In case you’ve been in a box the past decade or so, the Internet is a pretty happening place to be nowadays. I definitely dig it. Of course, as things get more popular, they tend to start filling up with junk. As more junk accumulates, it becomes harder to find what you’re looking for.
Fortunately, companies like Google have built great tools to help people, like me and you, find stuff. We find what we’re looking for, and Google slowly takes over the world — a fair trade in my opinion. So when Google finally does take over the world, you’ll definitely want to know how to use their search engine.
Here are six cool things that Google can do to help you quickly find what you’re looking for. How does this relate to finance? Well, we all know that time equals money.
1. Calculator
If you ever need to do some quick math or you’ve been dying to know the answer to that equation from physics class that doesn’t even fit on one line in your notebook, then just Google it. From simple addition and subtraction to sines and cosines, Google can handle it all. You can even type in phrases like “5th root of 32″ and “20% of 150″.
2. Currency Converter
Traveling abroad or have leftover money after traveling abroad? Use Google to find out how much your money is worth. Simply type in a dollar amount and the two types of currency, and let Google work its magic.
Currency isn’t the only thing Google can convert. Try typing in “1 ft to m” or “1 cup to teaspoons”. Google can pretty much convert anything you throw at it.
3. Dictionary
Enough with the numbers, this tip is for people who like words. If you think Google is good with numbers, wait till you see what it can do with words. Just type “define:” before a word, and Google will do just that. It’ll grab and display a list of dictionary definitions for the word.
4. Search a Specific Website
Have you ever gotten frustrated because you couldn’t find what you were looking for a on a site? To make matters worse, the site’s search function doesn’t work, or it simply doesn’t exist. Have no fear! Google to the rescue! Type “site:” followed by a website, and Google will only search within that site.
The example above searches this site for “student loans”. Note that “site:brokegradstudent.com” can appear anywhere in the query. If you search for “student loans site:brokegradstudent.com”, you will get the same results.
5. Search for a Specific File Type
We all know that the Internet is littered with all kinds of files, but sometimes you just want to find a particular type. For example, maybe you’re looking for the prospectus of a Vanguard fund in PDF format. By adding “filetype:pdf” to your search, Google will only search for PDF files.
6. Remove Unwanted Results
It’s always annoying when you’re searching for something, but irrelevant results keep showing up instead. There’s a way around it though. Let’s say you just finished reading Harry Potter, and you want to look up reviews on the book. However, searching for “harry potter review” returns a bunch of reviews of the movie instead of the book. By adding “-movie” to the search, Google will remove pages related to the movie from the search results, and you get what you were looking for.
This is just scratching the surface of the awesome power of Google. You can mix and match these tips to make your searches even more powerful, like searching for a specific file type on a specific website. Happy googling!
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Nice ad for Google.
Cool! I like the calculator and file type search options. You learn something new everyday!
The currency converter is the best ever.
Also you can type in something like “LA time” and get it straight away, too
You should add the time thing to your list
That is really good stuff. I new a couple of them but not all that wrote thanks