Google Search and Setting Range Parameters

Google search allows the query to be very specific. It allows the setting of range parameters. Perhaps this can be best explained with a few examples.

In the first example, let us assume that you have your heart set on a ThinkPad laptop. However, you only have three hundred and fifty dollars to spend. Possibly you might save up to four hundred dollars, by the time that you make the actual purchase. Google can find exactly what is available within your budget parameters. Your search on Google would look like this [ThinkPad $300..$400]. There are no brackets and there are two periods between the numbers. There is no space between the numbers and periods.

This sets Google to search for a ThinkPad that is between the range of three hundred dollars and four hundred dollars. More expensive ThinkPads are not listed in the search results.

A second example of how this might be used is to narrow down the search results in terms of dates/years. For example, you might be wanting to research what Microsoft did during a specific time in the 1990s. Here’s is how that Google search can be focused. The entry, without the brackets, would be [Microsoft 1993..1995]. The Google search results would return with the Microsoft references from 1993 to 1995.

This is just another method of asking Google to do more specific work so that you spend less time with results that you don’t really need. Defining the search range may not be something you need everyday but keep in mind that, for results between two numbers, Google can do the work very efficiently.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster:  http://flyinghamster.com/

[tag]google, search, periods, range parameters, efficiency, query, numbers[/tag]