41 Google Secrets I bet you will love

41 Google Secrets I bet you will Love

Note: The 41 Secrets are exhaustively explained hence this article is very long and time-consuming (22 pages, 289 paragraphs, 735 lines, 9,000 words, or 53,000 characters!). So, you might save (or bookmark) this article and read it in slices.

Google calls itself the “World’s Best Search Engine,” and that statement is a true one. It’s also number one in most popular sites on the entire Internet. Just look at these statistics:

ü  More than 70 million unique users visit Google each month

ü  Google is used for more than 200 million searches every day

ü  Google’s search engine indexes more than 3 billion Web pages, more than 425 million images, and more than 700 million Usenet messages

ü  Google provides an interface for different languages and offers results in 35+ languages—more than half of Google’s traffic is from outside the U.S.

Bypass the Search Results—and Go Directly to the First Page on the List

You have another option after you enter your search query, other than clicking the Google Search button. When you click the I’m Feeling Lucky button, Google shoots you directly to the Web page that ranked at the top of your search results, no extra clicking necessary. If you trust Google to always deliver the one best answer to your query, this is a fun option to try. For the rest of us, however, it’s still best to view the rest of the search results to see what other sites might match what we’re looking for.

Google Automatically Corrects Your Spelling

That’s right—you don’t have to be a spelling bee winner to search with Google. That’s because Google has built-in automatic spelling correction. If you inad­vertently misspell a search query, Google recognizes what you meant to type and provides the correct spelling for you.

So go ahead and type as fast as you can. Google will correct all your spelling mistakes.

Don’t Bother with Capitalization

When you’re entering a Google query, don’t waste time pressing the Shift key on your computer keyboard. That’s because the Google search engine isn’t case sensitive. So it doesn’t matter how you capitalize the words in your query—Red Dog and red dog will both return the same results.

Search for Similar Words

Not sure you’re thinking of the right word for a query? Do you figure that some Web pages might use alternate words to describe what you’re thinking of? Then use synonyms in your searches!

Google uses the tilde (~) operator to search for synonyms of a specific word. Just enter the tilde before the keyword, like this: ~keyword. For example, to search for words that are like the word “elderly,” enter the query ~elderly. This will find pages that include not just the word “elderly,” but also the words “senior,” “older,” and so on.

Conduct an Either/Or Search

When you enter multiple keywords in a search query, how does Google parse all those words?

It’s quite simple, really. By default, Google searches for Web pages that contain all the words you entered. That means that Google is inserting an invisible “and” between the words in your search query.

For example, if you enter red corvette as your query, Google reads this as red AND corvette, and searches for pages that contain both the words “red” and “corvette.” Results are likely to include pages dedicated to the Prince song, as well as to owners of crimson cruisers. But if a page is only about ‘Vettes—and doesn’t specifically mention red ones—it won’t be listed.

The bottom line? You don’t have to enter that AND between keywords; Google does it for you.

On the other hand (and here’s where the secret starts), if you want to search for pages that contain either one or another keyword (but not necessarily both), you have to give Google explicit instructions. You do this by using the special OR operator. So, to search for pages that include either of the words you enter, you insert this OR operator between the words in your query. (Surrounded by spaces, of course.)

Using the example from the previous secret, if you want to search for pages that contain either the word “red” or the word “corvette,” you enter the query red OR corvette. This will return all pages that include the word “red” as well as all pages that include the word “corvette,” no intersection necessary. So, you’ll get a lot of pages about red balloons and red robins, as well as general pages about Corvettes—as well as those pages that include both words.

Search for an Exact Phrase

Here’s one of Google’s most powerful search tools, but also one that not enough users know about. When you want to search for a particular item that you describe in multiple words, enclose the entire phrase in quotation marks. This forces Google to search for the exact phrase, and thus returns more targeted results.

For example, if you’re searching for Monty Python, you could enter monty python as your query, and you’d get acceptable results; the results will include pages that include both the words “monty” and “python.” But these results will include not only pages about the British comedy troupe, but also pages about snakes named Monty, and guys named Monty who have snakes for pets. To limit the results just to pages about the Monty Python troupe, you want to search for pages that include the two words in that precise order. So you should enter the query “monty python”—making sure to include the quotation marks.

This way if the word “monty” occurs at the top of a page and “python” occurs at the bottom, it won’t be listed in the search results.

Let’s take this a step further. Want to search for the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Enter “monty python and the holy grail”. Your results will be much more targeted than if your query includes all these words separately without the quotation marks.

Let Google Complete the Phrase

Unlike most other search engines, Google does not support the use of wildcards to complete a keyword, nor does it use automatic stemming. Wildcards would let you search for all words that include the first part of a keyword; for example, a search for book* (with the * wildcard) would typically return results for “books,” “bookstore,” “bookkeeper,” and so on. Stemming is kind of like an automatic wildcard, where entering the keyword book would return all the aforementioned results (“books,” “bookstore,” etc.), no wildcard necessary.

Since Google doesn’t support wildcards or stemming, you have to enter all forms of any words you want to search for. Using the above example, you would have to enter the query book OR books OR bookstore OR bookkeeper to return all possible results.

