6 tricks to Google smarter

These six Google search tricks will save you some keystrokes.

1. Get good sources. Add "site:edu" or "site:gov" to limit your search to school or government domains. To target specific sites, type, say, "neutrino site:Harvard.edu."

2. Convert currency and units. Easy: "12 parsecs in light years," for example.

3. Check your stocks. Take a deep breath, then enter a ticker symbol to see a real-time quote.

4. Narrow by file type. To find PowerPoints, Excel spreadsheets, or books scanned into PDFs, add "filetype:ppt" (or any other extension) to your query.

5. Search ranges. Use two periods between two numbers, like "Wii $200..$300."

6. Expect flight delays. Type in the airline, then your flight number.

And if you’re like most people who are still just entering a few keywords and clicking the search button, you’re not using its full power. There are better ways.

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