Top Ten Essential Google Tips and Tricks

Find the Time, Movies, Music, Answers, Definitions, Search Specific Websites and a Whole Lot More

We all know Google is a search engine, where you type in your keywords and get some relevant websites displayed back in the order Google thinks is best for you. However there's a lot more cool stuff that Google can do for you. Some of these tips have become essential tools in my online world.

Yesterday I wrote about how you can access Wall Street Journal paid for content for free by using Google but today I'm focusing on some other neat tricks I frequently use to save time, locate things or answer problems.

Make Google Work For You

Before starting I suggest opening the regular Google Home Page in a separate browser tab so you can try out a few of these tips as you go.

1) Looking for some specific MP3 music? Try using this Google query (just type it in to the normal Google search box). The query filters out regular web pages and only returns indexes of MP3 files containing the band or song title you're looking for.

-inurl:htm -inurl:html intitle:"index of" mp3 "Bruce Springsteen"

Make sure you get the syntax exactly right including all characters and spaces. Try Cutting and pasting the above query in to your browser first as a test before experimenting with different artist names or song titles in the place of "Bruce Springsteen".

2) Looking for some video files? Then follow the same process with this Google query:

-inurl:htm -inurl:html -inurl:php intitle:"index of" (mpg|mov|avi|wmv) "Florida"

Again make sure you have the syntax right and then experiment with different search terms instead of "Florida". You can use actor names, movie titles ot any topic you like.

3) Get any word or phrase defined instantly. Simply type your query in to the regular Google search box in the following format:

define:Barack Obama

4) See the cached page Google has stored of any web page using this query:

cache:associatedcontent.com

5) Want to search a particular website for a particular subject? Use this query format:

site:associatedcontent.com "Michael Jackson"

6) Looking for web items containing a very specific search term? Try this one:

allintitle: "Bon Jovi"

You can relax this query a little by removing "all" from the beginning.