11 Obscure Google Tricks You Didn't Know Existed
Many articles have been written on hacks, tips, etc over the number of ways and things that can be found using Google's search platform. Just today I ran into an excellent post on lifehacker listing the Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks. The user response was immense and also full of tips that were not included in the original article. In an attempt to list most of these 'tips' I've compiled a list of the most obscure ones to use at your leisure.
If you think of some that I've missed on this post please fee free to comment and I'll add it to the list.
Trick #1 - Track your UPS packages without having to log on, etc, just input the tracking number in the search field.
Trick #2 - If you're looking for reviews on a product and don't care to get bombarded with web results of sites trying to sell you the specific product, type "product name" sucks, in my case below I turned up some reviews for my camera.
Trick #3 - Check your local weather by inputting weather "your zip code" in the search box
Trick #4
- Want to know the time in another country/city anywhere in the world? Type time "city" and it should display the current time in that part of the world.
Trick #5
- Want to check the movie times at your local theater? Type "movie title" "your zip code"
Trick #6 - Want to get a copy of an book electronically? Well, type "title of book" filetype:pdf
Trick #7 - Get the album cover and song list for pretty much any CD by typing "name of artist/band" "title of album"
More tricks below...
Trick #8 - If you're in the market for rental property, before your hit Craig List type in rent "zip code" and view the listings on Google Maps
Trick #9 - New in town? Looking to rent a car?
Type car "zip code"
Trick #10 - What's the mass of planet earth? Type mass of the earth
Trick #10 - What's the mass of our moon? Type mass of the moon
Trick #11 - Want to find out how tall movie stars and other celebrities are, type their name followed by height - i.e. katie holmes height
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Nice list.. I didn't know
Nice list.. I didn't know about the celebrity height thing!
Good Info!!interesting Comment Wars too
Hi,
Reached your site via stumble upon,and i have to say that the post is simple yet efficient.I mean we use google literally parallely with internet,and guys like you make it awfully easy for the lazy ones like me to be spoon fed:-)
I loved the comment war too,snubbish and rude by the commentor but appreciated ur "free speech" motto.
Thumbs Up:-)
Thanks for praise...
and the thumbs up!
-Gil
It's cool!
Thanks for the tricks, but it only works in the USA with the postal codes.
Google tricks
I have to try more adjectives about Katie Holmes,
and other celebrities.
Best tip for me is tracking a
Best tip for me is tracking a package. One less step, thanks!
Great info
While some people appear to be thinking "ooh, big deal", I think Gil has done a great job with this. The tips are really helpful for "the rest of us".
I usually do a pretty good job of finding things for friends who have no idea how to structure a Google search to get the results they want, and I didn't know about a lot of these tips. There is a knack to getting the results you want from an internet search and so many people are unaware of this.
If people already know about these things, just click away from the page, there's no need to slate someone just for trying to help others.
Good work, Gil.
You're a classy guy...
Gil, so I'm thumbing this up because the article was very good and I liked the way you handled the riff raff. Keep up the excellent work :-)
Thanks for the thumbs up...
and the encouragement, I'm glad you found this website useful.
-Gil
Not a trick, not a hint... just for fun
http://lindipendente.splinder.com/post/18903582/Google+Garden+Gnomes
Nice tips, there floating
Nice tips, there floating around the net but they're nicely presented here :).
Don't get discouraged by the crappy people who insult your site, not all the tech-savvy are like that.
Keep up the good work.
Thumbs up :)
Thanks for the...
Kind words, I'm glad you found the site useful. All I can ask for is to spread the word and keep coming back.
-Gil
Thanks
I think this article done a great job.What a best way to describe your view. Thanks for sharing with us. Really like your informative article. Hopefully we will get more interesting topic from you in future.Many articles have been written on hacks, tips, etc over the number of ways and things that can be found using Google's search platform. Just today he ran into an excellent post on lifehacker listing the Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks. The user response was immense and also full of tips that were not included in the original article. In an attempt to list most of these 'tips' he compiled a list of the most obscure ones to use at your leisure.If you think of some that he has missed on this post please fee free to comment and he will add it to the list.
Feedback appreciated
Thanks for the feedback.
-Gil
yeah more
there should be more tricks to teach people (good shortcutts)i likey
Yeah, these Google search
Yeah, these Google search features are really cool. Before I was just using Google basic features, really don't know about those obscure features, but after a friend told me about them, I became a Google fan.
Nice Google tricks
All the above are really nice, and of course useful Google tricks. Thanks.
Google Tricks
I didn't know about the "Filetype:PDF", thanks!
I know there's one that gives you access to live traffic cams.
But don't remember now.
will you find it out
what is it called??
I can't seem to find that either...
Anyone who finds this please let us know so I can add it to the list. Thanks!
-Gil
Google Suggests
go to http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en and start typing in your search, there are options that come up.
type google and you see google maps google video google whatever and it shows how many results there are for the options being displayed.
Great if you can't spell a word.
helps getting keywords too.
Nothing a person who spends
Nothing a person who spends time on advanced user/techy sites wouldn't know, but I guess there will always be an endless stream of end-users to wow and dazzle.
You're right!
You'll notice that this site is aimed at the "rest of us" the less techy folk, people who cannot afford to spend countless hours on the internet reading about the latest patch for the iPhone or the latest version of Google Chrome released. Thanks for your input.
-Gil
another trick
something else I have also started doing with google in combination with firefox: directly in the address bar of Firefox (w/no http or anything else) you can search a site with a database search very easy. For instance
wikipedia xbox 360
Will take you directly to that wiki page, no search results. The same with IMDB:
imdb star wars
This is really just doing a convenient "I'm feeling lucky" search in the address bar, firefox just makes it so much easier. You can do the same with any other browser with the "I'm feeling lucky" button, and no it doesn't work with every search every time. Try it with other sites like amazon, youtube, microsoft.
I have also found it convenient for getting my IP address, just put in "what is my IP address" or "my IP" and in search results will be the results from sites that will return your IP (you don't have to click search result link).
Similar to your examples you can also put in thins you want to know in sentence, for instance:
"there are feet in a mile"
Would return pages that contain the entire phrase
"there are 5280 feet in a mile".
The only new insight was the
The only new insight was the "product sucks", the rest is redundant. So are the comments here.
well, yes perhaps for you it
well, yes perhaps for you it was. but not everybody is so amazingly clever as you. keep your thoughts to yourself.
your site sucks
YO WTF, You should include stuff about...
"index of" and how to watch webcams and camers like all other google tip sites
people arnt retards, and go learn stuff befor making crappy sites and puting them on stumbleupon.
THUMBS DOWN
Like I stated in other comments...
Your comments aren't constructive at all, I'll leave them on because I am a strong proponent of free speech. If you'll notice the below the Gil's Method logo there is a phrase which states, "How-to Guides for the Rest of Us" not everyone works in a techy job, not everyone is in their twenties and was raised in this culture of everything digital, and not everyone has the luxury of spending their time to read up on the latest version of Google chrome or the newest iPod.
This site is geared for those folks that want to learn something new and in a simple way, so I would appreciate it if people would stop saying that this website has guides for simple things, common sense stuff, believe me there are a lot of people who send me emails and leave comments with appreciation for the guides and information posted here.
...and by the way people are not retards for not knowing what you think everyone ought to know.
-Gil
Awesome!
Awesome tricks! the zip code ones are a new fav of mine now! Thanks
wow good info.. typing what
wow good info.. typing what you want into google will return what you are looking for... who knew?
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