While you can use plain language in a Google search, Google has it's own set of operators that can be helpful to generate more specific and relevant results.
Different Ways to Search in Google
If you want to make your Google searching more precise, try using:
type site:domain before your search terms to use Google to find results only on that website
ex. site:adler.edu will search everything on all Adler websites
Related Sites
Type related:domain before your search terms to find results related to that website, but not necessarily on that website. This can be helpful if you want to find similar information to the site you are currently on.
ex. related:adler.edu will find resutls that contain similar information as on the original site.
Quotation Marks
Using quotation marks will search for the exact phrase only
ex. "Adler University" will make sure the results contain the words Adler and University next to each other, instead of a results that might contain the phrase "Alfred Adler went to university at...."
Boolean Operators
Google uses AND, OR Boolean operators the same as databses.
Dash
Use a dash like you use the NOT operator
ex. Adler University -Chicago to find information about other Adlerian schools or other campuses.
Date Ranges
You can specify date ranges in Google using before:yyyy-mm-dd or after:yyyy-mm-dd
ex. adler before:2005-01-01 will find results pertaining to Adler published online prior to 2005.
Specific Files Types
Use filetype: to search for specifc files types (i.e. pdf, doc, xls, dat, jpeg, gif, etc.)
site:adler.edu filetype:pdf will find all PDFs published in Adler's domain.
