You might want to book mark this page for future reference.

When you think of the Google search engine, do you think of a little box where you can enter a word? I used to think that way, until I found out how powerful Google really is and all the different types of Google search engines there are.

Say, for example, you wanted to search government web sites for material, the best way to do this using google is to go to their Government Search Engine. Yup, bet you didn't even know it existed. Here is how you do it, type http://www.google.com/unclesam into the address area of your browser or click on my link . You will get a Google search box but you will notice the word Google in now in Red, White and Blue with stars. You are now all set for that government search.

If you are doing research, it sometimes becomes necessary to search the different University Web Sites, but this can really be a pain. Google now has a search engine that does it for you. It gives you a list of all the prominent universities and you just click on the one you want to search. This is really a boone to researchers. To reach this search engine type http://www.google.com/options/universities.html into the address area of your browser or click on my link .

There is a Google Site that contains many Different Experimental Search Engines. These engines are not quite ready but will work. There you will find things like Search By Location, Google News Alerts, Google Viewer, Google Glossary, Voice Search, Google Compute, Google Web Quotes, Google Sets and Keyboard Shortcuts. To reach this area type http://www.Google Labs.htm into the address area of your browser or click on my link.

Using the normal Google Search Box there are many ways to search. For example the following operations are supported:

• cache: - shows the version of the web page that Google has in its cache.
• link: - shows links to a specified page.
• related: - shows web pages that are similar to a specified web page.
• info: - will show info on a page that is stored in Google
• stocks: - will treat the entry as a stock ticker symbol
• site: - restricts pages show, to the site selected
• allintitle: - will only return results for sites with all words entered, in the site title
• intitle: - will show first word in query only in site titles, but if more than one word entered any word after the first that appears in the document will produce a result.
• allinurl: - will restrict results to those that contain all words entered in the query
• inurl: - the first word in the query must appear in a url to produce a result. Any words after the first can appear anywhere to produce a result.

When you use a query do not leave a space. Here is an example: info:http://www.test.com.

Are you beginning to see how really powerful Google is? It is an incredible piece of software that takes some knowledge to use for the best results.

Bet you thought Google was only a search engine? No it is also a calculator, gives dictionary definitions and can access different file types such as PDFs. It can also check your spelling and return phone numbers with street addresses. To use Google as a calculator just type the mathematical expression into the search box. Example 2+4*3. You will get the result after pressing enter and a little view showing how the calculation was done and a requestor asking you if you want to search for documents containing the calculation.

To get a dictionary definition enter a word in the search box. You will get results for the search but above the results in the blue area you will see your query word underlined. Click on it and you will see definitions if they are available.

To check spelling, enter the word into the search box. If Google feels it is spelled wrong it will ask you if you meant correct spelling. You can also click on the word at the top which is underlined to get the dictionary definition

To get phone numbers type the name and any address info you have. If the number is available it will appear at the top of the list.

To get a street address:

first name (or first initial), last name, city (state is optional)
first name (or first initial), last name, state
first name (or first initial), last name, area code
first name (or first initial), last name, zip code
phone number, including area code
last name, city, state
last name, zip code

Another feature that is available is called, I'm Feeling Lucky. This produces only the first return item on a search and brings you directly to that site and does not produce a list of pages.

There are tabs that appear at the top of a search list. They are Web, Images, Groups, Directory and News. Here is how to use them.

Web - That is the list that was returned for your search. News headlines for you topic appear at the top
Images - A list of images that relate to the search topic
Groups - A list of related groups that you can go to if you want to try and get more on the subject
Directory - A directory with alternate areas to search
News - News headlines directly related to your search

Site Search is a handy tool. When you are on a website and want to know if that site contains something just enter a query in the box, but instead of pressing Search Web, press Site Search. You will get results for the search of that site only.

Need a street map? Google to the rescue. Just type the address into the search box. If it is recognized as a good address than the query results will display a map icon as the first result. Click on the map choices next to the icon.

You can use Google to translate Italian, French, Spanish, German and Portuguese to English. In the search results for you query just click on Translate Page next to the site title.

Sometimes you want to find pages from sites that are about the same topic. Just click on the Similar Pages link at the end of the query description.

If a page no longer exists you can click on Cached to see what the site looked like the last time Google was able to find it. This appears right after the query description that is returned.

I hope this is not giving you a headache, its a lot to absorb.

Want to read messages from groups. That's easy use Google Groups at http://www.groups.google.com/

Get the best price on an item. Http://www.froogle.google.com

Keep your searches up to date with Google Alert Http://www.googlealert.com/. Your search items will be monitored and you will be emailed about additions to the Google Index.

Want to know about all the Google options? Go to Http://www.google.com/options/index.html

Like looking through catalogs? Go to Http:/www./catalogs.google.com/

You can keep up with breaking news stories with Google News Alert. They will email you breaking stories related to your query http://www.google.com/newsalerts.

There is even more available but I think this covers the needs of most people

A couple of useful tips:

If you are submitting a site to Google make sure you have a title page tag in the header. Secondly, Google checks the next two lines under the title for the description. Make sure you have a description tag there. Google may not always use this description, however, depending on the page content.

You might want to book mark this page for future reference.