Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Google Search Tips!!

Google can be your phone book: Type person's name, city, state directly into search box, and Google will deliver phone and address listings at the top of results. The feature works for business listings too.

Google can be your calculator: Type a math problem into the search box and Google will compute it. You can spell the equation in words (two plus two, hundred divided by three), use numbers and symbols (10+56) or type in a combination of both (one lakh*pi, 47% of 23).

Longer is better, but shorter is okay: Google is designed to return high quality results even for one or two word queries, so you can keep your searches short. But adding a few more words often yields better results.
Example: While gathering information on applying to colleges include admissions after the name of university you are searching to get more relevant results.

Use quotation marks when precision matters: Adding quotes around a query tells Google to look for occurrences of the exact phrase as it was typed .That makes quote marks especially helpful when searching for a song lyrics, people's names, or expressions such as "to be or not to be" that include very common words.

Google can be you dictionary: Type "define" followed by any English word into the search box and Google will return a quick definition at the top of search results.

Capitalization doesn't matter: Googling About Google and about Google yields the same results. So whether you type in upper case or in lower case Google treats them equally.

Forget pluralism: Google searches automatically searches for all the stems of a word, so you don't need to do searches for paint, paints, painting. Just type one of the words Google will take care of the rest, giving you results all in one list.

Get a picture: Looking for a photo of Sachin Tendulkar, or the Sachin tendulkars hotel? Click on the "images" link above the search box, type your query and Google will provide any photos or graphics in its database of over one billion images that match your terms, with a link to the page where they appear.
Bonus Tip: Image searches may lead you to helpful websites that you otherwise might not find in the regular search results.

Maps driving directions and satellite views are one click away: The fastest way to finding fastest way to your destination is to enter a city and state (or just pin code) into search box. Type Washington dc and Google will provide a direct link to its own map and directions service, maps.google.com.

Browse the world's bookshelves online: Search for a topic at print.google.com and you will see information from actual books that Google has scanned and indexed in its database.

Dial GOOGL when you're on the go: Get phone numbers. Directions movies times, stock quotes, and more delivered to your cell hones. Send text message with your query to the number 46645(GOOGL on most US phones) and the search engine will message you back with instant answers.

I’m feeling lucky: Enter a search term and click this button on the Google homepage to bypass a long list of results and go directly to the top = matching webpage for your term.

Google can be your news caster: Google news, reachable via the "News" link above search box at news.google.com, provides up-to-the-minute information on politics, business, technology entertainment, etc

Google can be your weatherman: Type weather followed by a zip code or the name of the city, and Google will give the current conditions and a four day forecast at the tip of the results page.

Take a magic ~ ride: The tilde character "~" in the corner of your keyboard is a handy tool in Google searches. Put it before a word, with no space between, to have Google look for pages with both that term and its synonyms.
Example: A search for ~auto will also turn up web pages that use terms cars, trucks, automobiles, and more.

Get instant quote: Type a stock ticker symbol into the search box to get a stock quote and chart on any public company listed on the New York stock Exchange, American stock exchange or NASDAQ.

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