Google is a great search engine for search for solutions as developers.
In this article, we’ll look at how to search for things better in Google as developers.
Use the Tabs
We can use different tabs for different purposes. For instance, we can search for fake images in the Image tab and use the Web tab for searching for solutions to our problems.
Use Quotes
We can put everything in quotes to make sure that the whole phrase is included in all the search results.
Use a Hyphen to Exclude Words
We can use a hyphen to exclude words so that we can remove words that we don’t want in our search.
For instance, we can search for Angular -1.5 so that we’re searching results for Angular 1.5.
Use a Colon to Search Specific Sites
We can use the colon and the website domain after it to search for what we’re looking for. So we can type something like Angular site:stackoverflow.com to search questions about Angular in Stack Overflow.
Find a Page That Links to Another Page
The link keyword lets us find something that links to another page.
For instance, we can type React link:stackoverflow.com to find all the pages with the word ‘React’ that links to Stack Overflow.
Use the Wildcard
The asterisk * character is a wildcard character. We can put them anywhere to use it.
For instance, we can write Angular * React to search for any phrase with words between ‘Angular’ and ‘React’.
Find Sites That are Similar to Other Sites
We can use the related keyword to search for sites that are related to other sites.
So we can write related:stackoverflow.com to search for sites that are related to Stack Overflow that answer questions.
Google Search Can Do Math
We can do arithmetic operations by typing in expressions that can be computed.
So arithmetic expressions like 1 + 2 can be typed in and we get 3.
Search for Multiple Words at Once
The OR operator lets us search for multiple phrases in the search box. For instance, we can use it as follows:
Angular OR React
Then we search for both Angular and React .
Search a Range of Numbers
The .. operator can let us search for a number range. For instance, we can use 1..5 to search for results with numbers ranged one to five in it.
Also, we can search for a single number by writing World Cup ..2006 to search for World Cup results
Nearby Locations
We can search for things that are near us without specifying our location explicitly.
So we can search for developer confereneces nearby to get all the developer conferences nearby.
Search for Results That Contains All the Text
We can search for results with all the text in our results with the allintext operator.
So something like allintext:developer confereneces will search for results with all the words that come after in the result.
Search for Results The Have All Words in the Title
Words in the title can all be searched together. We can use the allintitle operator to do the search.
So allintitle:developer confereneces will search for items that have both ‘developer’ and ‘conferences’ in the title.
Shortcuts
There’re plenty of shortcuts in Google.
We can search ‘weather zip code’ to search for weather with a given zip code.
The define operator gives us dictionary definitions of words.
‘time location’ gives us the time so it’s good for things like remote meetings where we don’t know what other people’s times are.
Autocorrect Spelling
Google will autocorrect spelling errors so we don’t have to worry about spelling errors when typing.
We can just type as fast as we can and Google will take care of the rets.
Find a Specific Kind of File
This is good for searching for a specific kind of file. For instance, we can search for fake PDF files by using the filetype operator as follows:
dummy filetype:pdf
Then we can search for dummy PDF files we can use for testing.
Conclusion
We can use these Google tricks to make our lives much easier when searching for things.
Developers have to search for things online all the time, so these tricks will help out a lot.
There’re operators to search for anything and there’re many more that aren’t covered here.
