Top Google Search Productivity Hacks 

Hey guys,

As we all know, Google’s flagship product – Search is one of the simplest yet revolutionary pieces of the internet. Google Search has ordered information available on the internet and made it accessible to internet users globally.

Today’s gist will be about the top Google search hacks that can help you search for anything with the speed of light. It will help streamline the number of attempts it takes for you to find what exactly you are looking for online. Leggo!

1. Use the tabs displayed on the top menu to define the kind of result you require. They include All, Image, News, and More.
2. Use quotes when searching for something specific to minimize guesswork. This tells the search engine to search for the phrase in that sequence.
3. Use hyphens to ignore a specific content category. This notifies the crawlers of a word not to check and removes any result that contains that word. E.g., coke – drink.
4. Use a colon to limit your search to a specific website when you are looking for a particular subject matter in that site. E.g. ‘tech:www.techgistafrica.com
5. To find all pages that link to a specific website, use the term ‘link:.’ This is mostly used by digital marketers to find backlinks to your site. E.g., link:techgistafrica.com.
6. A placeholder will be automatically created when you use an asterisk in a search term. This placeholder can be compared to your blank space that gets filled by the search engine. This hack is particularly useful when you want to search for song lyrics. E.g., “heal the world *make it a finer place* for you and me and the entire human race.”
7. The term ‘related:’ is used to search for sites that are similar to a particular site. This is very to content writers in search of trending topics or research materials. E.g., related: techgistafrica.com
8. ‘Intext:’ is used to indicate that a word is used within the phrase you want to search. E.g., resume tips intext: summary —> professional resume summary.
9. To get search results from a specific top-level domain such as .com, .net, .edu, or .org; use “:domain type”. E.g., techgistafrica: com
10. You can search for multiple words or phrases at once. E.g. – “Best ways to prepare for a job interview” OR “How to prepare for a job interview.”
11. To search within a specific period, go to tools and click on the time drop-down menu. Customize the time range needed for a search.
12. Upload images and videos from your computer in Google images to access IoT information about it. Type ‘search image by Google’ and then drag and drop into the space provided.
13. A travel agent can use Google to track flights by merely typing the flight number into the Google search tab.
14. Use double dots in between two numbers to search for the omitted number in a series. E.g., 41..43. To find information in a particular year, type two dots before that year. E.g., What team won the Olympics ..2004?
15. Don’t overwork the crawlers, let your search terminologies be apt and straightforward. Use ‘ Top restaurants near me’ rather than ‘Is there any good restaurant that cooks well in Victoria Island, Lagos?’
16. Use keywords that websites use; don’t use vague words that you use in conversations. Use “repair a flat tire” rather than “I have a flat tire.”
17. Use more descriptive words so that your search engine can quickly search out what you want.
18. You can use your Google search to convert currencies or units of measurement.
19. Correct spelling doesn’t matter; Google suggests words for you to confirm.
20. To hide the demographic history of your searches, go to the incognito mode by simply pressing Ctrl + Shift + N in windows or Cmd + Shift + N in Mac. Google will not collect your search history in this mode.
21. In case you are out of data, but what to revisit a website, you can browse offline using the search operator “cache:” followed by the URL of the website. E.g., cache: www.techgistafrica.com
22. You can search for images by type, size, time, colour, and copyright status by clicking the tools tab under the main search bar. You can also determine the size of the image you want here.
23. To search for people whose name has dual meanings, add &imgtype=face to your query. E.g. Rose & imgtype=face.
24. You can use Google as your alarm for a task deadline, a short nap, or even a tea break. Search ‘set timer’ in the search bar to use the Google online timer.
25. Google Translate is handy for translating words from any foreign language in the world. Search for these terms in Google images.

There you go! Apply these search hacks to transform Google into a highly valuable tool for work. I look forward to reading your comments at the end of this post. Have fun using Google. Cheers!

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