www.KitGuitarsForum.com

You can take Internet search to the 'next' level by using the 'Advanced' search function at google.com.

Here is a good example of a simple way to refine a search.

In this case, I want to search ALL of craigslist (every city, not just my local city) to see what Martin D-18V's are selling for (research for my D-18 project).

Enter this text in the google search bar

site:www.craiglist.org Martin D-18V

This will return all of the craiglist listings for every city with :Martin D-18V in them.

You can do similar things if you are searching for a specific model of power tool, or if you have something you want to sell and want to see how much others are asking.

Here is some basic google search pointers
http://support.google.com/websearch/bin ... &ctx=topic

Here is a link that explains how to use operators line "And" and "or" in a google search to refine your searches.
http://support.google.com/websearch/bin ... wer=136861



You can also use this on the http://www.ebay.com site, but it's a little less useful because it can return very old and even international listings. Ebay also has an 'advanced' search fuction that allows you to specify search paramaters. One that I use often there is the 'search closed listings'.

Here is a page with a bunch of information about using google as a reference tool

https://www.google.com/intl/en/help/features.html

For example, you can have google do your math for you.

If you type a mathematical equation in the search bar, it will return the result for you. For example, if you type in to the search box

(5 * 9) + (sqrt(10)^3) =

You will get: 76.6227766

It will also do unit conversions

For example, if you type into your search box

7.5 inches in mm

You will get: 7.5 inches = 190.5 millimeters

I find myself using these tools all the time.

Embarrasingly I'm not very familiar with Bing's features (Microsoft is a local company for me). If someone here has some useful tips for using Bing search please share. =)

Another one I just thought of that might come in handy.

Google has a translate site that will translate many languages. You can either paste in text and have it translate, or if you have a URL for a website that is in a foreign language, just paste the URL in and it will give you a translated version of the site.

http://translate.google.com/

If you are using Chrome, and navigate to a foreign language site, it will automatically ask to translate it for you.

Good stuff - thx Jim

one more.

Tracking packages, if you just enter a tracking number from any of the major shipping providers, it will return a page with the tracking result.

For those trying to avoid the GoogleMonster, here are some search tips for Bing

http://onlinehelp.microsoft.com/en-US/b ... 08535.aspx

Wow, I learned a few things there Jim. Thanks!