1. Either this or that

If you are not sure if you remember correctly about the information or the name you are searching for, simply put in a few potential variations of what you’re looking for, and separate them by using ”or.” Then it’s easy enough to choose the result that makes the most sense.

2. Use synonyms

Our language is rich in synonyms. Sometimes this can be very convenient when doing research online. If you need to find websites on a given subject rather than those that include a specific phrase, add the “~” symbol to your search.

For example, if you search for the term “healthy ~lifestyle” you’ll get results about the principles of healthy living tips, fitness plan, as well as healthy eating options.

3. Searching within websites

Sometimes you read an interesting article on a website and find yourself subsequently wanting to share it with your friends or simply reread it. The easiest way to find the desired piece of information again is to search within the website. To do this, type the address of the site, then a key word or entire phrase from the article, and it should come up immediately.

4. Use Asterisk

When it is very difficult for us to recall that one key word, phrase, or number we need in order to find what we’re looking for, you can turn to the powerful “*” symbol. Just use this in the place of the word/phrase you can’t remember, and you should be able to find the results you’re looking for.

5. Use AROUND

When you can’t remember some of the words, try writing out the first and last words and putting “AROUND + (the approximate number of missing words)“ between them. For example, ”I am AROUND (7) House.”

6. Using a time frame

Sometimes we urgently need to acquaint ourselves with events that occurred during a certain period of time. To do so, you can add a time frame to your search query with the help of three dots between the dates. For example, if we want to find out about scientific discoveries during the 20th century, we can write:

7. Searching for a title or URL

To help find the key words and name of an article, type “intitle:“ before the search term, without any spaces between them. In order to find the words from a URL, use ”inurl:”.

8. Finding similar websites

If you’ve found something you really like online and want to find similar websites, type in “related:” and then the address of the site, again without a space between them.

9. Whole phrases

Framing the search term within quotation marks is the simplest and most effective way to find something specific and in the exact order you typed it in.

If you type “Where are you now” within quotation marks, you’ll get only those results where these words appear only in the order you typed them in. This is a great way to find the lyrics to a song when you only know one line from it.

10. Unimportant search words

To remove unimportant search words from your query, simply write a minus symbol before each one. For example, if you want to find a site about interesting holiday destinations, but you aren’t looking to buy them, you can write the following: