Great EntreCard Power Dropping Tips and Information
An experienced EntreCard dropper knows that you can only drop up to 300 cards per day, and this is the max. Once you have hit this limit you need to wait a day before you can drop more cards.
Now 300 cards may sound like a lot when you are new to EntreCard you will soon realize there are many methods people use to “Power Drop” cards. Power Dropping cards means to hit your max of 300 drops in the shortest amount of time possible.
After searching Google and using some techniques and resources other bloggers have mentioned, I have thrown together a very effective power dropping routine that I would like to share with those who are looking to get the most out of EntreCard.
The method I use allows me to drop 300 cards in 30 minutes flat, without violating TOS rules listed on EntreCard’s website. The authors of the EntreCard site themselves have stated that they do not want EntreCard to take away from people working on their blogs.
I actually have two methods I use depending on what I am trying to accomplish that day. I have a speed method which is good when it’s late, or I am in a hurrey and I am also developing a “Power Follow” method to help get even more out of your drops. Let’s cover the Power Drop method first.
Power Dropping
To power drop people will usually compile a list of blogs which load FAST so they can drop as many cards as possible without page load times, or lag. The author of http://www.powerdropping.com/ has come up with a great list of fast loading sites that are work well for speedy drops.
The only problem I had with his list was most of the links opened in the same Window causing me to go back and reload the page. Another resource on his list had links that didn’t change color once they had been visited so it made it hard to tell what sites I had already been to.
I decided to improve on the excellent work they had already done, and created a new Power Drop list which can be located here. New and Improved Power Drop List
My list is an HTML file you can run on your PC, and every link on the list opens in it’s own Window. All the links will also change color once they have been visited, making it very easy to sort out where you have been.
Using this list, I will usually click on 10 links at a time and open 10 new windows. Then I will drop my card on each site, and use the “Alt+F” “Alt+X” command to close the windows. This method is fast! I can usually drop 10 cards in a minute or less. If you are using FireFox you can do the same thing (although I usually open 1 tab at a time because of how they close) and use the “CTRL+W” option to close the tab quickly.
This way you can burn through a list of 300 sites in about 30 minutes flat. Once you get used to opening 10 windows and using the Alt key options to close them things start to really go fast.
The first 25 links on the list do load somewhat slow. They were additions I made because I had open spots on the list after weeding out slow or broken links, You may want to start at 26 and work your way through for the fastest sites. (The other 25 can be used with my Power Follow method to get more return on your drops)
The next method I use I like to call “Power Following” it works in the same way as Power Dropping but adds a little bit more time onto the drop schedule because you are not dropping on completely optimized sites. There is a reason for this, which provides a big benifit that is outlined in the following section.
Power Follow
This method can actually benefit you more than Power Dropping because it gets you a return investment on the 300 cards you drop. I have started compiling a list of self proclaimed “followers” from the “You Drop, I Follow” crowd. There has been some debate as to how well some of these people return your drops but for the most part I have found people tend to be good followers.
The second list that I am working on (which can be downloaded here as a work in progress - “Power Follow List”) has about 150 people who are more likely to drop a card back to you, if you drop one to them. My recommendation would be to use this list for 2-3 days and then do the Power Follow drops from your inbox on EntreCard. This way you will only be dropping to people who have actually dropped back to you, and after 2 or 3 days you should have a good idea of who those people are.
When you drop from your inbox you can “Right Click” on any EntreCard logo you see that has a custom graphic and choose the “Open in new Window” to open several windows just like you would with the Power Drop list. Anyone that does not have a custom logo will need to be clicked on separately as right clicking will not bring up a menu. (Luckily most people have custom EntreCard logos)
This will once again allow you to perform a bunch of speedy drops. Best of all you will get people dropping cards back to you which will allow you to get more than 300 credits a day.
Once you have gone through your inbox and dropped a card back to everyone (who will now drop a card back to you tomorrow) you can work off the “Power Drop” list to finish the other 150-200 drops quickly. You can get a good routine of daily drops back to your account if you use this method.
