Google to the rescue

Oh the joy of finally getting Netflix in the comfort of your own crib! Watching shows curling under the blanket while munching on popcorn; life is a bliss! And suddenly you recall that book review you never finished and watch the rest of the show stressfully. Not much of a bliss anymore, huh?

Then you remember about your trusty friend Google. It has always been the unprecedented savior of students, and oddly enough, for teachers as well. Yes, teachers have their way around the search engine to optimise their talents. Here are some tricks to master the use of Google to better deal with those moments of desperations, for teachers and students alike.

Conversions

Don’t we all loathe busting our calculator’s conversion mode for doing those pesky conversions? You can spare yourself that hassle by typing the conversion you need directly into the Google address bar and you’ll have your answer within seconds. Give it a try if you don’t believe us.

Timelines

If you are a history teacher, you’d know the struggle of arranging your notes according to the timeline. Let that struggle be history and use "view:timeline" followed by whatever you are researching to get a timeline for that topic.

Definitions

If finding definitions have been the bane of your existence even when the table has turned you need to read this. To find definitions more easily just type "definition:word" in the address bar to find the definition of the word in your results

Details

If Google is your savior Wikipedia is the knight in shining armour for those excruciating projects. Make searching in Wikipedia easier by typing in "site:wikipedia.org" followed by what you want to search for to directly go to the Wikipedia page. Did we mention this works for other websites as well? Just replace the name of the website and you are done!

Specifics

Isn’t it frustrating probing through all the search results most of which don’t even make sense? To get specific and sensible search results, type in “scholar” followed by your query to get results catered only for academic uses

Formats

If you are looking for your results in specific format, there is a cheat code for that too! For example, if you wish your results to be in a PDF format, type in "filetype:pdf" followed by your search term to find results that are only in that file type.

Equations

Thank God for calculator we can do practically any mathematical calculation in seconds, but it is a real hassle when you have to constantly switch back and forth from your calculator to your laptop while working. You can easily solve any mathematical problem just by typing the expression into the search bar.

Notes

You can step up your online research game a notch by using Google Notebook. Using this simple note-taking tool, you can collect your research for a paper or project more efficiently.

Faces

If you are looking for a portrait of that war hero for that project you want to show your students, then just "&imgtype=face" after the search results to narrow your results to those with images of faces.