Effective search the Google way:

Do you Google a lot?  Here’s how you can make it more effective … 

Basic Search:

•   Google Instant: enable it to see the results dynamically as u type your query.
  Try It NOW!! Google Instant

•   Searching the address of company?  Type in “company name” followed by name of town / city / zip code. Trust me “this also works” with leading franchise shops within the nearest location.

•  Use words most likely to appear on a web page.

• Instead of asking a question type down the possible key words. Instead of “what is the birth date of Sachin Tendulkar?”  Type “Sachin Tendulkar DOB”  

• Use your words to focus on that you want. Use as few words as possible.

• Use unique words this increases your chances to get the relevant results.

“According to Google the beginners/ Basic search tips are sufficient for an effective search but there is always a bit more efficient way to do things” 

Advanced Search:

•  Phrase search:  (“ ”)
  Using double quotes around words helps you to find out the exact words in the exact order.
  Eg: a.  Independence Day: also gives you the result of the movie independence day (1996)
         b. “Independence day”: gives pages similar to 15^th August only.

• Search within a Specific Website: Google allows getting results from specific websites.
  Eg: inflation site: ndtv.com
  Additionally you can also type in the domain specifications.
  Eg: inflation site: .gov / inflation site: .in
  
• Exclude Terms: (-)
  Attaching a minus sign immediately before a word indicates you do not want pages that contain this word to appear in your results.The minus sign should appear immediately before a word and should be preseeded with a space.
  Eg: [anti-virus software] “– used as a hyphen” is different from [anti-virus –software]
  This can also be used to exclude a site
  Eg: inflation –site: ndtv.

• Fill in the Blanks: (*)
  The most useful and powerful search tip if you don’t know what word to search for or have many options to look out for.
  Eg: Sachin tendulkar * against * in wankhade. Will give you list of centuries, ducks, etc against different teams, countries, in Wankhade.

• Search exactly as is: (+)
  Similar to the use of (“ ”), this will help you to search for the words precisely.
  Note: not to add space after the +.

• The OR operator:
  Helps  search either one of the two or more words.
  Eg: Sachin in wankhade 2009 2010 is different from Sachin in wankhade 2009 OR 2010.
  In the first case you will results related to both the years where as in the later search you will get the results either one of the two years.
  Note: OR must be in ALL CAPS

Keep these in mind the next time you Google. Have fun surfing the net !!!