However, Google does let you use whole-word wildcards within a phrase search. That is, you can search for a complete phrase even if you’re not sure of all the words in the phrase. You let the * wildcard character stand in for those words you don’t know.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you want to search for pages that discuss Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech, but you’re not sure whether he “has,” “had,” or “have” that dream. So you use the * wildcard to stand in for the word in question, and enter the following query: “i * a dream”.

You can use multiple wildcards within a single phrase, within reason. While “* * a dream” might return acceptable results, “* * * dream” is a fairly useless query.

Include Stop Words in Your Search

In an effort to produce more efficient searches, Google automatically disregards certain common words, called stop words, that you might include in your search queries. Including a stop word in a search normally does nothing but slow the search down, which is why Google excises them. Examples of the types of words that Google ignores are “where,” “how,” and “what,” as well as certain single letters (“a”) and digits. For example, if you enter the query how electricity works, Google ignores the “how” and searches only for “electricity” and “works.”

If you want to include specific stop words in your search, you have to instruct Google to do so. You do this by adding a plus sign (+) to your query, immediately followed (with no space) by the stop word you want to include. (Make sure you put a space before the plus sign but not afterwards!) Using our example, to include the stop word “how” in your search, you’d enter the following query: +how electricity works.

Exclude Words from Your Results

Just as you can use the “plus” operator to specifically include words in your results, you can use the contrasting “minus” operator to exclude pages that include specific words. This is particularly useful if you’ve used a word in your query that has more than one meaning.

For example, if you search for cloud, you could get pages about those fluffy floating things, or about a blurring or obscuring (of vision, of minds, etc.). If you don’t want your results to include clouds of the meteorological variety, enter a query that looks like this: cloud –cumulus. If you want to search for bass—the singer, not the fish—you’d enter bass –fish. And so on.

Narrow Your Search to Specific File Types

Google can search for information contained in all sorts of documents—not just HTML Web pages. In particular, Google searches for the following file types and extensions in addition to normal Web pages:

ü  _ Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)

ü  _ Adobe PostScript (PS)

ü  _ Lotus 1-2-3 (WK1, WK2, WK3, WK4, WK5, WKI, WKS, WKU)

ü  _ Lotus WordPro (LWP)

ü  _ MacWrite (MW)

ü  _ Microsoft Excel (XLS)

ü  _ Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT)

ü  _ Microsoft Word (DOC)

ü  _ Microsoft Works (WDB, WKS, WPS)

ü  _ Microsoft Write (WRI)

ü  _ Rich Text Format (RTF)

ü  _ Text (ANS, TXT)

If you want to restrict your results to a specific file type, add the following phrase to your query: filetype:filetype. For example, if you want to search only for Microsoft Word documents, enter filetype:doc.

To eliminate a particular file type from your search results, add the following phrase to your query: -filetype:filetype. For example, if you want to eliminate PDF files from your results, enter -filetype:pdf.

Narrow Your Search to a Specific Domain or Web Site

Maybe you want to search only those sites within a specific top-level Web domain, such as .com or .org or .edu—or, perhaps, within a specific country’s domain, such as .uk (United Kingdom) or .ca (Canada). Google lets you do this by using the site: operator. Just enter the operator followed by the domain name, like this: site:.domain.

For example, to search only those sites within the .edu domain, you’d enter site:.edu. To search only Canadian sites, enter site:.ca. Remember to put the “dot” before the domain.

The site: operator can also be used to restrict your search to a specific Web site. In this instance, you enter the entire top-level URL, like this: site:www.website.domain. For example, to search only within my personal blog (vittyvirus.blogspot.in), enter site:vittyvirus.blogspot.in. To search only within Microsoft’s Web site (www.microsoft.com), enter site:www.microsoft.com. Your results will include only pages listed within the specified Web site.

Narrow Your Search to Words in the Page’s Title, URL, Body Text,or Link Text

Google offers two methods for restricting your search to the titles of Web pages, ignoring the pages’ body text. If your query contains a single word, use the intitle:operator. If your query contains multiple words, use the allintitle: operator.

We’ll look at some examples.

If you want to look for pages with the word “Toyota” in the title, use the intitle: operator and enter this query: intitle:toyota. If you want to look for pages with both the words “Toyota” and “Camry” in the title, use the allintitle: operator and enter this query: allintitle: toyota camry. Notice that when you use the allintitle: operator, all the keywords after the operator are searched for; you separate the keywords with spaces.

Similar to the intitle: and allintitle: operators are the inurl: and allinurl: operators. These operators let you restrict your search to words that appear in Web page addresses, or URLs. You use these operators in the same fashion: inurl: to search for single words and allinurl: to search for multiple words.

It’s more likely that you’ll want to search the body text of Web pages. You can restrict your search to body text only (excluding the page title, URL, and link text), by using the intext: and allintext: operators. The syntax is the same as the previous operators; use intext: to search for single words and allintext: to search for multiple words.

There’s one more operator similar to the previous batch: inanchor: lets you restrict your search to words in the link, or anchor, text on a Web page. This is the text that accompanies a hypertext link—the underlined text on the page.

For example, to search for links that reference the word “dinosaur,” you’d enter inanchor:dinosaur.