Additional Ways to Get Credits
Another thing you can do to get more drops back to your account is setup an optimized HTML page for people who Power Drop to use. (And hopefully add to their list)
Because so many of us run Adsense, Referrals, Amazon Widgets, Digg Plugins etc most blogs can have annoying load times when you are trying to power drop 300 cards. Because of this, some users have setup optimized pages off their blog, which are just plain HTML pages that users can bookmark to drop their card to.
If you do this and let people know about your page it is likely that they will add it to their power drop list, which they will go through on a daily basis. The more people that add you to their list the more credits you will get as they drop their card each day.
Good rules to follow when setting up an optimized page are:
01. Create a page just to feature your EntreCard widget. Please do not put ads on this page. It is very annoying and defeats the purpose of doing this.
02. Put a link under your widget so people can get to the main page of your blog. After all EntreCard is about exploring new blogs so give people a way to check out your site if they want to.
03. HTML pages are preferred because they usually load really fast. I have seen some blogs setup an optimized page by keeping ads and widgets to a minimum but for most of us this isn’t possible, so a separate HTML can be very handy.
Please feel free to add Pseudorant’s optimized EntreCard page to your drop list! It can be located here:
http://www.pseudorant.com/powerdrop.htm
That’s about all the information I have for now. I am pretty new to EntreCard myself but I think it is a really great idea for a service. I wanted to share some of the ideas, and things I have been working on since I joined the site.
As always thanks for checking out Pseudorant. We appreciate the support!
Google Guide 03 - Services, Features, Advanced Operators
Google Services and Features - PART 3
Ok. Here is Part 3 of the “Google Rules, Secrets and Easter Eggs” guide. This is long over due so I have finally gotten around to posting it. For the third part of the guide we are going to focus on additional features that Google provides to users.
First let’s take a look at the additional search categories within Google and give a brief explanation of what each one is.
You will notice when you are on the Google search page that there are a couple links at the top of the page. Traditionally these categories are WEB, IMAGES, MAPS, NEWS, SHOPPING, GMAIL and MORE.
Web
Images
Maps
News
Shopping
Gmail
More
These categories can be just as useful as the search operators we discussed earlier as they allow you to refine your searches to specific criteria. Using search operators along with these categories can allow you to find very specific information much quicker than with most search engines.
Let’s take a look at each of these seven categories and see what they are all about.
The first category on the menu is “Web“. By default this is where the page will start. Any searches you perform while you are on the Web tab are obviously going to bring back web pages for search results. This is the service you will use most often when searching through Google. The results are general, but the power of Google’s web crawling will usually bring back very accurate results.
The next category is “Images“. The Images tab allows you to search for pictures on web pages. This is a very specific category as all the search results that are displayed are pictures of your search term. Let’s do an example search for the word “Coffee”. This will give you a better idea of how Google image search works. As you can see all the results that are displayed are specific to your search term. From here you can click on an image and it will take you to the webpage that the image is displayed on. You’ll notice when the webpage loads that Google has a white menu bar at the top of the page. You can click on the thumbnail in this menu bar to get a full size version of the image or browse the page that has loaded to see the image in context. Using Google image search is a good way to find specific images quickly.
The following section is Google “Maps“. Google maps is a very powerful location, and direction search utility. It can be used to find a location, get directions, view satellite images of earth, and view elevations. New features include Google Street View and Traffic. You really need to use Google maps to understand why it is such a powerful and useful utility. There are so many useful features in maps that I have covered it in detail in the “Google Rules, Secrets and Easter Eggs - PART 2″. Please refer to this blog post for additional information on all the features available in Google maps.
Another useful service in Google is the “News” feature. Google news provides up to date information on current happenings around the world. Utilizing news sources from around the country Google has compiled a very thorough news source to bring you your daily news. It is laid out in a very organized manner, sorted by category to make headlines easy to find. Each article listed has a standard news headline, a thumbnail image for the article, the news source it was used from, and a time stamp so you can tell how current the article is. You can then click on the head line to be taken to the original source to read the entire article if you would like more information.
The nicest feature in the news section is the ability to search through articles using the power of the Google search engine. For an example let’s search for “Britney Spears”. [Ah Britney... are you ever not in the news you crazy psycho.] As you can see from the results the main page contains articles that are the most current along with a left hand navigation panel. The navigation panel allows you to sort articles by date to ensure relevant results. A new feature in the left panel is “blogs” which will allow you to search for terms in people’s blogs which can be useful for word of mouth news or other perspectives than those offered by the mainstream media.
