Top 5 Google Tweaks and Tools for Writers

Writers use various search engines to research topics for clients and self-publishing. Google is, by far, the number one search engine. There are tweaks and tips that writers can use to streamline research for faster and more accurate results.

Dedicate the Search to a Specific List of Websites

Using the "site:" prefix, writers can narrow down search results based on a specific website or type of website. For instance, Google will only return results from educational websites when "site: .edu" is used before the search terms. * Publications that refer to an .edu website may also come up in the search results.

Enter the Entire Search Term Despite the Google Instant Auto-Fill

Google Instant start returning results when the first character of a search term is entered. Writers know what they are looking for and though Google Instant may provide quicker, more wide-ranging results for the common Internet user, writers should always enter the entire search term when researching a given topic.

Utilize Google Alerts For Information on Niche Topics

Google Alerts are not time sensitive and may update slower than other aggregate RSS feeds, but for a writer in a specific niche that is not time-sensitive, Google Alerts can provide a long list of article topics every day. There is an instant or daily option, so writers can get information as it is available or as one large email every day.

Share the Work Load or Editing Responsibilities With Google Docs

Everyone loves to share, right? Well, not all the time. Writers are notoriously great at hoarding a workload, but with economic stresses and greater expectations from clients, they are turning to other writers for help more often. Google Docs provides an easy method of sharing the work load. Documents can be uploaded to Google Docs and shared with specific people via email address. Once shared, multiple people can gain access to the document for editing and revisions. Clients can also partner with writers allowing the documents to be uploaded to a shared folder for faster delivery of edits.

Google Trends - Stay Up to Date on Search Trends

Writers may be in front of a personal computer all day and never know what is happening in the world. Google Trends allows writers to weed out information that is more personal to focus on Internet and search trends. If a topic is trending, it could mean more people are searching for that information and more hits to a published article online.

Google offers a long list of tools and tweaks for the writer. When it comes to making money online, anything free is great and Google offers a lot of free.