google features - tips & tricks

I was just wondering at the various search options available in Google. I'm not talking about "Advanced Search" option where you can provide some additional information to filter your search requirements nor about "I'm Feeling Lucky" which will directly take you to the best related website.

I'm talking about the keywords or modifiers that can be used in the search criteria. Somehow came across one such keyword and I started exploring for more such modifiers. Here are some for you.

filetype:
If you're looking for a specific file format in the internet, you can specify the same using the keyword 'filetype:'. For example, if you're looking for a pdf file on Apache tutorials, you can give your search query as "filetype:pdf Apache tutorials". If it is a PowerPoint file, then it should be "filetype:ppt Apache tutorials".

site:
If your search is in a particular site, use the keyword 'site:' and specify the website where you are looking for. For example, "site:mailerum.blogspot.com Kinabalu" would display all the pages from my blog that are related to Kinabalu.

inurl:
Let's say you are looking for the sites which addresses carry a specific word. You can use the keyword 'inurl:'. For example, "inurl:africa". This will give the results of all the urls that contain 'africa'.

intitle:
Forget about URL. You want to filter on the titles. Simply use 'intitle:' keyword like "intitle:avatar". Try to use the exact cases and within double quotes 'intitle:"Avatar" and your search results will be more closer to your expectations.

inblogtitle:
This one is similar to 'intitle:' except that the results are fetched from blog sites.

There are other keywords like time, temperature, capital among others used for queries related to any city or country. Note there is no colon (:). The result is also highlighted on on top of the page. If you want to know the current time of London, for example, just give "time London" and there you get the current time in London. Similarly works other keywords like temperature & capital.

Not just these. You may use the textbox (search box) just like your calculator. Simply type in the calculations and yout get the results right away. For example, input "1234+4321" and press enter and you have the result. You can try almost all operators like +, -, *, /, % (mod) and even ^ (exponent).

Aren't these amazing? It should be evident by now that why google still tops in the most popular search engines. Great.

Hope this article was useful atleast a bit. I think this is my first post on techy related stuff in spite of being in line for years. See you again soon.