At some point in everyone’s life, they need to conduct research. Whether it is related to one’s academic or profession or even when investing in a new venture, significant research is carried out across the internet. In an age where you can get answers to anything in seconds. This is because the internet does not restrict anyone from producing content. Hence, while there could be an influx of research, attempting to discern which one can be trusted and help you make a decision is challenging. This blog will explain how users can easily research via Google as quickly as possible.
Top Five Features in Google You Should Use When Conducting Research
While multiple search engines are available, google offers a range of tools to assist you with finding the most relevant research required for whatever purposes.
It Offers An Exclusive and Specialised Search Engine for Research
Structure and Punctuation
If you are a user simply testing the waters or trying to come up with a specific research topic, you would usually keep your initial searches very general. This is done by only using lower cases to type in the question or statement, with no punctuation and by adding terms in singular forms. It should, however, be noted that Google is not case sensitive, and hence generally, it would not matter if it was written in capitals or simples. It is advised to remove lower cases simply to prevent your search from focusing on searching content in specific variables. On the other hand, if you want to broaden your search, connecting two keywords using the word ‘OR’ on either side is a great way to drive research that deals with two different areas relevant to your research in one go. The OR function can also help you find synonyms, although this can also be done by using the ~ symbol prior to inserted to the word. If you enclose concepts in a curved bracket, Google search will provide results for the parentheses first and then showcase results that combine with the terms outside it.
When Narrowing Down Your Research
If you want to narrow down your search results specifically, there are ways you can do that from the way you type in your questions or statements. Try typing a word or phase between the curved inverted commas (“ ”). The purpose of doing this is that Google will search the inserted words in that exact same order. Hence, you may find material which includes that phrase in the topic or body copy of the article, as shown by the short description highlighted in bold. Adding keywords most relevant to you is another way to gain specific results. If you are finding for a specific article, you can type in the content of the article in a few words with a * sign where you do not remember the author’s name. There is, moreover, a tendency for people to use research published in more recent years instead of older research as they are more updated. To directly gain results that were published in a specific period, simply connect two numbers to three dots and specify the keywords (EX: 2020…2023). Perhaps you are looking for words in the titles of the web pages. Simply type ‘intitle’ and then insert a colon and specify a specific keyword, with no spaces in between any of them. (EX: Intitle: Singapore).
Being Specific in Other Ways
Sometimes the type of document or information you want to find could be limited to a webpage, file type, or a certain field. To receive search results that are from a common domain such as edu, com, org, gov, or a country code like sg, type ‘site:’ followed by the domain type at the end of the phrase or question you are researching on. Undergraduates, for instance, would focus on mostly .edu domain sites, whereas a business, for example, may focus on country codes or even ‘.org’. On the other hand, if you want to exclude search results from a specific domain, add the minus sign. This same format can be used to eliminate keywords that you definitely want to avoid. To find content in a particular file type, be it a doc, xls, jpg, ppt, pdf or others, type ‘filetype:’ at the start of the search bar with the certain filetype you need with no spaces in between. In Google Scholar, you can find articles by similar authors in the field by simply searching for an author you consider essential. This is done by typing ‘author:’ followed by the author’s name, a feature not present in the general Google search engine.
Find only News Article
Many would usually type in a specific area and simply choose the news article tab on Google Search results to get news. However, as you may have noticed, this may not always be effective or helpful. If your research primarily focuses on news articles, then it is advised that you use Google News, which can be accessed by typing https://news.google.com. This offers news articles from all over the world, allowing you to deconstruct and consider how other agencies worldwide have reported the same subject matter. The news page is primarily divided into U.S., world and local news, all of which can be filtered and customised according to what you need. You can also limit your search based on the region by specifying it within the search bar on the page. Based on your general Google searches and how the site monitors your interest in the web, this page may also recommend topics based on your interest. This demonstrates that Google News is not an all-empowering news platform that provides the most relevant search results. As explained above, the form of keywords and how they are written plays a key role.
Research Smart
Research is an integral part of education and even in the business world today. It is incredibly time-consuming and requires the skill to do it right and identify the most relevant source. One way to get ahead is by researching smartly. For this, understanding the various features Google offers is a starting step to finding helpful resources much faster. Try using these features next time to gauge how different it is from your normal way of researching on the internet.
