Squeezing the Most Out of Every Google Search
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Written By Reprise Media | November 2, 2005 | Share This
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Google represents everything the new Internet economy was meant to be. The business is paperless, carries low operating costs with extraordinarily high margins, is fully diversified to accommodate any possible business or online behavior, and last but not least, Google’s business is infinitely scalable with low barriers to the global economy. No surprise to anyone who’s ever crossed a stock ticker, Google carries a market valuation 5X that of Amazon and 2X that of the previous Internet poster-child, eBay.
On the other hand, as an advertiser and client of Google’s, we’re painfully aware of everything it does wrong, from the technology to the tools and interface. But such is the ebb and flow of Google… it’s clearly a many complicated mistress.
Unless you’re an advertiser or lucky enough to have gotten in while the stock was still affordable (they have no intention of splitting it any time soon), all you need to know is that Google currently provides the best search engine around. Bar none. Google’s shaped the engine around how people currently search, and in time people will shape their search behaviors around the way Google is designed.
The following is a list of the more interesting tricks Google has built into their search functionality, to provide a web that’s just one click away. Hopefully you’ll discover something new in the features below.
1. Search Within A Particular Website
This first search technique lets users search a keyword across specific sites and content. For example if you search [example: site:www.bbcworld.com keyword], you’ll find a list of all BBCworld.com content that includes that particular keyword.
2. Search For Lowest Fares
Google has launched a clever feature that lets a user specify their trip itinerary and follow direct links to view lowest available fares as provided by Expedia, Hotwire and Orbitz. Simply type the two cities within the search box [example: New York Chicago], and on the following page a header beside the airplane icon will read “Flights from New York, NY to Chicago, IL”. Customize your intended flight dates. As you click a link for one of the 3 travel providers, Google will pass your information to that travel site and the following page will provide lowest fares across all participating airlines.
3. Track a Parcel
Instead of going to the site where you placed an order, or the service they’re using to deliver your package, you can simply enter the UPS, FedEx or US Postal Service tracking ID right into the Google search box. Based on the ID length and numerical structure, Google will know which site to query and serve the link beside their little package icon.
4. Check Movie Times
Google can return local movie times for a requested film title. Type [example: Grizzly Man 10002] into the search box, and the following page will provide relevant theaters, addresses and show times. This will be served beside the film reel icon. If you’ve already saved your location using Google local, query just the title for the same results.
5. Flight Tracking
Courtesy of the government FAA site, Travelocity, Expedia FBOweb.com’s flight tracker, Google can provide real-time flight tracking, weather conditions and flight information (departure/arrivals).To see delays and weather conditions at a particular airport, type the airport’s three letter code followed by the word “airport.” [example: LAX airport]. To check the status of a U.S. flight, type the name of the airline followed by the flight number [example: United 134].
6. Stock Prices
If you begin a query with the “stocks:” operator, Google will treat the rest of the query terms as stock ticker symbols, and will link to a page showing stock information for those symbols. For instance, by typing [stocks: GOOG] you can witness how your very act of using Google increases their net worth by the billions. The returned results are provided by your selection of Yahoo Finance, MSN MoneyCentral, Motley Fool or eTrade’s Clearstation site.
7. Information With Number Parameters
Whether you’re searching for a product within a price range or historical information within a special time-frame, Google’s Numrange feature will help you limit your search results to the parameters that fit your needs. This might include dates [example: Willie Mays 1950..1960], weights [example: 5000..10000 kg truck] or prices [example: DVD Player $250..$350].
8. Directory Listings
Google provides direct feeds from White Pages and Yellow Pages services. Whether you’re searching for a business’ listings or a private citizen’s address, simply type the name followed by their city, state, area code or zip code. So let’s say you’re looking for Eric Schmidt’s residential address: You’d simply type in [Eric Schmidt California] and receive a list of all the Eric Schmidts within California*.
*note - attempting to search for Eric Schmidt’s personal address or phone number might get you blacklisted from ever working with Google again, but it should make for an excellent demonstration of Google’s cutting edge technologies. Viva la Freedom of Information Act!
9. Currency Conversion
Simply type in the amount, specifying the direction of conversion with the currency codes and beside the little calculator icon, Google will convert it for you. For example, translating US Dollars into British Pounds might look something like this - [3.5 USD in GBP].
10. Street Maps
Our last example of the increasingly direct search features Google has built out, you can connect from Google.com right into their Google Maps product. Enter an address within the search box, [example: 9 Desbrosses Street, New York NY, 10013] and beside the little cartographer’s map icon, you’ll find links to Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps and Mapquest returns.
11. Trackbacks
The last example, this one is especially helpful for webmasters and the particularly vain. This feature will let you see all the pages that link back to your website. A simple query following this structure [example: link:www.searchviews.com], substituting the particular website domain will return a long list of webpages that host links pointing back to your specified site.
You can hear about the rest of its special features direct from Google here. Additionally, be sure to check out the Advanced Search features as well as Advanced Operators.
And if you’re the kind of person who looks out for the underdog, Ask Jeeves has a similar collection of search features, which can be found right here.
Randy Schwartz is Director of Strategic Development at Reprise Media.
Topics: Search: How-To |