You will also notice a feature below blogs called “News Alerts“. [Or "Blog Alerts" depending on the page you are on.] Alerts are basically a way to have Google send you updates on news articles you are potentially interested in. The Alerts will allow you to specify the keywords, the type of results [News. Blogs, Web, Video, Group] and how often you receive alerts. I will go into alerts in a little more detail below.
The next interesting service offered by Google is the “Shopping” link. Google shopping or “Froogle” [Which is now apparently "Google Product Search"] is a search utility that allows sellers to list items in a manner similar to eBay. Unlike eBay there is no auction process involved. You simply list your items so that potential buyers can browse through results using the search power of Google. Unlike a standard web search all the results that come back give users the option to go to a page where they can purchase the item.
One thing you will notice here is how the results are laid out very similar to that of the Google News results. Google uses a standard format for most of it’s search results that enables users to browse topics quickly once they have become familiar with it.
Let’s do an example search for “Nintendo Wii”. As you can see there are almost 90,000 results returned. Keep in mind that unlike the standard web search all of these are potential things to buy. You can see that each result has a thumbnail picture of the item, an item heading or title, the price it is being sold for, the vendor that is selling the item, a review rating on the item, and the option to add the item to your shopping cart. Some search results will give you the option to purchase the item directly through Google while others require that you go through the website of the seller that listed the item.
[As with any purchases on the internet be careful and always double check the source of your purchase. Always make smart decisions to protect you credit cards and your identity from theft.]
The next valuable service offered through Google is “Gmail“. If you are not already a member you have probably at least heard of Gmail. Gmail is Google’s free email offering similar to Microsoft’s Hotmail service. Unlike Hotmail Google provides users with seemingly unlimited storage space in their account. As of this guide the current storage capacity of a Gmail account is 6.5gb! That’s incredible! As someone that frequently uses and send email I can guarantee that you will never run out of space in a Gmail account.
Another great feature about this service is that it is free to sign up and there are no limitations on the number of accounts you can have. [Just availability of names.] The service offers POP services free of charge allowing you to setup your Gmail account on mobile devices like the Black Berry or iPhone.
It also gives you access to another great feature in Google called Google Documents. Google Documents allows you to create and store files online. The current version has the ability to create Microsoft Word and Excel compatible documents, along with Google’s version of Power Point. This is a great free web based alternative to Microsoft Office. It is similar to other free office projects like Open Office. [OpenOffice.org]
In addition to creating these files you can store them online so you have access to them on any computer that has internet access. Another nice feature of these stored documents is the ability to share them with anyone else that has a Gmail account. I have found that this is very useful for planning things with my fiancée like our house budget, monthly budget, bills, vacation plans, party plans, etc. The more you use these features the more uses you will find for them in your daily routine.
That covers the major sections on the Google search page. The last section is “More” which gives you access to additional services and features through Google. I have outlined the sections listed under More and will give a brief explanation of each.
Video
Groups
Books Scholar
Finance
Blogs
YouTube
Calendar
Reader
Video - Video specific search offered through Google. Gives users the ability to search Google Video and YouTube for keyword specific results.
Groups - Searches through online news groups for information pertaining to your keywords. I have found Groups searches to be useful in finding information that is specifically in a forum format. For example “computer troubleshooting” will return results specific to how to fix computers.
Books Scholar - Book information search through Google. Will bring up information specific to almost any book you search for. This does not allow users to read these books but will give them titles, print dates, authors, publishers, summary, number of pages, links to buy, ISBN numbers, web references, etc. This is a great resource for citing sources on papers for projects.
Finance - The Charles Schwab of the Google’s free online services. While it does not give you the option to invest the main page of Google’s finance page gives users a general summary everything going on with the market and stocks. Information is laid out in six main categories.
Recent Quotes
Top Movers
Related News
Today’s News
Market Summary
Sector Summary.
Another useful feature of finance is that it allows you to search for financial information by company. For an example let’s do a search for “Samsung”.
This brings up a list with all the companies that match this name. Each company displays a Name, the Exchange it is listed on, the stock Symbol, the Last Trade price, any Change, and Market Cap [Mkt Cap].
