Lifehacker Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks

Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks 7/5/08 6:06 AM
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When it comes to the Google search

box, you already know the tricks: finding exact
phrases matches using quotes like "so say we
all" or searching a single site using
site:lifehacker.com gmail. But there are many
more oblique, clever, and lesser-known search
recipes and operators that work from that
unassuming little input box. Dozens of Google search
guides detail the tips you already know, but today
we're skipping the obvious and highlighting our
favorite obscure Google web search tricks.
10. Get the local time anywhere
http://lifehacker.com/339474/top-10-obscure-google-search-tricks Page 1 of 27
What time is it in Bangkok right now? Ask Google.

Enter simply what time is it to get the local time
in big cities around the world, or add the locale at the
end of your query, like what time is it hong
kong to get the local time there.
9. Track flight status
Enter the airline and flight number into the Google

search box and get back the arrival and departure
times right inside Google's search results.
8. Convert currency, metrics, bytes, and

more
Google's powerful built-in converter calculator can

help you out whether you're cooking dinner, traveling
abroad, or building a PC. Find out how many
teaspoons are in a quarter cup (quarter cup in
teaspoons) or how many seconds there are in a year
(seconds in a year) or how many euros there are to
five dollars (5 USD in Euro). For the geekier set, bits
in kilobytes (155473 bytes in kilobytes) and numbers
in hex or binary (19 in binary) are also pretty useful.
7. Compare items with "better than" and

find similar items with "reminds me of"
Reader Adam taps the wisdom of the crowds by

searching for like items using key phrases. He writes
in:
Simply search for, in quotes: "better than

_keyword_"
Some example results:
Results 1 - 100 of about 550 English pages for "

better than WinAmp".
Results 1 - 57 of 57 English pages for " better than

mIRC".
Results 1 - 100 of about 17,500 English pages for

" better than Digg". (Wow. Poor Digg.)
The results will almost always lead you to

discovering alternatives to whatever it is you're
searching for. Using the same concept, you can use
this trick to discover new music or movies. For
example, " reminds me of _someband_" or "sounds
like _someband_" will pull up artists people have
thought sounded similar to the one you typed in.
This is also a great way to find good, no-name
musicians you'd probably never know of otherwise.
Examples:
Results 1 - 88 of 88 English pages for " reminds

me of Metallica".
Results 1 - 36 of 36 English pages for " similar to

Garden State".
Results 1 - 66 of 66 English pages for " sounds like

The Shins".
Just get creative and you'll, without a doubt, find

cool new stuff you probably never knew existed.
6. Use Google as a free proxy
What, your company blocks that hip new web site just
because it drops the F bomb occasionally? Use
Google's cache to take a peek even when the
originating site's being blocked, with
cache:example.com.
5. Remove affiliate links from product

searches
When you're sick of seeing duplicate product search
results from the likes of eBay, Bizrate, Pricerunner,
and Shopping.com, clear 'em out by stacking up the -
site:ebay.com -site:bizrate.com -
site:shopping.com operator. Alternately, check out
Give Me Back My Google (original post), a service that
does all that known reseller cleaning up for you when
you search for products. Compare this GMBMG search
for a Cruzer 1GB flash drive to the regular Google
results.
4. Find related terms and documents
Ok, this one's direct from any straight-up advanced

search operator cheat sheet, but it's still one of the
lesser-used tricks in the book. Adding a tilde (~) to a
search term will return related terms. For example,
Googling ~nutrition returns results with the words
nutrition, food, and health in them.
3. Find music and comic books
Using a combination of advanced search operators

that specify music files available in an Apache
directory listing, you can turn Google into your
personal Napster. Go ahead, try this search for
Nirvana tracks: -inurl:(htm|html|php)
intitle:"index of" +"last modified"
+"parent directory" +description +size
+(wma|mp3) "Nirvana". (Sub out Nirvana for the
band you're interested in; use this one in conjunction
with number 7 to find new music, too.) The same
type of search recipe can find comic books as well.
2. ID people, objects, and foreign

language words and phrases with Google
Image Search
Google Image search results show you instead of tell

you about a word. Don't know what jicama looks like?
Not sure if the person named "Priti" who you're
emailing with is a woman or a man? Spanish rusty
and you forgot what "corazon" is? Pop your term into
Google Image Search (or type image jicama into the
regular search box) to see what your term's about.
1. Make Google recognize faces
If you're doing an image search for Paris Hilton and

don't want any of the French city, a special URL
parameter in Google's Image search will do the trick.
Add &imgtype=face to the end of your image search
to just get images of faces, without any inanimate
objects. Try it out with a search for rose (which
returns many photos of flowers) versus rose with the
face parameter.
What's your favorite ninja Google search technique?
Tell us about it in the comments.
COMMENTS
lordkenyon at 09:31 AM on 01/02/08
You can also Google tracking numbers for UPS,

FedEx, and USPS just by entering the number (e.g.
FedEx, and USPS just by entering the number (e.g.

