101 software tips, tweaks and tricks

Google

074. Boolean searches and quotations

You can improve your search results by using Boolean operators. By default, Google operates in AND mode — that is, if you type two search terms (say, laptop review), it will return all results that contain both laptop and review.

Note that Google ignores some search terms by default, like the and and, but sometimes you'll want to include these (for instance, if looking for a title of a book). To force Google to search for the terms, you can prefix them with a + symbol: lucy in +the sky with diamonds

To return results that contain any one of the search terms, you can use the OR operator, symbolised by a pipe. Eg, laptop | review would return results that contain either the term "laptop" or "review"

You can weed out incorrect results by using the NOT operator, defined by prefixing the unwanted search term with a -. For example, to remove all Wikipedia results from your search:

laptop review -wikipedia

Finally you can use quotation marks to give preference for a specific phrase, rather than individual words. Eg, "laptop review" would search for the entire string, rather than the words individually.

075. Search for synonyms

If you want to expand your search, you can tell Google to include synonyms for a word by prefixing it with a tilde. For example:

cnet ~laptop

Would search for the term "cnet", "laptop" and synonyms for the word "laptop".

076. Wildcards

You can use the * symbol to represent any word during a search. Particularly useful if you can't remember an exact song lyric! For example:

lucy in the * with diamonds

077. Site specific search

To search within one website, you can use the site: operator. For example:

laptop site:cnet.com.au

Would search for the word "laptop" only within cnet.com.au, while

laptop site:.au

Would search for the word "laptop" on Australian sites only.

078. Advanced searching

There are some Google specific operators which will help you refine your searches even more, although they will only be needed in special circumstances.

intitle:
Search for the phrase only in the title of Web pages. Eg, intitle:cnet

inurl:
Search for the phrase only in the URL of Web pages. Eg, inurl:cnet

intext:
Search for the phrase in the body of Web pages, ignoring links and title. Eg, intext:cnet

cache:
Show Google's cache of the website, rather than return recent results. Eg, cache:cnet.com.au

079. Unit and currency conversion

The magical word here is in. For example, to convert from inches to millimetres:

45 inches in mm

Or to convert American dollars to Australian:

30USD in AUD

Google understands a heck of a lot of units of measurements, so give it a go!

080. Use Google as a calculator

Google can function as a calculator. It understands the following symbols:

Symbol	Explanation
+	Add
-	Subtract
*	Multiply
/	Divide
% of	Find the percentage of a number. Eg, 26% of 43.5
^	Exponent/to the power of
root of	Eg, square root of 16, cube root of 9, 6th root of 36 etc.

You can also use parentheses to determine order of operations, and Google also understands logarithms, trigonometry and factorials. Of course, you could always just ask Google calculator for the answer to life, the universe and everything.

081.Check world time

To get the time in another city quickly, just type in time followed by the city. Eg, time new york city.

082. Get your stock quotes

To get market data for a particular company, just enter its stock ticker. For example, typing in NVDA would get us Nvidia's results.

083. Hunt in specific document types

If you want to restrict your search to one particular format, this is the bees knees. Let's say you wanted to search for the term "cnet", but only return PDF files. You would enter:

cnet filetype:pdf

084. Local movie times

This one is easy. Simply enter the name of a currently running movie and your location to get back movie times in your area. For example, typing tropic thunder sydney get us:

085. Weather forecast

Want to know if it'll be sunny for that perfect outing? For a four-day weather forecast, type weather followed by the city of choice. For example, weather sydney would return: