Google Now Has Instant Previews

Have you heard about Google's new feature called Instant Preivews? Here's a short video produced by Google that offers you a glimpse of this interesting new feature:

Another Search Engine For You To Try

Here's a video I ran across a couple of days ago through Yahoo! News Videos about a new search engine called Blekko:

Introducing Blekko

After watching the video, why not give Blekko a spin? Then tell us about your experience in the comments section.

Ask And You Shall Receive

Here's an article I ran across recently at CNNMoney.com that'll be music to your ears if you use search engines but wish you could get your answers in plain english instead of as a series of links:

Humans now power Ask.com's engine

What do you think? Will this work? Would you use this service? Sound off in the comments section.

That Split Second Demystified

Do you ever wonder what happens in that split second after you click search in Google and before you receive your search results? Well now, Google provides the answer in a video they recently produced. Take a look:

Put Some Life Into Your Search

Are you a fan of Life magazine? Do you use Google to search the Web? You'll be happy to know that Google lets you restrict searches to Life's entire image archive if you so choose--and they let you do it quickly and easily!

Here's how:

1. Go to Google and select images from the top menu.
2. Type in a search term followed by the phrase source:Life and hit enter.

That's all there is to it! Now you'll see relevant search results from Life magazine's vast image archive!

Have You Given Bing A Spin?

By now you've no doubt heard of Bing, the new search engine created by Microsoft. But how much do you know about how it works, or its most helpful features? You'll learn a lot more about it by watching the video below from Bing's official channel on YouTube:

How To Exclude Objectionable Material From Your Search Results

Here's the problem: You're using Google to research something on the Web, but you don't want to see search results that have objectionable content-so, what do you do? How do you tell Google that you don't want to see offensive imagery or words? Simple-just use the SafeSearch feature built into their search engine!

How to enable it:

1. Go to Google and click on Search Preferences (located to the right of the search entry box).
2. Scroll down the page till you see SafeSearch Filtering and select the level of filtering you want: no filtering, moderate filtering, or strict. You're done!

In Yahoo! Search you'll find a similar filter by clicking on Options, then Preferences. For Windows Live Search, click on Advanced, then Options.

Next time you use a search engine, give this feature a try!

Using The Web For Health Research? Check Out This Article From The New York Times

For anyone using the Web to research matters of health and well-being, there's a terrific article online at the Web site of The New York Times you might be interested in. It's called Logging On for a Second (or Third) Opinion.

In addition to chronicling how one woman used the Web to research her particular medical condition, the article identifies several useful health related Web sites-including many you might not have heard of.

If you're currently using the Web to look up health info or planning to do so in the future, this article is a must-read.

How To Tell A Search Engine What Not To Search For

When you use a search engine do you often find that it delivers too many results? That's why sometimes it pays to tell them what not to search for. There's an easy trick that you can use anytime you want to exclude certain terms from your search query. All you have to do is type a minus sign right next to the term you want to exclude.

To illustrate how this works we'll pretend we're searching for Web pages where the word Mustang appears, but not the word Ford. We're excluding the term "Ford" from our search, in other words.

If we go to a search engine like Google for example, instead of typing this:

Mustang

which yields 75,600,000 results (as of this writing).

We'll type this:

Mustang -Ford

which yields 1,770,000 results.


By typing the minus sign before the term Ford, we're telling Google to list Web pages where the term Mustang appears, but not the term Ford. Still a lot of pages as you can see, but it narrows it down considerably.

Give it a try next time you want to exclude certain terms to narrow down your search results!

How To Use Google To Search For An Exact Phrase

Did you know that there's a quick and easy way to use Google to search for an exact phrase? Say you want to find pages on the Web where the phrase, "health benefits of chocolate" appears.

If you type this in the search entry box:

health benefits of dark chocolate

Google will return 288,000 results (as of this writing)

Instead, if you type this:

"health benefits of dark chocolate"

Google will return only 9,990 results.

