139
votes

What little known tips and tricks do you have for searching on Google?


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44 Answers 44

194
votes

I like, but rarely remember to use, the synonym operator.

Search for "~auto loan" will find info for both the word auto and its synonyms: truck, car, etc.

(example taken from Google's cheat sheet of search operators)

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  • 33
    I didn't know that Cheat Sheet existed! Jul 1, 2010 at 14:18
83
votes

The Calculator

Without a doubt. It's far more powerful than people realise (although people here have touched on some of its features).

Basic maths

3 * 2

Gives: 6

4 + 12

Gives: 16

It knows BODMAS:

2^10 / 4 + 1

Gives: ((2^10) / 4) + 1 = 257

It knows English:

(five plus seven) divided by six

Gives: two

(I really like that it shows you its order of precedence, which can sometimes be confusing otherwise)

Constants

e

Gives: 2.71828183

And so one with pi etc.

It also knows more complex expressions for constants:

Avogadro's number

Gives: 6.0221415 × 10^23

You can do maths with constants (and it knows imaginary numbers):

i^2

Gives: -1

e^(pi * i)

Gives: -1

Functions

It can do logs:

log(16)

Gives: 1.20411998

I haven't found a way to directly take logs of arbitrary bases, but this work-around does me in the meantime:

log 1024 / log 4

Gives: 5

cos(pi)

Gives: -1

Dimensional Analysis

It knows units! It can do conversion:

1 kilogram in lbs

Gives: 1 kilogram = 2.20462262 pounds

You can do maths with them of course. How many g's does the Bugatti Veyron pull if you floor it?

62 miles per hour / 2.5 seconds / 9.8 metres per second squared

Gives: 1.1312849

Tasty. Want your output in a different form?

60 miles per hour * 20 minutes in kilometres

Gives: 32.18688 kilometres

Bases

(Thanks to Dan's comment below)

The calculator can also output in other bases:

15 in hex

Gives: 15 = 0xF

12 * 3 in binary

Gives: 12 * 3 = 0b100100

And it can convert from them too, and do Roman numerals!

XXXVI in decimal

Gives: XXXVI = 36

Put it all together

answer to life the universe and everything * pi * e * avogadro's number * speed of light

Gives: 6.47538066 × 10^34 m / s

A more meaningful equation... how about how much energy a nuclear bomb releases? We all know E = mc^2:

600 milligrams * the speed of light squared

Gives: 5.39253107 × 10^13 joules

Closing tips

Sometimes you need to put in brackets to express precedence clearly, for example "five plus seven divided by six" and "(five plus seven) divided by six" give different answers.

If the calculator doesn't kick in you can attempt to coerce it by appending "=" to your query, for example "1+2=".

It knows most units and constants (including currencies) but it isn't 100% perfect, so if something doesn't work try rewording it.

Bonus tip for users of Chrome and Firefox: If you type a calculator query into the omnibar / search box and wait for suggestions to pop up, the first suggestion will be the answer. Saves you a pageload!

Lastly if you think it will work, it quite possibly will! It handles a wide array of inputs, outputs and operators, someone pointed me to a comprehensive list here.

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  • 8
    Excellent amount of detail :) Jul 9, 2010 at 12:11
  • 1
    Thanks :) Most of that was off the top of my head, I use Google's calculator constantly as it's the only one I know of that does units.
    – ZoFreX
    Jul 13, 2010 at 12:35
  • 4
    It even understands bizarre units. Try "1 m/s in furlongs per fortnight"
    – Marc
    Jul 13, 2010 at 16:17
  • 1
    1 hellameter = 1.0 × 10^27 meters google.com/…
    – Bratch
    Jul 16, 2010 at 16:23
  • 2
    You can also get results in other number bases eg. '12 * 3 in roman numerals' or '10 ^ 2 in hex' or '1024 in binary' etc.
    – Dan Diplo
    Aug 6, 2010 at 9:21
74
votes

Easter Eggs

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  • 3
    That is a very cute Google'ism.
    – geoffc
    Jul 14, 2010 at 17:04
  • That's great! B)
    – eidylon
    Jul 14, 2010 at 18:09
  • 5
    This is more of an Easter egg than a feature.
    – harpo
    Aug 6, 2010 at 20:28
  • To me, it looks like a bug :D
    – Nam G VU
    Dec 28, 2010 at 11:35
73
votes

site:

You can use the 'site:' keyword to make Google only return results from one site.

