Skip to main content

Hack Google search with these 5 tips from Patrick Norton

Oops! We couldn't load this video player
I’m Patrick Norton from TekThing and I’m here on Digital Trends today to show you five awesome Google search hacks.

First up, if you need a specific name or specific term, put them all in quotes. That tells Google you’re want to be specific and want to search for those exact words. Use a hyphen or minus sign if you want to exclude certain terms – say, you want to search for dogs, but not yellow dogs? Enter this: dogs -yellow dogs.
But who doesn’t like yellow dogs?

Recommended Videos

Say you want results from a specific domain; enter the search term, then type site, a colon, and the domain you want to search, like this: dogs site:digitaltrends.com.

And yes, you can actually stack your searches, combining terms you’re excluding, a specific phrase you’re hunting for, the exact domain you want, whatever. Just please, won’t someone think of the yellow dogs?

Want to know when a holiday falls in the next five years? Type the name of it and the year, and Google will tell you exactly what day you should plan your celebration around. The same search works for movie releases as well – go ahead, give a try. You can find out ahead of the game when Rocky 23 will be released.

If you want sites that have similar content to a website you know the name of, just type related-colon and the name of the site you like. You’ll get a whole list of sites with similar content.

Here’s a handy one: Google tip calculator and up will pop an app that lets you enter the amount of the bill, the tip you want to pay in a percentage, and even the number of people, should you and your buddies plan to split things up. Unfortunately, there’s no sign of an app that will tell you what people should tip based on exactly what they ate. But there is a decent scientific calculator built into Google as well. Just type the calculation you’re trying to work out into the search bar and let Google do the thinking for you.

Thanks for watching. I hope some of these Google search tips help you find what you’re looking for.

Topics
Patrick Norton
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Patrick cohosts TekThing, a video show packed with viewer questions, product reviews, and how-tos. He also works on This Week…
Google removes 600 apps with annoying pop-up ads from the Play Store
Pixel phone with five icon at the bottom of the display.

Google removed 600 apps from the Google Play Store that had too many annoying ads as an effort to crack down on its disruptive ad policy. 

Apps that were removed reportedly had ads that resulted in poor user experiences or disrupted essential functions of people’s phones. Google said these pop-up ads could lead to people unintentionally clicking on them. 

Read more
How to delete your Gmail account (and what you need to know)
The top corner of Gmail on a laptop screen.

Is it time to part ways with your Gmail account? Whether you’re moving onto greener email pastures, or you want to start fresh with a new Gmail address, deleting your old Gmail account is something anyone can do. Of course, we’re not just going to bid you farewell without a guide all our own. If you need to delete your Gmail account, we hope these step-by-step instructions will make the process even easier.

Read more
How to change your Yahoo password on desktop and mobile
A Yahoo mail inbox.

One of the best ways to keep your many email inboxes safe and secure is by frequently changing your password. While this may sound inconsequential, periodic login updates end up being one of the biggest deterrents against hackers and other malcontents. If Yahoo is your email platform of choice, we’ve put together this guide to teach you how to update your account password in just a few simple steps.

Read more