Google is a search engine used by millions of people every day. But most people only know the basic of Google search. There are however certain tricks that are not only fun to use but will also make your search process quicker, easier and more intuitive.
Here are 8 of the best.
Using the Asterisk as a Place Holder
Sometimes you just cannot remember the lyrics to a song or a phrase for a certain book. Don’t worry though, with Google you can easily fill in the rest. Just write the words you know replacing those you don’t remember with an asterisk. This is a very good way to search for something vague or which you cannot remember well.
Find related websites
If you want alternatives to your favorite website, you don’t have to spend hours searching for them online. You can find them using Google. Simply put the word related before the website as in related:YouTube.com. This will bring you results from sites related to YouTube. Whether you want a new site to get your daily jokes or an alternative to your recipe website, use this trick.
Calorie counter
With all the health worries about over consuming calories it is important to stay on top of numbers when it comes to knowing the calorie value of your foods. Instead of having to wade through search results just search something like, calories in baked potato or one banana. Google will instantly provide you with a table showing you the number of calories. You can choose the size of potato or weight. Try it with other foods.
Conversion tables
Whether you need to convert currency, temperature, weight or length, don’t bother doing all the calculations when you have Google with you. Typing 50 Yuan in US Dollars will give you the exact figure. Do the same with something like distance; 100 miles in kilometers or simply KM.
Search results from a specific website
Instead of going to YouTube to search for Taylor Swift videos you can instead type Taylor Swift Site:YouTube.com. Do this with any other website you need results from to make your searching quicker.
Go back in time
Yeah, time travel is possible on Google. To see what Google looked like in 1999, type, Google 1999. The Google results pages turns into what it looked like that year. You can try different years and see how the search engine has changed and grown through the years to what it is today.
Plane travel times
Want to see what flights are leaving and departing and at what times? Google is your personal travel scheduler. Just type a certain flight number and the airways it belongs to and you will receive a detailed flight schedule.
Results from edu sites
For those looking for information from university websites, it would be of great help if you could get edu results only and omit the rest. If for instance you need technology results from Stanford only type technology Stanford:edu. You therefore don’t have to waste time sorting through non educational sites looking for a paper or any other information.
