Super Googleling for Everybody

 

 

Google is a remarkably powerful tool that can ease and enhance your Inter­net exploration

Google’s search options go beyond simple keywords, the Web, and even its own programmers. Let’s look at some of Google’s lesser-known options.

 

These will get you beyond the  “Guess words” and their massive results that bug out your eyes.

 

 

First lets look at   SYNTAX SEARCH TRICKS

Using a special syntax is a way to tell Google that you want to restrict your searches to certain elements or character­istics of Web pages. Google has a fairly complete list of its syntax elements at http://www.google.com/help/operators.html

 

Here are some advanced operators that can help narrow down your search results.

Intitle: at the beginning of a query word or phrase (intitle:”Three Blind Mice”) restricts your search results to just the titles of Web pages.

 

Intext: restricts searching only the body text, ignor­ing titles, links, and so forth. Intext: is perfect when what you’re searching for what might normally appear in URIs (Uniform Resource Locator addresses). If you’re looking for the term HTML, for example, and you don’t want to get results such as www.mysite.com/ index.html, you can enter intext:html.

Link:   Shows which pages are linking to your Web page or to another page you’re interested in. e.g., try typing in link: http:// www.pcmag.com.

Try using site: (which restricts results to top-level domains) with intitle: to find certain types of pages.

I For example, get scholarly pages about t Mark Twain by searching for intitle:”Mark"

Twain”site:edu. Experiment with mixing various elements; you’ll develop several strategies for finding the stuff you want more effectively The site: command is very r helpful as an alternative to the mediocre search engines built into many sites.

 

 

Other GOOGLE Services

 

Google has a number of services that can help you accomplish tasks you may never have thought to use Google for. For example, the new calculator feature (www.google.com/helplfeatures.hmtl#calculator)

This lets you do both math and a variety of con­versions from the search box. For fun, try the query “Answer to Life of  the universe and everything.”

Let Google help you figure out whether you’ve got the right spelling—and the right word—for your search. Enter a misspelled word or phrase into the query box (try “three blind mice”) and Google may suggest a proper spelling.

This doesn’t always suc­ceed; it works best when the word you’re searching for can be found in a dictionary Once you search for a properly spelled word, look at the results page, which repeats your query. (If you’re searching for “three blind mice,” underneath the search window will appear a statement such as Searched the web for “three blind mice.”) You’ll discover that you can click on each word in your search phrase and get a defi­nition from a dictionary.

Suppose you want to contact someone and don’t have his phone number handy. Google can help you with that, too. Just enter a name, city, and state. (The city is optional, but you must enter a state.) If a phone number matches the listing, you’ll see it at the top of the search results along with a map link to the address. If you’d rather restrict your results, use rphone­book: for residential listings or bphone­book: for business listings.

           If you’d rather use a search form for business phone list­ings, try Yellow Search (www.buzztoolbox.com/google/yellowsearch.shtml).

 

EXTENDED GOOGLING

Google offers several services that give you a head start in fo­cusing your search. Google Groups (http://groups.google .com) indexes literally millions of messages from decades of discussion on Usenet. Google even helps you with your shopping via two tools:

Froogle (http://froogle .google.com), which in­dexes products from online stores, and Google Catalogs (http://cataLogs.google .com), which features products from more 6,000 paper catalogs in a searchable index. And this only scratches the surface. You can get a complete list of Google’s tools and services at www .google.com/options/index.html.

You’re probably used to using Google in your browser. But have you ever thought of using Google outside your browser?

If you’re interested in news stories, check out the beta version of Google News Alerts (www.google.com/newsalerts). This ser­vice (which is affiliated with Google) will monitor up to 50 news queries per e-mail address and send you information about news stories that match your query. (Hint: Use the intitle: and source: syntax elements with Google News to limit the number of alerts you get.)

 

 

Google on the telephone? Yup. This service is brought to you by the folks at Google Labs (http://labs.google.com), a place for experimental Google ideas and features (which may come and go, so what’s there at this writing might not be there when you decide to check it out). With Google Voice Search (http:// labs.google.com/gvs.html), you dial the Voice Search phone number, speak your keywords, and then click on the indicated link. Every time you say a new search term, the results page will refresh with Q your new query (you must have JavaScript enabled for this to work). Remember, this service is still in an  experimental phase, so don’t expect 100 —percent success.

 

In 2002, Google released the Google API (application programming interface), a way for programmers to access Google’s search engine results without violating the Google Terms of Service. A lot of people have created useful (and occasionally not-so-useful but interest­ing) applications not available from Google itself, such as Google Alert. For many applications, you’ll need an API key, which is available free from www.google.com/apis.

 

Thanks to its many different search properties, Google goes far beyond a reg­ular search engine. Give the tricks in this article a try. You’ll be amazed at how many different ways Google can improve your Internet searching.