How to Google like Pro as a Developer.
Tags: skill, developer
Published: 2023-02-19 13:21:10


The internet has almost the answers but you need to know how to be able to extract them. Googling is one of the most important skills for every developer. Read through to understand how to get better at Googling.

**Let's start!**

**How to ask Google Query.**

- Be Thoughtful

- Begin with a simple query.

- Be precise

- Avoid redundant or unnecessary terms.

- Break down your query into smaller questions.

**Watch your words**

- Every word is Meaningful: Terms matter and Order matters

- Google does not care about: Spelling, Punctuation, 
or Capitalization.

- Have google finish your questions.

**Note:** In the process of identifying the right answers, the search result rankings might not be the right answers and are not indicative of accuracy, google rank results by relevance. To solve this problem, employ the Lateral Browsing process which requires you to explore/browse through the results by opening them on new tabs for reference purposes. Lateral browsing can be a useful way to refine your search query and find more relevant search results.

**Top Level Domain names (TLDs)**
 
- Ending of a domain name example; .com .gov .edu .org .io .dev

- Help to gauge reputation, authenticity, or authority.

**Note:** Domain names with the ending mentioned above might have the nearest, trusted and accurate information you are searching for, because of their reputations, authenticity and authority.

**Think Critically**

- Find several perspectives

- Seek when content was written and where its sourced from: Content that is written ten years back might be outdated and improved on by now.

- Does the content make sense?

- Is this source reputable?

- Are there reviews for this site?

- Be skeptical and ask yourself questions about the results.

- As I mentioned above, verify with multiple sources when possible.

**Google Search Operators**

**Matching Operator**

Use quotes to force an exact-match search:

```
"What is Python"
```

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/p3lr2v7nb4v3ddxpgt89.png)




 **Source Operator**

Use this operator **Site:**followed by a website domain to search only within that site, for example, 

```
site:wikipedia.org python

```
![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/x85eild1dkot7xhs6hsq.png)



**AND Operator**

Use AND operator to return only results related to both terms.

For example, 

```
Python AND JavaScript

```

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/34ciu01c2dmt0w3rm78o.png)




**OR Operator**

You can use the OR operator to get the results related to one of the search terms.

For example, 

```
(html OR Css) free course

```

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/oviavaffi3ltep469qvp.png)





**(-)Operator**

Use this operator to exclude pages that contain a specific term.

For example, 

```
Python tutorials - JavaScript tutorials

```


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/8oae3xx8kj87ifq7h0be.png)




**(*) Operator**

Use this operator as a wildcard to match any word.

For example,

```
 "Python * tutorial"

```


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/dj9vwhj8wu12nztozbk0.png)




**Related Operator**

Use this operator followed by a website URL to find pages related to that website.

For example, 

```
Related:wikipedia.org
```



![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/zszxcfprnejv7g9erawr.png)






**Date Operator**

Search for a range of numbers.

For example,

```
Javascript 2016..2018
```


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/bf3mgvd5pdqgacgl91jc.png)





Use the **'Before'** operator to return only results before a given date.

You can provide year-month-day dates or only the year.

For example, 

```
JavaScript before:2015
```



![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/l4eykwwyvd7muslncss3.png)




Use the **'After'**operator to return only results after a given date.

For example, 

```
Mobile app development after:2013

```


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/8dyo855fjuewkhqqxjp9.png)




**Filetype Operator**

Use this operator followed by a file extension to search for files of a specific type.

For example, 

```
filetype:pdf python
```



![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/n499oa6rkzafqdyoainx.png)





**IN (URL/Tittle/Text/Anchor) Operators**

Use these operators followed by a word or phrase to search for pages with that word or phrase in the title/URL/text/anchor.

For example, 

```
"inurl:python tutorial"
```
or 

```
"intitle:python tutorial"
```


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/fynrc76iiq59hzw6vl3k.png)





**Conclusion:**You can make your Google searches more precise, easier, and efficient and find the information you need more quickly by using these operators.

Cheers!!!