Google Tips
 

The Aviation one is most apt for FTers:


• Download and install the Google toolbar. Not only does it put the Google search box into your browser full-time, but it also blocks pop-up ads and fills in forms for you. For Windows at http://toolbar.google.com. (Ad blocking, form-filling and Google's search box are already built into the Apple's Web browser, Safari.)

• Phrase your question in the form of an answer. "After all, you're not looking for Web pages that ask your question," explains director of technology Craig Silverstein. "You're looking for pages that answer it."

So instead of typing, "What is the average rainfall in the Amazon basin?", you might get better results by typing "The average rainfall in the Amazon basin is."

• This is an old one, but very important: Put quotes around phrases that must be searched together. If you put quotes around "electric curtains," Google won't waste your time finding one set of Web pages containing the word "electric" and another set containing the word "curtains."

• Similarly, put a hyphen right before any word you want screened out. If you're looking up dolphins, for example, you'll have to wade through a million Miami Dolphins pages unless you search for "dolphins -Miami."

• Google is a global White Pages and Yellow Pages. Search for "phonebook:home depot norwalk, ct," Google instantly produces the address and phone number of the Norwalk Home Depot. This works with names ("phonebook:robert jones las vegas, NV") as well as businesses.

Don't put any space after "phonebook." And in all of the following examples, don't type the quotes I'm showing you here.

• Google is a package tracker. Type a FedEx or UPS package number (just the digits); when you click Search, Google offers a link to its tracking information.

• Google is a calculator. Type in an equation ("32+2345*3-234="). Click Search to see the answer.

• Google is a units-of-measurement converter. Type "teaspoons in a gallon," for example, or "centimeters in a foot." Click Search to see the answer.

• Google is a stock ticker. Type in AAPL or MSFT, for example, to see a link to the current Apple or Microsoft stock price, graphs, financial news and so on.

• Google is an atlas. Type in an area code, like 212, to see a Mapquest map of the area.

• Google is Wal-Mart's computer. Type in a UPC bar code number, such as "036000250015," to see the description of the product you've just "scanned in." (Thanks to the Google Blog, http://google.blogspace.com, for this tip and the next couple.)

• Google is an aviation buff. Type in a flight number like "United 22" for a link to a map of that flight's progress in the air. Or type in the tail number you see on an airplane for the full registration form for that plane.

• Google is the Department of Motor Vehicles. Type in a VIN (vehicle identification number, which is etched onto a plate, usually on the door frame, of every car), like "JH4NA1157MT001832," to find out the car's year, make and model.

• For hours of rainy-day entertainment, visit http://labs.google.com. Here, you'll find links to new, half-finished Google experiments-like Google Voice, in which you call (650) 623-6706, speak the words you want to search for and then open your browser to view the results. Disclaimer: It wasn't working when I tried it. (Ditto a lot of these experiments.)

Reverse phonebook: type in a US 10-digit phone number (with or without dashes) and the owner's name and address are shown.

PS: Is that your 1991 Acura NSX?

alect:

Thanks for posting this. I use Google a lot ... but your tips are great!

That did not work for me!

I use http://www.anywho.com/rl.html

I posted this in OMNI, but there is also a Beta going on of a "Google Local" that gives results in a different format for whatever location you'd like to focus on:

http://local.google.com/

I've been finding it very useful.

Actually, they're NY Times columnist and O'Reilly Computer Book Author David Pogues tips, entirely. The original poster should have credited them as such.

Here's another Google beta site. It's a web-based E-Mail service with some new features and 1000 megabites of storage to each user "so you'll never have to delete emails and run out of space again." It's called Gmail.

https://gmail.google.com/

Google results via e-mail

Not really sure why, but here goes

Send an e-mail to [email protected] with the search in the subject line and it will send the results back to you via e-mail.

Full details over at http://capescience.capeclear.com/google/index.shtml

Bump great site, and about the NY writers how about a link to their stories

I tried to find this story by Pogue (based on the remark above) but couldn't find it. It may be old enough that it's already in the paid archive of the NYT, assuming it's one of his NYT columns. On his own web site he says he argues with them over making his own archives available without the fee, as they apparently do with some other types of content. But for now, if this is more than a few weeks old, and it appears to be, you can't read the original without paying. If it's not from the NYT, I have no idea where to find it. I would have thought it would be linked from his own site or from the Missing Manuals site. There's a new Missing Manuals book about Google due out soon, but Pogue didn't write that one.

http://www.davidpogue.com/

http://www.missingmanuals.com/

If you're really bored...

http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=xx-hacker
http://www.google.com/intl/xx-bork/
http://www.google.com/intl/xx-elmer/
http://www.google.com/intl/xx-piglatin/