====== Google Guide ======

Google is damn useful.

===== Guide =====

Here are some google tips

==== Google search operators ====

By using certain keywords followed by a semi-colon, Google can do certain tricks!

  * "**Define:**" Will define a word you type afterwards. e.g. define:tree

  * "**Site:**" Will search for your search words on a specific site. e.g. site:google.com advanced search

  * "**OR**" This word is useful for a specific search which could use different words, e.g. 'Dave OR David Schwimmer'

  * "*****" This is a wildcard and can stand in place of any word. (see Wildcard search lower down).

  * "**~**" This is for a synonym search, use with a word like ''~help'' and google also looks for synonyms such as 'FAQ' and 'Tutorial'.

==== Wildcard search ====

Using the wildcard (''*'') allows google to 'fill in a blank'. To use it, imagine the perfect answer to your question but replace the parts you don't know with ''*''.

^Question^Ideal answer, typed into google^
|What is the longest running TV show in britain?|* is the longest running TV show OR program in Britain OR England|

The first result when using this search was 'Coronation Street', which is the correct answer.

=== Advanced wildcard searching ===
The asterisk wildcard can also be used for proximity searching. 
For example, searching for a restaurant called 'rules' in Newcastle, the query:

<code>rules ****** (newcastle OR restaurant)</code>

will only return hits where the word "rules" is within 6 words
of "newcastle" or "restaurant", to cut down on the number of
irrelevant hits. You can control the number of words in this
proximity by the number of asterisks, e.g.

<code>train ********** ("london" *** "brighton")</code>

...will only return hits where London and Brighton are within 3
words of each other, and the word train (or trains) is within 10
words (i.e. a sentence) of London and Brighton.

You can even then take this much further to pick up only good hits
about, say, GM foods:
<code>("food" OR "trial" OR "plant" OR "crop") ****** ("gm" OR "gmo" OR "gmos" OR "genetically
modified" OR "genetic modification" OR "genetically engineered"
OR "genetic engineering")</code>

**Note: Google will automatically accomodate plurals etc, so no 'OR' is needed for train OR trains, just use one..

Also the word replacement is reported to work for a maximum of 10 words.**

===== The site(s) =====

  * http://www.google.co.uk
  * http://maps.google.co.uk
  * http://local.google.co.uk