Thursday 24 January 2013

Smart Google Search Tips for Engineers


We use Google to search information day in and day out. One can provide few clues to make the Google Search quick and effective. The Clues are in the form of search within particular domain (Universities: edu, ac.uk, Government: gov, gov.ae) or website or searching text within particular file format ( Excel file, Word file, Powerpoint file, PDF file)

Simple Google search for the string “tall building” will give 2.24 Million pages on the web. One can narrow down this search by providing clue to the Google.
Clue means telling Google to search within particular site/domain/country/company/university etc.

The Google Option to find the “tall building” string within domain/website are following
·         Searching within American Universities – site:edu
·          Searching within British Universities – site:ac.in
·         Searching within IIT Bombay site – site:iitb.ac.in
·         Search within Indian Companies – site:in
·         Search within file sharing website site:4shared.com

The string “tall building” can be found inside any of the following file types
·         Microsoft Word file ( Clue for Google – filetype:doc )
·         Microsoft Excel File ( Clue for Google – filetype:xls )
·         Microsoft Power Point Presentation file ( Clue for Google – filetype:ppt )
·         Acrobat PDF file ( Clue for Google – filetype:pdf )
·         Post Script file ( filetype:ps)

Examples of Using Google Smart (Advance) Search:

If one wants to find the string “tall building” within the website of Council on Tall Buildings & Urban Habitat (www.ctbuh.org), Use following information in Search box



Similarly to find the books on “Tall building” inside file sharing website 4shared.com



Searching Particular File format:

One can find only Power Point Presentation file containing the string “Tall Building” through Universities in America, using following input in Search Box



Google can help to find only PDF files containing the complete phrase “Tall Building” inside Universities in UK using following information inside search box



Searching the string “Tall Building” within Acrobat PDF files on American University websites



Use of Both filetype and site clue will make google search quick and effective


Hemant Gor, GorHemant@GMail.com