Web Worker Daily

Google is nearly universally popular as a search tool, but there are a lot of under-the-hood features and extensions that people don’t make use of. In this post, I’ll explain some unusual features and extensions that Google offers, which can help you work more efficiently.

Use Google Alerts. Few people use Google’s Alerts, but they’re an excellent way to make the site work for you, especially if you want to do things like track breaking news stories or find out when a competitor suddenly has significant news. Just type www.google.com/alerts into your browser’s address bar, and fill in the fields seen in the screenshot below to have your alerts pushed to your e-mail inbox.

Voice Local Search. While it’s still technically a Google Labs project, the site’s Voice Local Search feature is a great way to beat the costly 411 system. Just call 1-800-GOOG-411 from your phone and say what you want to search for, such as “Kinko’s San Francisco.” You’ll get the number, the option to be connected to the number free of charge (the 411 system charges for the automatic connection), or you can say “text message” if you want the information sent to your mobile phone.

Robust Definitions. Many people go to sites such as Dictionary.com to look up definitions, but Google is great at defining any word on the fly for you, and better than Dictionary.com at leading you to more information about what you want defined. If you go into Google’s search field and type define:CSS, for example, you’ll get a long list of definitions and links pertaining to Cascading Style Sheets.

Who’s Calling? If your office phone has a readout that lets you see the number of a person calling, or you see the number on your cell phone, you can ask Google to quickly look up the identity of the caller. Just type phonebook:###-###-#### into Google’s search bar (replace the number signs with the area code and phone number), and if the number is listed, you’ll get back personal or business information about the caller.

Using Google Trends. At google.com/trends, you can compare trends in related news results that Google indexes. Just go into the search bar and type two search terms in, separated by a comma. For example, searching for “iPhone, cell phone” compares news results over time for Apple’s much-discussed iPhone versus the general concept of a cell phone. If you look at the graph Google pulls up for that comparison, you’ll see how much feverish news activity there has been in 2007 for the iPhone. Especially if you do any writing, this can be a great way to choose or avoid topics to cover.

Do you have any Google tips or hacks to share?