You can see how this can be a valuable to market analysts, potential traders and anyone keeping an eye on the market.
Blogs - The Google Blogs search feature allows you to search online Blogs for topic specific content. As with other Google search features this utilizes the power of the Google web crawler to create an extensive pool of topics. For an example let’s search for “Pseudo Rant”. You can see how many results come up in your search. Unfortunately none of them are my blog yet because I have not received any hits.
YouTube - The Google search feature for YouTube allows users to browses all video offered on the YouTube website. While owned by Google, YouTube still maintains it’s own identity separate from “Google Videos”. The YouTube feature is very similar to the Google Videos feature in that it lets you search for videos by specific keyword. Google Videos seems to be a little more powerful in my opinion as it searches Google Videos and YouTube and will return results from both. This may be a good option if you are looking for a video that you saw specifically on YouTube.
Calander - The Google Calendar is yet another free MS Office type feature available in Google. This feature is similar to Google documents in that it is accessible via your Gmail account. You can add events to your Calendar and use it for scheduling. You can even synchronize it with the Microsoft Outlook calendar and Share events.
Like Google Documents the sharing feature lets you to share information with other Gmail users which allows you to collaborate and work on projects together. The Google Calendar takes this one step further by allowing users to collaborate on scheduling.
Alerts - Google alerts is a service through Google that gives you updates about news, current events, blogs, video and keywords as you see fit. As mentioned above you can setup the alerts to meet specific criteria and times so you do not get inundated with notices in your email. The first page is “Google Alert.com” which is a third party service that is not maintained by Google. I put this on the list because many users feel this alert service is more powerful than the Google news alerts.
The second page is “Google News Alerts” which you can setup for updates on Google News. Another useful alert service that users feel could be expanded upon in the future.
As mentioned before the information I have listed on these services is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to everything you can do with Google. You will remember there “More” function that allows you to view other services within Google. There is also an “Even More” link under the “More” section which gives you access to even more great services. [No Pun intended].
As with everything in Google you will get the most out of it by exploring and getting used to it yourself. Although it never hurts to have a good reference guide to help get your feet wet in the process. Please feel free to link to my guides and share them with your family and friends.
I think a lot of people out there don’t realize how many features they are missing out when they use Google. Just writing this guide has taught me numerous things about the search engine that I didn’t even realize were there.
Below is an extended reference of operators and functions that are also available through Google. These were not listed in previous tables and are another good example of power operators that can be used in your daily routine.
OPERATORS - EXTENDED REFERENCE
OPERATOR & DESCRIPTION
Example: “time in Mexico”
Time In - The “time in” designation allows you to search for the current time in any city in the world based on location. Simply type “time in” followed by the City name you would like to know the current time for.
Example: “$9.99 USD in GBP”
Currency Converter - The currency converter function will allow you to convert one common currency to another. Simply type in the amount to convert [Example $9.99] the currency symbol [USD = US Dollars] then “in” and the currency symbol you would like to convert to “GBP” [Great Brittan Pounds].
Example: “Weather in Madison”
Weather in - The “Weather in” designation allows you to get the current weather forecast for any region in the world. In the example “Weather in Madison” it will sure you that we are currently experiencing a warm 39 degree day!
Intext:
Will only search the text in a webpage. The operator will ignore titles and links found in the page. Useful for ruling out information on a page that is not context specific. [Example: You are looking for the word “Link” as a Zelda reference and want to search to exclude any occurrence of an HTTP “link”.
daterange:
The daterange operator will search for pages that were modified within a specific time frame to help bring back current news and results.
Google Guide 01 - Introduction & Search Operators
Google Guide 02 - Definitions, Maps, Driving Directions
Google Guide 03 - Services, Features, Advanced Operators
Google Guide 04 - Web History, Bookmarks, Labs & Easter Eggs
Google Guide 02 - Definitions, Maps, Driving Directions
Google Features and Tools - PART 2
Hey! Welcome back to the rant. In the second part of this guide we will be going over useful features and tools in Google.
I have broken these down into three sections. The first section will cover what I consider more like services that Google provides you. This includes Definitions, Driving Directions, and Translations. I also use these all the time so I feel they are a good place to start.
