Search within a Specific Site or Domain
Precede your query with site: if you know you want your answer from within a specific site or type of site (.org, .edu). For example: site:edu or site:nytimes.com.
Search by File Type
Search for specific types of files, such as PDFs, PPTs, or XLS, by adding filetype: and the 3-letter file abbreviation.
For example hellbender filetype:.pdf
Include or Ignore Words and Characters in Your Search
Highlight common words and characters such as the and & if they are essential to your search (as in a movie or book title) by putting quotation marks "the" around them. You can also use the minus - sign to specify particular items you don't want in your results, like ingredients in a recipe.
Similar Terms
Get results that include synonyms by placing the ~ sign immediately in front of your search term. A search for Christmas ~dessert recipes, for instance, will return results for desserts, along with candy, cookies and other treats.
Other Tips and Tricks
- Minus sign for NOT. ex hellbender –movie
- Hellbender Site:.gov or Hellbender site:www.fws.gov to search either a specific domain or a specific website
- Quotes for exact terms “eastern hellbender”
- Asterisk as a wildcard place holder "* hellbender" will return eastern hellbender, ozark hellbender, etc.
- OR use OR between search terms to find one of several words salamander OR hellbender
For more help see the Google Search Tips page
Unless otherwise noted the content on this LibGuide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.