Using hidden Google commands to search the web.
Quicklinks
Weather, Population, Government searches , Google suggest, Answer to life, Largest search, Page title search, Filetype search, Movie information, Airport weather, Package tracking
Outside of explicitly filtering out web pages by date or relevancy, there are many hidden commands Google uses to provide quick information to the knowing web user. A user can look up weather information in their area without leaving Google's result page or they can search only government-based web sites for research.
Using these tips and tricks will help get the most out of Google's search and produce information quicker and easier. The majority of the examples on this page have live example forms. Click the search button under each section to view the results.
Weather
One of the most overlooked features that Google has built-in is the ability to lookup the weather forecast for anywhere in the United States based on a zip code. The weather forecast shows the current weather conditions and three days in advance. Without leaving Google's main search results page, users are free from all the advertisements, cookies and spyware many web sites subject visitors to. Weather information just got simpler and safer with Google.
To search the weather of a zip code, the command is weather #####. For example, weather 55118 would display the weather forcase for West Saint Paul and surrounding areas of Minnesota.
Below is a search box with the example above.
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Population Searches
A great tool for students researching countries or states around the world is Google's population search. Without leaving Google's search results page, a web user can find accurate population data from any state or country. Never leaving Google's page makes locating this information much quicker and safer for users.
To search the population of a country or state, type "location" population. To search Germany's last accurate population data, one would search Germany population.
The population data for each location is extracted from different reliable resources on the internet. In nearly all cases, the population information is from a government web site. As shown above, Germany's population was reported back from the CIA government web site. [back to top]
Government Web Site Searches
When looking for specific information regarding laws, population information or general government information, the information might be more accurate if it came directly from a government web site.
Google's UncleSam search allows web users to search information from only government sites. Google's UncleSam can be found on http://www.google.com/unclesam.
All searches will produce results from government web sites, no personal or business sites. Google's UncleSam is valuable resource to research information on places, laws, cultures and more from around the world. [back to top]
Google's Suggested Words
Google makes it even easier to find information by releasing Google Suggest (beta). Google Suggest allows users to type in search terms and offers the user LIVE search suggestions before the user clicks Submit. The suggestions are either completed words (example: cod may suggest cod, code and codec) or combinations of words (codec pack).
This makes finding information easier if the correct spelling of the company or product is unknown.
Google Suggest (beta) is found on http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en,
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Google Discovered The Answer To Life
It's true. The Google we have all grown to love has discovered the answer and meaning to life. A somewhat kept easter egg from Google gives us the answer to a quote from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
The following needs to be typed in and it is case-sensitive: the answer to life, the universe and everything
What is the answer? Click the search button to find out! If the form does not work below, click this link instead.
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Google's Largest Search Results
Google has a maximum search result for each query, lucky for us it's an extremely large number. It's so large, in fact, that the viewable page depth doesn't allow users to view that many results.
To search everything, * * can be typed. The asterics are wildcard characters. Two of them together will search anything and everything. The largest known search result limit on Google is 11,480,000,000. For those who overlooked the number, it says 11 billion, not million.
If the form below doesn't display the same results, use this link instead.
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Search Only Page Titles
The title of a web page says much about what information or services might be available through that web site. Instead of having a search query search the content of a few billion web pages in cyber space, it might be easier to search just page titles instead.
The command that offers title searching as opposed to content searching is allintitle: search term. To locate web pages that have Google tricks in the title, a search of allintitle: Google tricks would bring back many results.
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Specific Filetype Results With Google
As many web users know, Google provides results of pages in HTML format. A little lesser known fact is Google also indexes other filetypes. "Google has expanded the number of non-HTML file types searched to 12 file formats. In addition to PDF documents, Google now searches Microsoft Office, PostScript, Corel WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and others.". The advantage of Google parsing more than standard HTML pages is simply the amount of information users can search and find.
Google's complete filetype list is: pdf, ps, wk1, wk2, wk3, wk4, wk5, wki, wks, wku, lwp, mw, xls, ppt, doc, wps, wdb, wri, rtf, swf, ans, txt.
This means Google's web crawler can parse web sites containing the filetypes listed above and attempt to create an HTML version of the web page. Not every HTML page render is absolutely perfect but in most cases you have access to all the included information without needing to install special software.
A filetype search is done by typing search term filetype: fileext. For example, to learn more about CSS from pdf files a user would type in CSS filetype:pdf .
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Movie Information
A user can find movies related to a specific actor or actress using Google's movie search. Finding movies your favorite actors and actresses were affiliated with just got easier. Google also has a user ranking and message system for each movie in the database.
A movie search is done by typing movie: actor name. To find movies that Mel Gibson either played in or directed, a user could type movie: Mel Gibson.
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Airport Weather Information
Flying soon? Find out what the current weather conditions are at an airport so you can be prepared. A simple search of MSP airport will provide a direct link from the FAA. Search the airport three-letter code followed by airport to view the current weather conditions.
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Track Packages
A user can track UPS or Fedex shipping information straight from Google.
For UPS, the search query would look similar to the following.
For Fedex, the search query would look similar to the following.
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