The other two sections are broken into two parts. They are features Google offers which are useful but not as much as the services we will cover. I have split these features into two parts which will cover the most useful features first, followed by a section that covers less common features that are worth mentioning.
Section 1 - Services offered by Google
The first three services or features of Google that I would like to cover are Definitions, Google Maps, and Driving Directions. These are major functions that Google provides to users which I use on a daily basis.
DEFINITIONS
Definitions are Google’s ability to explain the meaning of a word for users. This can be useful for many different reasons. I use it the most when I am writing a letter or document and want to confirm that I understand the correct usage of a word.
There are two main ways to get a definition for a word through Google. You can use the define: operator which I talked about in part one of this guide. To use this operator all you need to do is type [ define:word ]. Notice the colon after the define tag and the lack of a space between the operator and the word I want a definition for. It is very important that you use the correct syntax when manually specifying operators. If you usedd the define:word example you would see a heading that says “Definitions of word on the Web:” Below this you will see various definitions that are associated with the word, “word”. This technique can be used for any word you would like a definition for.
The second method for getting a definition for a word is a little easier since you do not need to remember the define operator. All you need to do is type the word you would like a definition for into the Google Search bar. Once you have completed your search you will notice a “definition” link in the blue bar above your search results. [This is located on the right side of the blue bar labeled "Web" that appears above your search results.] When you click on this link it will provide you with definitions for the word you typed into your search. You will notice that this is provided through a different website than if you were to use the define: operator manually. Being a definition for a word, it doesn’t change much from site to site so this is another useful way to find definitions.
As I mentioned before there are many uses for this feature. You can verify the usage of a word, double check your spelling, see alternate usages for a word, and clarify confusion surrounding words you are unfamiliar with. The next major function that Google provides users with is the Google Maps feature.
GOOGLE MAPS
Google Maps is a VERY powerful search function that allows users to access maps and geographical data from around the world.
You can access Google maps in two different ways. You can start by typing in a location. For our example we are going to use New York City. When you type this into your search box you will notice a small map icon at the top of the search result. If you click on this map icon it will take you directly to a map of New York City.
The other way to access Google maps is from the links located at the top of the Google search window. Since maps is a very common and very popular feature it is located right near the “web” and “images” links. When you click on the “Maps” link the screen will change to a map of the United States. You can now enter a location in the “Search Maps” field and it will bring up the location you are looking for.
Regardless of how you got to Google maps, let’s perform our search for New York City. Once you have typed this in, click on the “Get Directions” button and you will notice the screen change to a map of New York City. The first thing you will see is the text bubble on the middle of the map which gives you access to other options through Google maps. You can get directions to and from this location and also from nearby locations. The other thing you will notice is the “Popular searches near this location” located to left side of the window. Clicking on any of these options will refine your search and give you a more detailed view of specific areas located near your location. Click on any of the nearby locations to get a more detailed view of the map. From this perspective you should now be able to read street names, river names, parks and other labeled areas on the map.
You can get an even more detailed view by using the + / - slider located on the upper left side of the map. This will cause your view to zoom closer to or farther away from the map. The same thing can be done by scrolling the wheel on your mouse while your cursor is over the map. You will also notice a direction pad above the slider in the left corner of the map. This allows you to pan your view across the map to look at different locations without needing to zoom in or out. This can also be done using the mouse, by clicking on any area of the map. You will see the little hand cursor turn into a fist as though you grabbed the map. Once you have grabbed the map you can move you mouse in any direction to change the visible area being displayed on the map.
One other thing to note on the left side of the map is the scale unit located at the bottom corner of the map. This scale unit will change as you scroll in or out from the map to give you an idea of relative scale for distance compared to what you are looking at. This is useful because of how dramatically distances change when you are constantly scrolling in or out of a map. For our next example let’s use this scale unit and scroll in until we are at 200 feet. From this distance you should be able to see a very detailed view of things on the map.
Another really cool feature to be aware of is the three paneled button in the upper right hand corner of the map. It is labeled Map, Satellite, and Terrain. By default the “Map” option is always selected when you open Google maps. For our example and a very cool demonstration of how powerful the Google maps features are let’s click on the “Satellite” button.
