However, Google has several built in functions that help you to make your searches more successful, and to enable you to spend less time searching! The following is a list of 5 functions, all accessible from the main Google search box, which will help you find that snippet of information you are looking for.

1. Removing Unwanted Pages

   
   
   Ever searched for something before, and had a whole list of completely irrelevant web pages come up? This is annoying at the best of times, as it takes time to check and read through the list of sites and find the one you actually want.
   
   For example, if you were looking for a review of the book "Eragon", and you typed into Google “Eragon review”, many of the links listed are reviews of the movie, not the book. Because you are not looking for a review of the movie, you can remove all pages relevant to the movie by adding “-movie” to the end of your search terms.
   
   This will now display all the pages relevant to "eragon review", but not relevant to "movie".

2. Calculator

   
   
   Google can be used as a calculator, answering anything from the simplest math to the most complex equation. Just enter your math question, and Google will display the answer.
   
   + is used to add terms, - to subtract terms, * to multiply terms, and / to divide terms. Besides these basic operators, you can use ^ to work out something to the power of something (for example, “2^4” would be 2 to the power of 4), and "sqrt" to calculate the square root of a number (for example, “sqrt 4” would be the square root of 4).

3. Dictionary Definitions

   
   
   By typing “define:” before a word, Google will retrieve and display a list of dictionary definitions for that word.

4. Search A Single Website

   
   
   If you type "site:" and then a website after a search term, Google will search for your term(s) in only the site dictated. For example, the following search will search Oxford University's Website for the term "prospectus."

5. Search for A Specific File Type

   
   
   As I am sure you are aware, there are many files hosted on the internet besides the standard html websites. Therefore, searching for a specific type of file could make your search a lot easier. For example, if you were looking for a PDF version of the iPhone manual, you could use the following search, which would produce more accurate (and less) results.
   
   Here the "filetype:" tool is making Google search the web for PDF files only, therefore eliminating any pages that we didn't want to see.

These are just 5 useful functions that Google can perform, there are many more for you to discover, and they can all be mixed and matched! I hope this helped you to find that ever-elusive page or snippet of info. Have fun, and happy searching!

Every Windows user has come across notepad at some point of their experiences. Whether viewing the source code of a website, or editing .txt files, notepad is one of the bare necessities on Windows.

Notepad ++ is just what it says on the tin - a souped-up version of notepad. There are many additional features that make it all the more useful: from the ability to code and check scripts in just about every computer language you can think of, to the simple (yet effective) tabbed document interface, letting you have multiple documents open in the same window.

Firefox has always been there, providing a strong alternative to Microsoft Internet Explorer. Some people have been unsure as to why to bother using another browser, whilst others argue that Firefox is the best available browser.

Especially with the release of the improved Firefox 3, Firefox has become a very useful tool for surfing the internet. But, with the added functionality of the hundreds of available add-ons, you can do more than just surf the web: you can customize the way web pages look, create macros that complete all those boring repetitive tasks for you (like filling in forms online), and even get rid of all those annoying ads that are plastered all over the internet!

Ever wanted to use the fancy features available on Photoshop, but not had enough money to buy the professional software? Well, look no further. GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, and is very useful when professional graphics programs (such as Photoshop) are not available. It has many similar features to Photoshop, and is completely free!

Whether you want to edit a photo, create a company logo, or make banner for your website, then GIMP is the best free program available.

The professional versions of AVG are used by many large companies, and it is one of the top anti-virus softwares out there.

The free edition of AVG still includes all of the good anti-virus features from the professional edition, making it (in my opinion) the best free anti-virus software. Virus definitions are updated daily, making sure that your computer is kept safe. Also, with scheduled scanning you can ensure that you never leave your hard drive unscanned for long periods of time.

This nifty little program scans your computer for spyware and malware, and allows you to remove them from your system completely. Inferior only to professional programs, Ad-Aware Free has all the functionality and security you would want from a freeware spyware removal tool.

Ever come to uninstall a program, and find that there's no uninstall option? Well, for tricky little programs like that, the answer is Revo Uninstaller. This piece of software can remove just about any program from your system, whether there is an uninstaller or not. And do not go thinking that it goes stumbling in the dark and deleted random files that share similar names to that of the program you want to uninstall - Revo Uninstaller searches the registry and removes only files and folders directly associated to the program being removed.

This program also has extra handy features, like the ability to control which programs start automatically when Windows starts, and a junk file remover - which removes unnecessary clutter from your hard drive.

I can think of many, many more programs that would be suitable for this list, but to write them all here would prove both boring for me and you, the reader. Please bear in mind that these are the best free programs available in my opinion - this is not a form of factual league table or similar.

Before you can earn any money online, you need to get yourself a free Paypal Account. You may also find it useful to sign up for a free E-gold account. There are many different ways to earn money online, and I will cover the most common ways in this guide. So... lets begin!

PTC Sites

PTC stands for Paid To Click. These are sites that well… pay you to click on things! Usually, it involves clicking on a link or and advertisement, and viewing the resulting webpage for a certain amount of time. When this time is up, the money in your account on the site goes up by the standard rate (this varies from site to site). You can often click on many of these ads every day, therefore giving you potential to earn several times the standard rate each day.

Some good PTC sites you could try are:

• Adbux
• Adspace
• ClixnCash
• ClixMedia
• TopBux

Some of these sites also have PTR functions on them, so we will cover these next.

PTR Sites

PTR stands for Paid To Read. These are sites that email you a few times every day, and pay you to read (and click on the link) in each email. Then, like the PTC sites, when you have viewed the link in the email for long enough, your account will be credited with the standard rate (which changes from site to site).

Some PTR sites you could try are:

• APairOf
• Fishing4Mails
• Hit4Pay

Both of the above types of websites may also have PTS features on them, so this will be our next topic.

PTS Sites

PTS stands for Paid to Sign-up. This is a website pays you to sign-up for accounts and promotional offers on other websites. Every time you successfully complete a sign-up, your account will get credited for the offers worth (just like the PTC and PTR sites). The reward for each sign-up is generally fairly larger than the rewards offered for PTC and PTS features (probably because they take more time). The reward for each PTS offer can vary from offer to offer.

A few of the earlier sites that I linked to had PTS features on them, so you could give those a go. Matrixmails is another site that (in my opinion) is a good "all-rounder".

Paid To Write Sites

This is my favorite way to earn money online. There are several sites out there that pay you to write stuff for them, such as articles, or posts in forums. The reward can vary greatly, but is usually more than the other sites I have mentioned so far (because it takes time to write your own article).

Here are a few sites you could try:

• Triond
• Associated Content
• Newsit.es Forums

Paid Survey Sites

Paid survey sites are exactly what they sound like - sites that pay you to take online surveys. The surveys you get to take are selected for you based on the details and interests you input into the site when you sign up. The time each survey takes can vary from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. Generally, the longer the survey, the more you get paid.

Here are some survey sites that you could try:

• AW Surveys (this is my favorite)
• Survey Club
• UK Survey Panel (UK residents only)
• iPoints
• My Survey

Paid to Search Sites

There are some search engines and search sites out there that actually pay you to make a search! Some examples of these sites are ZotSpot and SlashMySearch.

And that concludes this article. However, stay tuned as I might add further methods to this article in the future!