This is the third part in my Google Speed-Search series. Here are the first two parts if you missed them:
Remove unwanted results with negationÂ
This lesson introduces negation, i.e. using a minus sign (-) to specify terms you don’t want to appear in your search results. This can be useful when your results are cluttered with unrelated websites. Consider these examples:
Note: There should be a space before the minus sign, but not after.
Ice Age -movie
Despite Ice Age being a popular movie for kids, if you want information on the real ice age, you should remove the word “movie”.
Japanese cars -used
Searching for Japanese cars brings up a bunch of websites selling used cars. If you’re just interested in learning about Japanese cars, remove the word “used” from your results.
football -nfl -american
For English football, or soccer, do a search for results that don’t contain “NFL” or “American”.
"birthday cards" -free -ecard
Wrapping “birthday cards” in double quotes will make sure all the results contain exactly that phrase. Of course, if you’re looking to buy a traditional birthday card, you don’t want results containing “free” or “Ecard”.
Using negation, it’s easy to remove what you don’t want:
US President -"George Bush" 😉
Next: Google Speed-Search Lesson #4 -Â Stop Words
If you like, you can find me on Twitter at @nick_ramsay. I'd love to hear from you!
That is a useful tip Nick and just tried it. I often search for things and constantly have to weed out stuff. It does speed up the process of finding what I really want!!
Geez how do you know this stuff!!!
Keith
Thanks Keith, make sure you read the first two parts of the series as well, and then stay tuned for the next part! 😀