Use These Hidden Google Features For Better Online Searches

Google is the most visited search engine in New Zealand and the world! It has a market share of over 92.18% and has been visited over 62.19 billion times in 2019. Every second, it processes about 40,000 search enquiries from all over the world, which adds up to about 3.5 billion searches per day! 

By every metric, Google crushes any other search engines! This is big thanks to its useful features that help us deal with tech and navigate the online world every day. But, are you fully aware of some pro features that you can actually do within the website?

Use Google search engine more effectively with these awesome tips and tricks.

Put quotes to search for exact keywords

Keywords are enough to make a quick search on Google. The algorithm is smart enough to show relevant results to what you’re looking for. Although in some cases, it can be difficult to find the exact results that you’re looking for. Instead of trying your luck by using different keywords, search using the exact order of words and put quotation marks on it.

For example, you’re looking for countries that use the most sustainable energy for this year. This can show you plenty of varying results such as eco-friendly, environmentally friendly, greenest countries, among others. This is almost similar to what you’re looking for, but it may not be exactly what you want.

To make your search easier, type in “sustainable countries of 2021” and your top results should take you to an article listing these countries. This should be more accurate than simply searching using keywords.

Search keywords on one website only

Once you enter a keyword on the Google search bar, it will show you relevant results across all websites! If you only want to search for keywords on one website only, use this trick. Instead of scrolling through different pages to find what you’re looking for, enter site:<domain> <keyword>. Here’s a more elaborate example.

If you want to get Spotify Premium on your mobile plan using our comparison tool, search site:comparebear.co.nz spotify mobile plan. This should only show you all CompareBear pages related to Spotify and mobile plans.

Most websites aren’t great at maximising search engines, so this should be an easy fix to get to what you really need quicker, and more efficiently.

Use the ‘Tools’ button to track old sources

Backtracking on old news or articles on a particular website? There’s an easier way to find it rather than fiddling around web pages! Once you’re done with the previous tip, use the ‘Tools’ button that you can find under the search bar.

You can select the time in which the article is posted as well as filter verbatim results. The choices are from the past hour, past 24 hours, past week, past month, past year, and custom range. You can also use this feature to show New Zealand-based websites only.

Filter unrelated words from your search

Some keywords can have a lot of meaning or relevant searches. While Google’s algorithm can filter these most of the time, some terms can be really ambiguous and confusing. For example, the term ‘kiwi’ can have a lot of meaning — be it a fruit, bird, people, bank, song, and more!

If you’re looking for a picture of kiwi, the bird but the fruit keeps on appearing, search kiwi -fruit. This filters out your searches and only shows you the photo of the bird. Similarly, search kiwi -bird if you want to look at the photo of the fruit.

Do note that you may still see advertisements even when you filter out unnecessary keywords. For example, you may see promotions about Kiwibank even if you searched for kiwi -bank. The organic searches remain filtered out.

Search sources in similar websites

Have you found a great website that offers comprehensive blogs and articles? You may find similar and even better sources from other related websites. This is especially useful for students, writers, and researchers that want to find more valuable articles to back up their research paper or thesis.

For example, you find Interest.co.nz as a great resource about insurance, loans, mortgages, and everything finance. To look for similar websites, enter related:interest.co.nz on the search bar. This will show you related and even competitor websites that have almost similar stuff.

Basic tools like world clock, unit converter, timer, and more

You don’t have to download another application for basic tools including a dictionary, language translation, timer, stopwatch, colour picker, unit conversion tool, currency converter, IP address checker, and world clock. 

These are only some built-in features within the Google search engine, but there can be more. You can access them with one quick search of the tool. Some of these features also have a full-screen mode for a better view.

Search for resources using image

It’s been a feature for a long time, but not a lot of people use reverse image search! Instead of using keywords to look for a photo, you use an image to look for related information, keywords, and even photos. This works on almost all kinds of photos, including faces!

For example, you see snow-covered mountains that look like the Southern Alps but aren’t sure if it really is. Simply go to Google Images or click the ‘Images’ button in the top right corner of the Google search homepage. You should see three icons: camera, microphone, and search.

Click on the ‘camera’ icon in the search bar to do a reverse image search. This should give you the option to paste the URL of the photo or upload an image. You can also drop an image from your local storage to upload the file and search immediately.

Use Google seamlessly with an uninterrupted connection

Google loads very fast to ensure reliability in your searches. However, several simultaneous searches can cause strain in your bandwidth, which can slow down the search engine in displaying the results. To ensure you have uninterrupted searches, switch to an unlimited fibre broadband plan today!

Compare, switch, and save using CompareBear’s comparison tool.