How Search works ?

The first thing to understand is, when you perform a Google search, you aren’t actually searching the web, you’re searching Google’s index of the web, or at least as much of it as we can find. Google does this with software programs called spiders. Spiders start by fetching a few web pages, then they follow the links on those pages and fetch the pages they point to; and follow all the links on those
pages, and fetch the pages they link to, and so on, until we’ve indexed a pretty big chunk of the web.

Here are some Operators that’ll help you optimize your search results:

1. Chevron (>>) : Clicking on that chevron allows you to preview a document, letting you determine what kind of document is behind the link. It can help you decide whether that link will meet your needs, and whether you want to visit the page.

2. site : It limits the results within a specified site range.

Effective :
1. [site:stanford.edu]
2. [site:com]
3. [site:.com]
4. [site:nih.gov baby safe sunscreen]

Ineffective :
1. [site: stanford.edu]
2. [site:stanfordedu]
3. [site:stanford]

3. filetype : This is the way of limiting your results to files and documents of a particular kind.

Effective :
1. [filetype:swf muscle contraction]
2. [muscle contraction filetype:swf]
3. [filetype:swf]

Ineffective :
1. [filetype: csv]
2. [filetype:.swf]

4. Minus operator (-) : It simply removes the invasive results.

Effective :
1. [salsa -dancing]

Ineffective :
1. [salsa – dancing]

5. Double Quotes (” “) : It signifies a phrase search, it helps in searching a complete phrase like a lyric of a poem or a song.
e.g. “boulevard of broken dreams”

6. Synonym Operator (OR) : It provides a way of combining ideas so that you can search for pages including at least one out of a set of related terms or synonyms.

Effective :
1.[bharat OR india]

Ineffective :
1. [bharat Or india]
2. [bharat or india]

7. intext : It allows you to find pages that have a specific word in the body of the text somewhere–it forces inclusion on the page.

Effective :
1.[web admin intext:darshan]

Ineffective :
1.[web admin Intext: darshan]

This is an official & free online course brought into picture by Google. Google is also providing certification on the successful completion of this course. Visit Power Searching with Google in order to take this awesome online course & get your searching skills brushed up 😀

This is the kind of certificate that you’ll be provided with