Tricks every Google user should know
Below are our top Google tricks many people who use Google don't know.
Find weather and movies
Type "weather" or "movies" followed by a zip code or city and state to display current weather conditions or movie theaters in your area. For example, typing weather 84101 gives you the current weather conditions for Salt Lake City, UT. Typing movies 84101 gives you a link for show times for movies in that area.
Definitions
Pull up the definition of the word by typing define followed by the word you want to define. For example, typing define bravura would display the definition of that word.
Local maps and search
Visit Google Maps, enter the area you want to search and the keyword of the place you want to find. For example, typing restaurant would display restaurants in the area.
Phone number look up
Enter a full phone number with area code to display the name and address associated with that phone number.
Track airline flight and packages
Enter the airline and flight number to display the status of an airline flight and it's arrival time. For example, type delta 123 to display this flight information if available.
Google can also give a direct link to package tracking information if you enter a UPS, FedEx or USPS tracking number.
Translate
Translate text, a full web page, or search using the Google Language Tools.
Pages linked to you
See what other web pages are linking to your website or blog by typing link: followed by your URL (uniform resource locator). For example, typing link:https://www.computerhope.com displays all pages linking to Computer Hope.
Find PDF results only
Add fileType: to your search to display results that only match a certain file type. For example, to display PDF (Portable Document Format) results only, type "dell xps" fileType:pdf -- this is a great way to find online manuals.
Calculator
Use the Google Search engine as a calculator by typing a math problem in the search. For example, typing 100 + 200 would display results as 300.
Stocks
Quickly get to a stock quote price, chart, and related links by typing the stock symbol in Google. For example, typing msft displays the stock information for Microsoft.
Group your search for an exact match
Group your search query for an exact match by surrounding what words you want as an exact match with quotes. For example, if you are searching for computer help, better results are returned if you surround the search with quotes, like "computer help".
Remove keywords from search
If your results have keywords you are not searching for, use a minus sign. For example, if you are looking for computer help, but do not want pages containing "Windows," type "computer help" -windows
Use number ranges in a search
Google supports number ranges. For example, if you are searching for computer help between the year 2000 to 2005, you can type "Computer help" 2000..2005
Use wildcards in searches
Google can understand the * wildcard in a search. For example, you could search for "fastest * in the world" to find results like "fastest birds in the world," "fastest cars in the world," and "fastest aircraft in the world."
Learn about other Google operators
Google has several operators and functions that can be used in the search to help perform special search functions. Below are these operators and a brief description about each of them.
define word - adding "define" in front of any word gives you a definition of the word.
site:computerhope.com - Adding "site:" in front of any domain shows you search results for only that domain. For example, you could search for "microsoft site:computerhope.com" to show search results with "microsoft" in them, but only from the computerhope.com domain.
There must not be a space between "site:" and the domain.
allintitle:"computer hope" - Adding "allintitle:" in front of any text shows the search results that only contain that text in the title of the page. For example, you could search for allintitle:"computer hope" to show only show search results with "computer hope" in the title of the web page.
There must not be a space between "allintitle:" and text.
allinurl:computer - Adding "allinurl:" in front of any text shows any search results that have that text in the URL. For example, searching for "allinurl:computer" shows all results that have the word "computer" in the URL.
There must not be a space between "allinurl:" and the text.
View all available Google services
See the Google definition for a listing of other Google services.
Use more advanced searches
Below are some more advanced searches and what they do.
intitle:index.of + mp3 -asp -html -htm -php -pls -txt
In the example above, when entered into Google, this search result looks for any index of MP3 files that aren't in ASP (Active Server Pages), HTML (hypertext markup language), PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor), or PLS web pages. In the above example, you can also replace mp3 with avi or other file extensions to search for these files.
intitle:index.of + mp3 "<artist name, track, or group>" -asp -html -htm -php -pls -txt
In the example above, you could replace "<artist name, track, or group>" with the artist's name, track, group, or the name of the MP3 you are trying to find. Realize when downloading an MP3, you must own the track or song you're downloading otherwise it is considered illegal.
inurl:"ViewerFrame?Mode="
In the example above, Google returns results of insecure live web cams, and with some services you can control the cameras over the Internet.
The three examples above are a few more advanced searches used to help illustrate how many different things are found through Google.