Notice the difference? By putting quotes around the phrase you're telling Google that you want to narrow or restrict your search to only those Web pages where that exact phrase can be found.

Incidentally this quick little trick also works on other search engines as well, like Ask.com, Live Search and Yahoo! Search, among others.

Give it a try!

How To Change The Number Of Search Results Google Displays On A Single Page

When you do a Google Search, do you ever find yourself wishing that Google would display more search results on a single page instead of the 10 it displays by default? Did you know there's an easy way to change this?

Simply follow these steps:

1. From the Google Homepage, click on Preferences (Read the related post 4 Google Secrets Hidden In Plain View.)
2. On the resulting page scroll down till you see Number of Results.
3. From the drop down menu you can set the number of results to be displayed at either 10, 20, 30, 50 or 100.

If you set the number to 100 for example, then instead of 10 pages of results to sift through, you'll only have one. Less mouse clicking to get through all the results will mean your hand gets a rest too!

How To Save Time When Researching A Product Online

If you've ever used the Web to research a product you were thinking of purchasing, you know that it can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you have access to a tremendous amount of online reviews. On the other hand, that's precisely the problem-there's an overload of information and it simply takes too much time to sift through it all. Wouldn't it be easier if someone did that for you? That's exactly what a site like ConsumerSearch.com does.

ConsumerSearch.com editors take a look at top reviews of products across a broad spectrum of categories, then they summarize the findings of those reviews and determine which products are best based on those findings.

Using a site like this just might save you some time when you look to the Web to research a product.

4 Google Secrets Hidden In Plain View

When you use Google to search the Web, how do you typically go about doing it? Do you just quickly type in your search terms and then click Google Search? If that's the only way you use Google you might be missing out on some neat features designed to improve your search experience-and some of these features are right on the Google homepage just waiting for you to click on them!

Next time you go to Google, check out these 4 "secrets" hidden in plain view:

1. I'm Feeling Lucky - Have you seen this button that's located right next to the Google Search button but not sure what it's for? Try this: Next time you type in your search terms, click it instead of the Google Search button and you'll be taken directly to the first Web site on the list of Google search results for those search terms.


2. Advanced Search - Located to the right of the Google Search box, clicking on this link will bring you to a page where you can fine tune your search. Getting specific about exactly what you're searching for is what this feature is all about.


3. Search Preferences - Located underneath Advanced Search, clicking on this link will bring you to a page on the Google site that will allow you to customize how you want Google to display your search results and what language to display those results in, among other things.


4. Language Tools - Below Search Preferences you'll find this link, and clicking on it will bring you to a page where you can translate text and even whole web pages.
   

When you explore these Google features in greater detail, you'll be amazed at how useful they can be!

Step Back In Time With Google News Archive Search

Want to know a quick and easy way to use the Web to search historical archives and read news stories from the past? Just use the Google News Archive Search! This convenient service from Google, the search engine that seems to do it all, lets you venture into the archives of such esteemed news and magazine sources as BBC News, Time Magazine, The New York Times and others.

Some articles are free to read while many require a fee-previews however won't cost you a dime! To find out more about how to get the most out of this site you'll want to read the News Archive Search Help section of the Web site-it's easy to understand and will answer just about any question you have regarding this useful search feature from Google.

How To Use A Search Engine Like A Calculator

Next time you're surfing the Web and find yourself in need of a calculator head to a search engine-not to help you find one online, but because the search engine itself can be used like a calculator! Fact: Many if not all of the most popular search engines include an easy to use calculator feature.

If you use a leading search site like Google, Yahoo! Search, Live Search or Ask, for example, you can do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division right in the search entry box. After typing in what you want to calculate, simply hit enter on your keyboard or the search button on the screen to receive your answer at the top of the search results.

Just remember to use an asterisk (*) for multiplication, and a forward slash (/) for division. The Addition and subtraction symbols are the same as those found on the kind of standard calculator lying around your house.

