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Below is a listing of various tips that can be used
while on the Internet. Some of the below tips may list a
date next to them for the month and year that they were
featured in our monthly tip section.
Google 10 tips
Create short Internet addresses
Move back quickly
Tabbed browsing
Google tips
Internet and Spyware
Internet Users and Google.
Sending a web page to a friend
Stopping Internet pop-up ads and windows
Google toolbar shortcuts
Internet and the Google toolbar
Create a shortcut key for Internet Web pages
Internet Explorer Tips
Mozilla Firefox Tips
Internet questions and answers
Back to tips main page
Google 10 tips
Below is a list of our top ten Google tricks many users don't know about.
- Definitions - Pull up the definition of the word by typing define followed by the word you want the definition for. For example, typing: define bravura would display the definition of that word.
- Local search - Visit Google Local enter the area you want to search and the keyword of the place you want to find. For example, typing: restaurant at the above link would display local restaurants.
- Phone number lookup - Enter a full phone number with area code to display the name and address associated with that phone number.
- Find weather - Type weather followed by a zip code or city and state to display current weather conditions and forecasts for upcoming days.
- Track airline flight - Enter the airline and flight number to display the status of an airline flight and it's arrival time. For example, type: delta 123 to display this flight information if available.
- Track packages - Enter a UPS, FedEx or USPS tracking number to get a direct link to track your packages.
- Pages linked to you - See what other web pages are linking to your website or blog by typing link: followed by your URL. For example, typing link:http://www.computerhope.com displays all pages linking to Computer Hope.
- Find PDF results only - Add filetype: to your search to display results that only match a certain file type. For example, if you wanted to display PDF results only type: "dell xps" filetype:pdf -- this is a great way to find online manuals.
- Calculator - Use the Google Search engine as a calculator by typing a math problem in the search. For example, typing: 100 + 200 would display results as 300.
- Stocks - Quickly get to a stock quote price, chart, and related links by typing the stock symbol in Google. For example, typing: msft will display the stock information for Microsoft.
Create short Internet addresses
Create easy to read and type Internet addresses from long
convoluted addresses often found on popular sites such as Amazon,
eBay, MapQuest, etc. by using online services that shrink the
address. For example, the URL:
http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/c/cmos.htm would become:
http://tinyurl.com/ynkjhp.
Below are examples of sites that allow you to
copy and
paste any URL into them to make
them smaller.
Move back quickly
The most commonly used feature in
Internet browsers is the back
button. However, all browsers also have a small black down arrow to
the right of the back button. This button allows you to easily see the history
of the last 5-10 pages you've visited and quickly get back to them.
This feature is especially helpful for those pesky pages that forward
you back to a page each time you press the back button or for when you
wish to move back several pages but don't want to have to press the
back button several times.
Tabbed browsing
With the introduction of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 all major
browsers
now support
tabbed
browsing. Below are various tips to improve your browsing using
tabs.
- Clicking
on any link with your middle mouse button or
wheel will open that link in a new tab.
Alternatively you can hold down your
CTRL key in IE
and Firefox and click a link to open that link in
a new tab.
- Clicking on an open tab with your middle mouse
button will close that tab.
- Mozilla Firefox users can middle-click the
back button to open a previous page in a new tab.
- Pressing CTRL + T will open a new tab in IE,
Firefox, and Opera.
- Firefox and IE users can hold down CTRL and
press 1 through 0 on their keyboard to open that
respected tab.
- Right-clicking the active tab will give you an
option to close all other non-active tabs.
Google tips
Below are some basic tips as well as
some secrets that can be used on Google to help improve
your search results and find things you may have never
thought of.
- Group your search query to find
better results. For example, if you're searching
for computer help, you'll find better results if
you search for an exact phrase by surrounding it
in quotes: "computer help".
- If a lot of your results have
keywords you're not search for use a minus sign.
For example, if you're looking for computer help
but don't want pages containing Windows type: "computer
help" -windows
- Google supports number ranges, for
example, if you're searching for computer help
between the year 2000 to 2005 you can type: "Computer
help" 2000..2005
- See the
Google
operators page, which lists dozens of the
available operators Google allows. For example,
the below search would search for URL that
contains the word computer: allinurl: computer
- Visit the
Google
Features page, which lists hundreds of
different examples of the type of things you can
find through Google and how to find them.
- See our
Google
dictionary definition for a listing of dozens
of other Google services.
Below are some more advance searches
people are commonly looking for and what they do.
intitle:index.of + mp3 -asp -html -htm
-php -pls -txt
In the above example, when entered
into Google this search result looks for any index of
MP3
files that does not contain the standard web pages
like HTML, PHP, etc. or any other non-related pages.
In the above example you can replace mp3 with avi or
other file extension to
search for these types of files.
intitle:index.of + mp3
"<artist name / track / group>" -asp -html -htm
-php -pls -txt
In the above example you could replace
"<artist name / track / group>" with
the artists name, track, group, or name of the MP3
you're looking for. Keep in mind when downloading MP3
that you should own the track or song you're
downloading otherwise it's considered illegal.
inurl:"ViewerFrame?Mode="
In the above simple example, Google
will return results of insecure live web cams and with
some of the services even allow you to control the
cameras over the Internet.
The above three examples are just a
few more advanced searches used to help illustrate how
many different things can be found through Google.
Internet and Spyware
Spyware, malware, and other adware is becoming an ever-growing
threat on the Internet. We highly recommend users who
have not already installed spyware protection on their
computer do so immediately. An excellent example of a
free spyware program is
Spybot
Search & Destroy. A listing of other spyware
protection programs and information about browser
hijacking can also be found on
document
CH000578.
Internet Users
and Google
Google is arguably the most popular search engine
on the Internet. However, many users do not take
advantage of all the other features it offers.
Features such as a calculator, news headlines, price
lookup, spell checker, travel information, and web
page translation are just a few of the numerous
features Google has available. See
our
Google dictionary definition for a large list of
available Google feature pages.
Sending
a web page to a friend
Internet
Explorer users
Send a friend the web page you are viewing by clicking
File, Send, and "Page by E-mail".
Netscape
users
Send a friend the web page you are viewing
by clicking File, and "Send Page".
Stopping
Internet pop-up ads and windows
See document
CH000491 for additional help and information on
stopping Internet pop-up and pop-under ads and
windows.
Google
Toolbar shortcuts
This month we mention
several helpful shortcuts for the useful
Google
Toolbar. Quickly access the Google Toolbar by pressing
ALT+G or open a new browser window by pressing Shift+Enter,
Internet and
the Google Toolbar
Google is one of the most powerful search engines on the
Internet. Using the the Google toolbar allows users to quickly
search the complete Internet or the page you are currently on.
Get the Google toolbar at:
http://toolbar.google.com.
Create a
shortcut key for Internet Web pages
Create a PC shortcut key to a favorite web page by creating
a shortcut to the web page or URL. Users using Internet
Explorer can quickly do this by right-clicking on an empty
spot of a web page and click 'Create Shortcut'.
Once the shortcut has been created locate the shortcut and
right-click or view the properties of that shortcut.
In the shortcut properties assign a new shortcut key and
click OK. Now when the shortcut key is pressed the web page
will be automatically loaded.
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