Needless to say, I can’t think a day without using Google. Google is like my best friend. Not only me millions of the people around the whole world use Google Search regularly for a variety of reasons. Students use it for their education purpose, millions of people use it only for entertainment, businessmen use it for their marketing research and many more.

          But most of us can’t take full advantage of Google Search as we don’t know how to use it. There are other search engines also such as Bing, Yahoo but Google is widely accepted. Sometimes to get a particular thing on Google Search we spend a lot of time but we don’t get what we want.

          I have created a list of tricks so that you can use Google Search in an efficient way. I’m sure that after reading it you will be an expert in Google search.  These will increase your productivity at making online researches, and you will get the web’s information on your fingertips very quickly. Also, you will be able to save a lot of time. So let’s begin.

Tip 1: Start with the basics

No matter what you’re looking for, start with a simple search like where's the closest airport?. You can always add a few descriptive words if necessary.

If you’re looking for a place or product in a specific location, add the location. For example, bakery seattle.

Tip 2: Search using your voice

Tired of typing? To search with your voice, say “Ok Google” or select the Microphone . Learn more about how to search with your voice.

Tip 3: Choose words carefully

When you’re deciding what words to put in the search box, try to choose words that are likely to appear on the site you’re looking for. For example, instead of saying my head hurts, say headache, because that’s the word a medical site would use.

Tip 4: Don’t worry about the little things

• Spelling. Google’s spell checker automatically uses the most common spelling of a given word, whether or not you spell it correctly.
• Capitalization. A search for New York Times is the same as a search for new york times.

Tip 5: Find quick answers

For many searches, Google will do the work for you and show an answer to your question in the search results. Some features, like information about sports teams, aren’t available in all regions.

• Weather: Search weather to see the weather in your location or add a city name, like weather seattle, to find weather for a certain place.
• Dictionary: Put define in front of any word to see its definition.

• Money and unit conversions

Google search can quickly and accurately convert both measurement units and currency value. There are a variety of uses for this, like checking to see the conversion rate between two currencies.

If you happen to be a math student, you can use it to convert from feet to meters or from ounces to liters. Here’s how to do it.

• Calculations: 

  Enter a math equation like 3*9123, or solve complex graphing equations.

• Unit conversions:

  Enter any conversion, like 3 dollars in euros.

• ---

• Sports: Search for the name of your team to see a schedule, game scores and more.
• Quick facts: Search for the name of a celebrity, location, movie, or song to find related information.

Expert Search tips

Want more tips and tricks to help you search like a pro? Continue to read to learn more advanced search techniques.

Refine web searches

You can use symbols or words in your search to make your search results more precise.

• Google Search usually ignores punctuation that isn’t part of a search operator.
• Don’t put spaces between the symbol or word and your search term. A search for site:smartsourav.com will work, but site: smartsourav.com won’t.

Common search techniques

Search social media

Put @ in front of a word to search social media. For example: @twitter.

Search for a price

Put $ in front of a number. For example: camera $400.

Search hashtags

Put # in front of a word. For example: #throwbackthursday

Exclude words from your search

If you want to exclude certain terms from your search results? Use the minus symbol to exclude all the terms you don’t want. For example,  “buy laptop -HP” will output results that don’t contain ‘HP’ laptops.

In simple words, put - in front of a word that you want to leave out. 

Search for an exact match

When searching for something specific, try using quotes to minimize the guesswork for Google search. When you put your search parameters in quotes, it tells the search engine to search for the whole phrase.

For instance, if you search for Toy Cars, the engine will search for content that contains those two words in any order.

However, if you search “Toy Cars”, it will search for that phrase exactly as you typed it. This can help locate specific information that may be buried under other content if not sorted out correctly.

Search within a range of numbers

Put .. between two numbers. For example, camera $50..$100.

Combine searches

Put “OR” between each search query. For example,  marathon OR race.

Search for a specific site

Put “site:” in front of a site or domain. For example, site:smartsourav.com or site:.gov

Search for related sites

Put “related:” in front of a web address, you already know. For example, related:smartsourav.com.

See Google’s cached version of a site

Put “cache:” in front of the site address.

Find related images with reverse image search

You can use a picture to find related images from the web.

What you’ll find

When you search with a picture, your results may include:

• Similar images
• The websites that contain these images
• Other sizes of the picture you searched with

How Google uses the pictures you search with

The pictures you upload in your search may be stored by Google for 7 days. They won’t be a part of your search history, and Google will only use them during that time to make their products and services better.

