This may be something very well know across the Internet but I thought I’d share it anyhow because I once again found myself doing it the other day.

Say you come across a blog you really like and you know there is a subject they’ve covered in the past, but the blogger didn’t include the handy search box in the sidebar.

The easiest thing to do is head to Google.com and type something like this:

site:timmyjohnboy.com “android tips”

Notice I didn’t include any “http://” but just the site name and domain extension “.com” but I don’t think it would change anything if you did include it.  Another quick tip I used in the above example is the quotation marks.  This will give me results with the exact phrase match.  I could have typed something like:

site:timmyjohnboy.com “android”+”tips”

That would give me results containing both of those words but not necessarily in that order.

Anyhow, that’s your quick Google search tip for today!

If you are not familiar with it, Delicious.com is what is called a social bookmarking site.  This means that users can save bookmarks on the site, organize them according to topics by using tags, and then share them with others.  The interesting thing about Delicious.com is that as people bookmark and share sites they come across, those sites gain in popularity.

This post, however, was written to deal with the searching capabilities of Delicious.com and how they compare to the oh so famous search engine, Google.

It occurred to me the other day, while researching for another post I was working on, that perhaps there are more research options out there than Google.  I then hit up good ol’ Delicious.com to see what I could find.  The results, although not perfect, were surprisingly sufficient!

Basically, Delicious and Google base their search result listings on different things.  If I am correct, Google’s search results are based upon “three distinct phases: spidering the web to find and read web pages, indexing the web pages found and responding to user queries to produce a set of ranked results.” (quoted from article entitled How Google produces relevant search results – Indexing and PageRank explained).  Delicious on the other hand is based more on user bookmarking habits and user tagging.

All of this means that both sites come up with search results.  The results are different and they are based on different things.  The quality of your search experience will depend on the topic of the search and even the terms you choose to use in your search.  I am hearing that Yahoo, using methods that Delicious uses, may be looking to change the way we search online.  Hold onto your seats, we may be into another search engine battle!

What about you?  Have you ever ventured off of the well-beaten Google search path and tried sites like Delicious for your searching needs?  What site do you prefer?  Let me know in the comments!

For years I’ve been using Morguefile.com to find photographs for free.

Morguefile.com is an interesting site because they have free photographs hosted there that you can “copy, distribute, transmit… and… adapt.“  In fact, attribution is not even required (a kind word for the author is always appreciated but not required).  Most photos for my blog posts were coming from this site.

Well, since then I have begun to use a plugin called Zemanta which makes it really easy to find photos for blog posts from WITHIN WordPress.  It also makes it easy to add links and tags but the photo is what was taking the most time to format to the posts.

Blogging is not the only place photos are used, though.  I use photos for all kinds of creative pursuits, including photo-puzzles, photo-manipulation, and even converting into clip art.  So, Morguefile.com still fills a void in my life.

Google now makes it east to find free photographs!

NOW, I just read a blog post on Google’s official blog that you can search for photos on their Image Search and narrow it down by license (ie. creative commons, etc.).  It’s really easy to use, just click the “Advanced Image Search” link and notice the “usage rights” section.  If you need help defining the terms, click on “more info.”

You can also search by license on Flickr.com, a Yahoo site.

With sources like these, who’d want to pay for stock photography?  OK, the quality may be a little better on a pay site, but with some sweaty effort, I think you can find some really good quality for free!  Morguefile.com, Google Image Search and Flickr just want to help a bit!

What is your favorite source of free photos?  And don’t tell me you steal other people’s graphics from their websites!

I was poking through some of the technology blogs I’m following via RSS in Google Reader and I came across an article highlighting a new feature Yahoo is getting ready to release.  Yahoo, you remember them?  I know Google and Bing get a lot of press but Yahoo’s still around ya know!  In fact, Yahoo is probably the primary search engine I use, still!

Anyway, this new feature is called “Search Pad.”  It appears to serve a similar purpose that Google Notes attempted to serve.  Yahoo, equipped with this “Search Pad” feature is supposed to tell if you are trying to research something, ask if you want to take notes (remember the sites you come across), and allow you to make notes by each site you visit.  You can also save the notes with your Yahoo account (you have one, right?).

Usually, I’ll use several methods of saving sites for research purposes, one of which is using a Google Doc to save links and notes.  I’m wondering if Yahoo has come up with a better solution.  Perhaps we’ll find out when it’s released!  Meanwhile, here’s a video Yahoo has released highlighting, well, the highlights of the tool:

Perhaps it’s not a secret but not everyone knows: you can search and find a map containing gas prices nearest you, and even get directions!

Go over to Google Maps and hit the “My Maps” link.  You should see gas prices listed under there!

Another great site for looking for gas prices is MSN’s gas prices page.  You can enter your zip code and even zoom in farther into your address and find the closest gas stations with prices.  Even better, you can enter your address and zoo out a bit if you need more options.

Either way, we now have the tools to find the best gas prices WITHOUT driving around looking while wasting gas in the process.

Have fun pumping and drop a line with any comments!