1Z14662R0340419XXX). This avoids going through
the log in and hassle of the individual shipping
company site.
ostracize at 09:38 AM on 01/02/08
Similar to number 7, you can search for "_____

sucks" to see whether the product you are interested
in gets poor reviews in online communities. Run the
same query for similar products and you get an idea
what people are thinking (eg. "ie sucks" vs. "firefox
sucks")
Another trick I use often is adding site:edu to search

university and college sites. Good for finding reliable
information and in depth analysis on the subject of
interest. (eg. harry potter site:edu)
annaddison at 10:14 AM on 01/02/08
Love the "better than" tip... that is new to me... and

the first comment re tracking packages. Nice.
Mike Panic at 10:20 AM on 01/02/08
You can also get weather reports by typing: weather

zipcode. Example: weather 90210
nymusix at 10:27 AM on 01/02/08
An easy one to do, which might be a bit more well

known, is to just type in "define: 'your term'". That
will give a variety of definitions from a variety of
sources, including things like Wikipedia.
Vavoom at 10:33 AM on 01/02/08
A quicker way to do numbers 10 and 8:

10: Just type "time (location)" without the quotes.
For example, "time Hong Kong" does the same thing
as "what time is it in Hong Kong?"
8: If you know the currency codes off by heart like

USD, AUD, RMB, YEN, etc, just type "10 USD in AUD".
The "in" is actually needed. xe.com provides a nice
listing of the currency codes for each country.
Finally I have a tip of my own. I've noticed that when

typing "temperature Sydney" I always get a
fahrenheit reading when I want a celsius. I simply
use the box to type "70 f to c" and get the
conversion.
That's it from me!
unruled at 10:40 AM on 01/02/08
actually, for the time one: you can just type "time
hong kong", and it will give the same result.
mike panic: you can also just use a city name.

"weather new york", works great.
I personally also love the conversion tools. It even

does stuff like "20 mpg to km/l" out of the box.
Really useful!
pschroeter at 10:52 AM on 01/02/08
Wow, the little hands on the clock icon actually

change to show the actual time.
SabrinaFaire at 10:55 AM on 01/02/08
Doh. No cache for io9.com yet. Guess I'm going to

have to wait to get home first. *toe tap*
longbourne at 11:00 AM on 01/02/08
Also GoogleFight is good for discovering which

phrase is more often used. It's 98 pounds of
awesome.
voyage2k at 11:01 AM on 01/02/08
Um, guys? Probably not the best idea to use

Fleshbot as an example for one of the tips...I know
Fleshbot as an example for one of the tips...I know

it's your sister site and all, but even that example set
off alarms at my IT department....
optimacy at 11:14 AM on 01/02/08
For movies, type in the movie name followed by the

zip code you are in - handier than a newspaper!
Daniel Genser at 11:16 AM on 01/02/08
Local movie times.

Movie Name + City,State
Unit of measurement conversion:

half a cup in ounces
Discover new fonts:

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +size
+(ttf|otf) "replace me with name of font"
...or music
-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +size
+(mp3|aac) "replace me with artis or name of song"
...or almost anything

(just change the (mp3|aac) part to whatever file
types you're looking for, separated by pipes)
Tip: Adding zip to the list of file types gets you
more but often junkier results.
edythemighty at 11:18 AM on 01/02/08
@voyage2k: Aye! Coulda used one of the POPULAR

blocked sites like twitter or such :P
aurooba at 11:21 AM on 01/02/08
currency can even be easier if you know the

currency codes, for example if I wanted to convert
30 Canadian dollars to US dollars, I just type in
30 CAD to USD
The How-To Geek at 11:25 AM on 01/02/08
@voyage2k: You are correct... not only do the

images load from the original site, but most
corporate systems are going to check the full URL,
so even if it doesn't get blocked, it will probably get
flagged.
The only reliable way to get around corporate

security is socks / ssh proxy. Anything else, and you
are going to be caught.
Besides, most companies prohibit use of proxies as

well... so even if they don't know what you are
doing, they know you are trying to do something
you shouldn't. Best to avoid it.
onemoreday at 11:27 AM on 01/02/08
This is not obscure, this is very helpful :-)
btgoss at 11:31 AM on 01/02/08
I had to laugh when I saw the "ID foreign names with

