Even though millions of people worldwide daily use Google as their primary search engine, only a few percentage of them actually know the true capabilities of it.
What I am about to share with you are a few tips that will surely improve your searches and even show you some other handy features of Google.
– Word/Phrase definition
If you are trying to look up for a definition of a specific word or phrase, try inserting the define: operator before your word/phrase (between quotes in case of phrases), for example:
define: pizza
- Backlinks for a specific URL
When checking up for the backlinks to a specific url, use the link: operator, example:
link: “www.collectorsstamps.net”
This query will show pages linking to the specific URL.
- Exact phrase
To find pages that display occurrences of a specific phrase, you should search that phrase quoted, for example:
“collectors stamps”
- Calculator
You can rely on Google not just to answer your questions but to do the math as well. To do that simply type the calculation you wish to do. It supports the usage of typical operators +, -, /, * and parentheses as well.
- Search on a specific site
If you want to perform a search within a site, use the site: operator followed by the site and the actual search you wish to do within it, for example:
site:www.collectorsstamps.net “collectors stamps”
- Search for specific file types
If you are searching for files with determined type, for instance, a .PDF or .DOC or any other file extension, just use the filetype: operator followed by the extension and the name of the file, for instance:
filetype:pdf book
- Music search
In case you wish to find content exclusively related to music use the music: operator followed by an artist or band name.
- Movie search
Similarly to the music searches, you can look up for information regarding a movie, including reviews, show times and more. To do that just type movie: before the movie name.
- Convert currency, bytes, metrics and time
If you need to know, for instance, how much is 10 US dollars in Euro, just ask Google. Actually, if you search for how much is 1 us dollar in euros or 100 US dollars in Mexican pesos, Google will answer right away.
The same applies to other conversions like 1000 in binary or day in minutes for instance.
- Search within URL’s
Using the inurl: operator will provide you with URL’s containing the specified keywords you searched for.
- Information about a page
To find information about a page use the info: operator, example:
info:www.collectorsstamps.net
- Weather
In case you wish to know the weather for a given location, just type the keyword weather followed by the city or US zip code; for instance, if we want to now the weather for Long Island City we can search like this:
Weather Long Island city or Weather 11101
- Search within a range of numbers
If you want to do a search based on a range of numbers, for example, you wish to know information regarding The Beatles between the years of 1960 and 1970, then you just have to type your query with the “..” between these two numbers:
The Beatles 1960..1970
Author: Ricardo Carapeto
