by Christopher Polo

Created on: May 30, 2009

Let's face it. We all take Google for granted. We type in a few characters and we have, literally, the world's knowledge at our fingertips. With it, we can find everything from the cheapest airfare to the latest news. It's literally as easy as pressing a few buttons. But many of us don't even know how to use it to its full potential.

Here are just a few tips so you can search Google more efficiently:

1. Use keywords. For example, instead of typing "What is the capital of Mexico?" Try "Mexican capital." Then Google will know to just search for those words in any order.

2. Check your spelling. Although Google will try to fix your spelling mistakes to the best of its ability, sometimes it may not even recognize your word.

Let's say you're looking for a car. You may have meant to say "Hyundai " and misspelled it "haiundi" by mistake. In this instance, Google will not recognize what you meant to say. If you know the mistake, simply retype it and re-search. Or, you may wish to provide some contextual information like "haiundi cars." Then, Google may piece together what you're trying to search for and provide the appropriate page.

3. Try a different phrase. If you can think of a different way to phrase your search, it will improve your chances of finding the correct website if you cannot find it initially. This is one of the most effective common sense approaches to finding what you're looking for.

4. Use quotes and punctuation for specific terms. To search for an exact phrase rather than keywords, try putting the words or phrase you want searched for in quotation marks. Google will then look for only the exact phrase you searched for in the order that you put it in. Again, for example, instead of searching for each keyword like "hyundai" and "vehicles" independently, Google will look for just the phrase "hyundai vehicles" in that order.

5. Exclude words you don't need. If Google is confusing something else with what you want, you may exclude that word or phrase by placing a minus sign directly in front of the offending word. With a phrase, do the same thing except put it in quotation marks. Now, any results with this word or phrase will be excluded.

6. Combine searches. You may search for two phrases by placing quotation marks around your two searches and placing an uppercase "OR" in between them. This will let Google know that you would like to see the results for both searches and it will try to find a website with the best mix.

7. Narrow your searches. You may also make use of the "AND" function which will tell Google to only show the websites which include both words or phrases.

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