Web searching hints: 'Ctrl-F' and other Google tips

Google remains the top choice for conducting Web searches. But you may not know that you can improve the chances of finding what you're looking for with a few simple tricks: using Ctrl-F, for example.

A Google search anthropologist—an employee at the search-engine giant who studies how people use Google—told the Atlantic that 90 percent of Web users don't know about using the handy keyboard combination on Web pages or documents. So, what does it do?

Let's say you've done a Web search for "Christopher Columbus" and found some interesting links to other pages. But when you go to one result page, you have no idea where it mentions good old Chris. Pressing Control ("Ctrl" on a PC keyboard; on Macs, it's the Apple Command key, next to the spacebar on the keyboard) simultaneously with the F key produces a "find" box on your Web browser. Type in "Christopher Columbus" and then press Enter, and voilà: Every instance of "Christopher Columbus" in the text on that page is highlighted, allowing you to skim the page to determine if it means your needs.

Google has some other nifty tricks outlined on its Inside Search Web page and even made a daily game about how to improve your searches, found at the A Google a Day Web site. Some tips on what you can enter on Google's search bar that you may or may not know about:

• site: - Using this limits your searches to just a particular website.
  e.g. "car news site:www.consumerreports.org" tells Google to search only Consumer Reports' website for pages that contain the words "car" and/or "news" and their variants—"cars," for example.


• -word - This tells Google to ignore Web pages that contain certain words.
  e.g. "homer -simpson" will find websites that mention Homer, but ignore pages that contain "Homer Simpson" or text such as "My report to Homer included a mention to George Simpson."


• +word - This limits your search to the exact word.
  e.g. "+hope" finds pages that contain only "hope," not "hopeful" or "hopeless" or any other variation of the word.


• "string of words" - Using quotation marks around your search terms in a Google search box tells Google to look for Web pages that contain only that exact phrase on a Web page.
  e.g. " "car news" " finds Web pages that has "In other car news today..." but ignores a Web page that reads, "In my car today, I found a newspaper."

What other tips do you know and use to help narrow your Web searches?

Crazy: 90 Percent of People Don't Know How to Use CTRL+F [The Atlantic]
A Google a Day [Deja Google]
Inside Search [Google]

—Paul Eng