Google has become a staple for most people for being a vast trove of information that would otherwise be out of reach. It’s where we find travel destinations, product recommendations, health and medical trivia, and crash courses about anything under the sun. Since the founding of Google Inc. in 1998, the beloved search engine has continued to provide us with an ever-evolving approach to browsing the web.
The Internet giant that once operated out of a Stanford University dorm room now offers more innovative ways to access the data you need. Some of the most exciting options are reverse video search, category filters, and search operators. If you want to amp up your Google search game, continue reading below to learn how to take advantage of all that Google has to offer.
Table of Contents
Searching Images
To benefit from Google’s repository of millions of images, type and enter your search query on your address bar or browser search box. When the consolidated results appear, you may follow any of these two steps to find the images:
- Google often suggests images relevant to your keyword halfway through the first search results page. If you see such a section when you scroll down, click “View all.”
- When you reach the search engine results page (SERP), locate and click the “Images” icon on the tabs under the search box.
- You also can search Google Images by visiting google.com/imghp or images.google.com.
Reverse Search
Google also comes in handy if you want to find the source of an image or get a better quality of your photo. You can perform this reverse search by following these steps:
- Open Google Images, and click the camera icon beside the magnifying glass icon. When you hover, it should display the text “Search by image.”
- To search by image directly from the browser, copy the URL of the photo you want to query and paste it into the text box. Click the “Search by image” button.
- To search for an image from your computer files, select the “Upload an image” tab. Click “Browse” to open your files and select the target image. Once the upload is complete, Google will direct you to the results page.
Search Filters
When browsing images on Google, you can narrow down your search based on different categories. This feature is helpful if you need to meet definite parameters for an image or if you want to locate a specific photo. Here are the instructions for using the filters:
- Enter your search query on Google Images.
- On the results page, click “Tools” on the right side of the tabs and below the search icon.
- A series of options will appear beneath the tabs. You may select any of the following categories:
- Size (large, medium, or icon)
- Color (black and white, transparent, or specified)
- Type (clip art, line drawing, or GIF)
- Time (past 24 hours, past week, past month, or past year)
- Usage rights (Creative Commons licenses or Commercial & other licenses)
Searching Videos
To narrow down your Google search query to videos, navigate to the tabs on the SERP and click “Videos.” Sometimes, the “Videos” icon is not readily visible. In those cases, select “More” to open the dropdown of other options. You may also go directly to the Google Videos search page by entering google.com/videohp or video.google.com on your browser’s address bar.
Reverse Search
There is currently no option for users to reverse search videos directly, but there is a workaround that lets you pull up all content related to the video you have. Check out these step-by-step instructions:
- Open and play the video on your computer.
- Take several screenshots of the video at different times. The more spread out the screenshots are, the more likely you’ll get relevant results.
- Go to Google Images and reverse image search the screenshot you took.
While the method could be hit-or-miss, it still allows you to locate web pages that have uploaded the same video. You may take more screenshots to increase the possibility of obtaining accurate or precise results.
Search Filters
While Google Videos lack Google Image’s reverse search function, it’s up to par with the search filters. You only have to replicate steps one to two for image filters to activate video filters. Here are the categories you can play around with:
- Duration (short, medium, or long)
- Time (past hour, past 24 hours, past week, past month, last year, or custom range)
- Quality (high quality)
- Type (close-captioned)
- Source (YouTube or other relevant sites)
Using Search Operators
Users can also leverage Google’s filters function for general searches using search operators – text commands or prompts that refine searches to get the most relevant results. Below are some of the most valuable search operators you can explore.
Quotation Marks
If you want to pull up results that mention an exact phrase, word, or sentence, enclose your query in quotation marks. This operator is most helpful if you want to know where a famous quote came from or if you need to find the source of data you found online.
Query format: “keyword/keyphrase”
Site Filter
Sometimes, users encounter websites or web pages that do not have a search or navigation function. Suppose you need to locate a particular blog post on such a website. Then, you can use this Google search operator to limit the results of your query to content from the site you tagged.
Query format: site:[URL] keyword/keyphrase
File Type
Google’s SERPs are typically dominated by websites that rank high for search engine optimization. If you want to locate a PDF or DOC file, it would be more straightforward to use a search operator than go page-by-page until you find what you need manually.
Query format: filetype:[file suffix] keyword/keyphrase
Simultaneous Search
Entering a simultaneous search for two or more separate keywords is possible through the Google search operator “OR.” Doing so will pull up all pages and content relevant to at least one of your search queries. This method saves time and bandwidth since it displays all helpful information in one set of SERPs.
Query format: keyword/keyphrase OR keyword/keyphrase
Social Media
Many of the information we gather nowadays come from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. For instance, you want to scale down your search to results from Facebook, so you can simply affix “@facebook” to your query.
Query format: keyword/keyphrase @site
Wrapping Up
Google allows you to access widely available knowledge and leverage it for personal, educational, professional, or social advancement. With the help of the innovative features shared above, you can now level up your Google browsing experience. Understanding the various search methods optimizes load times and offers more accurate results, enabling you to be more productive. For other impressive and worthwhile tech news and information, check out sites like CellularNews.com.