That lonely Google search box seems frighteningly simple, you type in a keyword. and pages containing that keyword appear. But there is much more the little textbox then just keywords..

Become Bot-oriented
Instead of asking Google questions a human would understand, revert to using questions their rovers could help you with. “What did Alan Turing Develop?” will wield much less results then: “Alan Turing developed”. This is because Google searches pages, not people for information and if you search for answers you will get them.

Number Cruncher
The Google Search Bar Has a calculator built in. So if you type in a mathematical question you can receive a quick response. Some of the functions the calculator excepts are: ‘+’ – Addition. ‘-‘ - Subtraction ‘*’ - Multiplication ‘/’ – Division And ‘% of’ to get the percentage. More advanced functions are included on the cheat sheets listed at the bottom of the page. But If you need to do something complex, You probably won’t be using the Google Search Bar.

Domain Specific
To get Google to search a specific domain Add a ‘:’ followed by the address, Here’s an example: ‘Subscribe site:www.GearFire.net’ would bring you a list of pages with the keyword ‘subscribe’ from the domain ‘GearFire.net’.

Stick with the Facts
If you enter a fact-based question into the Google search box the answer will appear at the beginning of your search results. Example: ‘population of Tokyo”

Flight Status
If you are expecting company, or have internet access during a flight, Just punch a US Airline Followed by it’s flight number into the Google search box. Example: ‘United 123’. If you are interested in the weather at a particular airport, type it’s three letter code tied with the keyword ‘airport’ to check the weather conditions for the runway.

Weather Forecast
Type ‘weather Toronto’ Into the search box to get Toronto’s five-day forecast. Naturally you can replace Toronto with your major nearby city.

Numbers of all kinds
Whether you are tracking a UPS or Fed-Ex package, Telephone Area Codes or  Your VIN (Vehicle Identification number.) All you have to do it punch those digits into the search bar for a Google response.

Dictionary
To receive a word’s definition just search ‘define’ before your selected word, and Google will bring up a definition for you. Alternatively you can do a regular search and then press the ‘define’ link in the top right corner.

Media Search
To search for movies and music enter the following code, while replacing “Artist Name” and “Movie Name” with what you are looking for.

Music -inurl:htm -inurl:html intitle:.index of. mp3 .Artist Name.
Movies -inurl:htm -inurl:html -inurl:php intitle:.index of. (mpg|mov|avi|wmv) .Movie Name.

Links

Google also has provided a list of features which will make your searches more efficient. Take a look here.

A guide directly related to optimizing your search results can be found here courtesy of blog.outer-court.com.

Google Cheat Sheets
Google’s
Adelaider’s
GoogleGuide.com

Some other Google Services that may increase your productivity are:

Google Book Search
Google Finance
Google Reader
Google Maps
Google Scholar
And Google Desktop

Hope It helps!