Need a quick resource about Google for beginners? You’ve come to the right place! In the last decade, Google has attained the ranking of the #1 search engine on the Web and consistently stayed there. It is the most widely used search engine on the Web, and millions of people use it every day to find answers to questions, research information and conduct their daily lives. In this article, we’ll take a high-level look at the world’s most popular search engine in Google 101 for Beginners.
How does Google work?
Basically, Google is a crawler-based engine, meaning that it has software programs designed to “crawl” the information on the Net and add it to its sizeable database. Google has a great reputation for relevant and thorough search results. Learn more about the basics of how search engines work here: Everything You Need to Know About Search Engines.
Google’s Home Page
Google’s home page is extremely clean and simple, loads quickly, and delivers arguably the best results of any search engine out there, mostly due to how it decides to rank pages due to relevance to the original query and massive listings (more than 8 billion at the time of this writing). Getting started with Google is easy, as you’ll see in this simple Google for beginners list of shortcuts, tips, and tricks.
Google for Beginners: A quick primer
- Be specific. Google is not an “intuitive” search engine (unfortunately, there aren’t any!), and therefore cannot read your mind. Try to be as concise as possible; instead of “jeans”, try “Levi 501 jeans”.
- Search for phrases. For example, if you’re searching for a specific quote, type in “to be or not to be”. Google will search for the entire phrase just how it appears in between the quotes. For more information on how use phrases in your searches, check out Looking for a Specific Phrase.
- Be selective. Use “common words”, such as and, if, not and numbers ONLY if you want them included in the search. Google excludes them otherwise. If you want them included, use a phrase search by putting quotations around your search query, or include the common word by putting a space and a plus sign right in front of it. For example, if you are looking for the season five DVD of “Sex and the City”, type in “sex and the city dvd season +5”.
- Exclude extra results. If you want to narrow down your searches even further, focus your search by placing a “-” (negative sign) in front of words you want to avoid. For example, if you’re searching for “coffee” and want to avoid Starbucks, you would type in “coffee -Starbucks” (without quotes). If you’d like to learn more about using the plus and minus symbol in your searches, read Basic Web Search Math.
Basic Google search tips
All you need to do is just enter a word or phrase and hit “enter”. Google will only come up with results that contain all the words in the search word or phrase; so refining your search just means adding or subtracting words to the search terms you’ve already submitted.
Google’s search results can easily be narrowed down by using phrases instead of just one word; for example, when looking for “coffee” search for “Starbucks coffee” instead and you’ll get much better results.
Google doesn’t care about capitalized words and will even suggest correct spellings of words or phrases. Google also excludes common words such as “where” and “how”, and since Google will return results that include all of the words you enter in, there’s no need to include the word “and”, as in “coffee and starbucks.”
Search Options
Searchers have more than one option on Google’s home page; there is the capacity to search for images, find videos, look at news, and many more choices.
In fact, there are so many extra search options on Google that it’s difficult to find space to list them all. Here are a few special features:
- Search for Books: If you’re looking for a text from a specific book, type in the name of the book (in quotes), or if you’re looking for books about a particular subject, type in “books about xxx”. Google will return results that contain content either in the book itself and will offer links to Book Results at the top of the search page.
- Google Calculator: Use Google’s calculator by just typing in whatever calculation you’d like Google to figure out. For example: half a quart in tablespoons.
- Google Definitions: Ask Google to define something by typing in define (insert term).
Want to know even more ways you can search with Google? Here are a few search shortcuts for you:
Google Book Search
You can use Google Book Search to do a lot of things: find a book you’re interested in, search within a book’s text, download a book, search reference texts, even create your own Google Library of your favorite books.
Google News Archives Search
Search and explore historical archives with Google News Archives Search. You can use this search service to create timelines, research a specific time period, see how opinion has changed over time, and more.
Google Movie Search
You can use Google to quickly look up movie information, movie reviews, movie showtimes, theater locations, and even movie trailers. Simply type in the name of the movie you’re interested in, and Google will return the information you’re looking for.
Google Maps
Google Maps is an amazing resource. Not only can you use it to find maps and driving directions, you can also use Google Maps to find local businesses, follow world events, toggle between satellite and hybrid views, and a whole lot more.
Google Earth
Search through geographic locations all over the world with Google Earth, a powerful way to visualize satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings and more.
Google Language Tools
You can use the Google Language Tools to search for a phrase in another language, translate a block of text, see the Google interface in your language, or visit Google’s home page in your country’s domain.
Google Phonebook
As of 2010, Google’s phone book feature has been officially retired.Both the phonebook: and the rphonebook: search operator have both been dropped. The reasoning behind this, according to Google’s representatives, is that they were receiving too many “remove me” requests from people who were unpleasantly surprised to find their personal information publicly searchable in Google’s index. Many people were sending in requests for information removal via this link: Google PhoneBook Name Removal, which removes information from residential listings.
Does this mean you can no longer use Google to find a phone number? Absolutely not! You can still utilize Google to track down a phone number and address, but you will need a bit more information in order to do so. You will need the person’s full name and the zip code where they reside:
joe smith, 10001
Typing in this simple search query will (hopefully) return phonebook results: name, address, and phone number.
More ways you can find a phone number
- Use the Web as a Phone Book: There are many ways you can use the Web as your own personal phone book, including social networking services, different search engines, and specialized directories.
- Five Ways to Track a Cell Phone Number: Because most cell phone numbers are unlisted in any phone directory, they can be trickier to find. However, there are some tricks you can do to uncover where these numbers might be lurking online.
Google Define
Not sure what that word means? You can use Google’s Define syntax to find out. Simply type in the word define: quirky (substitute your own word) and you’ll instantly be taken to a page of definitions, along with related topics and possible meanings.
Google Groups
You can use Google Groups to find a discussion about pretty much anything, from parenting to the latest Marvel comic book to politics.
Google Video
Google Video : movies, documentaries, videos, speeches, cartoons, news, and a whole lot more.
Google Image Search
You can use Google Image Search to find any kind of image you might be looking for. Use the drop-down menu to specify what size of image you’re searching for, the safe search option to keep your image searches family-friendly (or not), or the Advanced Image Search to make your image searches as specific as possible.
Google Site Search
You can use Google to find something within a site. For example, if you typed election site:cnn.com, you would come up with all the videos about the current election at this popular news site.
Google Travel
You can use Google to track your flight status or check conditions at an airport. Here’s how it works:
Flight Status: type in the name of the airline plus the flight number, for example, “united 1309” (without the quotes).
Airport Conditions: Type in the airport’s three letter code followed by the word airport, i.e., “pdx airport” (without the quotes).
Google Weather
Use Google to find the weather report anywhere in the world, simply and easily. Just type the name of the city you’re looking up weather information for plus the word “weather” (without the quotes), and you’ll get a quick forecast.
Google Finance
You can use Google Finance to research stocks, find the latest market information, track financial news, and more.
Google Flight Search
If you’re looking for the status of a U.S. flight, either arriving or departing, you can do that with Google. Simply type the name of the airline plus the flight number into Google’s search box, and click “Enter”.
In addition, you can also see potential flight schedules. Type in “flights from” or “flights to” plus where you want to go, and you’ll see such as information as whether or not there are non-stop flights offered, which airlines are currently carrying that particular flight, and a detailed schedule of flights available.
Google Calculator
Need a quick answer to a math problem? Type it into Google and let the Google Calculator figure it out. Here’s how it works:
Type a math problem into Google’s search box, for example, 2(4*3) + 978=. Google will quickly make the needed calculations and give you the answer.