1. Want to find a quote or a song when you know only some of the words? Use the asterisk (*). And be sure to put in quotes. For example: "ask not what * * do for you".
2. You don’t need to reach for the phone when you need a timer or a stopwatch. Just type it into Google. Even better you can specify the length in your search term. Example: “20 minute timer”.
3. Confused about your current IP address? Just enter “IP address”.
4. You probably know this one, but you can get precise flight info by typing the details directly into the search box.
5. No, you don’t have to deal with a clunky time zone converter. Just type in the time at the other location, and Google will tell you what time it will be in India. For example: 2:00 pm Buenos Aires.
6. Want to know the weather. Just type ‘weather’ followed by the city. Specify a day if you’re looking for info in advance.
7. Google Search can dig up info from your own personal data, so long as you use services such as Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Photos. Try searching for “my trips,” “my flights,” “my appointments,” “my reservations,” “my purchases,” “my bills,” or “my photos.” With some of those, you can get even more specific: “my AT&T bills from 2018,” “my photos from france,” “my photos from February 2016,” and so on. As long as you have matching data in a compatible Google service, you’ll get results right then and there.
8. Perhaps you’ve done an exhaustive search for a product or some information on a website you’d thought would have what you needed. Surely there are other sites out there that could give you what you’re looking for. In these cases, Google can tell you what websites are comparable to the one you’ve been sifting through. Search “related:URL” with or without additional keywords to find results from similar sites. (Again, use lowercase for text preceding the colon, and no space between the colon and the URL.)
9. Track a package: Skip some steps and track a package right from Google. If you have the tracking number handy, just Google it. If Google doesn’t recognize it as a tracking number, try Googling “track package,” then typing or pasting the number into the field that comes up. You may not need to click “Find Carrier” if the search returns options. A shortcut to this is highlighting and right-clicking (or holding down “control” as you click if you’re using a Mac) a tracking number, e.g. in your email.
While many carriers email you the tracking number with a convenient button or link, this is still a useful feature if you just have the number.
10. Find a page that links to your website: Maybe you have a blog or website and you’re wondering whether others are linking out to it. Short of looking at Google analytics or another traffic-monitoring source, you can find out who’s driving visitors to your site by searching your URL with the following syntax: “link:example.com” (any URL -- and with no space between the colon and URL). The URL can be a home page or a longer webpage URL.
11. Search for a specific type of file: If you know you’re looking for a PDF, Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint presentation or another type of file that’s been uploaded to the web, you can search “filetype:PDF,” “filetype:xlsx,” “filetype:ppt” etc. It’s a quick way to find reports from agencies, examples of presentations on certain topics and more.
12. Search within a numerical range such as time/price: There are two ways to do this. Search for something, then click “Tools” under the search bar. You can specify a period of time using the drop down that says “Any time” (that’s the default), from “past hour” to “past year,” or pick a custom range. Or, you can specify a range of years generally using the following syntax: “2014..2016.” Google will then show you results from these years. The “..” works for other numerical ranges, too, such as price.
13. Who among us hasn’t come across a sprawling number and stared at it blankly while trying to figure out how to say it aloud? Search for any number followed by “=english”—”53493439531=english,” for example—and Google will spell out your number for you in plain-English words.
14. Trying to stay on beat? Google “metronome,” and the search site will give you a fully functional metronome with a slider to start any beat-per-minute setting you need.
15. Search or browse through hundreds of old print newspapers at Google’s hidden newspaper archive site. The selection is pretty hit-and-miss, but you just might find what you’re after.
16. Trying to reach a site that’s temporarily down or permanently offline? Type “cache:” followed by the site’s address directly into Google. That’ll take you to a recently saved version of the site hosted on Google’s own servers.
17. You can search any site through Google to find whatever you need: Simply type in the term you want followed by “site:” and the URL—”site:fastcompany.com,” for example—and you’ll get a list of results that’s practically guaranteed to be better than whatever the site’s own internal search function would give you. (The example I tried is I searched for ready to eat in the nirapara site by typing in ready to eat "site:http://www.nirapara.com")
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2. You don’t need to reach for the phone when you need a timer or a stopwatch. Just type it into Google. Even better you can specify the length in your search term. Example: “20 minute timer”.
