Unleash The Power Of Google
Most people spend hours each week surfing the world wide web, it is now a part of our every day lives and most people use Google. Google is the most popular search engine in the world but it is far more powerful than you might realize. Did you know that you can use Google as a dictionary or calculator? Let me show you some tips that will help you get a lot more from your Google searches and use some of it’s great features.
Searching the Web
To improve your search results just follow these easy tips:
Google is not case sensitive, so it does not matter whether you use upper or lower case letters when entering your wording in to the search box.
Do not use common words like “and, where & how”, as Google will ignore these words.
Bear in mind that the order of the terms that you use will affect the results that you get back, just try entering “plane train” and then “train plane” into Google and see the different results.
I know that this is an obvious thing to say, but think about the terms that you enter in to the search box. If you want to buy a new car do not just type “car” but think about what make or type of car you would like, this will narrow down your search and give you results that will better match your requirements.
Also try using the plus and minus signs to narrow down your search, for example if you want results on the City of Manchester type in “Manchester -football”, this will tell Google to take out all the results to do with Manchester United football club. If you want information on Manchester United football club type in “Manchester +football”.
If you are looking for exact quotes or phrases then enter the quote with quotation marks. For example enter “we will fight them” in the search box and the results will show that this quote is from the famous “We will fight them on the beaches” speech by Sir Winston Churchill. This also works well if you have song lyrics and you want to know which song they are from or who the artist is.
Calculator
It is easy to use, just type in the sum that you would like to find an answer to in the search box, then press enter. For example I typed in “50+50+200″ then pressed enter and the answer is displayed “50 + 50 + 200 = 300″. The calculator can do more than just basic maths, it can convert different units of measurement, so if you needed to know how many kilometres are in one mile you would type “1 mile in km” and Google will reply with the answer. Google can work out many different types of units, for instance Celsius into Fahrenheit or cm into inches.
Dictionary
If you type “define:” in the search box and then the word that you would like to look up, Google will then give you definitions of the word. For example I typed “define: car” and Google came back with web definitions for car, it will tell you that a car is a motor vehicle with four wheels etc..
File Formats
Web pages use the HTML file format but Google allows you to search for different types of files. This allows you to search the Internet for documents that could be in PDF or Word formats, in fact there is quite a list of different file formats that you can search for. These include PDF, Microsoft Office file formats, Lotus 1-2-3, Lotus WordPro, PostScript, Rich Text Format, Shockwave Flash and with plans to add more. Another good point is that Google will display them in HTML, so if your computer does not support a particular file type you are still able to view that document. To use this feature just type “filetype:” you need to enter a file type like PDF or .doc and then a search term, for example “filetype:pdf linux tutorials”.
Images
If you need an image on a particular subject try Google Images, just enter your search term and you will see hundreds of pictures and photos.
Maps
Click on Google Maps, then enter a location and Google will show you a map of the place you entered, but you can do far more than that. If you type “pizza lincoln” into the search box you will see a list of all the pizza restaurants and takeaways in that area. Also it will display the address and telephone number and bring up a map that will show you how to get there. Google Maps will give you directions by road, just click on the “Get direction” tab and enter your starting place and your destination. If you click on the “Satellite” tab you will see that your map changes to an ariel photo, the detail is really good and yes I did have a look at my house from the sky!
These are just a few of the great features in Google and they seem to be constantly improving them. If you have not clicked on the “more” option on their home page I encourage you to do so, you will find an amazing collection of really great Google products.
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