copyright Jolyon Trocianko.
Improve your Googling with these tricks of the search trade.
Trick #1. The space and minus sign (-). This eliminates duplicate search results. Google will ignore all search results that contain a phrase or word you put in quotes. Find a unique word or phrase that always appears in repetitive results. Let’s say you’re searching a company and keep seeing their Press Release that says “Announcing”. Just type the company name (space) -”Announcing” and you just weeded out all those repetitive PRs from your search results. Note: If you forget the space, Google gets you back and gives you ONLY those repetitive results.
Trick #2. The hyphen (-). Pulls results for terms that have spelling variations. Example: left-handed pulls left-handed, left handed and lefthanded. (Yes, the minus sign and hyphen are one and the same.)
Trick #3. The pole (l). (It’s above the backslash) Serves as an OR. Good for first name, last name searches. Example: Rich Barton | Barton Rich. If you added the hyphen (-), you’d find Rich Barton, Barton Rich, RichBarton & BartonRich.
Bonus Trick #4: Search Wikipedia.org instead of Google.
Thanks to David Seah (via Lifehacker) & Brad from Tritone Substitution.
For other tips & tricks: Tricks of the Trade: Where Pros Spill the Beans.