Travel Back in Time for Your Search

When you conduct your search, do you have in mind a particular page or article that you remember reading a year or so ago? Then what you want is a time machine—one that can take you back to search the Web as it existed at a particular point in time.

Google can be that time machine.

Google lets you limit your search results to Web pages created within a particular date range. This way you can eliminate newer (or older) pages from your results, and glimpse a snapshot of the Web the way it once was.

There are two ways to restrict your Google search to a specific date range. The first is the least practical, but it’s worth discussing anyway.

When you use the daterange: operator, Google restricts its search to Web pages that match the dates you enter. Know, however, that Google dates the pages in its index based on when it indexed them—not when the pages were actually created. So if a page was created sometime back in 1999 but Google didn’t get around to indexing it until June 15, 2003, it will be dated June 15, 2003. It’s an imperfect way to approach this issue, but it’s the only one that Google offers.

And there’s another catch to using the daterange: operator—you have to express the date as a Julian date, which is a continuous count of dates since January 1, 4713 BC.

If you insist on using the daterange: operator, your query syntax should look like this: daterange:startdate-enddate. I won’t bother with an example.

The better approach is to use the Date option on Google’s Advanced Search page. This option lets you enter current dates; none of this Julian nonsense. Just enter a start date and an ending date, and Google will restrict its search to pages indexed during that time frame.

Resurrect Dead Pages

What do you do if you click to a Web page in the search results list, but that page no longer exists? (It happens; thousands of older Web pages go dead every day.) You may still be in luck, because Google saves a copy of each page that it indexes as it existed at the time it was indexed. So even if a page is dead and gone, you may still be able to view the cached (saved) version of that page on Google’s server.

To display a specific cached page, use the cache: operator, like this: cache:URL. For example, to display the cached version of my Molehill Group home page, enter cache:www.molehillgroup.com.

List Pages That Link to a Specific Page

Want to know which other Web pages are linked to a specific page? Because Google works by tracking page links, this is easy to find out. All you have to do is use the link: operator, like this: link:URL. For example, to see the thousands of pages that link to Microsoft’s Web site, enter link:www.microsoft.com.

List Similar Pages

Have you ever found a Web page you really like, and then wondered if there were any more like it on the Web? Wonder no more; you can use Google’s related: operator to display pages that are in some way similar to the specified page. For example, if you really like the news stories on the CNN Web site (www.cnn.com), you can find similar pages by entering related:www.cnn.com.

Find Out More about a Specific Page

Google collects a variety of information about the Web pages it indexes. In particular, Google can tell you which pages link to that page (see the link: operator, above), which pages are similar to that page (the related: operator), and which pages contain that page’s URL. To get links to all this information on a single page, use Google’s info: operator.

Use Google’s Advanced Search Page

Not comfortable learning all those complicated search operators, but still want to fine-tune your search beyond the basic keyword query? Then here’s a secret for you—almost all of this fine-tuning can be done from the simple pull-down menus and checkboxes on Google’s Advanced Search page.

You can access the Advanced Search page by clicking the Advanced Search link on Google’s home page. The Advanced Search page contains a number of options you can use to fine-tune your searches, without having to learn all those advanced operators. All you have to do is make the appropriate selections on the page and Google will do all the fine-tuning for you.

For many users, it’s easier to use the Advanced Search page than it is to learn and enter Google’s advanced operators into a standard search query. When you need to fine-tune the occasional search, this is the page to use!

Get More from Your Search Results

For most searches, the list of sites on the search results page is all you need to find the information you’re looking for. However, Google provides a number of ways to return even more information based on your search criteria. These “secret results” often contain information you might not have found otherwise.

Display Related News Stories

Google’s search results page sometimes includes more than just Web pages that match your results. Depending on your specific query, Google’s search results might include links to additional information—or to types of information specific to your request. The key is knowing what types of additional links Google might display, and how to use them.

Display Cached Pages

As you learned earlier in this chapter, a cached page is that version of a Web page saved by Google when the page was last indexed. If a page changes frequently, the cached page might contain information no longer available on the current page. In the case of a page that no longer exists, accessing the Google cache might be the only way to still view the page.

To view a cached version of a page listed on a Google search results page, click the Cached link at the bottom of the results listing. If that page still exists on Google’s server, it will now be displayed.

Display Similar Pages

Underneath each listing on the search results page is a Similar Pages link. When you click this link, Google will display a list of pages that are somehow similar to this particular page. Using Google’s Similar Pages feature is a good way to broaden your search without starting over from scratch.

Jump to the Google Directory Listing

Many things you search for will also appear within the Google Directory. As you’ll learn in Secret #146, the Google Directory is a directory of Web pages that have been compiled by human editors—in contrast to the main Google index, which is assembled purely by robot software. The listings in the Google Directory are thus of higher quality than those available with a traditional Google search, or at least theoretically so.

If a matched Web page appears in the Google Directory, the associated directory category will be listed under the search result. Click this link and you’ll be directed to that category in the Google Directory, which will typically include a list of pages that might also be of interest.

