Google search
Everybody knows how to run a simple Web search in Google. But for a journalist trying to find information on the Web, the popular search engine offers dozens of more refined applications.
Sree Sreenivasan of Columbia University offers this great primer on getting more out of your searches.
His best tip involves using Google’s Advanced Search, which you can find at http://www.google.com/advanced_search. With it, you can search for pages in foreign languages. You can search for documents in certain formats, such as PDFs and DOCs. You can also narrow your search to only a certain domain or a certain date. When you know that your town’s Web site has a key piece of information that you need, this is ideal for culling through a site to find the gem.
