Increase your Google-Fu

As wonderful as Google is for searching and finding stuff on the ol’ intarwebs (”official term”), you will be much more effective in your searching if you learn and utilize the special search functions built into Google. Granted, some of these trick will work in other search engines, but we all know Google is dominant for a reason, it’s the absolute best search engine currently available. (And will only get better as they continue to develop new products, and even better if they successfully buy Yahoo.)

So, here are some tricks I use on a regular basis I wanted to share with you. I’ll start with the most basic tricks, which nearly everybody knows, and go to the more advanced as we go along. I hope this is helpful to both beginner and power user alike. If I miss a trick, please comment and I’ll add your trick to the list and give you the credit.

Use Advanced Search: Here’s a way you can access many of the tricks I will list below in one easy location. Just by filling in the blanks and clicking and choosing options, you can activate many of Google’s built in functions. To find Advanced Search, just go to the Google homepage and click the “Advanced Search” link to the right of the search text field.
Choose Good Search Terms: Let’s say you’re looking for information on worship. Fine, then just plug in the word “worship” in Google an hit enter. The problem is, you likely came up with millions of options, none of which are exactly what you’re looking for (unless you’re doing a VERY broad search). So, refine your search by adding more specific search terms. If you are looking for info on “emergent liturgical worship,” then put “emergent liturgical worship” in the search field.
Don’t Use Complete Sentences: You’ve probably already noticed, but using complete sentences and correct grammar does not really ever garner great results. In fact, your results will likely be very poor in comparison. Put only key terms into your search, realizing the fewer key terms you use, the broader your search results will be.
Misspell Words: Not a practice to use in every search, but sometimes it is beneficial to misspell words to receive a completely different set of results. For instance, instead of searching for “worship,” try searching for “worhsip,” or “woship.” You might find something interesting, and even the best edited websites out there regularly make spelling mistakes.
Force Include Words: You might have noticed that Google ignores certain words like “the,” “a,” “where,” “how,” etc. You can force Google to include these words if necessary by placing a plus sign (+) in front of the word. Example: [+how +to worship]
Search for Exact Phrases: There might be a time when you are looking for an exactly worded phrase. In this instance, just place quotation marks (”) around the desire phrase and search. Example: [you are holy great and mighty] (lyrics to Phil Wickham’s Cannons).
Include Omitted Results: Sometimes, as with the search performed on #6, you get very limited result from Google, and find a message similar to this at the bottom of the page:

Go ahead and click that link to make Google include the omitted results. You won’t always find anything different or better than the original results, but you’ll sometimes come up with something.
Negative Search Terms: If you want to research certain topics, but exclude certain terms from your search, you can do so by placing a minus sign (-) in front of the terms you wish to leave out. Example [worship -music]
Use Operators: You can use the operators below to produce very specific results. Please keep in mind that there is no space between the search operator and the specified url (web address). Tip: Sometimes you will receive better results if you leave off the “www” sometimes not.
- cache: See what Google has cached (an old version saved for posterity) for a specific web site. Useful if you once read something on a website, but it has since been removed. Example [cache:www.consumingworship.org weird]
- link: See what sites are linked to a specific url (at least that Google knows about). Example [link:www.consumingworship.org]
- related: See what sites are similar to another website. Example [related:www.consumingworship.org] (Apparently Google can’t find anything related to consumingworship.org )
- info: Find out what Google knows about a specific website. Example [info:www.consumingworship.org]
- site: Restrict your search term to a specific domain. Example [free site:www.consumingworship.org]
For more on Google search operators, go here.
Search a Specific Date Range: This one’s pretty hard to understand, and is a somewhat obscure method of searching. If you understand Julian dates, or want to, go here to learn more. This trick will search for specific pages indexed during a certain date range, not created within that same range. Good luck with this one.
Synonym Search: To search for your specific search term in addition to synonyms to your term, place a tilde (~) immediately before your term. Example [~worship ~praise]
Boolean OR Search: To search for web pages that include either of two or more search terms (but not necessarily both), use a capitalized OR between your search terms. Example [worship OR praise music]
Number Range Search: Search for results containing a certain number range. Use your specific search term(s) and add two numbers, placing two periods (..) between the two numbers with no spaces. Example [worship 1860..1920]
What’s Hot on Google: Go here, and use Google Zeitgeist to view search patterns and trends.
Category Specific Searches: This is pretty much a no-brainer for most Google users, but don’t forget to use Google’s specified search tools available to you. Search images, news, and shopping. Under the “more” tab, you’ll find video, groups, books, blogs, and others.