Get the Most Out of Google

Get the Most Out of Google: A Few Tricks

The search engine giant rakes in impossible sums of money each year via its primary product, the search engine found at Google.com. The sad thing is most people utilize only one small feature of the site. We’re going to teach you a few tricks to get the most out of Google searches.

First of all, you can use Google to search the content of just one particular site. For example, if you were to search for Batman, tons of content will show up. But try searching for Batman site:www.imbd.com. Now your search results all come from that website. Use the “site:” command to limit searches, and find content on the site you want it to be from.

You can also use the asterisk as a wildcard in your searches. Did you forget how a saying goes? Try searching for Don’t Rain on My *. Don’t worry. Google can figure out that you meant ‘Parade.’ Use the asterisk when searching song lyrics, movie quotes, famous sayings, or any other time you may be one word short of what you need.

Sometimes you love a website’s format, but it just isn’t doing exactly what you want. For example, you may want a photo sharing site, but don’t love Flickr. Try this search: related:www.flickr.com. The “related:” command gives you sites like the one you searched for.

Google is also a great dictionary. Just type define:antidisestablishmentarianism, and Google will give you the definition before any search results. Try the “define:” command next time you come across a word that you have never heard before.

Are you shopping on a foreign website? No problem. Google can convert measurements, currencies, and pretty much anything else. Just tell it what you need, 98 cm in inches, for example, and the conversion will pop right up. It’s great when your oven gets stuck in centigrade and you can’t find the manual.

To get the most out of Google you have to use it. Whether you have a math problem, want to find local movie times, need to know what time it is in another country, or are searching for airline flights, try Google before anything else. You might be surprised just how many features of the search are hiding out there without being used.