The development of the Internet has allowed almost anyone to access virtually all the information known to human civilization. A few keystrokes and mouse clicks can uncover just about any collection of information you want, and send it right to your desktop or laptop.
Google and other search engines like Yahoo and MSN constantly update their search algorithms to provide relevant search results to billions of Internet users around the world. But as good as these search engines have become, a large number of Internet users still find searching the Internet a bit of a frustrating and daunting task.
Having the expanse of human knowledge at your fingertips doesn’t always result in finding what you want. For example, a Google search for the term “telecommunications” returns a whopping 109,000,000 results.
No one has the time or patience to analyze so much information. Fortunately, there are simple search tricks you can use right now to quickly and easily find telecommunications (or any other) information.
How to search using quotes, parentheses, positives and negatives
Google, MSN and Yahoo have enabled “shortcuts” within their search engine structure to help users narrow down the search results they provide. Making Internet search a friendlier experience requires users to know just a few.
The most basic of these shortcuts is the use of quotes, positive and negative. Used in conjunction with search phrases, these commands help zero in on relevant search results very quickly.
For example, suppose you want to search the Internet using the term: VoIP phone system. Typing those words into Google returns over 45,000,000 results. Placing quotes around these same words tells Google to search for “phrase,” not just the individual words. Phrase search narrows this search down to just over 1 million results.
Adding positives (+) and/or negatives (-) to a search term will help further focus search results. For example, if you want to find a Cisco VoIP Phone System and not Packet 8, you would type: “VoIP Phone System” +cisco -package 8
The minus sign (-) removes any search results that reference Packet 8 and includes all search results that contain Cisco.
If you want to find EITHER Cisco OR Pack 8 VoIP phone systems, it’s best to use the command one or the other (parentheses) in your search. Note that all of these commands are completely interchangeable and can be used together depending on how specific you want the search results to be returned. A search for a VoIP phone system by Cisco or Packet8, but NOT eBay listings, would require typing this into Google: “voip phone system” (cisco, pack 8) -ebay
These simple tricks will save you hours of time and considerable frustration when searching for exactly what you want. The following are more ways to find specific file types and information from a single website, without even having to go to that website to search.
How to search for specific file types of information
For the most part, Google returns search results in the form of web pages (html) or “sites” where the information resides. Although they are getting better at including non-html page file types in their search results (eg PDF, mpg, mp3, .doc, .xls), they are still years away from being intuitive enough to know exactly the type of files you are looking for. searching when you enter a search phrase. The best way to help Google return what you want is to tell it what type of file you want.
For example, there are literally thousands of white papers written on just about every telecommunications topic imaginable. Providers spend a lot of money to develop comprehensive and informative documents on a variety of telecommunications topics, primarily for marketing purposes. However, most of these documents are not thinly disguised sales pitches. Most of the time they are packed with highly informative content. White papers are very useful when researching and/or learning about a specific telecommunications topic.
To easily find these available telecommunications technical documents, simply enter file type: pdf after your search phrase. If you are looking for a white paper on the subject of “voip phone systems”, your Google search phrase would require this: “voip phone systems” file type: PDF
Google returns 358 results as of this writing.
Not specific enough?
Try entering allintitle: before the search term. This will tell Google to only return PDF files that contain “voip phone systems” in the TITLE of the document. This search returns only six results.
Use this trick to find other types of files, such as Word files (doc), mp3 files (mp3), and even Excel files (xls). A search for VoIP phone systems in Word document format would require: “VoIP phone systems” File type: doc An Excel spreadsheet file would require: “VoIP phone systems” File type: xls
How to search a single website
Many websites contain search features that allow visitors to search for topics only within that website. But what if you want to search for a topic on a specific site and the site does not contain search capabilities?
Use the site: command directly in Google search fields.
For example, let’s say you want to quickly search mobiletracker.net (a popular and massive cell phone blog) for anything to do with Nextel in the blog post title, but you don’t want anything returned with the word ” Motorola” in the title. This Google search would require entering the following search string:
allintitle:Nextel site:mobiletracker.net -Motorola for a total of 93 search results.
Let Google get closer to you with Google “Alerts”
Now you can let Google search reach you by email when you add information to the Internet that contains a topic or phrase that interests you. Introduction: Google Alerts. Google Alerts is a free service that allows you to notify Google of a topic or phrase that you want to keep updated on an ongoing basis. Google will send you an email when something is added to the Internet that contains that topic or search phrase.
You’ll need a (free) Google account to set up these alerts, but once you do, information about your topic will be sent to you at whatever time intervals you want: daily, “as it happens,” or weekly. You can also specify where you want this information to come from: the web, news, blogs, videos, Google Groups, or an exhaustive search of each and every one of them.
When setting up your Google Alerts, be very specific using the methods discussed in this newsletter. Use the all commands in title, quotes, positives, and negatives whenever possible. By doing so, you will not only reduce the number of emails you receive, but they will also be very focused on the subject.
The Internet contains a vast array of telecommunications information waiting to be found and used to your advantage. Take a few minutes a day to hone your internet search skills and the rewards will be worth it.
