How to Find Anything Online: Become an Internet Research Expert. Einstein once said, “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” The same could be said of intelligence. What they don’t tell you is that the “smart” people of the world are, in most cases, just better at researching and learning things than everyone else. But researching is a learned skill, not something you’re born with. And while some people might be predisposed to learn things more easily than others, it’s generally not enough to make a measurable difference. By learning how to research, you can quickly and fairly easily become knowledgeable about just about anything. And with the Internet, almost anything you could ever want to know is at your fingertips. It’s all there, online, for free. Start with Wikipedia Whenever you try to learn something new on the Internet, start with Wikipedia.
The main reason to start with Wikipedia is that it gives a good overview of most topics. The key to using Wikipedia as a source, though, is in how you make use of the information. Arts. 6 Things I Bet You Didn’t Know You Could Do with Google. Some of the tips below are effortless to implement and save you a lot of time and energy when dealing with these issues. Let’s start with the first proof of the awesomeness of Google… 1. Create unlimited disposable email addresses with Gmail If you add dots (.) between the letters of your Gmail username, sending an message to the new username will get forwarded to your original email (which is without or with only 1 dot.)
For example: It doesn’t matter how many dots you’ll add between your username, all of the emails sent will go to your original email. Gmail provides another great explanation: Gmail doesn’t recognize dots as characters within usernames, you can add or remove the dots from a Gmail address without changing the actual destination address; they’ll all go to your inbox, and only yours. Homerjsimpson@gmail.com = hom.er.j.sim.ps.on@gmail.comhomerjsimpson@gmail.com = HOMERJSIMPSON@gmail.comhomerjsimpson@gmail.com = Homer.J.Simpson@gmail.com Why is this helpful? 2. So here we go: Google Censorship - How It Works. An anticensorware investigation by Seth Finkelstein Abstract: This report describes the system by which results in the Google search engine are suppressed. Google Exclusion, introduction Google is arguably the world's most popular search engine.
However, contrary perhaps to a naive impression, in some cases the results of a search are affected by various government-related factors. That is, search results which may otherwise be shown, are deliberately excluded. The suppression may be local to a country, or global to all Google results. This removal of results was first documented in a report Localized Google search result exclusions by Benjamin Edelman and Jonathan Zittrain , which investigated certain web material banned in various countries. My discussion here is not meant to criticize Google's behavior in any way. How it works A Google search is not simply a raw dump of a database query to the user's screen.
When Google "removes" material, often it is still in the Google index itself. The Get More Out of Google Infographic Summarizes Online Research Tricks for Students. Top 10 Things You Didn't Know Google Maps Could Do. Infographic: Get More Out Of Google. Folders - Gmail Help. SearchReSearch. Inside Search. Official Google Blog. Less Popular Google Search Tips.
There’s not a day that passes by without searching for information on Google. We’re pretty sure that you’re aware of some advanced Google search operators like AND, NOT, etc. but here are some lesser known tricks that you can implement when you’re searching on Google. We bet you wouldn’t know at least one of these! 1. Forget the site: operator, just use ‘at’ Some of you would have known the site: search operator. You can use it to restrict search results to pages from a particular site (e.g.: [site:lifehacker.com android apps]). This is cumbersome if the site you want to search has a pretty long name. Forget the site operator and use the at keyword instead. 2. The nerds among us would frequently use the define: keyword to look up for definitions.
You needn’t necessarily use the define keyword anymore to get definitions in search results. 3. 4. You can use the tilde (~) operator to search for pages that not only contain the word that follows it, but also its synonyms. 7 Useful Google Cheatsheets – Download for Free! I know that our readers love cheat sheets: our last year’s post listing SEO cheatsheets had a great response. This week I have collected another set of useful lists that will allow you to use Google services to their full potential. Enjoy! 7 useful Google cheatsheets: 1.
Google Search Cheatsheet: Google Shortcuts Download here: Google (and Yahoo) Search Shortcuts A search shortcut is any pre-defined combination of characters / words that allows to quickly get an answer to your initial question. Favorite shortcuts: 2. Download link: Google Advanced Operators Google has quite a few search operators. 3. Download link: Google Analytics Cheatsheet Google Analytics has tons of features – so this cheatsheet (courtesy of Ian Lurie) must have involved tons of work. 4. Download link: Gmail Shortcuts on Scribd and this graphical cheat sheet With Gmail labs and third-party tools, Gmail web interface is quickly becoming the preferred email management application. Personal favorites: 5. Download links: 6. 7. Google Guide Quick Reference: Google Advanced Operators (Cheat Sheet) The following table lists the search operators that work with each Google search service.
Click on an operator to jump to its description — or, to read about all of the operators, simply scroll down and read all of this page. The following is an alphabetical list of the search operators. This list includes operators that are not officially supported by Google and not listed in Google’s online help. Each entry typically includes the syntax, the capabilities, and an example. Allinanchor: If you start your query with allinanchor:, Google restricts results to pages containing all query terms you specify in the anchor text on links to the page. Anchor text is the text on a page that is linked to another web page or a different place on the current page. Allintext: If you start your query with allintext:, Google restricts results to those containing all the query terms you specify in the text of the page.
Allintitle: allinurl: In URLs, words are often run together. Author: cache: define: ext: group: Google Search Operators. Inside Search – Google. 12 VERY POWERFUL Gmail Tips. Google’s Gmail is one uber-powerful tool. It has features that simply blow away other email utilities. Gmail’s arsenal is so robust if it had a users manual it would look like a New York phone book. And getting hit with a ton of worthy features could overwhelm potential users. So we thought it might help if you were introduced to some the ‘gems’ of Gmail and given the ‘what’s what’ on how they work. Whether you already use Gmail, are thinking about adding it or migrating to it there are probably some unique things about Gmail you’ve never knew existed. So take a look below. TIP #1: Create Unlimited Email ‘Aliases’ with One Gmail Account If you want to keep track of how your email address is used (ie, when you sign up to a newsletter), add “.”
So, for example, if your Gmail address is username@gmail.com then you can make variations like: u.sername@gmail.com (remember, you just change the username, not @gmail.com) user.name@gmail.com usernam.e@gmail.com For CNN: username+cnn@gmail.com. 6 Things I Bet You Didn’t Know You Could Do with Google.