Google Hacks #3

To learn some cool official tricks on using the Google search engine, take a look at the Google Web Search Features.

Examples:

1. This one should be one of the basics: if you don't have an exact key word(s) in mind, use what you know (information related to the subject you're looking for).
   
   For instance tonight while I was watching the Oprah show I got interested in the book of Lynn Kohlman because I found her story to be a very inspiring story. The story about her being a former model that went through a double cancer hell (read the user reviews on Amazon.com). I'm never good with names (keep forgetting them) but knowing such name could've lead me directly to what I want. In my case I used some of the information that I knew about her to get my search results:
   DKNY breast cancer brain book
   Her name appeared directly in the results page (1st result with name in title too). From there I found the book on Amazon.com. This was just one example of how I used simple words to get results about something that I didn't remember. I used what I remembered about the show but if it was you, you might remember different things than me and in worst cases you could use Oprah's name for our example.



2. If you need to find out the title of a film and you can describe it then try this:
   movie: red pill blue pill



3. If you need to know the definition(s) of something try this:
   define:precision



4. What pages link to the following page?
   link:www.bittorrent.com



5. Find by file type:
   form 1040 filetype:pdf



6. Sometimes I forget how to get to a page so here's what I do:
   I use the Azurues Wiki a lot but I always forget the link so I go to www.google.com and type:
   Azureus wiki
   then I click on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button which takes me directly to the page I wanted.



7. Sometime I'm looking for something on a specific website only, so I type:
   novell linux desktop site:pcmag.com
   What's more interesting to me, is how I can really use this to find that page on using SpeedTouch USB with Slackware. When you visit the Linux-usb.org webpage on the SpeedTouch modem, you'll get links to some very popular Linux distros such as SUSE and Ubuntu. I remember seeing one page about Slackware but the links to it appears to be removed while the page itself still exists and sometimes I need it, so here's how I utilize Google to get to it:
   Slackware site:linux-usb.org/SpeedTouch/
   then click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button :)
   It's like a hidden page. My guess is that they removed the links to it because it's much more complicated when compared to the other pages (you're required to make your own kernel for Slackware, etc...)



8. Here's a feature that I use and people working for Google also use. If you're unsure about how to spell a certin word, just type what the closest thing to it and Google will suggest the correct spelling (but remember that sometimes the spelling you typed might not be meaning-less Google might think you meant exactly what you typed, if you understand what I'm talking about).