Google Images tip." I cannot tell you how many
times a week I do this very thing. It has helped to
prevent many an embarrassing email.
helen at 11:54 AM on 01/02/08
movie times:
"Atonement 10003" (no quotes) will show you all the
times Atonement is playing in movie theaters near
the 10003 zip code.
definitions:
"define:ubiquity" gives you web-originated
definitions of words (most from princeton wornet)
reswob at 11:55 AM on 01/02/08
@Sabrinafaire
Yeah, I've noticed it takes awhile for things to get

into the Google cache. A little annoying when I want
to read that Blogspot post right away. (my Darn
Oligarchian Directorate blocks that site and many
others)
jtimberman at 12:00 PM on 01/02/08
@The How-To Geek: Or you know, you could stop

wasting your company's time and stop browsing
porn at work.
DemonLlama at 12:51 PM on 01/02/08
Google an area code and 9 times out of 10 it will tell

you what state it's in. I work at an East Coast call
center and use this every day to find out what time I
should call a user back.
Johnay at 12:57 PM on 01/02/08
Also try searching on a phone # for reverse directory

lookup. Can't vouch for how current the info is. A
search on our business # gives some guy's name &
home address, along with numerous web pages
listing us and our number.
Kahuna at 12:58 PM on 01/02/08
"Current time Hong kong" also works in place of

number 10 and saves a few keystrokes.
khamer at 01:40 PM on 01/02/08
Nobody has mentioned "movies ", which provides a

nice interface to view showtimes for movies in the
area, sorttable on movie or location.
ebooks-free at 01:42 PM on 01/02/08
Great Search Tricks!

One from me.
To get (almost) any ebook free just type the ebooks
name/url and filetype:pdf
name/url and filetype:pdf
say, bloggingtothebank.com sells tutorials which you

can obtain free.
just search in google
"bloggingtothebank filetype:pdf" and Bingo!!
I got this trick from getanyebooksforfree.com
jswilson64 at 01:56 PM on 01/02/08
@jtimberman: Or you know, you could stop wasting

your company's time posting to Lifehacker at work.
jetcom at 02:49 PM on 01/02/08
yeah the google cache: trick may work on occasion,

but what if your school/work blocks keywords in the
URL? (most software nowadays does)
i find that sites like [cl0ak.com] and

[iheartbeargrylls.com] work quite well as free
proxies. they work for me.
pokerskatershark at 02:58 PM on 01/02/08
A question about the 3rd tip, once you find an MP3,

how do you save it? Mine just opened up in
Quicktime in another browser window.
Thx
themadhiker at 03:08 PM on 01/02/08
instead of going for your calculator, just enter your

multiplication, division, subtraction or addition and
the search result will give you the solution
Webran61 at 03:16 PM on 01/02/08
@pokerskatershark:
"File"
"Save Page As..."
And then specify the location/folder you want to

save it to.
aurooba at 04:12 PM on 01/02/08
@Webran61: @pokerskatershark:
Right click/control-click on the url and click Save

Target As in IE and in Firefox: Save Link As...
Save page as...doesn't always work
whiskey at 04:38 PM on 01/02/08
Drag the link to the download button on firefox...

easier! Thx Lifehacker!
shavenwarthog at 05:01 PM on 01/02/08
this one surprised me the other day: search "recipe

pasta" and get results from... the Recipe Search
page! It gives you pulldowns for Cuisine (American,
Chinese, Thai, etc), Course (side dish, entree, etc)
and various keywords. The detail page gives you
even more control.
Very useful!
Brinley Ang at 06:25 PM on 01/02/08
You can also google addresses which will give show

you the location on google maps at the first result.
But it has to be a full address for example google
16 Augusta Street Willetton WA 6155
Coming Into The Game,... at 06:58 PM on