When you do this you will see the map change from your standard map view of roads and streets to an actual satellite image of the area you are looking at. Go ahead and use the scroll button on your mouse to move the scale unit to 20 feet. From this height you will realize that not only can you see cars and trucks in some cases you can see people walking down the street. Talk about a powerful search utility.
One thing to keep in mind is that the satellite shots are comprised of information this is gathered from satellite surveys of areas. This means that the picture you are seeing is not a “real-time” image. Instead you are seeing pictures that are a couple weeks or months old. Since geographical locations do not change much over night this really isn’t that big an issue, since most places you are looking at will look the same if you were to visit them a year or two from now.
The other button to make note of at the top is the Terrain button. While in my opinion it is not as interesting as the Satellite view, it is still a very useful feature. Now if you click this when you are looking at New York City you are probably not going to see much of a change. Let’s click on the Terrain button and do a search for a new location.
After you have click on Terrain type in a new search location. For this example let’s use Colorado. When the new map comes up immediately you will notice the affect the Terrain button has on the map. You should now be able to get a better idea of the landscape of a certain region of the country. This can be useful if you are traveling through areas you are unfamiliar with and you want to plan the easiest driving route, or if you just want to see some cool sights.
There have recently been two new buttons added to Google maps. They are ones you will definitely want to become familiar with. They are the “Street View” and “Traffic” options on the map. Let’s type in a new location one more time.
This time let’s use San Francisco. Once you have typed in the new location click “Search Map” and you will now see a map of San Francisco, California. From this location I can demonstrate another very cool feature of Google maps know as “Street View”. When you click on the Street View button you will notice a series of roads on the map get high-lighted in blue. You will also notice a small camera appear at the center of your new location. Click on this camera and it will give you the option to “Zoom in to select a street view location”. Click on the “Zoom In” link and the map will take you into a scale unit of 2000 feet on the map.
You will also notice a small yellow person in the middle of the map. You can drag this person around the map like a playing piece in a game. The thing you will notice when you do this is a new window that opens over the map with a picture of the exact spot you are standing on the map. Amazing!!
The other incredible thing you will notice is the ability to click on the picture and move your mouse while holding the left button down to pan your view inside the picture. Years ago this would have seemed like black magic to people but now this is just another handy feature located in Google. You will also notice a slider bar in the picture along with a left and right arrow. Same as with Google maps you can use the slider to zoom in or out of the picture. This will allow you to get more detail and read names on street signs, buildings, addresses and even see people walking by here and there.
Same as the Satellite function these pictures are not in real-time. They were taken by Google maps cars that drove around certain cities with 360 degree cameras on the top of the vehicle. The 360 degree camera allowed them to create these images that you can pan, as they surveyed major roads in a city.
Another feature to note is the left and right arrows located above the zoom slider which allow you to pan a preset distance within the image if you do not want to pan manually with the mouse. The last interesting feature to note is the directional arrows that run up and down the street. This shows the path the Google cars took when surveying the city. It also allows you to click on an arrow and move down the street as if you were taking a walk. This is such a cool feature if you are trying to get a more detailed view of certain sections of the area.
From here you can either click on the X in the corner to close the image window. The “Full Screen” link to get a better view of things. Or the “Street View Help” link for more information on Google Street View. As with anything on the internet you will learn about more useful features and tricks as you experiment. I have tried to cover most of the major functions and uses of these features but feel free to play with them on your own to become even more familiar with their use.
The last big Google function we are going to cover is the “Driving Directions” feature.
DRIVING DIRECTIONS
Driving Directions are useful for so many reasons. Whether you are planning a trip or trying to find your way to the store knowing the fastest way can save you time and money.
Most people are familiar with Google maps and driving directions but for those who are not Google offers you the ability to find step by step directions to almost any location on Earth. To make use of this feature you need to type in the name of the location you are trying to find.
For our example lets use Ron Jon’s Surf Shop, located in Cocoa Beach, Florida. [Which I happen to know form a recent vacation] When you type in your search terms you will want to phrase them as LOCATION, CITY, STATE ABBREVIATION. For this example you would type out your query as follows:
Ron Jon’s Surf Shop, Cocoa Beach, FL
You will notice that in your search results there is now a map at the top of the page. Google will sometimes also offer corrections by asking “Did you mean…?” In my example you will notice Google offers a correction which removes the apostrophe from “Jon’s”. In either case they both bring up a map which shows the correct location.
