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Searching the Internet: Advanced Internet Search Tricks

Find out how to get the most out of your Internet search experience. View our lists of recommended search engines and our updates advanced internet search tricks and tips.

Handy Bookmarkets

These "Bookmarklets" use Google Translate to quickly translate an external webpage to English, French or Spanish. Simply click and drag the link to your Chrome Bookmarks bar. These tools will not work on *Intranet* web pages. Contact the Library for a custom link for translation to any other language enabled by Google Translate.

Advanced Internet Search Cheat Sheet

Although Internet search engines do share some expert search functionality, there are multiple exceptions. This cheat sheet outlines differences and unique features of Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo. 

 

Reviewed and updated January 2021

Google: Double quotes vs Verbatim

Double quotes around several words (phrase search). Example: "blue economy"

  • exactly this word order
  • synonyms, alternative spellings might still appear in result list

Double quotes around a single word:

  • finds exactly that word; no synonyms, no stemming, no alternative spellings
  • prevents word from being dropped from the search

Verbatim (located under "Tools" then "All results") acts like putting double quotes around each individual word:

  • no synonyms, alternative spellings or localized results (like nearby businesses)
  • does not enforce the order of the words