Before you get overwhelmed and give up, or just start clicking randomly, take a minute. What, exactly, are you looking for? Do you want to post a funny picture to your Facebook account? Do you want to watch a video of a dog at a wedding? Do you want a tuxedo for your dog to wear? Whatever it is you’re searching for, Google has tools to make it easier.

When you search with Google, have you ever noticed the bar at the top left of the page? The one that starts out with Web highlighted? Got it? Okay, now here comes the fun part. The first tab after Web is Images. Click in Images if you want photos or drawings of the dog. Not what you want?

Try the next tab, Videos. Here you get YouTube, Hulu and other video sources from across the web. Not excited by the drooling bulldog? Okay, continue to the next tab. Maps will show the nearest dog clothing stores, News will give you info about the next dog show, and Shopping will scour the web, looking for that perfect doggie penguin suit.

Oh, wait a minute; your thesis is on human behavior as it relates to dogs? And you need some citations?

Try the pull-down menu. By hitting the More tab, you’ll get a plethora of other tools. There you are- Scholar! Here you’ll find out where dogs in tuxes have been discussed in science articles, cited by doctors, and studied by psychologists. You can also search for blogs devoted entirely to dogs with the Blog tab. Or find out how much the average person spends on a doggie suit with the Finance tab.

Any way you go about it, the simple tab bar at the top of Google’s page is a great way to refine your search. Knowing what you’re looking for is the hard part. Finding it with Google is easy.

This is a guest post from Laura Backes, she enjoys writing about all kinds of subjects and also topics related to internet providers in my area. You can reach her at: laurabackes8@gmail.com.

Just like the daily crossword on the New York Times, A Google a Day will have a daily question along with an answer and how to find it. These answers will both appear on the paper as well on the agoogleaday.com website. Of course these questions won’t be very simple, so you will have to try a couple of different searches to help find these Jeopardy-like questions.

So take a few minutes out of your busy day to help enhance your searching skills and to learn something new. Google is full of knowledge; it’s just only a search away from gaining it.

The new update ranks better quality sites and reduces the rankings of lower quality sites. For instance, if you’re copying content from other sites, chances are your rankings are going to drop. If you have original, unique and useful content, then chances are your rankings will increase.

This new update doesn’t include the update last week which included the Personal Blocklist for Chrome, but Google says that with this new algorithm change, 84% of sites that were reported with the Chrome extension were affected by the rankings, thus proving its effectiveness.

Right now the algorithm update is only effective in the U.S., but will eventually seed out to other countries over time. Like all algorithm changes, they are for the better. Google understands what good content is and what isn’t, so while seeding out the bad apples they are providing better search results for everyone else.

Comparison of traditional Google Search and Google Instant.

Note: In order for your preferences to be saved you have to make sure you have cookies enabled or you are signed-in to your Google account.

1. Click on the Settings link located on the top-right corner of the Google Search page.

2. Click on Search Settings from the list.

3. When the Search Settings page opens scroll down until you find the Google Instant section.

4. Click on Do no use Google Instant.

5. Click on Save Preferences to save the changes.

If you wish to revert to using Google Instant just follow the instructions above and in Step 4 click on Use Google Instant instead.

How do you like Google Instant so far?

I used the example of marketing research above, but you can easily search about any topic followed by research pdf or research filetype:pdf and you will find that there are a ton of resources that will make your research and finding sources much easier. In the guide below I will show you how to search for PDF files using Google.

Find PDF Files Using Google Search

1. Enter the search terms (highlighted yellow) followed by filetype:pdf.

2. Click Search.

A. You will notice that the search results title will be preceded by [PDF] indicating that the link leads you to a PDF file.

B. If you want to preview the PDF before downloading, click on the Quick View link (when available).

The preview will open in a separate browser window using the Google Docs viewer.

If you have any comments or questions please use the comments form below.

UPDATE 1 – Google will return the homepage to the white background tomorrow, the images will only be forced today.

