Top 10 Ways to Become a Google Search Ninja

I think it’s safe to say that 99.99% of users on the internet know what Google is, and have used Google to search for something at least once. In fact, Googling is so popular that Google is officially a verb in the Webster dictionary. Here on Aiming Low, we tend to Google a lot of weird stuff, too.  I’m willing to bet, however, that you’re missing out on some of the best Google magic available to you.  Here are 10 simple tips that will help you become a Google Search Ninja.

Google Search Ninja    noun    \ˈgü-gəl ˈsərch ’nin-jə\
goo·gle  search nin·ja

Definition of GOOGLE SEARCH NINJA

A person trained in modern Google search engine use,  who regularly employs such advanced technologies as combining search terms with search operators, term exclusion, wild-card characters, et cetera. This individual is often accused of having “a different Google”, as the less advanced searcher “couldn’t find that site anywhere!! OMFG!!”

 Top Ten Ways to Become a Google Search Ninja

1. Use Google for non-traditional search purposes: Do you need to know the current time in Chicago? Perhaps you want to find the weather in your city? Define a word? Multiply numbers or find out how many kilobytes are in a megabyte? Google can do this for you. Type “time in place” to have Google report the time in a certain city. For example, you might type “time in London”. Google will report at the top of the web results the current time. FABULOUS.Type  ”weather in city or zip code” to have Google report the current weather forecast in a certain city.
   
   Type “define:your word” to have Google quickly define a word for you.  For example, you might type “define: defenestration”. YES. I am excited that this is a word too. YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

   

   Type simple math to let Google do the work. For example, you might type “8*142″ or even “kilobytes in a megabyte” or “cups in a quart”

2. Search for results within a certain website. Sometimes you know that the answer is on one particular site – but you just can’t find it with their own search, or they don’t have one. Try prefacing your search with site:domainname.com and then your search terms. For example, you might type “site:aiminglow.com mommygeek”.
3. Use common search operators to get the most out of your search terms. You can use AND & OR to combine search terms. You can also use ” “ to search for a very specific phrase. These operators work just like you’d logically expect; use AND - yes, the all-caps is important! – to search for sites that have both search terms (but not necessarily next to each other in an exact phrase) and use OR to search for one term or the other! Finally, enclose a phrase with quotations to search for an exact phrase.
4. Use an asterisk as a wildcard in a phrase when you aren’t sure what terms to use.  There are a lot of similar words in the English language – so if you aren’t sure whether you’re looking for “how to cut carrots” or “how to chop carrots” or “how to slice carrots” and nothing’s working, you can try “how to * carrots”. But be careful, y’all. People do some weird shit with carrots..
5. If you don’t want to use the asterisk, or you did and you found incredibly disturbing carrot stories, you can use a tilde to indicate that you want to Google to substitute possible synonyms. For example, try “how to ~cut carrots”.
6. Track your flight status. You can type in the airline and the flight number to find the arrival and departure time of your flight – right at the top of the search results.
7. Preface your search with cache: to find the cached version of a page. Very handy in certain situations, including deleted content, hacked sites or 404 errors. Google might know what that content was! Just like site:, you’d type “cache:url”
8. Use related:url to search for related websites. Try searching “related:aiminglow.com” – you’ll see a lot of our writers personal websites and other sites that regularly link over to us, or sites we link to a lot!
9. Search for movies playing near you by just typing “movies” into the search box.  Google knows where you live (not creepy, but your IP address does give a general idea of your location) – just type movies and you’ll see a list of theatres/showtimes!
10. Use Google to get general public data, quick area maps, mortgage rates, track packages and find out where an area code originates. Ok, so that’s like, five tips in one. But they’re all quickies: Type in a quick term like “population state” or “unemployment rate united states” to see general trends. Type in mortgage rates to see current rates, a zip code or city/state to see a quick map of the area, or an area code to see the geographic location of the zip code.