Search faster with Google's built-in shortcuts

There's no need to go to a specialty site to find up-to-date information or perform common calculations and conversions. Let Google do the heavy lifting. For example, you can convert measurements simply by typing an amount followed by two measures, such as "20 mi to km" or "32 f to c" to convert miles to kilometers and Fahrenheit to Celsius, respectively. Likewise, to calculate percentages and other simple mathematical equations, enter the terms in the search box to generate the answer in an instant. But that's just the tip of the lightning-info iceberg. Enter a stock ticker, such as "goog" to get a real-time stock quote (as of 3:30 p.m. ET on September 30, 2011, Google's stock is down 9.93 points, or 1.88 percent). Find the sunrise or sunset time by entering one or the other term followed by a location (the same trick works for traffic and weather info). Get the latest sports scores simply by entering a team's name. Was that a tremor or an overloaded semi-truck driving by? Find out by typing "earthquake" in the search box, which generates a list of recent earth movements. Most people track packages by visiting the carrier's site and entering a tracking number. You can skip a step by entering the FedEx, UPS, or USPS tracking number directly in the Google search box. Likewise, get up-to-date flight information by entering the airline name and flight number, or make travel plans by adding "flights to" or "flights from" followed by a location. Google provides a complete list of its Inside Search features, including several designed for searching on your smartphone (I'll describe these options in a future post). For tips on searching Gmail via keyboard shortcuts, see this post from April 2008. With all the search time you'll save, you can spend even more of your workday reading about this year's Ig Nobel Award winners or complaining to your Facebook friends about how much work you have to do before you can kick off your weekend. http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20113975-285/search-faster-with-googles-built-in-shortcuts/