Search within Your Search Results

If Google gives you too many results to deal with, you can winnow down the results by conducting a further search within the original search results. To narrow an existing search, all you need to do is add more words to the end of your original search query. Just move your cursor to the search box—which contains the keywords of your current query—and tack on more words to fine-tune your search. Click the Google Search button again and the next page of search results should be more targeted.

Find More Results in the Google Directory

Google indexes more than three billion Web pages. The only problem with indexing so many pages is that it’s kind of a brute force approach; it’s the issue of quantity verses quality, with quantity definitely taking precedence.

It’s sometimes better to view a list of pages that have been personally selected for their content and appropriateness. When you want handpicked results to your search, you want a directory. Where search indexes (such as Google) provide a large number of results, an edited directory produces arguably better results—even though it contains far fewer listings than the large Web indexes.

Google offers just this sort of Web directory, called the Google Directory. The Google Directory contains Web page listings, organized by category, that have been handpicked by a team of human editors. You access the Google Directory by clicking the Directory tab on the Google home page or by going directly to directory.google.com.

Now here’s the funny thing. Google doesn’t actually assemble its own directory. Instead, Google uses a third-party directory called the Open Directory Project. Google then grafts the Google interface and search engine on top of this directory.

So, while the listings in the directory are assembled by Open Directory editors, they’re ranked using Google’s PageRank technology. If you compare a category in the Google Directory with the same category in the Open Directory, the listings will be the same, but arranged differently.

The good thing about the Open Directory is that it’s perhaps the largest and highest-quality Web site directory available. The Open Directory Project is a huge undertaking, with thousands of users submitting reviews and rankings of Web sites and pages. Google made a good choice in partnering with the Open Directory; the combination of Google’s interface with Open Directory listings makes the Google Directory the easiest-to-use and most useful directory on the Web.

You can search the Google Directory by using the standard Google search box. You can also browse through the directory by clicking the individual category headings. Each Google Directory results page displays related categories at the top, followed by the pages within that category, ranked in order of appropriateness.

What’s nice about Google Directory listings is that each listing includes a brief synopsis of the page; this is something you don’t get with normal Google search index results.

Personalize Your Search Results

Most users aren’t aware that they can personalize the way in which Google displays search results. You configure your search results from Google’s Preferences page. You access this page by clicking the Preferences link on Google’s home page. Read on to learn more about each of the settings on this page.

Display Google in a Different Language

By default, Google displays all the text and buttons on its pages in English— unless you’re accessing one of Google’s international sites. But, assuming you’re accessing the standard English-language Google site, everything is in English.

You can, however, configure Google’s English-language site to display in other languages. As of this writing Google can display its pages in 88 different languages, from Afrikaans to Zulu. Make your choice in the Interface Language section of the Preferences page and all of Google’s text and controls will display in the new language.

In addition to real languages, Google is also available in a number of fake languages. My favorites? Klingon, Pig Latin, Elmer Fudd (“I’m Feewing Wucky”), and Bork, Bork, Bork!—the pseudo-Swedish spoken by the Muppets’ Swedish Chef.

Search in a Different Language

While English might be the default language of the Web, it isn’t the only language—not by any means. As the World Wide Web becomes more worldwide, more and more pages are posted in a variety of native languages.

Whether your search includes pages in other languages or is limited to Englishlanguage pages, you can control this option from the Preferences page.

By default, Google searches for pages written in any language. If you want to limit your search to a language you can read, go to the Search Language section of the Preferences page and make a new selection. This will restrict your results solely to pages written in the specified language.

Search Safely

The SafeSearch Filtering section on Google’s Preferences page activates a content filter for Google’s search results. You use SafeSearch to filter out Web pages with offensive content.

Display More Results Per Page

By default, Google displays ten results per page. This allows for a fairly fast display of results. If you want to see more results on your page, go to the Number of Results section of the Preferences page and change the setting to 20, 30, 50, or 100.

Open a New Results Window

By default, your search results are displayed in the same browser window you used to initiate your search. If you prefer to have Google open a new browser window containing your search results, go to the Results Window section of the Preferences page and select the Open Search Results in a New Browser Window option. With this option selected, any time you click the Search Google button a new browser window will open with the search results listed.

Make Google Safe for Kids

There’s a lot of unsavory content on the Internet. When you perform a Google search, some of these undesirable pages can end up in your search results— which is not a great thing if it’s your kids who are doing the searching.

Fortunately, Google offers a content filter that you can apply to your Google searches. Google’s SafeSearch filter screens the Google index for sites that contain adult information and then eliminates those pages from your search results.

Google uses proprietary technology to check keywords, phrases, URLs, and Google Directory categories against a list of objectionable words and topics.

When you activate SafeSearch, you’re blocked from viewing results that contain these undesirable words and topics.

You activate the SafeSearch filter from Google’s Preferences page. You have three choices:

ü  _ Moderate filtering: Blocks objectionable images from Google Image Search results; it doesn’t block any pages based on objectionable text. This is the default configuration.

ü  _ Strict filtering: Blocks both objectionable words and images—and also includes a stricter image filter than the moderate filtering option.

ü  _ Do not filter my search results: This turns off the SafeSearch filter.

If your kids use Google, consider activating SafeSearch’s strict filtering option. It’s not perfect, but it does a pretty good job of reducing the amount of bad stuff your kids might be exposed to.