For example you could enter this into Google:

algorithms site:ocw.mit.edu

Which would bring you to results from ocw.mit.edu only.

You can also put quotes around your search terms to search for an exact string.

For example

"stackoverflow.com is great"

would yield different results from

stackoverflow.com is great

You can search specific sites for information by using:

site:yoursitehere.com searchterms

This works to the point where you can narrow your site search down to specific sub-folders, by using:

site:yoursitehere.com/folder1/folder2/ searchterms.

If you don't put 'site: before the yoursitehere.com then it just searches for occurrences of the URL name, and not necessarily the site itself.

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  • the 'site:' modifier is one of my favs. Especially for sites that have sucky or no internal search engines. Jul 8, 2010 at 2:57
  • 2
    You don't have to include an entire domain either. I use that regularly for country-specific searches: site:.ch (one reason I don't like .com for local companies)
    – Benjol
    Aug 2, 2010 at 13:07
  • 1
    I often use site:stackoverflow.com when a Google result doesn't have the answer to my question in the top few. :)
    – Amadiere
    Aug 2, 2010 at 17:58
66
votes

Conversions

Currency conversions and unit conversions can be found using the syntax:

<amount> <unit1> in <unit2>

As in:

1 GBP in USD

or:

0 C in F

or:

1 in in cm

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  • 5
    I like that it works with arithmetic calculations and complicated units too: "10000 pounds/year in dollars/month" "(2pi) kilowatt * 3 hours in calories" Jul 8, 2010 at 1:46
  • also using "to" seem to work e.g. "1GBP to USD"
    – kristof
    Jul 8, 2010 at 11:01
  • you can also do "1 GBP = ? USD". Jul 9, 2010 at 19:06
  • 1 hellameter = 1.0 × 10^27 meters google.com/…
    – Bratch
    Jul 16, 2010 at 16:18
  • 8
    (1.21 gigawatts) / (88 mph) = 30,757,874 newtons. Complete guide - google.com/help/calculator.html.
    – Bratch
    Jul 16, 2010 at 16:23
59
votes

Time

Search for "time in " and you'll get the local time for that place.

For example:

time in Detroit

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  • 3
    also works: Detroit time, and slightly less verbose
    – Justin L.
    Jul 7, 2010 at 21:34
  • also: what time gives local time Mar 29, 2011 at 2:12
56
votes

Translation

You can use it as a translator ( or as shortcut to translate.google.com )

ie:

translate:Hola to:English

Yields:

translation result http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/8797/capturadepantalla201007.png

Very handy

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  • 8
    This does work without colons: "translate hola to english"
    – blueyed
    Aug 2, 2010 at 15:50
  • yesss +1, it works without colon too but: explicit is better then implicit ;-)
    – shahjapan
    Aug 16, 2010 at 7:27
50
votes

define:

I like:

define:term

Which finds definitions.Though, Google recently added displaying definition automatically for single-word searches. No "define" needed.

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  • this is far and away my most used feature of google (after search of course)!
    – eidylon
    Jul 14, 2010 at 18:08
  • I'd like to know how Google decides which pages to index as definitions: webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/5096
    – Guy
    Aug 2, 2010 at 18:39
47
votes

filetype:

To search by specific file types:

"search term" filetype:pdf
"search term" filetype:doc

Two additional things that are less obvious about it (and other specs you can do like it):

  1. You can combine 2 or more filetype:ext specs
  2. You can use not filetype by using -filetype:ext

For example:

-filetype:pdf filetype:doc resume will find resumes that are in DOC format but not PDF.

