Google Search Tools to Boost Efficiency
December 27, 2012
MakeUseOf has supplied a handy roundup of Google search mechanisms with “More Free Google Search Tools You Might Not Be Using So Much.” The accounting follows Google’s recent, less cluttered redesign. Filters that used to be on the left are now at the top, and the “More” menu supplies other search services (news, books, etc.) The Search Tools on the right can be used to fine-tune results.
Writer Saikat Basu explains his motivation for the article:
“Google Search alone is a maze and it takes quite something to use it in different ways to call oneself as a ‘power user’. Google Search operators and Advanced Search are just barrels of a multi-barreled canon.
Too confusing? No…look at it this way – each filter and operator on Google Search is designed to be a crosshair on a scope mounted on that ‘canon’. You need to use them appropriately for the relevant search result. So, I am advancing this article with the assumption that you don’t use most of the search tools as much as you should every day. Let’s explore a few neat search tools which we miss in the flurry of typing in the queries.”
Basu tells us how to use Google Search to find free stuff; who doesn’t love free stuff? More to the point, he describes in detail how to use filters to get (and only get) the results we need while saving time. For example, the Sites with Images filter gives information about each site that is not available with the regular Image Search. One feature I am sure to start using immediately is the “Verbatim” filter, which searches for exactly what you type, without consulting your browsing history, similar terms, or even spellcheck. This almost compensates for so brazenly taking away the “+” that I’ve missed since they launched Google+. Almost.
There’s a lot here that most searchers never take advantage of. Like anything else, a few minutes spent learning could repeatedly save time later. Check it out.
Cynthia Murrell, December 27, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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