Get Answers from an Expert

If you can’t find what you’re looking for on Google (and, despite Google’s advanced search technology, this sometimes happens), you have another course of action available to you—you can have an expert do the searching for you. Google Answers provides more than 500 paid researchers that will search the public Web and a variety of private databases for the information you request.

The Google Answers page (answers.google.com), includes listings of previously answered questions, and also lets you enter new questions to be answered. The previously answered questions are organized by category; you can browse through the categories, or search for available answers using the Search Google Answers box.

To make a new request, enter your question into the Enter Your Question box, then click the Ask Question button. After you make your request, a Google researcher undertakes the search. When an answer is found, the researcher posts it to Google Answers, and notifies you via e-mail.

Using the Google Answers service comes at a price. You’ll pay from $2.50 and up for each question you ask, depending on its complexity. Note, however, that you’re only charged for the information that is actually found; if Google’s researchers draw a blank, you don’t have to pay.

Search for Pictures

If you’re looking for pictures on the Web, you can try a standard Google search and see what comes up. (Tip: try including the words “picture” or “photograph” in your query.) However, better results can be obtained by performing a search of a dedicated index of images—which is where Google Image Search comes in.

Google Image Search is an index of pictures. It doesn’t index the text on a Web page, only photographs, drawings, logos, and other graphics. Of course, Google uses words to index these images—how else could you search for them? So, when you conduct an image search, you have to enter one or more words to describe the picture you’re looking for. Google has categorized the images in its index by description, so as much as words can describe a picture, you’ll be able to search the index for what you want.

Using Google Image Search

You access Google Image Search by clicking the Images tab on the Google home page or by going directly to images.google.com. The Image Search home page looks a lot like the regular Google home page. It works the same way, too. Just enter your query into the search box and then click the Google Search button.

The Image Search results page, however, looks a bit different from the normal Google search results. Pictures that match your query are displayed as thumbnails; click the thumbnail to go to the page where the picture is displayed.

Advanced Image Search

Google Image Search also has some advanced search options that are accessible via its own Advanced Image Search page.

The Advanced Image Search page is great if you’re looking for images of a particular file type, for example if you’re looking only for JPG images. It’s also good if you’re looking for a high-resolution picture, which is likely to be of a larger file size, or a low-resolution picture, which is likely to be of a smaller file size.

Search Usenet Newsgroups

Not all the information on the Internet resides on the World Wide Web. Usenet is the largest and oldest existing online community in the world, predating the World Wide Web—but using the Internet’s basic infrastructure. Usenet is actually an assemblage of more than 30,000 online discussion groups, organized by topic. The messages exchanged in Usenet newsgroups often contain information relevant to the queries you might have.

The problem is that it’s difficult to perform a “live” search among the 30,000 or so current newsgroups. Not only is that a lot of groups to search through, you’re also faced with the problem of currentness. Because individual articles stay available in a newsgroup for only a limited period of time, articles “scroll off” particularly active newsgroups within a matter of days.

Fortunately for all of us, Google maintains a comprehensive archive of Usenet newsgroup messages, past and present. Google Groups is actually a continuation of the old DejaNews archive, which Google acquired in 2001. You can use Google Groups to search the newsgroup archives or to browse the current messages in any Usenet newsgroup.

You access Google Groups, shown in Figure 6-11, by clicking the Groups tab on Google’s home page or by going directly to groups.google.com.

Searching the Newsgroups

Searching the Google Groups archive is as simple as entering a query into the search box, and then clicking the Google Search button. You can also use the group: operator to narrow your search to specific newsgroups, or the author: operator to search for messages from a particular user.

When you click the Google Search button, Google searches its newsgroup archive for messages that contain the keywords in your query. The search results page lists messages (from a variety of newsgroups) that match your query, along with a list of the top newsgroups pertaining to your search. For each matching message, Google includes the message’s date and subject, which newsgroup the message appeared in, and the author of the message.

Click the subject link to read the text of the message. From there you can view other messages in that particular thread or display other messages from that newsgroup.

Advanced Groups Search

Given the huge number of topic-specific newsgroups, you probably want to narrow down your search to specific groups—otherwise you’ll be inundated with messages totally unrelated to the topic at hand. You can do this using the group: operator, as just discussed, or by accessing the Advanced Groups Search page.

Search University, Government, and Technology Sites

By default, Google searches the entire Web for the words in your search queries. You can, of course, use the site: operator to narrow your search to a specific site or domain. But Google has identified a number of sites that are frequently searched by users and has created a series of site-specific searches you can execute without the use of special operators.

Search University Sites

There’s a lot of good information to be found on the Web sites of major colleges and universities. That’s why Google has made it easy to search specific university Web sites using Google University Search. You can use Google University Search to search for course schedules, admissions information, and the like.

You access Google University Search at www.google.com/options/universities.html . As of this writing, Google lists site-specific searches for more than 600 institutions worldwide, from Abilene Christian University to York University.

Search Government Sites

Google also makes it easy to search U.S. Government sites. When you access Google U.S. Government Search (www.google.com/unclesam/), Google directs your search to all the sites within the .gov domain—which include sites for all major U.S. government agencies, Congress, and the White House.

