A quick Google search can be very helpful when conducting research, but it can also be overwhelming and the results staggering. We’ve all been there. Here are a few helpful tips, with examples, for searching Google in a more efficient way.

1. Use quotes to search for an exact phrase – this will help to reduce results to the most relevant on your topic (example: “breast cancer brain metastases”)
2. Use the minus sign to eliminate results containing a certain word – another way to refine and focus the results (example: “breast cancer metastasis” -brain)
3. Search within specific websites only – perform a site search directly from Google with this feature (example: “breast cancer brain metastases” site:cancer.gov)
4. Search news archives going back to the mid-1880’s – a specific Google Newspapers search engine provides a robust interface for finding archived news items