You may use various browsers on your computer to access the internet. And, most of them allow you to reach websites in various ways. You can usually reach a website by typing a query or entering a URL. Also, only one of them might be possible for you in certain cases. In such cases, you need not think about which option to choose.
But, you might be wondering whether you must type a query or enter a URL if both are possible. In the Google Chrome browser, you see the words “search Google or type a URL”. So, you need to determine which of these two options is better for you. And, for that, you need to understand how typing queries and entering URLs can help you.
How to Use a Search Query to Reach a Website?
You can enter any query in your Chrome browser after opening it. So, you can enter anything that you want to look for on the internet. And the browser will show you some results based on your search. You can then choose between a wide range of websites and open the one you were looking for.
But, what if you are not looking for something specific? In such cases, you can simply go through the results and open the one that you want to. According to the algorithm, the best results are placed at the top. So, you might want to start by checking the first result that you get after the search.
With Google Chrome, you can get thousands of results related to your searches. And they would be divided into multiple pages. So that might make it more complicated for you to find the web page you are looking for. But, you can make that simpler by making more specific searches.
It might be better to type your queries when you do not have the link to the web page. Apart from that, typing queries is also better when you want to choose between a wide range of results.
How does a URL Search Work on Google Chrome?
The URL search works pretty much the same way as typed searches. But, it makes reaching a website easier as compared to when you type your query. So, you might prefer using URLs to reach a particular web page in many cases. Especially so, when you have the link to the website. All you need to do in such cases is open the browser and enter the URL.
Have you visited the website earlier? If yes, then you need not enter its URL once again. Instead, you simply need to type its name, and the browser will suggest the web page to you. Then, you need to click on the suggestion to reach the website you are looking for.
Apart from that, you can also reach the website by clicking the link that you found posted somewhere. Needless to say, you can also type the URL into the search box. So, entering a URL is a better option when you want to reach a specific website quickly.
Useful Tips for Searching on Google
When it comes to using URLs, searching on Google or any other browser is quite easy. After all, they take you straight to the web page you are looking for. But, getting the desired result by entering a term, phrase or keyword can be more complicated. So, here are some useful tips that can help you reduce data usage:
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Use Asterisk to find Content Related to the Search term
When you search for a certain term, you might get a vast range of results. And that might make it quite difficult for you to find the web page you are looking for. So, you would want to make that task a bit simpler for yourself. In that case, you must use the asterisk (*) symbol with the search term or phrase.
This is quite an effective way to reach a website significantly faster. Also, this trick is highly useful when you want to search the lyrics of a song. Simply enter asterisks after every word you know among the lyrics. And the browser can show you the full lyrics after you enter this query.
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Finding Web Pages Linked to a Certain Web Page
Do you need to find the sites linked to a particular page on the web? In that case, you can see all of them with a single search. To do that, you must type “link:” and then enter the name of a website. For example, you need to find pages related to Facebook. In that case, you need to type “link:facebook.com” in the search box. This should bring up all the web pages linked to the query in the search results.
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Put Hyphens in Ambiguous Search Terms
You might often search for terms in your browser that have multiple meanings. In such cases, you can use hyphens to make the browser understand what you are searching for. For example, if you search for “amazon”, that might bring up the river and the e-commerce website. So if you want to search for the former, you must enter “amazon-river”.
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Make Descriptive Queries
This is one of the simplest ways to find what you are looking for on the web. Does entering a single term bring up a very wide variety of results? Then you need to type a more descriptive query. After all, that would help you save some time. For example, “restaurants near me” would be a better query than “restaurants in my city”.
Which One Should You Use?
As we have seen, you can use a URL or type a query, whichever you want to. But, using one of them at a time is a better idea than using all of them in certain cases. So, even though URL helps you get to a page faster, typing keywords lets you view alternative results. And, keywords often pose a disadvantage when you want to reach a web page directly.