Search Technology Sites

Google has created several common technology-related searches. You can use these technology and site-specific searches to find technical support, software for downloading, and other computer-related information and services. These searches include:

ü  _ Google Apple Macintosh Search (www.google.com/mac/)

ü  _ Google BSD Search (www.google.com/bsd/)

ü  _ Google Linux Search (www.google.com/linux/)

ü  _ Google Microsoft Search (www.google.com/microsoft.html)

Search for Names, Addresses, and Phone Numbers

Google includes its own White Pages directory of names, street addresses, and phone numbers. You can search this directory right from the Google home page. All you have to do is enter one of the following pieces of information into the search box and then click the Google Search button:

ü   First name or initial, last name, and city (state is optional)

ü   First name or initial, last name, and area code

ü   First name or initial, last name, and zip code

ü   First name or initial, last name, and state

ü   Last name, city, and state

ü   Last name and zip code

ü   Phone number (including area code)

Google will then display a list of matching names. Each listing includes the person’s phone number and address; click the Yahoo! Maps or MapQuest link to view a map of that person’s location. You can display additional listings by clicking the More Phonebook Listings link.

You can also use Google for reverse phone number lookups. (That is, you know the phone number but don’t know whose number it is.) To perform a reverse lookup, you use Google’s phonebook: operator. Just enter the operator followed by the phone number (include the area code, with no spaces or dashes), like this: phonebook:123456789.

You can limit your search to residential phone numbers by using the optional rphonebook: operator, or to business phone numbers by using the optional bphonebook: operator.

Display Street Maps

Not sure how to get to a particular location? In the old days you had to try to find addresses on your AAA roadmap. Thanks to the Internet, however, you can now use sites like MapQuest (www.mapquest.com) and MapBlast (www.mapblast.com) to generate online maps and driving directions.

Or you could just use Google.

Google’s Street Maps feature knows when you’ve entered a street address in the search box, and displays an option for you to view a map of that location. Google partners with both Yahoo! Maps and MapBlast for the maps themselves; it’s a pretty neat feature and a fast way to display the maps you want.

Search for Stock Quotes and Information

While Google isn’t a full-service financial information site, like CBS MarketWatch , it is a good source of basic financial data—and a gateway to even more information on the Web.

There are a number of ways for Google to display information about a particular stock. The easiest way is to simply enter the stock ticker into Google’s search box without any additional keywords. At the top of the search results page will be a link that leads directly to a page of information about that stock.

You can also use the stocks: operator to signify that the keywords following are ticker symbols. This method is recommended if you’re looking up multiple stocks at one time. Just enter the stocks: operator followed by one or more stock symbols, separated by spaces. For example, to look up information on IBM (IBM), Microsoft (MSFT), and Yahoo! (YHOO), you’d enter the following query: stocks: ibm msft yhoo.

Find the Latest News

Google has become one of the primary online resources for newshounds worldwide. Not that you have to search the Google index for old news stories (although you can, if you want to); no, Google does all the hard work for you with its Google News service.

View the Latest Headlines and Stories

Google News is a news-gathering service that identifies, assembles, and displays the latest news headlines from thousands of different news organizations.

Google News organizes its stories by category and lists hundreds of related stories under each lead headline. Click the link to access the originating news source and read the story, or click the Related link to view other sources’ take on the story. You can also click the category links (World, U.S., Business, Sci/Tech, Sports, Entertainment, and Health) to view more stories in that category.

You access Google News by clicking the News tab on the Google home page, or by going directly to news.google.com.

I find Google News to be one of the best sources of news available online. By assembling stories from literally hundreds of different newspapers, magazines, and Web sites, it provides a depth of coverage that simply isn’t possible from single-source sites like CNN.com

Granted, Google News focuses on the top stories only, but where else can you go to read coverage from the New York Times, the Melbourne Herald Sun, and the Arabic News—all on the same page?

While reading Google News’ selected headlines is nice, if you’re searching for specific stories you need to use Google’s Advanced News Search. You access the Advanced News Search page from the Google News page. You can use the Advanced News Search to search by a variety of parameters.

Have Google Deliver News Alerts to Your Inbox

Google also has the capability of notifying you via e-mail when news articles appear online that match the topics you specify. This way you can monitor breaking news stories, keep tabs on industries or competitors, or just stay up-todate on specific types of events.

You activate Google News Alerts by going directly to www.google.com/newsalerts/. Enter your keyword(s) in the News Search box, select how often you want to receive alerts, enter your e-mail address, then click the Create News Alert button. Google will now keep you informed of new news relating to the topic you specified.

Shop for the Best Bargains

As online shopping becomes more ubiquitous, with more and more merchants offering their wares over the Web, it’s becoming harder to find the specific merchandise you want to buy. While some sites—such as Amazon.com—offer merchandise in a wide variety of categories, other sites tend to specialize in certain types of products. The problem is, how do you find a particular site that stocks the product you’re looking for?

It should come as no surprise that Google can help you with your online shopping needs. In fact, Google offers two related services—Froogle and Google Catalogs—that let you search the Web for the products you want to buy.

Searching with Froogle

Google’s main shopping service is called Froogle. (Froogle, frugal—get it?)

