Here are some tips on how to make your Google search more precise.
- Limit your search by the top level domain (TLD). Together with your keywords, put “site: top level domain.” For example, search “diabetes site:edu” will retrieve only sites from educational institutions with the TLD .edu. “Site:gov” will retrieve only government sites; “site:ru” – Russian sites; “site:mx” – Mexican sites. Be careful not to put a space between colon and your TLD.
- You can use a part of or an entire domain to further limit your search. For example, search “site:arapahoelibraries.org policy” will retrieve everything related to policies on the http://arapahoelibraries.org/ website. Search “site:gob.mx libraries” will retrieve Mexican government sites about libraries.
- Searches for “file:doc” and “file:ppt” will retrieve only results in Microsoft Word and Power Point Presentations.
- After you start typing your keywords into Google search box, a link to the Advanced Google search appears on the right to the box. Even though the basic search box is the best way to search Google, you can use the Advanced Search to practice various search methods. After the results of your Advanced Search are displayed, you can see how the search string is formulated in the basic search window.
Wow. I'm going to have to try this. I've read about it before, but your examples help me see how I might apply it to my own searches. Thanks for sharing.
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