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How To Refine Your Google Search

by Nelson Tan

Add and subtract your way to more effective and faster searches with these tips that give you exactly what you need. The key: Be as specific as possible. Here's how:

1. Use the addition (+) sign to make sure you get all the terms in your search results. So: '+internet +marketing +strategies' will get you results containing all those words, leaving out web pages that only contain 'internet'.

2. Use the subtraction (-) sign to exclude references that you are not interested in. For example, if you are not interested in web pages that talk about viral marketing, enter: 'internet marketing strategies -viral'.

3. Sometimes, your search terms may be far off from one another on a web page. To ensure your terms appear together in a phrase, put them in double quotations, like this: "internet marketing strategies". This is also useful when you want to look for specific topics, such as "how to remove spyware", rather than having the terms scattered all over.

4. If you are looking for a word definition, Google has a tool for you. Just type: 'define: widget' to get a definition of the word from online dictionaries and glossaries.

5. Google even performs calculations. For example, enter '1+2+3' and click 'search' to get the result. It can also perform unit conversions such as from miles to kilometers. Enter '10 miles to kilometers' and you'll get 16.09344 kilometers.

Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts!

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