These Google Search Tips Will Save You Tons of Time!
Over 2.4 million searches happen every minute on Google. It’s often the first stop people make when they go online.rnrnWe search daily for both personal and work needs, and often searching out the right information can take a lot of time if you have to sift through several irrelevant results.rnrnOne study by consulting firm, McKinsey, found that employees spend an average of 1.8 hours daily, or 9.3 hours each week, searching and gathering information. This can be a productivity sinkhole as more web results keep getting added to the internet every day.rnrnOne way you can save time on your personal and work-related searches is to learn some “secret” Google search tips. These help you narrow down your search results and improve productivity by helping you find the information you need faster.rn
SEARCH A SPECIFIC WEBSITE USING “SITE:”
rnSometimes you need to find information on a specific website. For example, you might need to locate a government statistic that you know is out there but can’t seem to bring up on a general search.rnrnYou can use Google to search keywords on a specific website by using the “site” function.rnrnIn the search bar use the following: site:(site url) (keyword)rnrnThis will bring up search results only for that one specific URL.rnFIND FLIGHT INFORMATION WITHOUT LEAVING GOOGLE
rnWhen you need to access flight information, you’re often on the go. Either getting ready to head to the airport or waiting for someone to arrive. Having to load multiple site pages in your browser can take valuable time. Instead, get your flight results directly from Google.rnrnJust type in the flight number and the name of the airlines, and you’ll get a listing of flight information without having to click to another page. You can even tab to choose flight info for that same flight on different days.rnLOOK FOR DOCUMENT TYPES USING “FILETYPE:”
rnIf you’ve just been tasked with coming up with a presentation on sustainable energy, it can be helpful to see what other people have done on the same subject.rnrnSearching websites can give you a lot of details to sift through but searching for another PowerPoint presentation can provide you with even more insight into how others have distilled that information down into a presentation.rnrnGoogle has a search function that allows you to search on a file type, so instead of webpages showing up in your results, files of the file type you searched will appear.rnrnTo use this function, type in the following: filetype:(type) (keyword)rnrnIn the case of wanting to find a PowerPoint on sustainable energy, you could use the following in the search bar: filetype:ppt sustainable energy.rnrnAll the results will be PPT presentations.rnrnYou can also use this function for other file types, such as:rn- rn
- DOC rn
- XLS or XLSX rn
- SVG rn
- and more rn
NARROW DOWN TIMEFRAME USING THE “TOOLS” LINK
rnOne frustration is when you’re looking up something like a population or cybersecurity statistic and you end up with results that are too old to be relevant. You can spend valuable time paging through the search results, or you can tell Google what time frame you’d like to search.rnrnTo narrow your search results by a specific timeframe, do the following:rn- rn
- Enter your keyword and click to search. rn
- Under the search bar, click the “Tools” link. rn
- Click the “Any time” link. rn
- Choose your timeframe. rn