3. Confused about your current IP address? Just enter “IP address”.
4. You probably know this one, but you can get precise flight info by typing the details directly into the search box.
5. No, you don’t have to deal with a clunky time zone converter. Just type in the time at the other location, and Google will tell you what time it will be in India. For example: 2:00 pm Buenos Aires.
6. Want to know the weather. Just type ‘weather’ followed by the city. Specify a day if you’re looking for info in advance.
7. Google Search can dig up info from your own personal data, so long as you use services such as Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Photos. Try searching for “my trips,” “my flights,” “my appointments,” “my reservations,” “my purchases,” “my bills,” or “my photos.” With some of those, you can get even more specific: “my AT&T bills from 2018,” “my photos from france,” “my photos from February 2016,” and so on. As long as you have matching data in a compatible Google service, you’ll get results right then and there.
8. Perhaps you’ve done an exhaustive search for a product or some information on a website you’d thought would have what you needed. Surely there are other sites out there that could give you what you’re looking for. In these cases, Google can tell you what websites are comparable to the one you’ve been sifting through. Search “related:URL” with or without additional keywords to find results from similar sites. (Again, use lowercase for text preceding the colon, and no space between the colon and the URL.)
9. Track a package: Skip some steps and track a package right from Google. If you have the tracking number handy, just Google it. If Google doesn’t recognize it as a tracking number, try Googling “track package,” then typing or pasting the number into the field that comes up. You may not need to click “Find Carrier” if the search returns options. A shortcut to this is highlighting and right-clicking (or holding down “control” as you click if you’re using a Mac) a tracking number, e.g. in your email.
While many carriers email you the tracking number with a convenient button or link, this is still a useful feature if you just have the number.
10. Find a page that links to your website: Maybe you have a blog or website and you’re wondering whether others are linking out to it. Short of looking at Google analytics or another traffic-monitoring source, you can find out who’s driving visitors to your site by searching your URL with the following syntax: “link:example.com” (any URL -- and with no space between the colon and URL). The URL can be a home page or a longer webpage URL.
11. Search for a specific type of file: If you know you’re looking for a PDF, Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint presentation or another type of file that’s been uploaded to the web, you can search “filetype:PDF,” “filetype:xlsx,” “filetype:ppt” etc. It’s a quick way to find reports from agencies, examples of presentations on certain topics and more.
12. Search within a numerical range such as time/price: There are two ways to do this. Search for something, then click “Tools” under the search bar. You can specify a period of time using the drop down that says “Any time” (that’s the default), from “past hour” to “past year,” or pick a custom range. Or, you can specify a range of years generally using the following syntax: “2014..2016.” Google will then show you results from these years. The “..” works for other numerical ranges, too, such as price.
13. Who among us hasn’t come across a sprawling number and stared at it blankly while trying to figure out how to say it aloud? Search for any number followed by “=english”—”53493439531=english,” for example—and Google will spell out your number for you in plain-English words.
14. Trying to stay on beat? Google “metronome,” and the search site will give you a fully functional metronome with a slider to start any beat-per-minute setting you need.
15. Search or browse through hundreds of old print newspapers at Google’s hidden newspaper archive site. The selection is pretty hit-and-miss, but you just might find what you’re after.
16. Trying to reach a site that’s temporarily down or permanently offline? Type “cache:” followed by the site’s address directly into Google. That’ll take you to a recently saved version of the site hosted on Google’s own servers.
17. You can search any site through Google to find whatever you need: Simply type in the term you want followed by “site:” and the URL—”site:fastcompany.com,” for example—and you’ll get a list of results that’s practically guaranteed to be better than whatever the site’s own internal search function would give you. (The example I tried is I searched for ready to eat in the nirapara site by typing in ready to eat "site:http://www.nirapara.com")
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