Digital Literacy: Computer Skills, Netiquette & Internet Safety

You can receive education and support at the Computer Support desk in the RGO Library and Learning Commons. Visit our Computer Resources page for more information. 

Google Search Tips & Tricks

Get better results from Google by using these search techniques:

• Use a "phrase search" to find an exact term by using quotation marks

Example: "sustainable business"

• Limit results to one type of website, such as governmental or educational

Example 1: 

small business development site:.gc.ca

> typing "site:.gc.ca" after the search term will limit results to Canadian federal government websites

Example 2: 

sustainable development studies site:.edu

> typing "site:.edu" after the search term will limit results to educational institutions

• Search for words in the website title to ensure the information is relevant

Example:

allintitle: sustainable business 

> typing "allintitle:" before the search term will limit results to those that have all those terms in the web page title, such as "World Business Council for Sustainable Development," "The New Metrics of Sustainable Business Conference," and so on

• Use the minus sign (-) to remove unwanted words from search results

Example: 

sustainable -development

> search results will include sites with the term "sustainable" and exclude sites with the word "development"

• Use the "advanced search" option to limit your results by language, Internet domain, date of publication, country, and where on the web page the words appear, such as address or text.

Follow these links for more help and information on searching Google and similar Internet search engines: