Helpful Google Search Tips

As we all know, there are several different search engines out there like Bing, Yahoo, Ask or Google that yield great results for whatever it is we are looking for at the time.  It could be travel or vacation information, job searches, real estate, celebrity news or a variety of other things.  I personally tend to lean towards Google for most of my searches.  I have found that Google offers me more choices than other search engines have.  In addition, there are several tricks I have learned while utilizing this site to narrow down my searches and obtain better results.  I have listed them below to help you out as well: 

• Tracking flights – Enter airline and flight number to see if flight will be on time.
• Locating packages – Enter the word “track” + tracking number and a link to the status page should pop up.
• To find a verbatim phrase – Use quotation marks around the word (ex: “chakra locations”); this will take away many of the irrelevant links that would otherwise pop up.
• Finding PDF’s, Excel spreadsheets or PowerPoint presentations – Type in the words “filetype:pdf”, “filetype:xls” or “filetype:ppt” after the word/phrase you want to look up (ex: Hyundai Accent owner manual filetype:pdf).  This search will yield only those files directly related to the preferred file type.
• To look up movie times – Enter the word “movies” + the city or zip code for theaters in your area
• To find a person’s address – Enter the person’s home phone number and if it’s listed an address should pop up.

Good luck with your search results and I hope these tips come in just as handy for you as they have for me!