Google Search Tricks

Google is an amazing search engine. Most of us use it to find websites with information, but Google is so much more than a search engine. There are hundreds of built in features and these are 10 of the most useful ways to get common information directly from Google.

Movies Times

Enter “movies” followed by your town/city/postal or zip code and you’ll see some movie times for a couple popular movies along with a link to get the full list of movie times for your area.

Track Packages

Just type in a FedEx, UPS or USPS tracking number and Google will give you a link to see the shipping details.

Track Flights

Enter the airline and flight number and search. No more clicks, the info will be right there.

Find the Best Price

Enter the model name or number of a product you’d like to buy. Then click the “shopping” link at the top and Google will show prices at online retailers. To ensure you get the lowest price, you can sort by price (including shipping). There will likely be some retailers that you’ve never heard, so you can sort by reviews as well.

Define a Word

Lets say some fancy pants uses a big word and you don’t know what it means, you could go to your favorite dictionary site, or you could type “define simple” into Google search.

Unit Conversion

Whether you need to convert cups to gallons or you need to go between metric and imperial units, Google’s conversion engine can help.

Currency Conversion

Just type in the value and the currency to convert from and to, example: 100 Euros in Australian dollars

Time

You think you’re doing a nice thing, calling somebody far away to make sure they’re well and give them a familiar voice to talk to. Then they answer the phone as if you woke them up in the middle of the afternoon, but you forgot that’s 4am in Tokyo. You can easily avoid this by checking the local time before calling.

Weather

Should you pack shorts or pants for your weekend getaway? Get a 5 day forecast in seconds.

Stock Quotes

Just enter the stock symbol and click search.

There are many more of these features and I’ll be sure to share more. In fact, I discovered an undocumented one tonight too.