UPDATE 2 – Looks like Google has set the old search page as default with the option of adding an image background. Thank you Google.

Via Google Help

Note: I mean no offense to the photographer, I just like my Google Search background white.

I tried disabling the background, but the change background window froze on me and when it finally loaded again I couldn’t find an option to disable the background image from appearing. If you choose another picture other than the Google default you will have the option to remove the selected image, however it will return to the Google Search default image…this sucks!

You can remove a custom background, but it will default to the default Google image.

Google, please give me back the uncluttered Google home page…or at least the option to choose it. Thank you.

If you know of a realy cool search trick that is not listed here make sure to use the comments section at the end of the article to share your knowledge.

Trick #1: Instantly Track UPS Packages

Track your UPS packages without having to log on, etc, just input the tracking number in the search field.

Trick #2: Find Great Product Reviews

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

Check your local weather by inputting weather “your zip code” in the search box

Trick #4: Instantly Find the Time Around the World

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: Find Local Movie Times

Want to check the movie times at your local theater? Type “movie title” “your zip code”

Trick #6: Find Your Favorite eBooks Online

Want to get a copy of an book electronically? Well, type “title of book” filetype:pdf

Trick #7: Find Album Art Instantly

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: Find Rental Properties

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: Find Car Rentals

New in town? Looking to rent a car?

Type car “zip code”

Trick #10: Ask Questions and Answers You Shall Receive…Sometimes.

What’s the mass of planet earth? Type mass of the earth

Trick #11: Get Specs on Celebrities

Want to find out how tall movie stars and other celebrities are, type their name followed by height – i.e. katie holmes height

"Customize Google is a Firefox extension that enhances Google search results by adding extra information (like links to Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, MSN etc) and removing unwanted information (like ads and spam)."

This little firefox extension not only allows you to instantly access search results from other engines like Yahoo!, and Ask, it also gives you a plethora of options with regards to your privacy and security. One of the neatest features this extension offers is the option to disable ads in your search results, which in turns means more space for the stuff you’re actually looking for. I also noticed that you have options to allow Gmail and Google calendar to operate via https, which is more secure that the http protocol. Below you’ll see a listing of some of the features the extension offers as well as some suggested settings.

• Use Google Suggest (suggest words while you’re typing)
• Add links to competitors
• Rewrite links to point straight to the images in Google Images
• Removes image copying restrictions in Google Book Search
• Secure Gmail and Google Calendar, switch to https NEW
• Block Google Analytics cookies
• Hide the Gmail spam counter NEW
• Remove ads
• Anonymize your Google userid
• Add a result counter in search result
• Filter spammy websites from search results
• Add links to WayBack Machine (webpage history)
• Remove click tracking
• Add links from Google to your bookmark manager
• Use a fixed font for Gmail mail bodies NEW

1. Download and install Customize Google.

2. Click on Tools > Extensions

3. Select Customize Google from the list and click on Options.

4. Browse through the tabs and select the settings you wish to apply.

I suggest that you set the following. (for the most part the default settings are pretty good)

• Tab – Web > Check Remove Ads, Add position Counter
• Tab – Gmail > Check Remove Ads, Secure (switch to https) [You should also apply it to Calendar]

If anyone has any suggestions as to which to turn on or off, please let it be known.

Source: CustomizeGoogle.com

1. Download Google Grab and extract

2. The program requires no installation, so find the extracted files and run googlegrab2.0.exe

3. A window will open with several options;

Search for: Input what you’re looking for

Limit Downloads to: Limit the number of image downloads

Image Preview: Gives you a preview of the image being downloaded

Image Size: I’m not sure what each of these resolutions are but setting it to L, XL, XXL yielded the nicest images

Child Save: Filter to keep adult content out of search results

Running Searches: List the searches being run

Quit: If you wish to quit the program

4. Once you’ve made your selections and do a search, a folder with that search phrase will appear in the directory where you intially extracted Google Grab.

5. Enjoy!