Computer and Web Articles

Let me let you in on a little secret: I’m afraid that Google is, well, how do I put this without hurting your feelings?  Well… it turns out that Google indifferent to a lot of the punctuation you’ve been using in your searches. There. I said it.  Google just doesn’t care. Don’t be offended; just keep this in mind as you work to become a better Google searcher.

Let’s say you forgot the (most common) color of the sky. You head over to Google and type “What color is the sky?” You didn’t do any harm or decrease the likelihood that you’d receive relevant results, but do know that Google just totally ignored your question mark. Acted as if it wasn’t even there, as if it didn’t even exist. You know, just like that one super-popular girl in high school.

Google doesn’t care about your exclamation marks. Put in two exclamation marks or put in fifty; Google couldn’t care less. Those commas, periods, and semicolons you’ve been using in your searches? Save ‘em for your emails.

Pound signs? Less than and greater than keys? They might as well be invisible unless you’re using Google Calculator.

What about quotation marks, you ask? Ahhhh. Great question. Hopefully your brain is remembering previous discussions we’ve had about the use of quotations marks in searches; Google absolutely, positively cares about quotation marks–and using them correctly can greatly increase the relevance of your search results.

We’ll have a refresher next Monday on the use of quotation marks in searches.  Stay tuned…