Top 10 Google Tips

Instead of just typing in a phrase and going through page after page of results, there are a number of ways to make your Google searches more efficient.

Either/or.

Google normally searches for pages that contain all the words you type in the search box, but if you want pages that have one term or another (or both), use OR: english OR primary OR resources

Quote marks.

If you want to search for an exact phrase, use quotes. ["efl grammar worksheets"] will only find that exact phrase. [efl "grammar worksheets"] will find pages that contain the word efl and the exact phrase "grammar worksheets".

Not.

If you don't want a term or phrase, use the "-" symbol. [-grammar worksheets printables] will return pages that contain "worksheets" and "printables" but that don't contain "grammar".

Wildcard.

The "*" symbol is a wildcard. This is useful if you're trying to find the lyrics to a song, but can't remember the exact lyrics. [can't * me love lyrics] will return the Beatles song you're looking for. It's also useful for finding stuff only in certain domains, such as
educational information: ["esl methodology" research *.edu].

Definitions.

Use the "define:" operator to get a quick definition. [define:morphosyntax] will give you a whole host of definitions from different sources, with links.

Site-specific.

Use the "site:" to search only within a certain website. [site:eltpamplona.blogspot.com activities] will search for the term "activities" only within this blog.

Music.

"music:" returns content related to music only.

File types.

If you just want to search for .PDF files, or Word documents, or Excel spreadsheets, for example, use "filetype:"

Location of term.

By default, Google searches for your term throughout a web page. But if you just want it to search certain locations, you can use operators such as "inurl:", "intitle:", "intext:" Those search for a term only within the URL, the title and the body text.