01/02/08
What's your favorite ninja Google search technique?
T
Google Alerts to find passes to my favourite
*web*sites!
New Alert > *"www.deadspin.com/members"* >
comprehensive > once-a-day!
comprehensive > once-a-day!
surfmonkey89 at 08:35 PM on 01/02/08
If you type in "artist album" (no quotes), you can

usually get the albumn in question at the top of the
list, and if you click on it you get the song list.
Great way to get album art and song lists for your
digital library.
Emad at 08:49 PM on 01/02/08
Awesome tips... Don't we just love google.
There is also a killer google hacks for dummies post

at [www.thetechbrief.com] it shows you to hack into
webcams and view them online - pretty cool (and
scary).
ahoier at 09:03 PM on 01/02/08
time UTC
is another great one I use quite frequently ;)
Xoke at 09:04 PM on 01/02/08
You can also combine various things, so if you know

that the average cost of petrol (gasoline) in the UK is
about one pound per litre you can get Google to
convert that to US gallons and dollars all in one with
this search.
(sorry if that looks bad, I seem to have lost my

preview in my paranoid quest to leave no trace on
the net)
Ted L at 09:39 PM on 01/02/08
about the third tip, I find the FF extention

DownThemAll to be useful when I'm downloading a
lot of files in one directory
Wolven at 10:05 PM on 01/02/08
My favorites:
--Movie Interface Search--

movie:your_parameters
--Spell-check then search--

spell:your_parameters
--Music search--
music:your_parameters
--Phonebook search--
phonebook:your_parameters
--Search governmental sites--

google.com/unclesam
--Search particular college or university--

google.com/options/universities.html
--Calculator / Conversion--
"2 kilo in pounds" or "3 USD in Euros" or even
"square root of 16."
I could go on, but these are the ones I believe that I

use the most.
Happy New Year, everyone!
Crashproof at 10:13 PM on 01/02/08
What I want to be able to do is a Google image

search from an ordinary google search box (like the
Ctrl+K one in FireFox, or in iGoogle) without an
extra click. There doesn't seem to be a keyword for
that as far as I've found...
Crashproof at 10:31 PM on 01/02/08
Ah nevermind... this is just as good:
[firefox.phpmagazine.net]
karlawithak at 11:16 PM on 01/02/08
@jtimberman: porn?...or maybe, as a

business/computer teacher I find blogs contain a lot
of useful information, concisely written. Most of the
hacks from Lifehacker are blocked at my school,
because weblogs and forums are blocked. (some of
them anyway) Ever see in the Google preview that
the instructions you need are right there, but you
can't get to them?
yemeni at 12:37 AM on 01/03/08
this page is number one in [del.icio.us] popular

bookmarks pages
i will give some tips and ask some question
for movies ,books, music and others use this

"replace me with book name" site:rapidshare.com
"replace me with song name" site:rapidshare.com
"replace me with whatever name"
site:rapidshare.com
for new movies
dvdrip site:rapidshare.com
dvdrip site:archive.org
dvdrip site:2xupload.com
same things for other sharing uploading websites
if you want this year movies just write

dvdrip 2007 site:rapidshare.com :) or any year you
want
for those people outside US want to watch private

TV which is not broadcast for outside US just find
the page of TV by using trick number 6
nice channel isn't it :)

[209.85.165.104]
to search long pages and highlight your search

terms just open the page from Cached
my question is
to find cashed for non cached pages ??
how can i get army identity for free online learning

purpose ?
i hope someone answer my questions :)
Deemonie at 01:10 AM on 01/03/08
NEAT LITTLE TRICK:
1. Do a Google Image search.
2. Paste the following into your address bar:
javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24;

x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300;
y5=200; DI= document.images; DIL=DI.length;
function A(){for(i=0; i
3. Hit "Go" button or "Enter Key".
4. ! (press "Go" button to make it go faster...)
@Deemonie:
That's supposed to be:
javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24;

x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300;
y5=200; DI= document.images; DIL=DI.length;
function A(){for(i=0; i
(What ever happened to live comment-previews?)
@Deemonie:
Damn. Just go here Google Image Search Trick.
Nxqd3051990 at 05:16 AM on 01/03/08
what the hell ? First trick doesn't work with me :(
rasatm at 07:22 AM on 01/03/08
I use the "index of" trick when trying to find raw

documents or files hosted on apache servers:
"index of" badmotorfinger
or if I want pdf / doc files on a particular subject:

dvd cleaning +pdf
garmahis at 07:38 AM on 01/03/08
I am a graphic designer, so I created and use Image

search bookmarklets. Using Google image search
you can find more relevant results on Flickr,
Photobucket, DeviantArt, etc. There are high
resolution, portrait and news image search
bookmarklets as well.
My Basement Blog at 08:43 AM on 01/03/08
Google maps has some pretty cool features,

especially when mashed-up with other websites and
tools. Here's a few (each is a different site):
[mybasementblog.blogspot.com]
19. Beat traffic

