Section 33. About Other Google Specialized Searches

33. About Other Google Specialized Searches

BEFORE YOU BEGIN	SEE ALSO
Perform a Basic Google Search Perform an Advanced Google Search About Google Search Operators	About Power Searching Strategies About Finding Images with Image Search Search Through Google Groups Search Through Blogs with Google

You can do far more specialized searches with Google than can possibly be covered in this chapter, and probably even in an entire book. And more specialized search opportunities become available all the time. Following is a brief list of other areas of Google you can use for specialized searches:

• Google Answers

  http://answers.google.com/answers

  This is the ultimate specialized search site. Pose a question, and you get an answer, although for a fee. It works quite simply: Type your question, and it is sent out via email to researchers who have been screened by Google. You then get a list of researchers and the prices they'll charge to answer your question. Click one, and you can get the answer and pay for it.

• Google Zeitgeist

  www.google.com/zeitgeist

  Zeitgeist is a German word that means the general cultural and intellectual climate of the moment. How to measure the current zeitgeist? Google has come up with a clever solutionlook at what search terms are the most popular on Google. Head to this site, and that's exactly what you see. It changes weekly.

• Google Catalogs

  http://catalogs.google.com

  Are you a big fan of catalog shoppingbusinesses such as L.L.Bean, Williams-Sonoma, Crutchfield, and more? Head to this site, and you can search through multiple catalogs or browse individual catalogs.

• Google University Search

  www.google.com/options/universities.html

  If you're looking to search through university websites, here's the place to go. Look on the list for a university, click the link, and then do a search on that university's site for whatever you're interested in.

Tip

Want to test-drive Google's newest features? Head to the Google Labs site at http://labs.google.com. That's where Google introduces and tests new features and products. Not all of them make the cut, so you might find features there that are eventually killed. But most new features start off in the labs first.

If that's not enough for you, Google has put together a page that enables you to do many kinds of specialized searcheseverything from searching for books to searching dictionaries, finding movie reviews, and more. Go to www.google.com/help/features.html and click the kind of search you want to do. You are sent to a search box. Use that box as you would normally use Google, and it does your specialized search for you.

Note

Alternatively, click the More link above the search box on the main Google screen to see the More, more, more page with a similar list of search optionsincluding a link to Google Labs. The www.google.com/help/features.html page is more comprehensive than the more, more, more page, and better still is that you can do searches right from the features pagein many cases, there's no need to click to another site.

If you're the trusting sort, you can do an I'm Feeling Lucky search from Google's main page. Type your search terms and click the I'm Feeling Lucky button; Google sends you straight to the most relevant page it findsthe search result that would normally be at the top of a search results page.