Virtually everyone knows how to use a search engine like Google or Safari to scour the web for information on their computer or mobile phone. But finding the exact information you want, quickly and easily, takes some skills. Keep reading to learn how to search online – whoever – whatever you want online in just a few taps or clicks.
Tips on becoming a Google search pro
Here Google tricks you might not know about that can help you use the search engine more efficiently:
- Use a hyphen to exclude certain words. Example: search Mustang -cars to display results for the word “Mustang,” but exclude results having to do with the Mustang car.
- Use a colon to search specific sites. Example: search Lionel Messi site:fifa.com to search the official Fifa site for Lionel Messi.
- Use the asterisk as a word placeholder. Example: search “We * these truths to be * evident” to find this famous quote (from The United States’ Declaration of Independence) even if you don’t remember all the words.
You can find many more useful Google search tips in this Lifehack article.
Using Twitter to get breaking updates
Twitter is the best place to search online for time-sensitive information online, such as breaking news. Twitter is also great for finding out what’s going on, even if that happening is not being reported by official news outlets. For example, is your Netflix service not working? Simply search “Netflix” on Twitter and you’ll find tons of other people complaining about Netflix being down, if there is indeed an outage.
You can also use Twitter to:
- Receive notifications via text or push notification when a certain person tweets or when someone tweets on a topic you’re interested in
- Follow trending topics that many people are tweeting about
- Stay informed during a widespread emergency
Find more tips on using Twitter to get up-to-the-minute.
Upgrade your online shopping skills to “ninja” status
To get the best deals when shopping online, you need to know the best sites to shop on. And how to find what you want on those sites, and how to get the best deals. Here are a few resources to help you do those things.
- Mashable eBay search tips and tricks to get exactly what you want on eBay
Find an app for every need
Most of us access the internet on our smartphones rather than our computers, and this makes mobile apps a highly useful way to find things we want online. Beyond finding information and items to buy, location-based apps can allow you to meet new people, locate nearby places, and or even find a friend for your dog.
AppCrawlr is a great site where you can find an app for anything under the sky. Use the filters to do a custom search for free and paid apps for any purpose, on any device.
If, by any chance, the thing you happen to be searching for is web hosting, we’ve got you covered! Learn more about our Montreal web hosting services.
Leave a Reply