20. Make your own Google Maps mashup
21. Avoid red light cameras
22. Find cheap gas
23. Check sunrise or sunset times
24. Convert currency
25. Find a place to live in the US
26. Find out where the daylight is right now
27. Find a ski resort anywhere in the world
28. Track a flight on Google Maps
29. Calculate the distance between two world
airports
airports
30. Find the elevation/height above sea level
31. Map the 7 Wonders of the World
32. Find a golf course anywhere in the world
33. Click anywhere and get travel info
34. Simulate a flood to show damage effects
35. Fly a plane
[mybasementblog.blogspot.com]
Jay Levitt at 08:51 AM on 01/03/08
Oh noooo! Don't spread the "better than" trick; it

only works because nobody knows it.
The more people that use it, the more the fake-
search-aggregators will figure it out and start using
it too. "Compare reviews of better than lifehacker
here!" "Top Brand Better Than Sony"...
This is like publishing a front-page list of all the

best back-road, rush-hour traffic shortcuts.
drsmith at 09:53 AM on 01/03/08
About #6: I said it before when you posted that

fallacy and I'll say it again. Google *does*not*
function as a means to get around web filters. If you
check the source on the resulting page, you will see
that much of the content displayed (images,
javascript) comes from the originating site itself -
not google's cache.
If you are expecting to use this for some porn

surfing at work, expect to get fired. 'nuff said.
Ryan Fisher at 10:56 AM on 01/03/08
Another way to have Google work as a proxy is to

use the translate functionality. Just go to
translate.google.com and enter in the address you
want to proxy. Tell it to translate from Spanish to
English. since there isn't any Spanish on the page, it
English. since there isn't any Spanish on the page, it

just sends you the page. But it gets to you through
Google.
But seriously don't surf pron at work.
Kevin at 11:01 AM on 01/03/08
"10. Get the local time anywhere" - no need to make

a long query "What Time is it in location_name" ...
Just Google with "location_name Time"
e.g. Hong Kong Time
Yahoo do better than Google for knowing the time.
yeralma at 11:32 AM on 01/03/08
try e.g. these:

car zipcode, used car zipcode, apartment zipcode,
rent zipcode
mrosedal at 01:18 PM on 01/03/08
The hack that said do a search "sounds like _X_" well

I hacked that one. I tried it on sigur ros and the first
hit was [www.geocities.com] which said no one
sounds like sigur ros :-).
KimberCook at 03:09 PM on 01/03/08
i've read the post, but not all of the comments yet. i
love, love, love the time search. whenever i have a
meeting with anyone outside of my time zone, i have
to look it up, this will make it much easier. i also
love the sneaky mp3 file search. i read that
somewhere else a long time ago, but i think their's
was more difficult. i'll be up all night scoping out
everyones mp3s now.
voyage2k at 03:48 PM on 01/03/08
OK...just so things are clear, I was NOT pointing out

#6 so that I could get to see NSFW stuff! I was
#6 so that I could get to see NSFW stuff! I was

pointing out to Lifehacker that they could have used
a dozen other blocked sites OTHER THAN Fleshbot
as an example...DrSmith's objection
notwithstanding.
[And I guess I'm lucky -- my boss doesn't mind us

looking at Lifehacker, especially since we've used a
lot of tips from here to streamline things here in the
office. It's the IT department that pitched a fit
because of Fleshbot being used in the example
threw up a couple of alarms on the head IT geek's
computer....]
angrykeyboarder at 04:45 PM on 01/04/08
The Calculator, Time and Currency features are

among my faves. I use them reguarly.
WickedGlee at 05:32 PM on 01/04/08
@ebooks-free: Wow, look at all those copies of the

