What Google lacks in catchy television commercials, it more than makes up for in service.  Coming off the heels of those surprisingly memorable television ads, Microsoft’s Bing experiment has carved out a respectable slice of the search market share but hardly gained any traction against the Internet behemoth we all know as our homepage or as Google. Google’s share of the market floats at 65%, changing minimally from month to month, with Yahoo (17%) and Bing (13%) lagging so far behind their combined share doesn’t equal half of Google’s total share.  The search engine holds an unassailable position atop the search engine hierarchy.

This is perhaps a result of Google offering users more than just search results – Google has become a one-stop shop, affording users the ability to check their mail, get directions, watch the latest viral video, find up to date news sourced more than a thousand times, and even translate the website for that hotel in Reykjavik, Iceland, which doesn’t seem to have an English button.

6 Slick Tricks

Nonetheless, most Internet surfers are unaware of the many tools Google provides that does not warrant an insular tab at the top the page.  By entering specific codes into the search field, you can manipulate Google to do whatever it is you want it to.  Here are six of my favorite unknown tricks of the trade:

1. Spell Check:

Google is perhaps the fastest way to check your spelling.  By typing your word into the search field, Google will confirm a million times over the correct spelling or suggest an alternate.  Likewise, you can enter the “define” operator to instruct Google to show you only dictionary entries.

2. Calculator:

Yes, your computer does have a calculator.  So does your phone.  But sometimes those places are just farther away than a Google search bar.  Try searching an arithmetic nightmare like “538/14 * (17+284)/ 2”. Then go ahead and check it on your calculator and ask yourself which method was easier.

3. World Clock:

Trying to figure out if you can call that hotel in Reykjavik to book a room?  Search “time Reykjavik” to see whether or not it’s business hours.  Naturally, this is an invaluable tool in a world were you need to call London, San Diego, and New Delhi all in one working day.

4. Currency Converter:

Need to find out how many kroner you’re getting for your dollar? Type “100 dollars in kroner” to find out.  You can, of course, use Google to find out that Iceland is on the kroner before you begin converting.

5. Exclusion Operator:

This one is an oldie but worth repeating.  Search ‘ “masters” –woods ’ to see the untold stories of this weekend’s golf tournament.  That little minus sign may be all that stands between you and a torrent of unwanted search results.

6. File Type Operator:

You can limit your search results to specific file types.  Ever want to know what power points people have published on Reykjavik?  Search “reykjavik filetype:ppt” to be amazed.  Likewise you can search everything from avi to zip for your file-finding needs.

If you are not from the search marketing industry, you already know that rankings fluctuate. They change over time and this is were SEO companies use ranking reports checking how rankings change over time, looking at the trend and seeing the benefits of these ranking improvements in terms of traffic, conversions and ROI. Knowing that ranking change all the time due to different factors such as personalization, geographic location, all sorts of Google One-Box algorithms, Google Subscribed Links, Image Search, Video Search, Real Time Search, the search engine results page (SERP) may always look different from two different people. So I decided to check last Google commercial that was aired during the Super Bowl. This is actually not a new commercial, it was uploaded by Google online on YouTube last November 19, 2009 and many people in the search industry already knew about this commercial. A full set of all their other video commercials can be found on YouTube’s Search Stories.

I took a deeper look into the search results and replicated each search query to see how these results were different from the actual results below:

Google Results for: Study Abroad in Paris France

Google Super Bowl Ad Search Query: Study Abroad in Paris France

Results here not not much different, the top 3 sites were still the same, the differences were in indented results. Since StudyAbroad.com had 2 more indented listings, it occupied the top 3 spots. See results below:

My Google Results for: Study Abroad in Paris France

Google Results for: Cafes near the Louve

Now the next query is interesting, only 1 site is similar:

Google Super Bowl Ad Results: Cafes near the Louve

My Google Results for: Cafes near the Louve

And with the wrong spelling, after clicking on the Did you mean link, local one-box results also differ. And this is an interesting one, not a single one is the same.

Search Query: Cafes near the Louvre Paris France - Google Super Bowl Ad

Search Query: Cafes near the Louvre Paris France - Actual Google Search Results

Does this mean a lot are involved in doing Local SEO these days? Or even International SEO?

Google Results for: Impress a French girl

Google Super Bowl Ad: Impress a French girl - Search Query

Google Actual Results: Impress a French girl - Search Query

Amazing how Google answers still ranks well after the site has been closed already for 2 or 3 years I think.

Google Results for: Chocolate Shops Paris France

SuperBowl Ad - Google Results for: Chocolate Shops Paris France

My Google Results for: Chocolate Shops Paris France

You don’t need a website to rank well in Local search results in Google one-box. The number 1 in one-box is still hanging in there strong.

Google Results for: What Are Truffles?

Google Superbowl Commercial Ad: What Are Truffles?

Google Actual SERPs: What Are Truffles?

Interesting Yahoo answers results. It does not look like site links, and it does not look like the free flowing real time search. But it sure does consume a lot of screen real estate. Even more interesting is Google suggest today can show definitions in the drop down.

Google Super Bowl Ad Showing no Google Suggest Results

Actual Google Suggest Drop Down also Showing Definitions

I omitted other results from the Google Super Bowl ad since they did not show any large difference in search results. And here is the last one I will show, again local search differences. But not in one box, but in Google Maps.

Google Results for: Churches in Paris

Churches in Paris - Google Maps, Local Search Results in Google Super Bowl Video Commercial

Churches in Paris - Google Maps, Local Search Results in Google

Ok, no big deal, search results are always changing anyway. So many factors involved also that can change the SERPs. And for reference purposes, I am in San Diego California and the actual results above are what appears when you are in my location.

But, let’s now take a look at Bing’s TV Commercial…

Like what I did above, I took screenshots of the Bing video ad and did the actual search queries also. Here are the results:

Bing Results for: restaurants

Bing TV Commercial - Dim Lighting Option

After searching for restaurants, you will really see no “Atmosphere” drill down category until you click on: “Local Listings for Restaurants” on the side bar, which I clicked on and came up with this:

Bing Results Showing No Atmosphere Option: Dim Lighting

Ok, the paramerters are not exactly the same. Clearly, Bing had some Geo-IP detection and automatically modified the query to: restaurants San Diego, California. So let’s change it to make the parameters the same.

Bing Results for: restaurants in Portland, Oregon

Bing Video Ad: Search Query of Restaurants in Portland, Oregon

Bing Actual Results for Query: restaurants in Portland, Oregon

And I went to the atmosphere sidebar, and didn’t find the Dim Lighting option. Even after clicking on the more link.

Bing Actual Results: Restaurants in Portland, Oregon - Atmosphere has no Dim Lighting option

So is the Bing video advertisement shown on TV really fabricated for the television commercial purpose only? I’ll let you decide on that and you can check out the decision engine yourself. What do you think?