Google advanced search tips

Some things you probably didn't know you could do with a Google Search.

Search Google For Mp3's or other Files

To search for mp3 files with google, copy the text below and replace artist, or just click the link above to get to google.com with the text already added, into the search box.

"parent directory" mp3 OR wma OR ogg OR wav Green Day -html -htm -download -links

Replace Green Day with the artist or song you want and paste the text above into the google search bar.
You can also take out the OR's, the wma's, and ogg's to search for just mp3's and Wav's etc.

For other files you can try adding "filetype:" to your search, for example ASSCI art filetype:txt

Ask Google

Many questions can be answered by google's A.I. and show results with graphics right on the search page. Try something like: Birth place of [name], Earth's surface area, Population of [country]. Time in [timezone]. And of course Math functions (calculator).

World Time
Simply typing Time will give you the Time at your current location
Search for the time in any location with: Time + Timezone
For example searching "time pdt" will give results for the current time in Pacific Daytime Zone

Flight Tracker
Type in a flight number to get flight updates and links to a live flight tracker

Currency Converter
Easily convert from one currency to another in google search.

"15 USD to YEN"

Dictionary Definitions

Use google as a dictionary:

define:word

Phone Directory

In the google search box type in a person's name or a business name, followed by city and state and you might get the telephone number.
To specify your results even more, you can use "rphonebook:" for residential listings or "bphonebook:" for business listings.
Example: rphonebook: Hansen, Los Angeles, CA.
It also functions as a reverse phonebook.
Type in a phone number to see who owns it
"quotes"

Put your searches in quotes to search for exact phrases.
Good for when you have a problem and are searching for a solution, for example "lost my software key" will display pages that have that exact sentence in the text, adding words outside the quotes helps to search within a certain topic.
For example
"lost my software key" windows xp
will display pages with the text "lost my software key" that are most likely related to windows XP.
intitle:

Searches only the titles of webpages and documents and not in the entire text, for example intitle:happy hour will search for pages that have happy hour in their title.

intext:
searches only in the text of webpages, and not in the title.
for example intext:happy hour will search for pages with happy hours in their text.

-"www.sitename.com"
Exclude certain sites from a search, for example you're searching for "chocolate donuts" but don't want to show results from your own page, just replace the sitename with your address. remember to include the quotation marks.

stocks:
Simply type a ticker symbol and will show the current price, links to pages/index with stock information for those symbols. For example, [stocks: intc yhoo] shows information about Intel and Yahoo.
Also works with cryptocurrencies

Search Mail By Tracking By Number
For tracking mail you can use parcel tracking numbers from UPS, Fedex, USPS and UPC.
Just enter the number into the search box and hit enter, no special codes or commands.

Car info
Get information on cars by typing in Vin numbers, find out where area codes are located by typing in the three digits and get information on patents by posting their patent number.

WEBMASTERS TOOLS

site:
To see how many pages of a site Google has indexed use site:http://sitename.com in the search box and press Search. Replace sitename with the site you are trying to find the statistics of.

link:
To see who is linking to a site type link:http://sitename.com in the search box and press Search. Change sitename with the site you are trying to find the statistics of.

related:
To see sites similar to a certain site/blog type related:http://sitename.com
A good way to find out your competing sites.

cache:
To see your sites cache stored in Google use cache:http://myblog.blogspot.com
This will give you an indication of when Googlebot last visited your site.

info:

For information about a site use info:http://sitename.com

Ban List / 'Supplemental Index'

To see if your site has been placed in the supplemental index (which means you have been spamming too many similar keywords)
USE
site:www.yoursite.com *** -sjpked

OR
site:www.yoursite.com *** -sljktf

Autocomplete Suggestions [now integrated with all google search]
A different google start page/search page.

Gives you suggestions while you are typing in a search.
Similar to Google's "Did you mean?" feature, except that it works in real time.
As soon as you start typing words will come up that start with the letters you type, next to the words it will say how many google results there are for that word.
Quickest way to find the most popular combination of the words you use when searching the web.

Other stuff.. non Google...Links..Related Articles:

Give Me Back My Google
A different google start page.
Not officially part of google but a useful tool nonetheless, when searching for something that always has a lot of advertised results use this page to filter out the fake top results, and get better results like overall check out.
It will take your search to the regular google page but add some extra tags that filter out certain pages.

DuckDuckGo.com
Alternative Search Engine.

PeteyVid.com
Alternative video search engine.