Matt BlazeSep 3, 2023
This may be obvious, but I recently started routinely adding "-youtube" to google searches. This eliminates most pages with links to garbage YouTube-monetized videos that try to attract people looking for basic instructions on how to do simple things. Greatly improves the quality of search results.
Show threadSpaceLifeForm

@mattblaze

But without the double quotes, right?

ex: keyword1 keyword2 -youtube

not keyword1 keyword2 "-youtube"

Sep 3, 2023 at 10:34pmWeb
Show threadMatt BlazeSep 3, 2023
@SpaceLifeForm Yes.
Show threadSpaceLifeFormSep 3, 2023

@mattblaze

People that are not familiar with the search options may not realize that by double quoting, it escapes the meaning of minus sign which is to exclude.

Show threadMatt BlazeSep 3, 2023
@SpaceLifeForm They are welcome to experiment.
Show threadKen Butler has movedSep 3, 2023
@SpaceLifeForm @mattblaze putting the minus *outside* the quotes seems to work.
Show threadSpaceLifeFormSep 3, 2023

@nxskok @mattblaze

Yep. The purpose of the quotes is to create a phrase. Once a minus sign (dash) is inside, it becomes part of the phrase, and the dash is no longer a meta character that means to exclude from the search results.

Show threadKen Butler has movedSep 4, 2023
@SpaceLifeForm @mattblaze that's a nice clear explanation of why it works that way.
Show threadSpaceLifeFormSep 4, 2023

@nxskok @mattblaze

I have found these to be useful on google

define:
site:
inurl:
map:
weather:

There are more

hXXps://ahrefs.com/blog/google-advanced-search-operators/