Advanced Google Search Tips

It is not necessary that Google will give the page you are searching for, with the same priority that you think it should have. The algorithm that search engines follow when searching for keywords that we mention is something that we don't know. Though in most of the cases, if the search words or phrase that you type is clear enough; you will get the pages that you are searching for within the top results. But if you have other parameters that you want to specify, then in such cases you can use the Google advanced search feature. Though the page for Google's advanced search is self explanatory, I will still try to explain you the various parameters that you can specify in this page; in a little more detail.

The 'Advanced Search' link for Google is present just near the text box of your standard Google search page. On clicking this link; you reach the 'Google Advanced Search' page. In the first text box, you can type the keywords you are looking for, but it is not necessary that the keywords will appear in your result pages, exactly in the same order as you have typed. The exact phrase that you are searching for, can be mentioned in the box, just below the first one. Thus if you are searching for the band Savage Garden, and only want pages with the name of the band, you can type it in this text box. The next option allows you to mention one or more words that you want in the result pages. Let's take an example. If you want to search for the lyrics of the song, 'in the name of the father and the son'; you can mention the words, lyrics, wordings, etc. in the text boxes out here and mention the title of the song in the options before it.

The next option allows you to type in words or phrases that should not appear in your result pages. Let's take the previous example. If you do not want the history of the band in your result pages, you can filter your search by typing the words, 'History of Savage Garden' in this text box. The next three boxes allow you to set a few preferences. You can set the number of results you want in each page.By default it is set to 10 results per page, but you can increase it upto 100. You can also mention the type of files that your result page should show. In case you are searching for powerpoint presentations, you can mention .ppt in the next text box. Now, suppose you want to search for an article, file, video or audio only in a particular site, you can mention the name of the site in the next option. For example, if you want to search for this very article in www.buzzle.com, then you can type the name of the article 'Advanced Google Search Tips' in the textbox where you can mention all the words, and you can mention the name of the site in this box. This will narrow down your search and Google will check for this article only in the site www.buzzle.com.

After you are done with filling these options, you can see a link 'date, usage rights, numeric and more' at the end of the box. You can click on this link to check out other options that are available. In the first box you can enter the date range. You can specify if you are searching for something that has been published recently (eg. within last 24 hours) or if you have no restrictions to the time factor. The next option allows you to specify the usage rights of what you are trying to search. If you are trying to search for something and don't want any license problems with the same, you can mention it in this option.

Suppose you want the search words to appear in the title of the page, you can mention it in the option 'where your keywords show up'. If you select the option 'anywhere in the page', then all the pages containing your keywords will be displayed in the results, and the keywords may be present anywhere in the article. Numeric range and region of your search words can be specified in the next two options.

At the end of the page you have links to Google Book Search, Google Code Search, Google Scholar, etc. Depending on your requirement, you can select a particular option from here. For example, if you want to search for study materials on 8085 microprocessors; you can go for Google Book Search and type '8085 microprocessor' in the search box.

The filtering parameters used in Google Advanced Search, can also be used in the standard search page using certain options. If you want to specify keywords to appear in the result page, you can use the 'OR' operator. If you do not want a particular word or phrase to appear in your result pages, you can use the '-' operator. To get words you are exactly searching for in the order you have typed, you can mention the words withing double quotes(" "). Similarly, there are other options, which you can use in the standard search page and construct a query for advanced search.