How to use Google search for best results

Google is the world's “know it all”. If you have any questions, type them on the Google Search bar, and Google will spit out answers in seconds. Besides the basic ways most people use Google Search, Google has a trove of tricks to help seekers find information accurately and quickly. Today we look at some of those valuable but precise search tricks.

On Google Search, you can find the current time in your location or any other location anywhere in the world. You can ask Google to convert miles to kilometres, solve complex mathematical problems, translate information from one language to another, prevailing currency conversion rates, and many more.

If you want to know the time, say, in Cuba, go to Google Search and type “Time Cuba”, and Google will promptly and accurately answer you. Do you want a quick look at today's weather where you live? Google knows your location. Type the word “weather” and you'll get a detailed daily forecast along with an outlook for the next few days. If you are traveling to, say, Abuja, Nigeria, and want to know about the weather there, type “Weather Abuja”.

While searching for specific information, use quotation marks between the exact information you want. Quotation marks minimise irrelevant information from the search. For example, to find information with only a phrase such as “Covid-19 symptoms”, make sure you enclose the search term in the quotation marks so that Google only gives you back documents that contain only these exact words.

When you want specific information excluded from the search results, use the minus (-) sign before the words you want to be omitted. Let's say you are looking for articles about mobile phone brands but you don't wish iPhones included in the results. In that case, type “mobile phone brands -iPhone”. On the other hand, by adding a plus (+) sign in front of any word in the search bar, you tell Google that the results must include that word.

You can also tell Google to give you results in a specified file format. For instance, if you only want information in PowerPoint file format, you can start your search by typing “filetype: PPT”, followed by your search phrase. If you are looking for information in PDF, start your search by “filetype: pdf” and so forth.

Are you a high school student agonising over a knotty math problem? Worry not. Type the math problem on Google Search, and Google will pop out the answer in seconds — complete with steps on how it arrived at the solution.

Regardless of whether you are looking for lyrics of a song, a document, a product to buy or solve a high school chemistry exercise, Google is an information powerhouse. The trick lies in how proficient you are in your quest.

Wambugu is an informatician. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Samwambugu2