Refine Google Search Results Why Google is ahead

[iGuest 3]

Couple of days ago, I was to learn about some diseases and I conducted a Google search. And the search result page simply astonished me. For example: when I googled for "Malaria", the big "G" gave me more options to refine search, like,

Treatment

Tests/diagnosis

For patients

From medical authorities

Symptoms

Causes/risk factors

For health professionals

Alternative medicine.

Those options were really helpful to get exactly what I was looking for quickly. The query string looked something like searchkeyword more: option

The more:option appears to be very helpful to refine search results.

[Kyle1405241527 0]

Another thing I find useful are quotes. It will bring an exact match for the words in quotes, which is helpful when your searching for something that contains multiple words or has multiple meanings.

[Arbitrary 0]

The more:option appears to be very helpful to refine search results.

Yep, it definitely is. I think the only problem is that you have to actually learn the input style. Most average users will not think about putting more:option at the end of their search query and thus will not be able to experience this kind of help. It might be nicer if Google could do it automatically, and have a function to let users turn it off (and remember it on their computer) if they don't like it. Clicking advanced search does this automatically, but most users don't bother.
Anyway, there are a number of useful Google refine options, like the following:
- searchterm > Without the search term
+ searchterm >> Forces the search of common words that Google normally excludes
. searchterm>> Single character wildcard
* searchterm >> Any form of the search term that is traditionally used, i.e., if you search "happy*", you will get results such as "Happy Birthday"
filetype:searchterm >> Search for things with only that filetype
inurl:searchterm >> Search for websites whose URL contains the search term
cache:searchterm >> Displays Google's cache of the site
intitle:searchterm >> Google searches for the search term inside the title of the site
site:searchterm >> Restricts search to within a certain website
Edited July 7, 2006 by Arbitrary (see edit history)