110708_tf_goog_m.jpgIn our very last semester of college, a good friend let us know about a trick she uses to study for exams: Type whatever subject matter you're studying, for example slander and libel in our Law of Mass Communications class, into Google's search box with the phrase "site:.edu" and your results will be notes and practice exams from similar college courses all around the country. That tip is a freebie, but we've got five more obscure Google search tips after the jump...

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5. Get the local time anywhere
What time is it in Bangkok right now? Ask Google. Enter simply "what time is it" to get the local time in big cities around the world, or add the locale at the end of your query, like "what time is it Hong Kong" to get the local time there.




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4. Track flight status
Enter the airline and flight number into the Google search box and get back the arrival and departure times right inside Google's search results.




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3. Use Google as a free proxy
What, your company blocks that hip new web site just because it drops the F bomb occasionally? Use Google's cache to take a peek even when the originating site's being blocked, with cache:example.com.




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2. Find music
Using a combination of advanced search operators that specify music files available in an Apache directory listing, you can turn Google into your personal Napster. Go ahead, try this search for Nirvana tracks: -inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(wma|mp3) "Nirvana". (You can substitute any artist in for "Nirvana" there).




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1. ID people, objects, and foreign language words and phrases with Google Image Search
Google Image search results show you instead of tell you about a word. Don't know what jicama looks like? Spanish rusty and you forgot what "corazon" is? Pop your term into Google Image Search to see exactly what you're talking about. For a little extra credit: If you've ever had to email a person named "Priti" who you're not sure is a woman or a man, add &imgtype=face to the end of your image search to limit your results to just images of faces and hopefully figure out your mystery Pat. Try it out with a search for "rose" (which returns many photos of flowers) versus "rose" with the face parameter.



[ Adapted from Lifehacker ]