Millions of people around the world use Google search for academic work, research for the company where we work or just to have a good time and find the information that interests us about our hobbies.

Google search has more facets and nuances than we normally know and use. Whether you are a normal Internet user or a super advanced user (Geek as English speakers say), I recommend saving this article in your favorites on how to use Google search.

Tip 1- #: The exact phrase

What is the exact phrase? Very simple is the use of quotes in the Google search. Instead of putting a search with the keywords we need, we write those words in the search engine in quotation marks. In this way we will obtain only the results that contain that same phrase.

Search example: "competitive intelligence for SMEs"

Tip 2- #: Exclude search terms

Imagine that we needed to refine the previous search and for that we want to eliminate the results in which competitive intelligence books appear. We would only add the minus symbol followed by the word as in the example.

Search example: "competitive intelligence for SMEs" -books

Tip 3- #: Similar terms

Let's say we want to do a specific search to which we want to add results with meanings or similar words. To do this use "~" in front of the word.

Search example: "competitive intelligence" ~ expert

Tip 4- #: Search on a website:

It may happen that we only want to search for information on a specific website that we already know has the information we are looking for. For that it is enough to use google search the following command: "the word" site: www.sitioweb.com. This feature works even if the web page does not have an internal search engine. This is very useful with newspaper libraries and online magazines.

Search example: "competitive intelligence" site: papelesdeinteligencia.com

Tip 5- #: Results by type of document

If you need results that contain a certain type of document you can use a simple "filetype" command to obtain only the results of that type of document. There are some like ppt .doc .xls .pdf .jpg for example

Search example: "competitive intelligence" filetype: ppt

Tip 6- #: Substitute words

It may happen that we do not remember a word or words related to a topic or topic. For example the title of a textbook or a song, poem, film, patent or article. For all of them you can use the asterisk command "*" that will act as a wildcard in the phrase that we put.

Example of search: "when investing in * de * de *" or the island of *

Tip 7- #: Identify related sites

If what we are looking for is to find related sites for the same subject we will have to use the Google search with the command "related: www.sitioweb.com"

Search example: related: elpais.com

Tip 8- #: Get definitions

You need to get the definition of a word. Instead of searching the online dictionary, enter the command "define: word"

Example search: define: procastinar

Tip 9- #: Calculator

This option will allow you to avoid doing what you are doing to get hold of your mobile or any calculator. You enter the operation in the google search and it will appear automatically with the answer.

Note: I have only used it for simple operations, additions, subtraction multiplications etc ...

Example of searches: 56 * 13

Tip 10- #: Period of time

It is a very useful type of function to search between two numbers or figures. Two ".." points are interposed between the figures, such as prices or dates of time. It is not very common to use it but it can be of great help when you are looking for a product or historical event.

Example of searches: iphone 440..650 or Spanish civil war 1930..1940

Tip 11- #: Incoming links to a website

As a curiosity for those who like to know this kind of things it is also possible to do a google search to know which pages have inbound links to another web. The following function is used: "link: www.paginaweb.com"

Example of searches: link: www.diariodenavarra.es

Tip 12- #: Discover the content of broken links

On occasion, I'm sure I'm not the only one, it has happened to me to find results in Google with a broken link that takes you to a page with the following message: 404 page not found. Well, if this has happened to you, there is a simple way to access the content:

Go back to the results page and just below the title of the link on the right you will see a green triangle.
Press the green triangle and a menu will be displayed.
Select cache and click and you can finally see the content of that page.
Simple, right?

I sincerely hope that this small guide will be very useful for your searches on Google. On another occasion I will talk about how to look for patents and other advanced functionalities with Google.

If there is any advice on how to use the google search that I have left, feel free to share it in the comments. Thank you!