c++ -site:experts-exchnage.com -site:some_other_bad_site.com

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  • 7
    yeah, and then add some terms to find directory listings wink wink
    – adamcodes
    Jul 1, 2010 at 15:54
  • This could be done through advance search Aug 19, 2010 at 10:46
  • This used to be an awesome way to search for mp3's, until spammers flooded their index for these searches. Nov 15, 2010 at 5:22
41
votes

Fill in the Blank (*)

Sometimes the best way to ask a question is to get Google to fill in the blank by adding an asterisk (*) at the part of the sentence or question that you want finished into the Google search box. For example:

Madame Curie died in *

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  • Dup Jul 1, 2010 at 15:10
  • 3
    The first result I get is: Live streaming Slovakia vs Slovenia | Watch Slovakia vs Slovenia ... 10 Oct 2009... ukraine vs england match, real madrid vs fc zurich pictures, erin andrews peep pictures, patrick swayze funeral, Madame Curie died in *, ... Not sure that I would call that a good result.
    – fmark
    Jul 2, 2010 at 1:25
  • 3
    The right answer (both location and year) come later on the first page, correctly highlighted even. Jul 2, 2010 at 10:13
  • 9
    Surround with quotes for best results. Then it looks for the exact phrase - and fills in the blank. Jul 8, 2010 at 1:46
  • "Madame Curie died" yields better results (first hit is a special one).
    – blueyed
    Aug 2, 2010 at 15:52
34
votes

Spell Checking

The spellchecker. Google claimed at a talk I was at that it was the most advanced in the world - I've certainly yet to find one better. It excels in two areas:

Drunk typing

Searching for:

dfinhryodmnie

Finds:

diphenhydramine

Context

Searching for:

cofi shop

Suggests:

coffee shop

But searching for:

cofi annan

Suggests:

Kofi Annan

I don't know any other spell checker that does this.

Google's spellchecker is so good for a reason - here are some of the many ways users spelt Britney Spears.

3
  • Funny how the all got the last name right?!
    – blueyed
    Aug 2, 2010 at 15:56
  • prittany spears - epic! Aug 5, 2010 at 17:30
  • I would like to add that if you're drunk you probably shouldn't be having anything to do with diphenhydramine.
    – ZoFreX
    Aug 6, 2010 at 12:46
23
votes

Flights

If you put in a flight number, the top result is the status of the flight. It's a direct link to information available on flightstats.com.

Enter AA825 and it will immediately show you the status of the flight. It will show you the gate and terminal when it lands.

No more navigating to travel sites.

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20
votes

allintext:

allintext: matches only those sites that match every word.

It's good when the cached page says:

These terms only appear in links pointing to this page

18
votes

Tracking numbers

If you have a package tracking number from the USPS, UPS or FedEx, simply plug it into Google Search and they'll provide a convenient link for you.

For example:

Sorry, I don't know how FedEX numbers are formatted and I can't find a working sample online. However, I think it works.

Also try to lookup a UPC number:

Or an ISBN (Thanks @Joe White):

2
  • This works with Royal Mail in the UK too.
    – Andy E
    Jul 15, 2010 at 13:01
  • Related to UPCs: they do ISBNs too.
    – Joe White
    Aug 6, 2010 at 12:33
17
votes

OR operator

The OR operator will find pages that have either keyword, but not both:

joe satriani OR bonamassa

Being a programmer, I once created an OR condition as you would find it in programming languages. I was surprised to find this works as well:

joe (satriani|bonamassa)

1
  • Up vote strictly for Mister Bonamassa. Queuing that on the iPod now. Aug 2, 2010 at 15:42
17
votes

Movies

Searching for movies using your zip-code, as in:

movies: 90210

"movies near [town or place]" is a pretty good search. It lets you search for movies playing near a town or place and shows what times they're playing and film ratings and everything

movies near chichester, uk

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  • 6
    It doesn't seem to work outside the USA.
    – delete
    Jul 1, 2010 at 14:19
  • @Kinopiko: That's not unsurprising. Unfortunately, I can't test from here to see if there's an alternative.
    – Jeff Yates
    Jul 1, 2010 at 14:51
  • Works in Canada too.
    – Sean Gough
    Jul 1, 2010 at 19:57
  • 3
    You can also put a city/country name (like "movies: paris, france") to get similar results.
    – user1361
    Jul 8, 2010 at 19:15
16
votes

