Maximum Google

We've found more than 25 ways to customize your Google searches; locate the sites, images, and news you want faster; and train Google to work even smarter--more the way you do.

Master Essential Search Secrets

Highlight Search Terms on a Web Page On some large and complex Web pages, it can be hard to find the text related to your search query. Don't despair--the Google Toolbar gives you two cool tools. Click its Google button, choose Toolbar Options, scroll to 'Finding words within a page', and fill the check boxes next to the Highlight and Word Find buttons. From now on, you can click the Highlight button on the toolbar to toggle colored highlighting of the words in your most recent search, or you can click one of your search word icons beside the Highlight button to find the next occurrence of the search words.

Use the Toolbar Google's handiest tool is its toolbar (toolbar.google.com), which augments Internet Explorer with a search field and links to other Google services: The toolbar lets you initiate a search--even an advanced one--more quickly than by loading Google's page every time. All of our tips assume that you can use the toolbar. But there's a catch: The toolbar works only with IE 5 or later. Users of other browsers can drag and drop Google buttons onto the toolbar, instead (see Google's "Our Search: Browser Buttons" page for instructions), or download GGSearch, a third-party plug-in for Google (and other search engines) that works with most browsers, including IE.

Quick Tip Save space in Google's Toolbar with the Combined Search feature, which turns one search button into a drop-down menu of search options. Click the Google button, and select Toolbar Options. Clear all of the Search Buttons check boxes, and click experimental features, a link near the bottom of the page. On the new page, fill in the Combined Search button check box, and click OK twice.

Results Open a New Window If you left-click a link on a Google search results page, you might lose your way back to the search results. Instead, tell Google to open a new browser window with each click--the same effect as if you use the Open in New Window option, only easier. In the Google Toolbar, click the Google button and select Search Preferences Page. Fill in the check box labeled Open search results in a new browser window.

Translate Whole Pages I often get search results for Web pages written in German, but English is easier for me to read. Google can translate an entire Web page from German, Spanish, French, Italian, or Portuguese into English--or vice versa. To do this, simply copy the page's address, click the Google button on the toolbar, select Language Tools, paste the copied URL into the 'Translate a web page' field, make your language selection from the drop-down list, and click Translate. Presto!

Translate Foreign Phrases Google can quickly turn a phrase in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish, or it can translate something from any of those languages into English. On the Language Tools page mentioned above, enter the phrase you want translated in the 'Translate text' box, and use the drop-down list beneath it to pick your language. Computerized translation is still in its infancy, so be warned: Google text may elicit a puzzled response from native speakers.

What's the Date? Google doesn't let you search by date, but you can work around this limitation by using plus and/or minus signs (hyphens) next to a date or year. If you want to view only articles about the 2003 tour of the band REM, for example, try "REM tour" +2003 -2000 -2001 -2002. If that's not good enough, or if you need to search by date often, try the Google Ultimate Interface, a cool site that lets you add more parameters for Google searches, including date ranges, file types, language, and country.

Search Engine Dictionary Need a dictionary definition fast? Search for the word, and then click the underlined word in the blue bar at the top of the results page. Google checks the spelling, too, and offers a correction, if necessary. Just enter spell: followed by the word. Try it: Enter spell: troble.

Search for Shakespeare in the Original Klingon Multilingual Web searchers rejoice: You need suffer no longer the ignominy of having to use an English-language interface in Google. You can modify Google's interface so that its menus, buttons, and advanced search fields are labeled in any of 88 languages or language variations (including a few silly ones, like Pig Latin, Elmer Fudd, and, yes, even Klingon). On the Google home page, click the Preferences link and then choose a language from the Interface Language drop-down menu, located at the top of the page.