The Fastest Way to Find a Web Page…and Other Cool Search Engine Tricks

Aug 23, 2011 by Linda Anderson

You know you saw a particular post of interest on a blog you frequent, but when you go back to the site to find it, you end up fruitlessly scrolling through multiple pages before you give up.

No worries - Google, Bing, and Yahoo to the rescue. Just by using an advanced search keyword, along with pertinent keywords that you know are part of the article, you can find what you’re looking for in a matter of a split second.

Here’s an example. Just last week Gretchen Seefried, founder of MidChix & MadHens, was looking for one of her articles that mentioned Deb Holden and asked me to help track it down.

I opened Google and typed “site:midchix.com Deb Holden” in the search field (no space after the colon). Because the major search engines regularly scan and capture just about every web page to store in their search engine results, the page we were looking for was already in their database, and I was able to pull it up in 0.08 seconds.

With Google in particular, there are lots of other convenient search tricks. Here are a few:

Weather: Type “weather” followed by the city and state, U.S. zip code, or city and country. If you’ve already set your location in Google’s preferences, you don’t need to reference your location.

Time: Type in “time” and the name of the city.

Movie Times: Type “movies” or the name of a current film followed by your zip code or city.

Unit Conversion: Want to find out how many tablespoons are in 1/2 cup? Type “tablespoons in 1/2 cup” in the search box.

Flu Vaccine Finder: Type the word “flu” in the search box along with your location or zip code.

Other quick and handy info you can pull up in Google include:

stock quotes · sports scores · poison control · flight schedules · currency conversion · package tracking · dictionary definitions and synonyms · book search

…and more.

Learn about Google’s cool search tricks »

Advanced search keywords: Google · Bing · Yahoo

This Week’s Handy Website

Here’s a secure way to share your phone number. Babble.ly gives you a free disposable link for your number, with which you can post on a website such as Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere you want to keep your actual number private. When someone clicks on the link, Babble.ly connects the caller to the Babble.ly website, where they can input their own phone number. Then Babble.ly calls both parties. It’s still in beta mode and calls are limited to 10 minutes each.