Abundant Springs

I was searching around this morning and found some really  neat tricks/shortcuts that you can access with Google. 

Some of these I already knew about ~ others I just found out about but can't wait to try so, I thought I'd share them with you.

I've listed quite a bit but try doing your own search for Google's Tips & Tricks and see what comes up!

·         Area Code Information: Enter a U.S. telephone area code into a Google search box (e.g. 760), and results feature a thumbnail map naming the geographic region at the top of the results page. Clicking the thumbnail displays the full Mapquest map of the area, a less useful result since it's an approximation, not an exact map, of the area code's coverage zone.

• Universal Product Codes: Want information about a specific product? Enter its Universal Product Code (UPC), the number on the bottom of a bar code displayed on product packaging into the Google search box (e.g.: 074101420241). If the product can be found, results include a link to the UPC Database for more information.
• Flight Tracking: Enter an airline name or code and a flight number (e.g.: UA 44) and you'll get two links to flight information, from Travelocity and fboweb.com. This feature works well and is robust, accepting variations on the example above such as "united 44" and "ual 44", two other ways of referring to United Airlines. It only appears to work for major airlines, however--I got no results for either Frontier or ATA airlines.

·         Vehicle ID Numbers: Entering a Vehicle ID number (VIN) (e.g. JM1BJ225431140254) returns a link from carfax.com for a page with more information about the year, make and model of a specific car.

·         U.S. Postal Service Tracking Numbers: USPS tracking numbers generate a direct link to the USPS Web site with information about the shipping status of a package.

·         Get Local Time: Type in What time is it followed by any city to get the current time.

·         Track Flight Status: Enter the airline and flight number to find out the departure time and estimated arrival for any flight.

·         Convert Currency, Metrics, Bytes and More: Google has a built-in converter calculator. You can enter quarter cup in teaspoons, seconds in a year, 5 US dollars in Euros and countless others.

·          Search for Pages That are “Better Than,” “Similar to,” or “Reminds me of”: Enter “better than keyword” or “similar to keyword” to find Web pages you never knew existed.

·          Use Google as a Free Proxy: Enter cache:website.com to view a Web page that’s been blocked from the computer you’re using.

·          Remove Affiliate Links From Product Searches: To avoid seeing search results from certain sites, enter –site:website.com.

·          Find Related Items: Enter ~ before any search term to find related items as well.

·          Find Music and Comic Books: Enter -inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wma|mp3) "Band or comic book name" to find music files and comic books.

·          See Images of People, Objects, Etc.: Type in a search term, and click on images to see photos of the results.

·         Search for Faces: If you’re looking for a photo of a person named Rose, and don’t want to see photos of the flower, add &imgtype=face to the end of your image search. It will show you only images of faces.

·         Google Catalogs (http://catalogs.google.com), which features products from more 6,000 paper catalogs in a searchable index

Google Web Search Features

In addition to providing easy access to billions of web pages, Google has many special features to help you to find exactly what you're looking for. Click the title of a specific feature to learn more about it.

Google Scholar

Scientific Research at Your Fingertips With Google

Goog-411

There's no stopping the Internet dynamo Google when it comes to providing cool free services to the public. Their latest innovation -- offering free directory assistance calls via Goog-411 -- could really shake up the telephone business in America, estimated at about $7 billion annually.

All you have to do is dial 800-GOOG-411 (800-466-4411) from any phone, then tell the automated voice what city and state you're looking for, and the specific business name or category, and Goog-411 does the rest. Although the Goog-411 call is free, as is connecting you to the business, typical phone charges may apply based on your service provider.

You have to try this service. The voice recognition is really amazing and you can stop paying those annoying $1 plus charges from your phone carrier when you have to know a number that you don't have, and they will even dial the number for you for free

GoogleEarth:

·  Plotting a satellite map from your home to another destination, then traveling that very same route.

·  Looking at how far or close airplanes fly by your home.

·  Checking out the strange images distorted by satellite images, like the very weird towers of water piercing the sky north of Pittsburgh.

·  Reliving history thanks to dedicated users who have added overlays in areas like Little Big Horn and Pearl Harbor.

·  Watching real-time weather maps