Lifehacker book in PDF! ;-)
quail at 07:44 PM on 01/04/08
Uknown person calling you but you have the phone

number? Not much of a hack but I find it great at
getting information about who's calling. Try typing
in your phone number and you'll be amazed at what
you'll find.
bsterzenbach at 07:30 AM on 01/05/08
Let's not forget:

[www.google.com]
[www.google.com]
Y2Jacky at 09:08 PM on 01/05/08
Here's another great tip. If you want specific results

from a desired website. You could try this.
Star Wars
For example:
Star Wars imdb

or
Star Wars wiki
or
Star Wars rotten tomatoes
I find myself using this very often. Thought it might

be useful.
Oh and I lied. Here's another tip for the VAIN people

out there. I always find myself comparing my height
to celebrities.
Google actually has a way for this.
Try this
height
For example:
Brad Pitt height

or
Zac Efron height
Hope this is useful too! =D
DissociatedMaven at 10:49 PM on 01/05/08
I live on the east coast. If I have a question for a

chain store (autozone, best buy, bed bath & beyond,
etc) and they're closed... I use local.google.com to
look up one on the west coast that is probably open.
:)
TexasPhoto at 03:41 PM on 01/06/08
Copy and paste a Chinese phrase and get results

like:
like:
九寨溝
Photo, if available, and translation and articles...
google is cool
tipster at 08:27 AM on 01/07/08
Check out the Google Tip of the Day gadget for even
more tips of this nature (and for other Google
products besides search): [googleblog.blogspot.com]
. Flight tracking, time of day, and others have
already appeared there in the past.
feliao at 08:45 PM on 01/07/08
The Image search hack is a new one to me and I just

blogged about it on my Search blog site
www.search1x.com
! Will definitely be using it in the future and could
also be a fun one to play around with, nice one
Lifehacker !
Maxwellst at 09:07 PM on 01/08/08
Oh, I thought you were going to give us some of

those hidden "I Feel Lucky" words, like the time in
2005 when you could type in "failure," hit "I feel
lucky," and get a picture of the president (or
something like that). Any other neat hidden tricks?
BugMeNot at 04:08 AM on 01/09/08
In the first one, instead of asking a question in the

search query, try this, "the time in Hong Kong" so
that it won't lead to pages just with questions. It will
give the same answer. Also, if you type the name of
the movie, you will get local showtimes and other
details about the movie. Here is one for "I am
Legend" [tinyurl.com]
Best to do all this is via Google Toolbar.
kernelkat at 01:30 PM on 01/09/08
Number 6, the cache thing, didn't work for me.

myspace is blocked at my work and even when I
search for cache:myspace.com the page is still
blocked. Nice thought though :)
lizzielines at 01:18 PM on 01/10/08
When I was building an eco house I wanted to look

up airtightness in timber buildings. Most of these
high level timber ecohomes are in Canada. So I went
to Google Canada (google.ca) and when th efirst
page came up, I selected "pages from Canada" and
voila! lots of pages about airtightness in timber
homes.
angrykeyboarder at 08:22 AM on 01/14/08
@Y2Jacky:
Oh yeah I do the "name imdb" one all the time. :)
cablegunner at 05:44 AM on 01/28/08
The 'find music' tip particularly impressed me! So

much so that I fashioned it into a little AppleScript
so that I didn't have to remember all that syntactical
search language. You can check it out here (my
blog) if you're so inclined.
Tal at 12:43 AM on 01/29/08
Nice! Very helpful! This is cool too -

[www.5min.com]
BugMeNot at 10:19 PM on 01/29/08
The "better than" and the &imgtype=face are great!
For the people who said spell:word or define:word

that is a waste of time as google will automatically
that is a waste of time as google will automatically

suggest the spelling of a word. It will also define the
word for you on the upper right part of the results
page above the ads portion of the page. The
definition is from Answers.com.
For the MP3 search check out this page. This kid has
written an excellent script that has many variations
of search options for MP3, MP4, exe, this has found
some good files.
If you're a Firefox user and search imdb or wiki a lot

you can bypass Google all together by making a
simple bookmark that incorporates Google's I'm
feeling lucky button into the bookmark. Here
[youtube.com] is a quick video with an explanation
of what I'm talking about. I have saved an
incalculable amount of time with this.
BugMeNot at 10:20 PM on 01/29/08
oops this page : [www.jimmyr.com] for the MP3

