Top 3 Tips of Effective Google Search For Developers

This blog post is for the developers who are stuck in some errors and not able to solve it and looking for solutions on Google but not able to find it because they are not searching it properly. So here in this blog I am going to explain some tips which I have been using over the period of time and most of the time I am able to get solution through Google and solve my problem.

Tip 1 : Use Error Codes to Search

Most of the time whenever there is exception or errors, there is an error code displayed in the error stack trace. Use that error code to search on Google and use the ClassName or component name which is throwing this error with type of error. For example Android MediaRecorder. When you are using media recorder there are error codes attached with each action and each stage of MediaRecorder. For example

Android MediaRecorder start failed - 38

Android MediaRecorder start failed - 19

When you search in Google with the error.  Android MediaRecorder start failed - 38, you will get following links.

As you can see in above screenshot there is top links of popular website StackOverFlow where others have posted this question and there will be solution here so your problem is solved.

Another example in windows whenever there is problem with drivers of any hardware it gives code 28 errors. So to search in Google use following

Windows error code 28

And you will get number of blog post to solve this error.

Tip 2 : Use Name of Exception To Search, Do not Copy paste whole stack trace

Whenever there is an exception in program, you will get stack trace where it shows all the classes and files and number of line from where exception is thrown. Do not copy paste that stack track in Google Search. Use first line of Stack trace, which is normally type of exception. For example, in android app is some class is not found at runtime it throws ClassNotFound exception. So to solve that error, search in Google 

Android ClassNotFound "ClassName"

And it will give you relevant links where there will be solution for this. So your error can be solved easily.

Tip 3 : Be Specific for What you Want to Search and Use Keywords

Be as specific as possible in your search query so Google can search relevant links for you. For example, if you want to hide element with JavaScript. If you give search

Hide element

It will give you links with hiding element using CSS and JavaScript and jQuery and Angular and all. But if you want specific result with say jQuery or JavaScript, use that key word in your search result.

Hide element jQuery

Hide element JavaScript

Then it will give you relevant links with exactly what you are looking for. Same way for anything else use key words. For example if you are looking for tutorials to start with. Use search like

Laravel Getting Started

Android quick start

Angular quick start etc. Because most of the bloggers who write blogs on Getting started, they use titles like Getting started, quick start etc. You will get what you want on the first page of Google.

Hope this helps you.