There are two ways to get driving directions to this location. You will notice that next to the map on the right it shows you the name of the business, the website, and the address and phone number. Underneath this information you will see a blue link that says “Get Directions”. When you click on the “Get Directions” link it takes you to a new page that shows you a close up of the map and location.
You will notice that at the top of the page there is a field label “Start Address”. You will want to put in the address of where you are driving from in the start address box. For this example we will use “Nashville, TN”. Type in Nashville, TN and click the “Get Directions” button. As you see the map changes and now shows you a route from your location to the location you had originally searched for. What’s even better is that on the left hand side of the screen you will notice a numbered listing that provides you with step by step directions on how to get to your that location.
Another interesting feature is the “Get reverse directions” link which is listed at the top of the directions window on the left side of the page. This is useful for finding your way back from a location if you are traveling far like on vacation or you just don’t remember your way home. This is the easiest way to get directions through Google.
As I mentioned the alternate way to do this is when you search for a location to just click on the map instead of the “Get Directions” link. This will take you right to the larger map. This is very similar to what you did last time except now you can click right on the “Get Directions” tab below the “Search Maps” field. You will notice that when you do this the box will split into two boxes. This should look just like how you did it the first time. This is just one slight variation you can use if you are looking through several maps and then realize you need directions.
Since this guide turned out to be WAY bigger than I originally planned I am going to break this into its own section. I will continue to add more to each guide as I think of it and continue writing additional guides as I find time. Please feel free to comment on this guide and tell me what you think. As of yet my Blog really doesn’t have anyone reading it but I figured I should try and add a couple posts before I try to let people know it’s here. I hope you enjoyed this rant!
Google Guide 01 - Introduction & Search Operators
Google Guide 02 - Definitions, Maps, Driving Directions
Google Guide 03 - Services, Features, Advanced Operators
Google Guide 04 - Web History, Bookmarks, Labs & Easter Eggs
Google Guide 01 - Introduction & Search Operators
Welcome to PseudoRant!
Hey there! Welcome to Pseudo Rant. My name is Paul and I will be hosting this erratic collection of thoughts and ideas. I am actually pretty new to the world of blogging but I have been working with computers ever since I was a kid.
I was wondering about, how people will actually find my blog which gave me a good idea for my first random topic.
“Google Rules, Secrets and Easter Eggs”
Over the years I have come to realize just how powerful Google is as a search utility and wanted to share some of the tricks I have learned with others to help them get the most out of using it.
So without further delay let’s jump right into it…
Introduction - PART 1
Google is a VERY powerful search utility. You can use it to find almost anything. The key to getting the most out of Google is using all of the extended features and advanced functions it offers to users.
A good starting point for more information on using Google is the “Google Guide” website.
It is a site that is structured to walk users through basic features all the way up to some of the more advanced functions of Google.
I am guessing that a lot of users are already familiar with the basics and are looking for tricks that will help them improve the search functions they already know. If this is the case you may want to skip on to the different Parts of the Google Guide.
I recommend reading at least chapters 6 - 16 in Part I if you are not familiar with these topics already.
Another good source of basic information is provided through Google’s “Web Search Help Center”.
To save you time I am creating a table of all the major operators used by Google with a description of what they do. If you do not feel like exploring the resources listed above you can always experiment with the operators in the table to see what they do.
The examples listed in the description are setup so you can copy and paste them into Google if you are not clear on the syntax of the operator from the description.
GENERAL SEARCH OPERATORS
OPERATOR & DESCRIPTION
OR
Used to search for two terms in a page. Google will search for the first term and the second term in results. Results will contain at least one of the terms, or both. The OR operator must be capitalized when used or Google will think it is a search term.
| (Pipe Character)
Another designation for the OR operator. Can be used in place of the OR search operator. (See above for description on usage.)
