Saturday, January 26, 2008

Other uses for Google

Dozens of Google search guides detail the common tips, but lifehacker.org has skipped the obvious and highlighted obscure but very useful Google Web search tricks. Some of these are really amazing, and remind me why Google has been my favorite search engine for nearly a decade!

10. Get Local Time: Type in What time is it followed by any city to get the current time.

9. Track Flight Status: Enter the airline and flight number to find out the departure time and estimated arrival for any flight.

8. Convert Currency, Metrics, Bytes and More: Google has a built-in converter calculator. You can enter quarter cup in teaspoons, seconds in a year, 5 US dollars in Euros and countless others.

7. Search for Pages That are “Better Than,” “Similar to,” or “Reminds me of”: Enter “better than keyword” or “similar to keyword” to find Web pages you never knew existed.

6. Use Google as a Free Proxy: Enter cache:website.com to view a Web page that’s been blocked from the computer you’re using.

5. Remove Affiliate Links From Product Searches: To avoid seeing search results from certain sites, enter –site:website.com.

4. Find Related Items: Enter ~ before any search term to find related items as well.

3. Find Music and Comic Books: Enter -inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wma|mp3) "Band or comic book name" to find music files and comic books.

2. See Images of People, Objects, Etc.: Type in a search term, and click on images to see photos of the results.

1. Search for Faces: If you’re looking for a photo of a person named Rose, and don’t want to see photos of the flower, add &imgtype=face to the end of your image search. It will show you only images of faces.
Sources:

* Lifehacker.com January 2, 2008

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