Google Tips and Tricks
10 Ways to Get More out of Google

 Adopted from an article by Chuck Rogers in the January 2003 "MacHome" magazine.

Google is not only great for finding Web sites, but it can also find phone numbers, addresses, street maps, stock quotes, dictionary definitions and over 35 million non-HTML documents. Here’s how to go beyond Web page searches in Google:

• Do a Domain Search: Narrow your search to list results in a certain domain area by typing the domain suffix after the search term. For example, to find links to the “FBI” in only the government area, enter “fbi.gov” into the search box. Make sure you put a space after your search terms and before the domain area. Try this operation on www.google.com. (Be sure to press your browser’s “back” button to return to this page.)

• Do a Site Search: Limit your search to a particular Web site by the following the search term with the word “site:” and a Web page address. For example, to find references to technology only on East Buchanan’s Web site, enter “technology site:www.east-buc.k12.ia.us” in the search box. Try this operation on www.google.com. (Be sure to press your browser’s “back” button to return to this page.)

• Translate a Web page: When you do some searches, you probably see references to non-English pages. When this happens, Google can translate them for you-just click on the “Translate this page” link in the result item and Google will do its work. The results aren’t perfect but they should be good enough for you to get an idea of the content. Note that Google does not translate text that is part of a graphic image. Try this operation on www.google.com. (Be sure to press your browser’s “back” button to return to this page.)

• Use the Cache: Do you get a “404” error when clicking on a result? That means the original page no longer exists at that address. Press the Back button on your browser and click the “cached” link towards the end of the result listing. Try this operation on www.google.com. (Be sure to press your browser’s “back” button to return to this page.)

• Find Similar Pages: If you find a site you like, Google’s “Google-Scout” technology can find sites that contain similar content. Click the “Similar pages” link after the result listing of the page you liked. Try this operation on www.google.com. (Be sure to press your browser’s “back” button to return to this page.)

• Get a Dictionary Definition: Get a definition for any word. When you enter one or more words into the search box, those that have a definition will be underlined in the blue band above the first result, next to the words “Searched the Web for.” Clicking one of the words will take you to dictionary.com’s definition of that word. For example, enter “Macintosh” and then click the word “Macintosh” in the blue band near the top of the results page. Scroll down the next page that loads to get an excellent definition of the Macintosh computer.Try this operation on www.google.com. (Be sure to press your browser’s “back” button to return to this page.)

• Find a Phone Book Listing: Find the phone number and address for just about any person or business. To find the listing of a US business, enter the business name into the search box, along with the city and state. To find a person’s listing, you can type any of the following:

    - First name (or first initial), last name, city (state is optional)

    - First name (or first initial), last name, state

    - First name (or first initial), last name, area code

    - First name (or first initial), last name, Zip code

    - Phone number, including area code

    - Last name, city, state

    - Last name, Zip code
To find a business, for example, enter ‘macHOME, San Francisco, CA” and press return. The first result will be the phone book listing for macHOME

To find a person, enter “George Bush, Washington, DC.” The first result will be the phone book listing for the President of the United States. Try this operation on www.google.com. (Be sure to press your browser’s “back” button to return to this page.)

• Display a Street Map: Find a map of any valid street address in the U.S. Enter a street address, including ZIP code or city/state in the search field. The first result displayed will be a link to a map of that address. For example, enter 414 5th Street North, 50682 to see a link to a map that locates East Buchanan Community School. Try this operation on www.google.com. (Be sure to press your browser’s “back” button to return to this page.)

• Get a Stock Quote: Enter a company’s ticker symbol and press Return. The first item in the results window will usually be a link to get that company’s stock quote. For example, enter “AAPL” to get Apple’s current stock price. Try this operation on www.google.com. (Be sure to press your browser’s “back” button to return to this page.)

• Find Out Who Links To You: If you type “link:” followed by a URL you will get a list of all Web sites that link to that site. For example, enter “link:www.east-buc.k12.ia.us” to see a list of sites that link to East Buchanan’s Web site. Try this operation on www.google.com. (Be sure to press your browser’s “back” button to return to this page.)


Created by Adam Young
East Buchanan Community School Tech Team
Return to the Google Tutorial Page