine your search.
Hopefully these tips will help you with future searches.
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