Searching the web can yield some useless results if you don’t know what you’re doing, but if you have a few tricks up your sleeve you can find just about anything in seconds. Here are some tips for using Google, but they can be applied to almost any other search engine.
Weather
To see the weather for many US and worldwide cities, type “weather” followed by the name of the city or zipcode. You can simply type “weather” to see the weather of your current location.

Map
For a quick map of any where in the world, type “map” and the name of the city you’re looking for.

Local Time
To see the time in many cities around the world, type “time” and the name of the city.

Movie Times
To find reviews and showtimes for movies playing near you, search for “movies”. If you’ve already saved your location on a previous search, the top search result will display showtimes for nearby theaters. Enter a zipcode if you’re specifically looking for showtimes in a particular area.

Dictionary
To find the definition for a word or phrase, simply type the word “define” followed by the word(s).

Unit Conversion
If you ever need to modify a recipe, look for currency exchange rates, or convert between different units of measurement such as height, weight, and volume, just enter your desired conversion and the search engine will do the rest!

Calculator
Google has a built-in calculator function for their search engine that performs simple addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), division (/), as well as more complicated math equations like exponential (^), percentages (% of), square roots (sqrt), and factorials (!).

Sports
To find scores for any sports game of the day, enter the sports association (NBA, NFL, MLB) and receive current up-to-date schedules and scores.

Track Flight Status
Check the status for arriving and departing US flights by typing the name of the airline and flight number.

Track Packages
You can track packages by typing the tracking number for your UPS, Fedex or USPS package directly into the search box. The status of your shipment won’t appear on Google’s search result page, instead, you will get a quick link to track the status of your shipment on the appropriate carrier’s website.

Phrase Search
If you know a specific phrase that you’re looking for — such as a line from a novel or a verse from a popular song — you can use quotation marks to narrow your search. However, you might be missing good results accidentally with such a constrained search. For example, a search for “Alexander Bell” (with quotes) will miss the pages that refer to Alexander G. Bell.

Search Within A Website
Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website. For example, the query “site:deeindesign.com sweet” will return pages about anything relating to “sweet” but only from “deeindesign.com”.

Use keywords, not sentences.
Search broad, then narrow down when you see what kinds of results you’re getting. For instance, instead of typing “How can I speed up my windows PC” in your search box, try using 3 or less keywords and then tighten your search accordingly:
1. “Windows Speed Up”
2. “Windows 7 Speed Up”
3. “Windows 7 Speed up How To”
Add your favorite search engine to your browser toolbar.
Save time by using the search toolbar that comes with your web browser. Just type in what you’re searching for directly from the top of your browser toolbar and go!
Use different search engines for different searches.
Don’t fall into the rut of using one search engine for all your search needs. Every search engine returns different results. The more comfortable you are with a good variety of search engines, the more successful your searches are going to be.