Beneath its deceptively simple search form, Google is a remarkably powerful and flexible search engine that indexes billions of web pages, handling more than 150 million searches a day. You know that what you're looking for must be in there somewhere, but how do you make Google work for you?

Crafted from our best-selling Google Hacks title, the Google Pocket Guide provides exactly the information you need to make your searches faster and more effective, right from the start. The Google Pocket Guide unleashes the power behind that blinking cursor by delivering:

• A thorough but concise tour of Google's features
• Practical examples to inspire going beyond the basic keyword search
• Secrets for constructing more powerful queries using Google's special syntax
• Advice on how to understand and further refine the results Google provides

Whether you're a student researching a topic for class, a medical or legal professional needing field-specific reference information, or a home user looking for that article on home repair you forgot to bookmark, the Google Pocket Guide will take you from mystified to mastery.

Contents

• Introduction

• What Can You Do with Google?
  • What Google Isn't
  • What Google Is
  • A Simple Example
  • Improving Your Google Results

• Asking for What You Want
  • Google Basics
  • Full-Word Wildcards
  • The 10-Word Limit
  • Special Syntax
  • Mixing Syntax
  • Advanced Search
  • Specialized Vocabularies: Slang and Terminology

• Understanding What You Get
  • Setting Preferences
  • Anatomy of a Search Result
  • Understanding Google URLs
  • Checking Spelling

• Other Google Services and Features
  • Google Directory
  • Google Groups
  • Google Images
  • Google News
  • Google Catalogs
  • Froogle
  • Language Tools
  • Consulting the Dictionary
  • Consulting the Phonebook
  • Tracking Stocks
  • Searching Article Archives
  • Finding Directories of Information
  • Finding Technical Definitions
  • Finding Weblog Commentary
  • The Google Toolbar
  • Googling with Bookmarklets

• Appendix
• Syntax Summary
• Julian Dates
• Index