Froogle is just like Google, except that it’s tweaked to search only e-tailer Web sites. You access Froogle by clicking the Froogle tab on Google’s home page or by going directly to froogle.google.com.

You can search Froogle for the merchandise you want or browse through the product categories found on Froogle’s home page.

When you search Froogle, it returns results from all Web merchants that offer matching product; click the results link to view the product listing on the merchant’s site.

Advanced Froogle Search

Searching with Froogle is similar to searching on Google; just enter your keywords and click the Google Search button. Even better, you can fine-tune your product search by using the Advanced Froogle Search page. This page lets you search by price range or category, and it’s really easy to use.

Searching Online Catalogs

Another shopping aid available from Google is Google Catalogs. This service makes catalogs from a variety of major merchants, such as L.L. Bean and Crate and Barrel, available for your online browsing. You can search for a specific catalog or browse through all catalogs in a particular category. There’s even an Advanced Catalog Search so you can fine-tune your search parameters; it works pretty much like the Advanced Froogle Search page.

You access Google Catalogs at catalogs.google.com. When you access a particular catalog, Google displays thumbnails of each catalog page. Click a thumbnail to display the page full size.

Look Up Dictionary Definitions

Want to look up the definition of a particular word, but don’t want to bother pulling out the old hardcover dictionary? Not sure of a specific spelling? Then use Google as an online dictionary to look up any word you can think of.

All you have to do is enter the word in question into Google’s search box and then click the Search Google button. When Google returns the search results page, the word you entered will be listed at the top of the page (“Searched the Web for keyword”) and underlined. Click the word and Google will display dictionary information for the word, supplied by Dictonary.com. This dictionary page includes the word’s pronunciation and definitions, as listed in a variety of different dictionaries (The American Heritage Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, et al.).

Solve Mathematical Equations

This is a neat one. When you can’t be troubled to use the Windows Calculator, or to reach over and pick up the handheld calculator sitting on your desk, you can use Google as a calculator—the world’s most overly complex calculator, to be sure, but a calculator nonetheless.

But I jest. It’s actually quite convenient to enter an equation into the Google search box and get an answer right in your Web browser. I’m not sure exactly why Google added this functionality to their site, but I’m sure it’s getting a bit of use.

Basic Calculations

To use Google as a calculator, all you have to do is enter your equation or formula into the search box and then click the Google Search button. The result of the calculation is displayed as shown in Figure 6-18. It’s that simple. You can use a number of algebraic operators to construct your calculations.

Let’s work through an example. Let’s say you want to add 2 plus 3. You enter the following equation into the search box: 2 + 3. (Either with or without spaces.) Click the Google Search button and you get your results.

If you want to divide 91 by 7, enter 91 / 7. If you want to multiple 12 times 5 divided by 4, enter 12 * 5 / 4.

You can also create nesting equations by using appropriately placed parentheses. So, to divide the sum of 4 plus 3 by 5, you’d enter (4 + 3) / 5.

And, even better, Google recognizes English-language queries as well as proper mathematical ones. For example, you can query 2 and 3 or 7 times 6 or even (4 plus 3) over 5.

Advanced Calculations and Constants

Google’s calculator isn’t limited to basic addition and multiplication. It can also handle more advanced calculations and functions, including:

ü  _ Binary, hexadecimal, and octal

ü  _ Trig and hyperbolic trig functions

ü  _ Logarithm

ü  _ Factorials

ü  _ Imaginary numbers

Google also knows a variety of mathematical and scientific constants, such as pi, Avogadro’s Number, and Planck’s Constant. It also knows the radius of the Earth, the mass of the sun, the speed of light, the gravitational constant, and a lot more.

Let’s check this out. Not sure what the speed of light is? Enter speed of light, and Google returns 299,792,458 m/s. What about the radius of the earth? Enter radius of earth, and Google returns 6378.1 kilometers.

Now let’s get fancy. Try dividing the radius of the earth by pi. Enter (radius of earth) / pi; Google’s answer is 2030.21229 kilometers. Or how about multiplying the radius of the Earth by the speed of light and then dividing the answer by Avogadro’s Number? I’m not sure why you’d want to do this, but the query looks like this: (radius of earth) * (speed of light) / (avogadro’s number). (The answer is 3.17512652 × 10-09 m2⁄s.)

Convert Units of Measure

Another surprise is that Google’s calculator also handles conversions. It knows miles and meters, furlongs and light years, seconds and fortnights, and even angstroms and Smoots—and it can convert from one unit of measurement to another.

Don’t know how many feet equal a meter? Then enter the query 1 meter in feet. Not sure how many teaspoons are in a cup? Enter 1 cup in teaspoons. Want to find out your weight in kilos, or your age in seconds? Enter the queries 180 pounds in kg or 45 years in seconds. (The answers are 3.2808399 feet, 48 teaspoons, 81.6466266 kilograms, and 1.42006167 × 1009 seconds, respectively.)

That’s right, all the formulas necessary for these types of conversions are hardwired into the Google search engine. Just state your query as clearly as possible and Google will do the rest.

