Search Features

Improve Your Search Experience

In addition to providing easy access to billions of web pages, Google has many special features to help you find exactly what you're looking for. Some of our most popular features are listed below.

Everyday Essentials

Weather

To see the weather for many UK and worldwide cities, type "weather" followed by the name of the city or postcode.

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Stock Quotes

To see current market data for a given company or fund, type the ticker symbol into the search box. On the results page, you can click the link to see more data from Google Finance.

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Time

To see the time in many cities around the world, type "time" and the name of the city.

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Sports Scores

To see scores and schedules for sports teams, type the team name or league name into the search box. All sports data provided by STATS, Inc.

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Reference Tools

Calculator

To use Google's built-in calculator function, simply enter the calculation that you'd like done into the search box.

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Book Search

If you’re looking for results from Google Book Search, you can enter the name of the author or book title into the search box and we’ll return any book content that we have as part of your normal web results. You can click through on the record to view more detailed info about that author or title.

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Unit Conversion

You can use Google to convert between many different units of measurement of height, weight and mass among others. Just enter your desired conversion into the search box and we’ll do the rest.

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Choosing Keywords

Synonym Search

If you want to search not only for your search term but also for its synonyms, place the tilde sign (~) immediately in front of your search term.

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Dictionary Definitions

To see a definition for a word or phrase, simply type the word "define" then a space, then the word(s) that you want defined. To see a list of different definitions from various online sources, you can type "define:" followed by a word or phrase. Note that the results will define the entire phrase.

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Spell Checker

Google’s spell checking software automatically checks whether your query uses the most common spelling of a given word. If it thinks that you’re likely to generate better results with an alternative spelling, it will ask “Did you mean: (more common spelling)?”. Click the suggested spelling to launch a Google search for that term.

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Local Search

Local Search

If you’re looking for a shop, restaurant or other local business, you can search for the category of business and the location and we’ll return results directly on the page, along with a map, reviews and contact information.

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Film Showtimes

To find reviews and showtimes for films playing near you, type "films" or the name of a current film into the Google search box. If you've already saved your location on a previous search, the top search result will display times for nearby cinemas for the film that you've chosen.

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Trip Planning

Airline Travel Info

To see flight status for arriving and departing UK flights, type the name of the airline and the flight number into the search box. You can also see delays at a specific airport by typing in the name of the city or three-letter airport code followed by the word "airport".

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Currency Conversion

To use our built-in currency converter, simply enter the conversion that you’d like done into the Google search box and we’ll provide your answer directly on the results page.

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Maps

Looking for a map? Type the name or UK postcode of a location and the word "map", and we’ll return a map of that location. Clicking the map will take you to a larger version on Google Maps.

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Query Refinements

Plus (+) Operator

Google ignores common words and characters such as where, the, how as well as other digits and letters that slow down your search without improving the results. If a common word is essential to getting the results that you want, you can make sure that we pay attention to it by putting a "+" sign in front of it.

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Related Search

To search for web pages that have similar content to a given site, type "related:" followed by the website address into the Google search box.

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Fill in the Blank

Sometimes the best way to ask a question is to get Google to ‘fill in the blank’ by adding an asterisk (*) at the part of the sentence or question that you want finished into the Google search box.

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Search by Number

Package Tracking

You can track packages by typing the tracking number for your UPS, Fedex or USPS package directly into the search box. We’ll return results that include quick links to easily track the status of your delivery.

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