Basic Search

Using "search hacks" will make your time online more productive and yield better results. Give these tricks a try as you complete our Internet Scavenger Hunt.

Exact Phrase

How: Use quotation marks around a "phrase" to search for the exact phrase

Example: And then they watched the sky burn (no quotes) retrieves in a Billie Eilish song

When you add the quotes to "And then they watched the sky burn" the results are about a Vietnam Veteran's search for a Corpsman

Exclude Words

How: Use a hyphen or minus sign - to exclude or omit terms you don't want returned in your results

Example: Mustang -car

With the exclude phrase you will receive results about mustangs that are not cars  

Example: salsa recipe -tomato

With the exclude phrase you will receive recipes for salsa that do not include tomatoes

Example Double Exclude: brownie recipe -egg -cocoa -chocolate

With the exclude phrase you will receive recipes for brownies that do not include eggs, cocoa or chocolate

Include Words

How: Use a plus sign - to include terms you must have returned in your results

Example: +pickle +purple

With the include phrase you will receive results about purple pickles  

This OR That

How: If you're looking for results that are about one topic or another, but nothing else, use the OR modifier to get more accurate results.

Example: dog OR cat

With the OR phrase you will receive pages that have either the word dog OR cat

This AND That

How: If you're looking for results that are about one topic or another, but nothing else, use the OR modifier to get more accurate results.

Example: dog AND cat

With the AND phrase you will receive pages that have either the word dog AND cat

Wildcard

How:When you use an asterisk in a search term on Google search, it will leave a placeholder that may be automatically filled by the search engine later.     

Example: a * by any other *

With the * wildcard command you will find the "a rose by any other name" phrase is from Romeo and Juliet

Definitions

How: Add the term define: to receive a definition of a word

Example: define:staycation

With the define: command you will receive a dictionary definition of the word staycation

Filetype

How: Add the term filetype: to return a search results list with only a specified extension. For example maybe you need a PowerPoint with information about Park City, Utah    

Example: +"park city" +utah filetype:ppt

With the filetype: command you will receive several presentations to review.