Shortcuts for the shortcut generation !

14th January 2014
10.25 P.M

I  will BBL BBFN. AFAIK I have a BO. No! I have not gone mad nor am I trying to write in an innovative way.The mentioned, are just some of the abbreviations being used by children to communicate .So the above sentences were actually to be read as: I will be back later (BBL) bye bye for now (BBFN) and  As far as I know(AFAIK) I have a brain overload.

I would like to inform my readers that, never the one to be left behind, I tried and tried to,but could not invent new abbreviations for me. Well, I give up! and now let's get back to the shortcuts we need to teach our children for quick and precise searches on the net .Here are some that I compiled for search on Google.

• Use quotation marks - Using quotes around a set of words directs Google to search for exactly those words in that order. 

• Write "site"- If you write site:(with colon sign) after the keyword you are searching for and before a URL Google searches for the words within a specific website.For example-                                           lorhri site: festivals.iloveindia.com gives you search results within the site            festivals.iloveindia.com

• Add a minus sign. Adding a minus sign immediately before any word (no space in between!) indicates that you don't want those words to appear in your search results. For example, "Saturn -cars" will give you information about the planet, not the automobile.       

• In general, putting a year or date in your search term will help limit results to more recent entries . In order to do this on Google, when you type your search in the Google search bar click on  Search tools option under the search bar and then on any time.

• Add the word 'define' before your search term to look up its definition and usage.

I think, now, it's high time I used the above to look up new abbreviations so that I can talk to my teenager (my fifteen year old son) and not look like an alien trying hard to be on the same wavelength as him.

Happy searching till my next post!