Google’s search engine is a slick machine, but the way most
of us use it merely scratches the surface. You can do a lot more than just
enter a word or phrase and, by taking advantage of Google’s more advanced
features, you stand a much better chance of finding what we’re looking for, and
faster, too.
Typing, though, has its advantages if you know how to use
the advanced search features, as we'll now demonstrate:
How to search Google
like a pro
1. Normally, Google responds to your searches by listing web
pages. However, if you’re actually looking for news, images, videos or
shopping, these can be selected from buttons on the home page. Other options
are available from the ‘More’ menu.
2. The ‘Search Tools’ button displays various menus. Perhaps
the most useful are the first one which allows you to choose between pages
hosted in the UK or in all countries, and the second which lets you specify
pages that were updated any time, in the past hour, the past day and other
intervals.
3. Google usually lists pages that contain any of the words
you enter. If you want to search only for an exact phrase (e.g. “War and Peace”
but note sites just containing either or both of the words), put it in double
quotes.
4. Even without quotes, if you enter “War Peace” Google is
clever and will list pages containing “War and Peace” first but you can force
its hand using AND or OR (in capitals). “War OR Peace” lists pages containing
either word, “War AND Peace” lists page with both.
5. Sometimes you’ll want to exclude some words. Searching
for Rooney will list sites predominantly relating to Wayne Rooney. If you’re
interested in other Rooneys, but don’t know the first name, exclude Wayne with
a minus sign (i.e. search for “Rooney -Wayne).
6. If you’re looking for a particular type of file, you can
narrow the search using the ‘filetype:’ option. Searching for “Weather
filetype:PDF”, for example, will only list Adobe Acrobat (i.e. PDF) documents
containing the word weather.
7. A lot of these features and more are available by using
Google Advanced Search. After searching, click on the cog wheel icon in the
top-right of the results page and select ‘Advanced Search’. Note that a
different Advanced Search form is available for images.
8. Using the ‘site:’ option, you can tell Google to search
in a particular site, even if it doesn’t have its own search facility. For
example, “Astronomy site:www.bbc.com” will search for pages containing the word
Astronomy but only within the BBC site.
9. The ‘site:’ option also lets you to search in a
particular country, other than just the UK (Step 2). Because an asterisk means
“anything”, searching for “Astronomy site:*.cn” will restrict the search to
Chinese sites. Country codes are listed here.
10. images.google.com lets you use an image as your search
term instead of text. Click on the camera icon and then, either paste the URL
of an image on the web or upload an image from your PC. Google will list
similar images and sometimes related web pages.
11 - Unit conversion
When you need to convert one unit of measurement to another,
just type: 1 pint in litres, 1GB in MB or 12 inches in cm. You can also convert
temperature, area, mass, speed and time.
12 - Currency conversion
This works just like the unit converter, but with
currencies. To get up to date exchange rates, simply type $100 in pounds, and
Google will understand. You'll also see a graph of the exchange rate for the
last five years
.
13 - Calculator
Google's calculator can handle pretty complex sums, not just
the simple division here. You could, for example, type 13*8+(sqrt 87)= and
you'd immediately get the answer.
14 - Weather
Need a local 24-hour local weather forecast? Just type
weather Dulwich London and you'll get one. You can click the buttons to see the
rainfall and wind speed and there's a 7-day forecast underneath.
15 – Films
Don't spend time looking at each cinema's website: just type
films Canterbury to see what's on locally. A map to the right shows where the
cinemas are located, and you can click the trailer button if you're not sure
whether you'll like the film.
16 - Hotels
Typing Hotels bude cornwall will bring up a 'Hotels in Bude
Cornwall on Google' link with a short list below. Click the link to launch the
handy Google hotel finder where you can narrow your search by price, star
rating, amenities and more.
17 - Flight tracking
No need to visit an airline's website: all you need to do is
type the flight number and Google will show the details including departure and
arrival times along with the airports and terminal numbers. It will also show the
progress of a current flight and whether or not it's delayed.
18 - Maps
You're probably getting the hang of this, so we hardly need
to explain that you merely need to type Stratford-upon-avon map to get a map of
Stratford-upon-avon. Clicking the thumbnail will take you to Google maps.
19 - Package tracking
A nifty time-saving trick is to copy and paste your UPS or
Fedex package tracking number into Google's search bar. Google will recognise
which firm the number belongs to and all you need to do is to click the link to
go straight to the company's website to see where your parcel is.
20 - Sports scores
Type the name of your favourite football team or sport and
you can quickly see fixtures, scores and standings.
Type f1 calendar, for example and you can also see the
schedule, with recent winners and even the time the next couple of races will
start (in your local time).
21 - Stock quotes
To see the stock value of a company, either type its name
followed by stock, or its short name (MSFT for Microsoft or APPL for Apple) and
you'll see a graph along with the high and low figure for the period shown. The
current value updates every few seconds.