 Computer

Compatible browsers

You can do a reverse image search on most browsers, like:

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Safari

Upload a picture

1. On your computer, open a web browser, like Chrome or Safari.
2. Go to Google Images.
3. Click Search by image .
4. Click Upload an image  Choose file or Browse.
5. Select a picture from your computer.
6. Click Open or Choose.

Drag and drop a picture

Note: To drag and drop pictures, you’ll need to use Chrome or Firefox.

1. On your computer, open a browser, like Chrome or Firefox.
2. Go to Google Images.
3. On your computer, find the file with the picture you want to search with.
4. Click the picture.
5. Hold down the mouse, drag the picture, and then drop it into the search box.

Search with a URL

1. On your computer, open a web browser, like Chrome or Safari.
2. Go to the website with the picture you want to use.
3. To copy the URL, right-click on the picture.
4. Click Copy image address.
5. Go to Google Images.
6. Click Search by image .
7. Click Paste image URL.
8. In the text box, paste the URL.
9. Click Search by image.

The URLs you search with aren’t saved in your browsing history. Google may store the URLs to make our products and services better.

Search with a picture from a website

1. On your computer, open the Chrome browser.
2. Go to the website with the picture you want to use.
3. Right-click the picture.
4. Click Search Google for image. You’ll see your results in a new tab.

Android

Search for pictures

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Chrome app .
2. Go to images.google.com.
3. Enter a description of the picture you want to find.
4. Tap Search .
5. Tap the picture you want to search with.
6. Touch and hold the picture.
7. Tap Search Google for this image.

iPhone & iPad

Search for pictures

1. On your iPhone or iPad, open the Chrome app .
2. Go to images.google.com.
3. Enter a description of the picture you want to find.
4. Tap Search .
5. Tap the picture you want to search with.
6. Touch and hold the picture.
7. Tap Search Google for this image.

Filter your search results

You can filter and customize your search results to find exactly what you want. For example, you can find sites updated within the last 24 hours, or photos of a certain color.

Note: Filtering your search results doesn’t change any of your search settings. To change settings like SafeSearch, results per page, languages, or to delete past searches, go to Search settings.

Add or remove filters

Computer

1. On your computer, in a browser like Chrome or Firefox, do a search on Google.
2. Below the search box:
   • To pick the type of result you want to see, click the type of result, like Images or News.
   • To see extra choices, click More.
   • To see more filters you can use, click Tools.
     Tip: The tools you see will change based on your search and filters. So you won’t see all the options every time.

Phone & Tablet

1. On your mobile device, in a mobile browser like Chrome or Safari, do a search on Google.
2. Below the search box:
   • To pick the type of result you want to see, tap the type of result, like Images or News.
   • To see more filters you can use, tap Search tools.
     Tip: The tools you see will change based on your search and filters. So you won’t see all the options every time.
   • To remove filters added through Search tools, tap Clear.

Ways to filter search results

Type of result

At the top or bottom of a search results page, you’ll see ways to filter your results to one content type. For example:

• To get only pictures as search results, select Images.
• To get search results that help you find ways to buy the things you searched for, select Shopping.

Search tools

After you decide which type of results you want, you can refine your results with Search tools. These tools can include things like location, color, size, and the date a page was published.

Types of search tools

Some Search tools are available in only some languages, or show only if you’re signed in to your Google Account

Web Results

The tools you see will change based on your search and filters. So you won’t see all the options every time. Tools can include:

• Publish date: Limit results by when they were published.
• Verbatim: Search for exact words or phrases.
• Dictionary: Find definitions, synonyms, images, and more.
• Private: If you’re signed in to your Google Account, you can see content that was shared with you on Google+ or Gmail.
• Nearby: See results for your current location.
• Videos: Filter by length of video, quality, and source (like youtube.com).
• Recipes: Filter by ingredients, cook time, and calories.
• Applications: Choose the price and operating system (or OS) for available apps.
• Patents: Select a patent’s filing or publishing date, the patent office it was filed in, filing status, and type. You can also do a patent search directly at patents.google.com.

Images results

• Size: Pick from large, medium, or icon, or set exact dimensions.
• Color: Find images of a certain color, black and white, or transparent.
• Type: See only images that are faces, photos, clip art, line drawings, or animated GIFs.
• Time: Find a photo that was recently published, or published on a certain date.
• Usage rights: See photos that you can reuse or modify. Learn how to find content to reuse.

Place Results

Depending on the type of place you searched, you could see some of these filters:

• Your past visits: Narrow results to places you have or haven’t visited.
• Rating: Filter by the rating given by other people who use Google.
• Cuisine: See results based on the type of food served.
• Price: Filter by how much a restaurant or other place costs.
• Hours: Limit results based on when the place is open.

