How To Become a Search Ninja
Mod Note (Andy): Best of Eddie, this was originally posted on 7/23/12. To see all of our top content from the past, click here.
I came across this about a month ago and I've been meaning to share it with you guys ever since. In our Internet-driven modern world, the ability to effectively search the web has become increasingly important. Sure, anyone can type something into Google and click on the first couple links, but what about real search? How do you go about using the awesome power of Google to answer seemingly impossible questions?
For example:
Daniel Russell stood in front of a crowd of investigative journalists in Boston last week and showed us this picture of a random skyscraper in an unknown city:Russell posed a riddle:
What’s the phone number of the office where this picture was snapped?
Let that sink in. He wasn’t asking for a phone number for the skyscraper in the picture, which sounds hard enough. He wanted the phone number of the precise office where the photographer was standing when the picture was taken.
Without reading further into the article, how would you go about finding the answer? Because Russel managed to suss it out in a few minutes using only Google. He then went on to share some of the high-level search techniques he uses to answer virtually any question.
What follows in the article is a cheat sheet of some of the well know search shortcuts, and some of the virtually unknown shortcuts that can speed you on your way to finding exactly what you're looking for.
Did you know about the asterisk in Google Maps? Great way to find a happening bar near your hotel, or just about anything else. Did you know you can specify file types when running a search? Comes in handy if you're looking for something that's already been put in Excel format and you don't feel like scanning 10 pages of search results before you happen on the link.
So how did he find the phone number of the office where the photo was taken? Hint: it involves using 3D layering in Google Earth. Here's the detailed answer.
Pretty fascinating stuff. I find myself using search all day every day, and I used to think I was pretty good at it. But this is some real search ninja shit here. I hope it comes in handy for you.
Wolfram Alpha.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/
Click "random".
Could be the second greatest website ever after Google.
Daniel Russel = Jason Bourne ?
This is definitely a useful post. I used to think I was pretty good at finding dirt, especially spending a good bit of time on sports forums, but this is the ultimate creep technique. Maybe I can find the ladies now that I know this.
tineye?
Holy crap that's impressive... And here we were thinking if it's not on the first page of google, it doesn't exist.
That building is in Warsaw, Poland. The only reason I know that is because I lived there for a couple of years.
similar article + infographic.. definitely useful to know: http://dailyinfographic.com/the-power-of-google-infographic
Where do you find all of this info at? Do you just sit in front of the comp all day lookin for random stuff?
Yeah, why? Do you just sit at work all day? #planbetter
looks like 10th floor of the warsaw financial center and that building is the tp tower - took 4 minutes....hopefully right
Extremely useful, thanks!
Google image search tends to be pretty awesome for stuff like this
pretty damn cool
Wow...
That's just amazing. At the same time, I wonder how much access hackers have if an average person can pull that off with a little bit of technique.
This is really cool- thanks for sharing!
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