Google
Features
In addition to providing easy access to more than 3 billion web pages, Google has many special features to help you to find exactly what you're looking for. Click the title of a specific feature to learn more about it.
| • Cached Links | View a snapshot of each page as it looked when we indexed it. |
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| • Dictionary Definitions | View a dictionary definition for any or all parts of your query. |
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| • File Types | Search for non-HTML file formats including PDF documents and others. |
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| • I'm Feeling Lucky | Bypass our results and go to the first web page returned for your query. |
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| • News Headlines | Enhances your search results with the latest related news stories. |
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| • PhoneBook | Look up U.S. street address and phone number information. |
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| • Similar Pages | Display pages that are related to a particular result. |
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| • Site Search | Restrict your search to a specific site. |
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| • Spell Checker | Offers alternative spelling for queries. |
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| • Stock Quotes | Use Google to get stock and mutual fund information. |
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| • Street Maps | Use Google to find U.S. street maps. |
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| • Web Page Translation | Provides English speakers access to a variety of non-English web pages. |
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| • Who links to you? | Find all the pages that point to a specific URL. |
| Cached Links |
Google takes a snapshot of each page examined as it crawls the web and caches these as a back-up in case the original page is unavailable. If you click on the "Cached" link, you will see the web page as it looked when we indexed it. The cached content is the content Google uses to judge whether this page is a relevant match for your query.
When the cached page is displayed, it will have a header at the top which serves as a reminder that this is not necessarily the most recent version of the page. Terms that match your query are highlighted on the cached version to make it easier for you to see why your page is relevant.
The "Cached" link will be missing for sites that have not been indexed, as well as for sites whose owners have requested we not cache their content.
| Dictionary Definitions |
To use Google to find dictionary definitions, enter your query into the search box as you would normally. Any or all parts of your query for which we have a dictionary definition will be underlined in the center text above our search results, as seen for the query "search" in the following example:
example: Google results 1-100 of about 63,700,000 for search. Search took 0.22 seconds.
Clicking on the link will take you to the relevant definition from a dictionary provider, which has been selected solely on the basis of its quality. If you have a favorite dictionary source that you'd like to suggest that we use, please email us at suggestions@google.com.
Google has expanded the number of non-HTML file types searched to 12 file formats. In addition to PDF documents, Google now searches Microsoft Office, PostScript, Corel WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, and others. The new file types will simply appear in Google search results whenever they are relevant to the user query.
Google also offers the user the ability to "View as HTML", allowing users to examine the contents of these file formats even if the corresponding application is not installed. The "View as HTML" option also allows users to avoid viruses which are sometimes carried in certain file formats.
Overall, the additional file types provide Google users a wider view of the content available on the World Wide Web. And Google has plans to keep expanding the range of file types available over time.
For more information about this feature, please read the file type FAQ.
If you prefer to see a particular set of results without file types (for example, PDF links), simply type filetype:[extension] (for example, filetype:pdf) within the search box along with your search term(s).
| example: |
| I'm Feeling Lucky |
The "I'm Feeling Lucky™" button takes you directly to the first web page Google returned for your query. You will not see the other search results at all. An "I'm Feeling Lucky" search means you spend less time searching for web pages and more time looking at them.
For example, to find the homepage for Stanford University, simply enter Stanford into the search field and click on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button. Google takes you directly to "www.stanford.edu", the official homepage of Stanford University.
| example: |
| News Headlines |
When searching on Google you may see links at the top of your results marked "News". These links connect you to reports culled from numerous news services Google continuously monitors. The links appear only if the terms you enter are words currently in the news and clicking on them will take you directly to the service supplying them.
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Google has added the convenience of US street address and phone number lookup to the information we provide through our search box. You'll see publicly listed phone numbers and addresses at the top of results pages for searches that contain specific kinds of keywords. |
To find listings for a US business, type the business name into
the Google search box, along with the city and state. Or type the business
name and zip code. Entering the phone number with area code will also
return a complete business listing.
To find listings for a US residence, type any of the following combinations into the Google search box:
- first name (or first initial), last name, city (state is optional)
- first name (or first initial), last name, state
- first name (or first initial), last name, area code
- first name (or first initial), last name, zip code
- phone number, including area code
- last name, city, state
- last name, zip code
If your query results in business and residential listings, both categories will be listed for your convenience.
To have your residential or business phone and address information removed from the Google PhoneBook, click here.
| Similar Pages (GoogleScout) |
When you click on the "Similar Pages" link for a search result, our GoogleScout technology automatically scouts the web for pages that are related to this result.
GoogleScout can be used for many purposes. If you like a particular site's content, but wish it had more to say, GoogleScout can find sites with similar content with which you may be unfamiliar. If you are looking for product information, GoogleScout can find competitive information so you can make direct comparisons. If you are interested in researching a particular field, GoogleScout can help you find a large number of resources very quickly, without having to worry about selecting the right keywords.
GoogleScout finds similar pages for many millions of web pages. However, the more specialized a page is, the fewer results GoogleScout can find for you. For example, GoogleScout may not be able to find related pages for your personal home page, if it does not have enough information to authoritatively associate other pages with yours. Also, if companies use multiple URLs for their pages (such as company.com and www.company.com), GoogleScout may have little information on one URL but lots on the other. In general, however, GoogleScout works well for the majority of web pages.
| Site Search |
The word "site" followed by a colon enables you to restrict your search to a specific site. To do this, use the site:sampledomain.com syntax in the Google search box. For example, to find admission information on Stanford's site, enter:
| example: |
| Spell Checker |
Google's spell checking software automatically looks at your query and checks to see if you are using the most common version of a word's spelling. If it calculates that you're likely to generate more relevant search results with an alternative spelling, it will ask "Did you mean: (more common spelling)?". Clicking on the suggested spelling will launch a Google search for that term. If no results at all are returned for your original spelling, Google will automatically search again on the closest alternative and display results for that search. Because Google's spell check is based on occurrences of all words on the Internet, it is able to suggest common spellings for proper nouns (names and places) that might not appear in a standard spell check program or dictionary.
To use Google to get stock and mutual fund information, just enter one or more NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, or mutual fund ticker symbols, or the name of a corporation traded on one of the stock indices. If Google recognizes your query as a stock or mutual fund, it will return a link that leads directly to stock and mutual fund information from high quality financial information providers.
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Look for the link for your ticker symbol query (e.g. "SUNW") at the top of your search results. If you search on a company name (e.g. "Sun Microsystems"), look for the "Stock Quote:" link on the final line of Google's result for that company's homepage (e.g. www.sun.com). www.sun.com/ - 31k - Cached - Similar pages - Stock Quote: SUNW <<< |
| example: |
| Street Maps |
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To use Google to find street maps, enter a U.S. street address, including zip code or city/ state (e.g. 165 University Ave Palo Alto CA), in the Google search box. Often, the street address and city name will be enough. |
| example: |
Google breaks the language barrier with this translation feature. Using machine translation technology, Google now gives English speakers access to a variety of non-English web pages. This feature is currently available for pages published in Italian, French, Spanish, German, and Portuguese.
If your search has non-English results, there will be a link to a version of that page translated into English.
For more information about this feature, please read the translation FAQ.
| Who links to you? |
Some words, when followed by a colon, have special meanings to Google.
One such word for Google is the link: operator. The query link:siteURL
| example: |