Google even lets you do some nonsensical conversions. You can query speed of light in knots or 1 foot in smoots. You can also use these conversions to create nonsense calculations, such as (radius of earth) / 3 teaspoons. It doesn’t make any sense, but Google can do it.

Ask Google the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything

Google’s staff must have had some free time on their hands, because they hard-wired into their calculator the answers to some fairly complex—and often fanciful—calculations. My favorite is to ask the query the answer to life the universe and everything. Google’s answer, shown in Figure 6-19, should delight long-time fans of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Translate Foreign Words and Phrases

Ever get an e-mail from someone in another country—but don’t know the language? Or maybe you’ve stumbled over a cool new Web site, but it’s in German or French or some other language that’s truly foreign to you? Have no fear—Google can translate that foreign text into English for you to read—or vice versa. Google’s Translate tool will translate words and phrases from one language to another, and can even translate entire foreign-language Web pages.

Due to the subtleties of language, these translations aren’t always perfect— but they’re better than not being able to understand it at all.

To use Google’s Translate tool, follow these steps:

1. Click the Language Tools link on Google’s home page.

2. When the Language Tools page appears, go to the Translate section and enter the text you want to translate into the Translate Text box.

3. Pull down the From list and select the languages you want to translate from and to.

4. Click the Translate button.

You can also use the Translate tool to translate entire foreign-language Web pages. Just go to the Translate a Web page section of the Language Tools page, enter the URL for the page, and then pull down the From list to select the translation languages. When you click the Translate button, the page is automatically translated.

Search Google from Other Web Sites

Google sells its search services to other Web sites—including some fairly wellknown search sites—so you don’t always have to go to Google to do a Google search.

Here’s a short list of major sites that as of this writing were using Google to power their main search results:

ü  _ AOL

ü  _ HotBot (part of that site’s meta-search tools)

ü  _ Netscape

ü  _ Yahoo!

When you perform a search on these sites, the results you see come directly from the Google search index. So if you like to use My Yahoo! as your home page, but prefer Google for searching, you never have to leave the My Yahoo! site; when you search from the Yahoo! search box, it’s Google’s results you see.

By the way, these search partnerships tend to be short-term deals. For example, Yahoo! used to use Inktomi to power their search results; when the Inktomi deal was up, they switched to Google. (No telling which search engine Yahoo! Will use when the Google contract runs out—especially since Yahoo! now owns AltaVista, AllTheWeb, and Inktomi!)

Put Google Search on Your Own Web Site

Google likes to get around. That’s why Google makes it easy to add Google search to your own personal Web pages, at no charge to you. All you have to do is go to www.google.com/searchcode.html, copy the HTML code listed there, and paste that code into the code for your Web page. The result will be a Google search box and Google Search button that your visitors can use to search the Web from your site.

There are actually three different versions of Google search you can add to your Web page. Each comes with its own specific cut-and-paste HTML code:

ü  _ Google Free—the same basic Google search available on the Google home page.

ü  _ Google Free SafeSearch—the same as Google Free, but with the SafeSearch content filter activated to filter out inappropriate results.

ü  _ Google Free Web search with site search—the basic Google Free search, but with additional capability for users to search your own Web site, as well.

If you’re running a professional Web site, Google offers Custom WebSearch for businesses and other large sites. See www.google.com/services/websearch.html  for more information about this paid service.

Discover the Latest Search Patterns and Trends

Google is used by so many users that examining query patterns can reveal quite a bit about society’s latest patterns and trends. The Google Zeitgeist (www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html) tracks all the queries posed by Google users and lists a variety of interesting data-points that tell you what users are interested in at this given point in time.

At the top of the Google Zeitgeist page, shown in Figure 6-21, are lists of the Top 10 Gaining Queries and the Top 10 Declining Queries for the current week. The first list tells you what’s getting hot, and the second what’s growing cool.

For example, for the week ending September 1, 2003, NASA and the U.S. Open were hot; the “Star Wars kid” and Mary Carey (candidate for Governor of California) were starting to cool down.

Below that are more detailed analyses of queries for the previous month; you’ll find lists like Popular TV Shows, Popular News Queries, Popular Fictional Characters, Top Women Who Start with “C”, and Popular Travel-Related Queries. (These lists vary by season, and by country.)

I’m not sure how accurate the Google Zeitgeist is as a measure of our current culture, but it’s certainly a lot of fun to read!

Uncover Even More Secrets in Google Labs

Believe it or not, Google has even more search projects in the works. The latest cutting-edge research can be found at Google Labs (labs.google.com), which is where Google’s search experts concoct all manner of search projects. Google Labs is where the next Google features are often found.

Go to the Google Labs page to learn more—and to test these and other new projects!

Summary

Forty-one secrets. That’s a lot—especially for a site that isn’t a portal. But then Google is a very popular site, and one that offers tremendous power to informed users. Yeah, it looks simple with that plain-Jane home page, but as you now know, there are a lot of cool features available that you can use to find the information you want.

The big secret to Google is that there’s far more there than meets the eye. You can access specialty features, such as Google Image Search or Google News; use advanced operators to fine-tune your search box queries; or display the Advanced Search page to perform sophisticated searches with the click of your mouse. It’s all good, and it’s all at your fingertips—now that you know the secrets of Google!