” ”
Quotations are used to specify searches for exact wordings. One good example of this is to search for a lyric from a song. (Example: “You used to laugh about” )
-
Used to flag terms you do not want to appear in your results. The minus sign needs to be used without a space for the term/s you would like to exclude. (Example: Presidents -Bush )
+
Used to specify words you NEED included in your search. Google by default will drop common words like “the” “and” “of” etc. To specify that a term that is commonly dropped needs to be included in the search, you need to precede the term with a + sign. Just like the - there should be no space between the + and the search term.
~
The ~ or (Tilde) is used when you want to search for your term and variations of that term. (Synonyms) It is used in the same way the + and - is used with no space between the ~ and your search term. (Example: PC ~game )
ADVANCED OPERATORS
OPERATOR & DESCRIPTION
cache:
Used to go directly to the cached version of a website. This is the same as selecting the “cache” option within search results expect you can specify Google take you there directly.(example: cache:stage6.divx.com )
link:
The link operator lets you search all sites that contain the instance of the website you are searching for. (Example: link:www.cpusolutions.com )
related:
The related operator will find a list of sites that are similar to the address you specified. This can be good if you are looking for information, media or a program that can be found on multiple sites. (Example: related:www.youtube.com )
info: The info operator can save you some time as it brings up options for 5 common operators below the site name. (cache, related, linkto, linkfrom, link) It is a good operator to use if you cannot remember the syntax for a specific sire related search. (Example: info:www.gamespot.com )
site:
The site operator is used to specify search results only from a given site. This can be useful if the site you are trying to get information from does not have a useful search feature. You would use the site operator followed by the address of the website you are exploring along with a term to search for within that site. (Example site:www.imdb.com Wanted )
allintitle:
The allintitle operator searches for all the search terms you specify in the title bar on the top of a webpage. In most browsers this will be the blue bar the top of the screen. (Example: allintitle:Custom Performance Gaming PCs )
intitle:
The intitle perator is similar to the allintitle command but can be used in a different way to narrow down search results. It can be used with standard query searches to refine results(Example: Video Games intitle:top 100 )
allinurl:
The all inurl operator will search for terms within the address of a website. This is useful if you are looking for something very specific on a website. (Example: allinurl:Techcenter HTML Guides )
inurl:
The standard inurl operator is similar to the intitle command in that it lets you narrow down your search. It can be used in conjunction with a general query to return very specific results. (Example: Crysis Demo inurl:www.cnet.com )
SPECIALIZED SEARCH OPERATORS
OPERATOR & DESCRIPTION
define:
Used to have Google define what a words means. Similar to a dictionary function in other websites or programs. This can be done right from the Google search page. Great alternative if you do not have access to spell check.
stocks:
The stocks operator can be used to bring up stock information for specific companies right through Google. If you already know the stock symbol for the company you can use this operator to bring up stock information directly through Google. (Example: stocks:NDAQ )
movie:
The movie operator can be used to bring up movie information and reviews directly through Google. This is useful to get lots of information about a movie at a glance. It is also useful for bringing up multiple movies with a common word in the name. (Example: movie:Jumper )
book:
The book operator can be used to bring up book information and reviews directly through Google. This is useful to get lots of information about a book/s at a glance. It can be very useful for getting information on a book series. (Example: book:Harry Potter )
weather:
The weather operator is very useful for finding out information about local weather conditions and weather around the world. All you need to do is type in a city name after the weather: tag and Google will directly display a four day forecast for the query. (Example: weather:Madison )
time:
Similar to the weather operator the time operator will bring up what time it is anywhere in the world directly through Google. This is very useful if you have friends in other parts of the world, or just want to know time without having to mess with a time zone map. (Example: time:New York City )
I hope that someone finds this information useful. I am going to wait and see if I get any comments before writing PARTS 2, and 3.
If people find this guide helpful I will continue to add on to the tables, and write additional information which will eventually get into the Easter Eggs and Secrets hidden in Google.
I hope you enjoyed the first addition to my Blog. Please feel free to comment or email me with any feedback you may have on the article or anything you would like to see added. I will add the next part of this guide in the next few days as time permits.
Google Guide 01 - Introduction & Search Operators
Google Guide 02 - Definitions, Maps, Driving Directions
Google Guide 03 - Services, Features, Advanced Operators
Google Guide 04 - Web History, Bookmarks, Labs & Easter Eggs
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