Searching with Google

Most searches are case insensitive Search for French cuisine will bring up sites about ‘French’ and ‘cuisine’ Using quote marks will bring up information about the topic you want: “French cuisine”

Use a minus sign to remove topics you don’t want: “holiday-Spain-Japan-Germany” - will exclude those destinations you don’t want

To find related topics use a tilde: ~ So, to search for terms associated with money: “~money” This will bring up associated topics such as ‘gold’ and ‘currency’

Use the words OR (in capitals and no gaps): “ducksORgeeseORswans” This will bring up all three topics

Missing words If you can’t remember a missing word replace it with a * Such as: “bridge over *waters”

Refine Don’t forget to refine your search using: images maps videos news shopping

Time To find the correct time somewhere else: “time in New York” The first line which appears will be the correct time.

Weather Just type in what you want: “weather in Paris” You will get the correct result and a forecast for the next few days.

Currency Just type in: “100NZD in USD” This will convert $NZ100 into $US

Quick conversions “32C in F” “32cm in inches” “100US gallons in UK gallons”

If you want to know… Enter: “speed of light” or “pi” or “periodic table”

Advanced search Don’t forget to use the advanced search. You can scroll down and find this at the bottom of the search page.

Defining Define words – find out what words mean. “define:chicken”

Within a range To find something within a range of dates put 2 full stops between them: “best books ” “cars ”

If you want to locate a ready-made PowerPoint then state your topic and put ppt after it: “Romeo and Juliet ppt”

Page title To search for page title try: “intitle” For example: searching for “camera” gives 2.7 billion results but “intitle:camera” gives 364,000 remember to put a colon between the two words.

Text Use the same techniques for text: “intext:dogs“

File type To find a specific type: “filetype:pdf” “filetype:ppt” “filetype:txt"

Unlock To unlock a site add an extra letter or dot. or com.

Example If you want to find a pdf from a government department relating to GST between try a single search like this: “site:govt.nz filetype:pdf intitle:gst ”

Try these search engines:

From: Sunday Star Times, 19 th and 26 th February, F12.