Thanks to the versatility of search engines a handy calculator is never more than a click or two away!

How To Use The Web To Find A Long Lost Friend Or Relative

Here's the problem: You've got a friend named Jerry that you haven't heard from in more than a decade, or a cousin Sylvia who's been missing in action for even longer. What do you do if you want to reconnect with them but don't have their current addresses or phone numbers? Before you go and hire Philip Marlowe to track them down why not try using one of the many people search services available on the Internet?

People searches or people finders as they're often referred to are simply sites that try to match the name of the person you're searching for against available data from the white pages, public records or other sources. These sites typically offer information on current addresses, phone numbers and even e-mail in some cases.

Here are a few people search sites you can try where basic searches can be conducted for free:

• Yahoo! People Search - People search from Yahoo! offers a free white pages and e-mail search.
• ZabaSearch - A free people search engine whose results include addresses and phone numbers found in U.S. public records.
• Wink - This site takes a different angle on people search-instead of searching the white pages, they help you find people by searching the public profiles posted at online communities like MySpace, LinkedIn and other social networking sites.

Give one of these sites a try...reconnecting with that long lost friend or relative might only be a few clicks away!

How To Use The Web To Find The Best Travel Deals

If you want to use the Web to find the best travel deals you should know about travel search engine sites. Using these types of sites is like having your own private travel assistant who scours the Web for the best travel bargains so you don't have to!

Here are some examples of sites that act like travel search engines:

• Kayak.com
• SideStep.com
• Mobissimo.com

Next time you're trying to find travel discounts on the Web, let one of these sites do the work for you-it's quicker and easier!

How To Use Google To Quickly Find The Store Nearest You

Did you know that there's an easy way to use Google to find the nearest store location of your favorite retailer? For example, let's say you want to find out if there's a Home Depot close to your home. Just follow these easy steps:

1. Go to Google and in the search entry box, type your zip code followed by the store name-in this case it would be Home Depot. (note: in some cases you might need to add the phrase "department store" as well, to differentiate it from businesses in the area with the same name.)

1. Click on Google Search.

That's all there is to it. The resulting page will display a map showing the store locations closest to you. Give it a try!

What Will You Stumble Upon Today While Surfing The Web?

In the offline world you take recommendations from others when deciding what restaurant to eat at or what movie to see, right? Well, now a site called StumbleUpon has brought that concept to the online world of search. Stumbleupon harnesses the collective power of the masses or what they call, "people-driven technology" to help you find the web sites that might interest you most.

From the site:

Using a combination of human opinions and machine learning to immediately deliver relevant content, StumbleUpon presents only web sites which have been suggested by other like-minded Stumblers. Each time the 'Stumble' button is clicked, the user is presented with a high quality web site based on the collective opinions of other like-minded web surfers.

To take full advantage of this service, including the 'Stumble' button in the above quote you'll have to download a piece of free software called the Stumbleupon Toolbar from their homepage. Read Getting Started With StumbleUpon to learn more how this software works, and to see if it's something you think you would enjoy using.

Try A Search Engine With PERSONalilty

Wouldn't it be great if after using a search engine and still not getting the answers you want from it, it would offer help from a real live person? That's the promise of ChaCha.com, a search engine that provides access to human guides in real time when you need further assistance on a search query.

Here's how it works:

1. Go to ChaCha.com, type in what you're looking for in the search entry box and click ChaCha Search.


2. You'll be given a list of results that match your search terms. If you're not satisfied with these results or you need help refining them, simply click on Chat Live with a Guide (Located at the top of the page).


3. On the resulting page you'll be able to chat with a human guide in real time! Just type in your request in the chat box in the left-hand column where it says, Enter message here..., then click Send Message. Your ChaCha guide will personally try to find the most relevant web sources to answer your question!

The time it takes to get a response will vary depending on the guide's competence and the complexity of the question, among other factors, but for those of you who rail against the impersonal nature of technology, this might be just the thing you're looking for!