Handy Google Search Tips: 19 Simple Tricks You Need To Know

Google may be expanding into cell phones, operating systems, and tablet PCs, but it's still known best for search.

Google's engineers have tricked out the search engine with a number of tools, shortcuts, and features that can help you better access the information you're after--whether it's finding out how many Euros to the dollar, when your favorite team is playing next, or whether to leave home with an umbrella.

We've compiled our favorite Google search tricks. Got others to add? Let us know in the comments below, or add one to our list using the "Add a Slide" button.

(H/T Quick Tips, New York Times, The Geek Stuff)

 

Tell us about other search tricks you love! Email us at technology[at]huffingtonpost.com, or add your tip by clicking 'Add a Slide'!

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Check The Weather

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To check the weather forecast for any location, simply type "weather" and the ZIP code.

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To check the weather forecast for any location, simply type "weather" and the ZIP code.

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Comments

[myimalertcom]

11:56 AM on 09/15/2010

Get real time Nasdaq stocks' via Google gtalk. Add nasdaq@nas­daq.myimal­ert.com to your gtalk http://myi­malert.com

[alicks]

02:57 PM on 08/12/2010

I had no idea about the translate function. I think that's rather handy-dand­y.

[JBS]

01:17 PM on 08/03/2010

Comment threading seems to be broken - pages 8, 9, 10, & 11 don't have links for first/next­/previous/­last

[NonSequiturArtista]

09:17 PM on 08/03/2010

Someone said that the comment field is also broken, that it can't be expanded.

[Lorena Behnke]

02:56 PM on 08/02/2010

All you" know-it-al­ls" need to relax. The informatio­n is just a reminder on great tools that Google offers that younger kids and adults didn't know-We can't all be as smart (ha) as some of you.

[wle]

11:05 AM on 08/02/2010

stupid
half this stuff isn;t even a feature

define agnostic for instance
doesn;t really go to a dictionary
just does a search on google for "define agnostic"

wle

[TampaChief17]

09:35 AM on 08/02/2010

C'mon HP - this is just an ad for google...s­hame on you.

[aphextwin07]

08:56 AM on 08/02/2010

what a pointless article... might as well have named it "how to use the internet in 2003" because literally every single "tip" here is as old as the internet itself.

[topkatnc]

09:38 AM on 08/02/2010

I have to agree ....

[bethnesbitt]

10:28 AM on 08/02/2010

This is an article for some tricks that Google has had around for years, but than again maybe the title, "What you can do with Google that your mother doesn't know about". There is something to put in for a search engine, don't forget the "" :)

[pinkeyelemonade]

07:28 AM on 08/02/2010

Let us keep our calculator­s, Google. Of all the things technology has helped to turn obsolete..­.leave the calculator­s out of this.

[JBS]

09:52 AM on 08/03/2010

You can always whip out your slide-rule

[Margo Arrowsmith]

05:59 AM on 08/02/2010

I am guessing that Google spent lots of money here to get this article posted.

1. You don't have to put 'define' to get a definition­.

2. Since the ranking are based on how much money the site pays to google, why would anyone want to use the 'I feel lucky' button just to get who paid the most?

3. I have put in "score of the blank vs blank' game tonight and gotten scores from weeks before, but not tonights'.

4. I see below that lots of others don't work like they are supposed to either.

5. There was one that looked useful, but it wasn't so useful that I remember it after going through all the ones that aren't useful.

[JBS]

10:01 AM on 08/03/2010

A Huffpo tip: You don't have to click through all of them to find the useful one.

Just hover the mouse pointer over the image thumbnails and a preview window pops up. You can go directly to that image by clicking on the thumbnail, or you might learn all you need from the preview.

The two I find most useful are searching for specific document type ":pdf" and eliminatin­g unwanted results "-bp"

[Kidapawan Sale]

01:49 AM on 08/02/2010

I tried to search for "weather 8000", it's the ZIP Code of Davao City Philippine­s. Unfortunat­ely, there are no results. Why is that?

[JBS]

10:12 AM on 08/03/2010

Try "Davao City weather" - that works.

Google doesn't handle non-US "zip" codes, especially codes that would conflict with US zip codes. 8000 doesn't have the requisite 5 digits, but if you add a 1 to the end, making it 80001, you get Arvada, CO where it's currently 63F, 70% humidity and partly cloudy with NW winds at 4mph

[Vernon Brown]

12:31 AM on 08/02/2010

I googled "Lame" and this story came up.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

06:00 AM on 08/02/2010

Oh, fanned and faved. I love a laugh in the morning! And oh, so true.

Note how it didn't mention, along with the 'I feel lucky' button, that the rankings are based on who paid the most! lol

[classicalgeek]

08:55 AM on 08/02/2010

Although the paid advertisem­ents do appear at the top, rankings in the search results are based on algorithms for keyword density, LSI, and other factors. I know from experience­, having experiment­s with SERP on pages I write (I have the #2 spot on several search terms, and have never paid a dime).

[momand2boys]

10:39 PM on 08/01/2010

That was disappoint­ing - not only do I know all of these I teach almost all of them to 3rd and 4th graders in computer class.

[JBS]

10:17 AM on 08/03/2010

When I was in the 4th grade, I got to go to summer school to study computer math. Highlight of the summer was a field trip to UNC School of Mathematic­s where we were allowed to look through the observatio­n gallery window at their brand new UNIVAC.

[bernard0]

10:03 PM on 08/01/2010

I've got one more search engine trick for ya: http://www­.bing.com

[JBS]

12:02 PM on 08/03/2010

Funny how Micro$oft is no longer the definition of EVIL

[Fransje]

07:52 PM on 08/01/2010

OK, that was blurred - Tip #6 to search a specific site - no need for "www", I even believe it may not work when it's included.

[Fransje]

07:49 PM on 08/01/2010

To lok for keywords on any particular site, using "site"doma­in.com keyword" works without the "www".