Negation / Exclude Terms

Examples

Exclude experts-exchange from my search results using the 'site:' tag, like this:

how to load a file php -site:experts-exchange.com

Searches for "apple" where word "tree" is not used.

apple -tree 
11
votes

Weather Forecasts

<CITY> forecast

Gives a nice box like this one:

Las Vegas Weather

10
votes

Believe it or not, you can insert the letter 'l.' (ICAO 'Lima') before 'google.com' in the URL of Google or any subdomain and get to the same site, e.g.:

video.l.google.com

mail.l.google.com

It might seem trivial, but it has a couple uses: for one, you can go to the site logged out without any cookies set. For another, you can still watch videos even if your filter blocks video.google.com. :D

7
votes

Public Data

To see trends for population and unemployment rates of U.S. states and counties, type population or unemployment rate followed by a state or county. For example: population germany

7
votes

To look up any English word, we can try this:

en:en camouflage

It will give you dictionary-style definition of camouflage. You can click more at the end of definition to navigate to Google dictionary to see full entry.

1
  • Or, you can do define:camouflage. Dec 16, 2010 at 15:50
6
votes

I use Google Bookmarks and Stars in search to limit my search to a subset of sites.

For example, I have a collection of good bookmarks called Bash Shell Scripting Resources (It's public, check it out). When I search for Bashisms, these sites are given priority in my search results.

And since I'm using Google Bookmarks, these bookmarks appear in my Google Toolbar or as an applet at https://www.google.com/ig .

6
votes

Search for 'e' and you get e = 2.71828183

'pi' gives pi = 3.14159265

'phi' gives the golden ratio = 1.61803399

'G' gives gravitational constant = 6.67300 × 10^{-11} m^3 kg^{-1} s^{-2}

And so on for other mathematical and physical constants.

5
votes

That

my-multiple-search-terms

works like

"my-multiple-search-terms" OR "my multiple search terms" OR "mymultiplesearchterms"

5
votes

related: Related Search

To search for web pages that have similar content to a given site, type related: followed by the website address into the Google search box. For example: related:www.cnn.com

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4
votes

Sunset in xxx (For example, "sunset in new york") or sunrise in xxx gives you the exact time of sunset/sunrise.

4
votes

This was also in a link someone posted, but I use it all the time @ work when a site is blocked:

cache:http://www.somecoolsite.com

It doesn't give you a perfect repr of the site, but if you're just trying to read stuff (like answers to programming questions that are blocked by Websense for being in the "Business & Economy" category), it works great.

1
  • Unless of course the Google Cache is itself blocked, as in my case.
    – Raithlin
    Aug 6, 2010 at 9:45
3
votes

I use inurl: and intitle: to narrow down searches all the time, they can be useful if you are looking for specific pages about a topic, rather than a page with the term anywhere on it, eg intitle:webapps could be useful if you were looking for articles about that topic.

A couple of people mentioned * but I found out a while ago that you can include it inside a phrase search eg "i * my job" finds I ♥ My Job, I love my job, and I heart my job as phrases. You can even combine all of the above like this intitle:"i * my job"

3
votes

I find subscribed links are occasionally very useful, see http://www.google.com/coop/docs/subscribedlinks/faq.html

That's one I use regularly: http://www.google.com/coop/profile?user=008782217800324848333

I have even written one myself: http://www.google.com/coop/profile?user=010177539747046990252

1
  • The links are now 404
    – nic
    Oct 3, 2011 at 4:28
3
votes

Compiled list of answers:

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  • 1
    Unfortunately given the default accept behaviour, this answer is all the way on page three based on default vote sorting. Jul 18, 2011 at 20:24

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