Google Tips and Tricks

By default, Google will search the entire current index. For example, if I enter the text “word” within Google, I received numerous entries from different sources:

But what if I wished to search for Word within Microsoft’s web site? I could use the “site:” parameter. I enter the web site I wish to limit my search to after the text of “site:” then the text I wish to search for. Notice all of the results below are to www.microsoft.com compared to the results above.

The search results can also be limited to a particular domain type, such as .EDU.

If I am looking for a particular file type, I can use the “filetype:” parameter. Below is a search of Microsoft’s site for .DOC files:

If you wish to search for a string of text, enclose the entire string within quotes.

Google can be used as a dictionary using the “define:” parameter.

Google can also offer the current time of any location by typing time followed by the site:

The same trick can be used for weather:

Google can also be used as a calculator.

The “related:” parameter allows a search for other web sites with similar topics or content.

If you are curious who has hyperlinks to a site, the “link:” parameter can be used.

If a web site is off-line for some reason, the “cache:” parameter plus the normal web site address can allow access to a version that Google has kept.