search
jzenman at 11:11 PM on 01/31/08
1. go to www.google.com
2. click on "maps"
3. click on "get directions"
4. type "New York" in the first box (the "from" box)
5. type "London" in the second box (the "to" box)
6. click on "get directions" (to the right of the "to"

box)
7. scroll down to step #23 and read the directions

from there
CaptainChickenpants at 06:14 AM on 02/01/08
The calulator is awesome. You can combine quite

complex queries like so
1.04 pounds per liter in us dollars per us gallon
This will combine converting volume and currency

so you can combine prices on say petrol.
[www.google.co.uk]
jibbly at 12:09 PM on 02/01/08
No mention of the dictionary trick?
define: ___________
Gil at 03:36 PM on 02/04/08
put up a list based on the feedback by everyone over

on my site...
[www.gilsmethod.com]
aurooba at 03:15 PM on 02/23/08
@Gil: awesome, totally convenient, and with images

too! props to you!
tetsuo29 at 09:12 PM on 03/25/08
I too got tired of crafting the long search string for

finding naked directories, so I made a web page that
does it: [searchflunky.com]
MinervaGautam at 01:58 AM on 05/20/08
Here is a great link I came across on Google Tips:

http://versatilenewsyoucanuse.blogspot.com/2008/05/great-
google.html -Neo
koekielam at 09:07 AM on 07/04/08
@Nxqd3051990:
Doesn't for me either :(
Wojtek Swiatek at 09:52 AM on 07/04/08
The converter works with the calculator. You can use

queries like
90 * 12 / 3.5 usd in EUR
all in one line
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Lifehacker Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks

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Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks 7/5/08 6:06 AM

TECH TRICKS, TIPS AND DOWNLOADS FOR GETTING THINGS

When it comes to the Google search

10. Get the local time anywhere

What time is it in Bangkok right now? Ask Google.

9. Track flight status

Enter the airline and flight number into the Google

8. Convert currency, metrics, bytes, and

Google's powerful built-in converter calculator can

7. Compare items with "better than" and

Reader Adam taps the wisdom of the crowds by

Simply search for, in quotes: "better than

Results 1 - 100 of about 550 English pages for "

Results 1 - 57 of 57 English pages for " better than

Results 1 - 100 of about 17,500 English pages for

The results will almost always lead you to

Results 1 - 88 of 88 English pages for " reminds

Results 1 - 36 of 36 English pages for " similar to

Results 1 - 66 of 66 English pages for " sounds like

Just get creative and you'll, without a doubt, find

6. Use Google as a free proxy

5. Remove affiliate links from product

4. Find related terms and documents

Ok, this one's direct from any straight-up advanced

3. Find music and comic books

Using a combination of advanced search operators

2. ID people, objects, and foreign

Google Image search results show you instead of tell

1. Make Google recognize faces

If you're doing an image search for Paris Hilton and

lordkenyon at 09:31 AM on 01/02/08

You can also Google tracking numbers for UPS,

FedEx, and USPS just by entering the number (e.g.

ostracize at 09:38 AM on 01/02/08

Similar to number 7, you can search for "_____

Another trick I use often is adding site:edu to search

annaddison at 10:14 AM on 01/02/08

Love the "better than" tip... that is new to me... and

Mike Panic at 10:20 AM on 01/02/08

You can also get weather reports by typing: weather

nymusix at 10:27 AM on 01/02/08

An easy one to do, which might be a bit more well

Vavoom at 10:33 AM on 01/02/08

A quicker way to do numbers 10 and 8:

8: If you know the currency codes off by heart like

Finally I have a tip of my own. I've noticed that when

unruled at 10:40 AM on 01/02/08

mike panic: you can also just use a city name.

I personally also love the conversion tools. It even

pschroeter at 10:52 AM on 01/02/08

Wow, the little hands on the clock icon actually

SabrinaFaire at 10:55 AM on 01/02/08

Doh. No cache for io9.com yet. Guess I'm going to

longbourne at 11:00 AM on 01/02/08

Also GoogleFight is good for discovering which

voyage2k at 11:01 AM on 01/02/08

Um, guys? Probably not the best idea to use

Fleshbot as an example for one of the tips...I know

optimacy at 11:14 AM on 01/02/08

For movies, type in the movie name followed by the

Daniel Genser at 11:16 AM on 01/02/08

Local movie times.

Unit of measurement conversion: