Using Google to full effect

I thought I'd share a couple tips for using Google for full effect:

1. if you want to find pages from a particular country, eg Australia, type site:.au at the end. For pages from a particular website, eg NineMSN, type site:.ninemsn.com.au Note that's a colon then a full-stop then the domain.

2. if you are looking for pages about a particular phrase like "child protection", put it in quotes like that and you narrow the searching significantly.

3. consider including the name of your town, city or state to get something relevant to your local area.

So perhaps a search on everything about Andrew McLeod the Australian Rules Footballer you might type: "andrew mcleod" adelaide site:.au

4. consider searching Google News also. There's a "tab" above the normal Google search window that lets you search on what you typed, finding news articles about that subject.

I'm still discovering the benefits and tricks of Google Video and how to search those. Only really feasible with broadband / cable and especially with our ADSL2.

That should get you going.