1.) Reverse Telephone Number Lookup

Google will automatically do a reverse telephone number lookup. All you need to do is enter the telephone number (landline) that you would like to identify and it will return the name of the owner. There are a number of other sites which also do this for free. It is amazing to see advertisements online advertising reverse phone directory lookup searches for $35.00 when you can get it from Google, 411.com and other sources for free!

NOTE: Google appears to have disabled this functionality recently!

Try it with: Google, AnyWho, 411.com, Whitepages.com

2.) See Right Into Anyone's Backyard.

The first time you see this, it is truly amazing. You can enter virtually any address inside the USA, and see a bird's eye view image of that address. All you do, is go to LiveSearch Maps, enter the address, then click on the link marked "Bird's Eye View". You can zoom in and see right into your old neighborhood, revisit your old school, or see any address in the USA.

Try it with: LiveSearch Maps (MSN Maps)

3.) Find Webcams (and control them)

Webcams have become quite popular with many people installing them to watch over their homes or businesses. Unfortunately for many of these folks, their configuration skills are not top-notch and they install their webcams with default settings. This makes their webcam visible to anyone on the web who knows how to find them. You can actually find these cameras and control them yourself. Most surprising of all is that some people have even unwittingly installed cameras like this in their bedrooms - perhaps intending to catch a cheating spouse, but unwittingly broadcasting it all to the world.

Try it here: Web Cam Search

4.) Suggest Keywords

Google has created a unique tool to suggest keywords as you type. It is a very neat interface and is quite addicting if you are trying to come up with useful keywords. What did they call it? Google Suggest of course! Another brilliant idea from the folks at the Googleplex.

This functionality has been incorporated into google, but you can still see results from the Google Keyword Suggestion Tool.

GoogleSuggest

5.) Use a Search Engine as Proxy

You simply set the Search Engine to translate a page. Set it to translate from some unusual language to English and visit the page you want to see through the search engine... which is now acting as a proxy. You can check this by visiting any IP checking webpage. Google acts as a transparent proxy, but other search engines handle things differently. Translation sites may also do this. You can also use the Google Cache to read banned sites.

This works with: Search Engines which do translation (Google, Altavista...), also Search Engine Caches.

6.) Find Music

If you can write a clever Boolean Search String, you can use it to find music online... MP3s and other types of files. Musgle has written a JavaScript to insert just such a Boolean Algorithm into Google automatically. The algorithm is visible on the results page, you can copy it and paste it into other search engines to get different results. Can't write Boolean scripts? No problem, try Musgle which does it for you.

7.) Find Resumes for Free

This is useful for recruiters and especially small business owners who do not want to pay hefty headhunter fees or what the big search companies charge for database access. There are ways to do it with Boolean scripts or you may simply try the various methods at a site like CV Fox resume search.

8.) Look up an IP address

You can find out who owns a particular IP address. This can be useful if you get an email that you would like to identify the sender of, or for any other reason you might need to look up an IP. You can find out the IP Address of a domain - then see if that domain has a webcam online; or vice-versa.

Try it at Arin.

9.) Track Shipments & Flights

• Shipments: You can enter tracking numbers for UPS, FedEx, and USPS into Google. This avoids going through the log in and hassle of the individual shipping company site. Flights: Just enter the airline and flight to track it. Delta Flight 1223

10.) Searching the websites of ONLY Universities and Colleges.

Suppose you need to look up something and only want results from the websites of US Universities. Maybe you want to find a particular course offering, degree program or look up a long-lost professor. You can do a US-wide school search at The College Search Engine, or Skoolz.org for US only searches.

Amazing stuff, eh?

This list of tricks was published by us at "The Search Engine List" and appears here with permission.