I didn't think I'd find anything, but searching for "Prithvi" on Giphy gets you a DJ (which, mind you, I totally am).

Today's tech-letter will focus less on a tech-tool and more on a tech-tip. So it's going to be a lot of text (sorry).

I once held a position as "Research Analyst" where I had to, essentially, stalk people for a living. I learnt tips on how to "Google" properly (to find things faster, as opposed to spending hours just browsing through pages).

This really comes in handy. Tell me what your full name is and I'll find out about your entire life before meeting you (unless you're "John Smith" or something, then just stay home). 

P.S. If today's tech-letter was helpful, share it with someone else. It's the least you could do.

I'm going to jump straight to the point, so keep up (or ... read slowly). These are my go-to tips for being fluent in Google.

Tip #1: If you want information that's on a specific website, use "site: ...".

If I wanted to look for Prithvi Rakhyani on Facebook, I'd type Prithvi Rakhyani site:facebook.com. The first result will be my Facebook page (please don't add me). This is useful to me with broader topics, e.g. if I was looking for "iPhone 12 review" on "site:reddit.com" .

Tip #2: Find someone's Gmail account.

All you need is their name and "gmail.com", e.g. John Smith "@gmail.com". (Of course... if you're looking for a "John Smith", he's probably at home). P.S. this could potentially also work with other mail accounts.

Tip #3: Looking for promo codes for a product?

Simply copy and paste the following, and modify what you need:

site:twitter.com + "quip" + ("coupon" | "referral code" | "affiliate code" | "discount code" | "VIP")

In this case, I want to search for either "coupon" or "referral code" (or any of those terms) on Twitter, for Quip (an oral hygiene company). Feel free to replace either the website you want to search on, the product/company you want to search, or even the keywords.

Tip #4: Quotation marks. 

Arguably the most powerful one. Using quotation marks around words/phrases tells Google to search exactly that and nothing else.  

If I search for The Tech-Letter, I'll possibly see my newsletter on my Google results, but I will 100% also see a ton of other folks who have used those words in any order (tech letter, the letter tech, techletter, the letter of tech). If I search "The Tech-Letter", the entire first page of Google is about my newsletter specifically.

This works exceptionally for companies, words, phrases, and even people (...especially people). 

Tip #5 & #6: Use keywords "Define" and "Translate" for quicker results.

Want to find the definition of a word? use define: right before, e.g. define:obnoxious

Want to translate something to another language without opening up the translate website or app? use translate: e.g. translate: how is your family? in italian (this will immediately result in the translated text).

(Bonus tip: time: panama and weather: alaska would give you the respective results too. This is all about efficiency and time management, baby). 

Tip #7: Looking for a specific file? Use filetype:

Use the file type you're looking for! In the image above, I searched for perks of being a wallflower filetype:pdf. This only looked for PDF results that matched my text. In this case, that second link is the actual book, in PDF form.

This works for images, videos, or any other file type you're looking for.

Tip #8: and my personal favourite, operators.

• AND: if you're looking for something in relation to another (or more things), use "and" to describe your search. 
  • e.g. "Prithvi" AND "Rakhyani" would show you results of all the websites that have both "Prithvi" and "Rakhyani" on the same page. P.S. You can add more "and"s if you want.
• OR: This is an either/or situation. If I did "Prithvi" OR "Rakhyani", it would show me all the pages that had "Prithvi", and all the pages that had "Rakhyani". If both keywords happen to be on the same page, lucky me.
• -: the minus operator excludes results. If I Googled "Prithvi Rakhyani" -rakhyani.com, it would result in every single page where my full name appears, except my personal website.

The examples I've presented have been very generic, but they have reduced my time on Google exponentially. Whether it's having Googled if someone studied at a certain university ("prithvi rakhyani" and "florida state university") or to know if a company was involved in some type of scandal ("Amazon" and "Jeff Bezos" and "tax fraud" or "monopoly" or "fraud" or "lawsuit"). 

Play around with it the next time you need to find specific information. Hope this helps you as much as it has helped me.

Price? Free⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Format? Google! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