Anyone familiar with the subject of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) will know about the efforts and struggles web authors go through to ensure their content appears at the top of search results. Google actually makes this relatively easy with free tools and lots of helpful information—I know from experience.
But what about the efforts and struggles that users go through to find the content they are looking for???
Good news for those of use using Google is that there are some easy to use advanced search functions enabling you to filter search results.
Search Operators
The first group of functions are those that are entered in the search query box to help you generate more meaningful search queries.
For example, use the site:operator to get results from a specific site. For example, to get results from SAP Community Network only, prefix your queries with site:sdn.sap.com as in site:sdn.sap.com NetWeaver mobile.
Within the query itself you can add operators to help fine tune your query. Use phrase search (“”) for exact phrase matches—helpful when looking for a specific SAP product name and version such as “SAP NetWeaver Process Integration 7.3”. Meanwhile, terms you don’t want can be filtered out placing a minus (-) before the term: let’s say you were looking for Web Dynpro but didn’t want Java, you’d search for Web Dynpro –Java.
On Page Functions
The second group of functions are filters that appear on the search results page.
First, we have the handy left panel. It contains a list of filters such as New, Realtime and Discussions. Clicking these on the search results page will instantly narrow down the search results according to the filter selected. If the filter you’re not looking for doesn’t appear, just click More at the bottom of the list presented. (My personal favorite is the recipes filter.)
Further down are additional tools: just click More search tools and don’t forget to try the wonder wheel!
Other filters appearing on page are within the results themselves. Occasionally Google will group results from the same domain making them accessible by clicking Show more results from [domain]:
At the same time, if you’re logged into Google using, say, your gmail account, you might be offered the opportunity to Block results from a specific domain:
More Information
Above are just some of the many tools and enhancements offered by Google to help you find what you’re looking for faster.
If you want to explore other operators available in Google, check out the following pages:
Googleguide.com: Advanced Operators
Google Support: More search help
And, for Twitter users: Twitter Search Operators
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