Add or remove places you’ve visited

To get better search results, you can tell Google whether you have or haven’t been to a place.

• On your phone: Under “Overview,” tap You visited here __ days/weeks/years ago.
• On your computer: Next to “Your past visits,” tap Edit  Yes or No.

Note: To filter by places you’ve visited, turn on Location History on your Android device or iPhone or iPad, and turn on Web and App Activity.

Image search on Google

Search, save & download images on Google

You can search Google for images, just like you can search for websites. For example, you can check out pictures of potential vacation destinations, or find an image to use in an upcoming presentation.

Find images

1. Go to images.google.com.
2. Search for a word or phrase. All the results will be images.

You can also do a search on Google for the image you want to find, then click Images.

Computer

Save & download images you find

Note: Images might be subject to copyright. If you’re looking for an image to reuse, consider using Advanced Search. Learn how to find free-to-use images.

1. On your computer, do a search on images.google.com to find the image you want to save.
2. Right-click the image you want to save.
3. Click Save image as.
4. Choose where you want to save the image.

After you save the image, you’ll have a downloaded copy on your computer.

Find info about results in image search

You can get info about objects, animals, and people in image search results with Google Lens. Learn how to get info via image search.

Note: Currently, Google Lens in search works only in U.S. English, only from image search, only on still images, and only in mobile browsers (not the Google app). It won’t work with offensive images.

Android

Add an image to a collection

1. On your Android phone and tablet, go to Google.com or open the Google app .
2. If you haven’t already, sign in to your Google Account.
3. Search for an image.
4. Touch and hold the image.
5. Tap Add to .

Share an image

Note: Images might be subject to copyright. If you’re looking for an image to reuse, consider using Advanced Search. Learn how to find free-to-use images.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, go to images.google.com or open the Google app .
2. Search for an image.
3. Touch and hold the image.
4. Tap Share .

Save and download images you find

1. On your Android phone or tablet, go to images.google.com or open the Google app .
2. Search for an image.
3. Tap the image. A larger version opens.
4. Touch and hold the image.
5. Tap Download image.

Find info about results in image search

You can get info about objects, animals, and people in image search results with Google Lens. Learn how to get info via image search.

Note: Currently, Google Lens in search works only in U.S. English, only from image search, only on still images, and only in mobile browsers (not the Google app). It won’t work with offensive images.

iPhone and iPad

Add an image to a collection

1. On your iPhone or iPad, go to Google.com or open the Google app .
2. If you haven’t already, sign in to your Google Account.
3. Search for an image.
4. Touch and hold the image.
5. Tap Add to .

Share an image

Note: Images might be subject to copyright. If you’re looking for an image to reuse, consider using Advanced Search. Learn how to find free-to-use images.

1. On your iPhone or iPad, go to images.google.com or open the Google app .
2. Search for an image.
3. Touch and hold the image.
4. Tap Share .

Save & download an image

1. On your iPhone or iPad, go to images.google.com or open the Google app .
2. Search for an image.
3. Tap the image. A larger version opens.
4. Touch and hold the image.
5. Tap Download image.

Find info about results in image search

You can get info about objects, animals, and people in image search results with Google Lens. Learn how to get info via image search.

Note: Currently, Google Lens in search works only in U.S. English, only from image search, only on still images, and only in mobile browsers (not the Google app). It won’t work with offensive images.

Note: Currently, Google Lens in search works only in U.S. English, only from image search, only on still images, and only in mobile browsers (not the Google app). It won’t work with offensive images.

Advanced Search

Narrow down search results for complex searches by using the Advanced Search page. For example, you can find sites updated in the last 24 hours or images that are in black and white.

Do an Advanced Search

1. Go to the Advanced Search page.
   • Advanced Search for websites
   • Advanced Search for images
2. In the “Find pages with” section, enter your search terms.
3. In the “Then narrow your results by” section, choose the filters you want to use. You can use one or more filters.
4. Click Advanced Search.

Tip: You can also use many of these filters in the search box with search operators.

Advanced Search filters you can use

Websites

• Language
• Region
• Last updated date
• Site or domain
• Where the search terms appear on the page
• SafeSearch
• Reading level
• File type
• Usage rights (find pages that you have permission to use)

Images

• Size
• Aspect ratio
• Color
• Type (face, animated, etc.)
• Site or domain
• Filetype
• SafeSearch
• Usage rights (find images that you have permission to use)