Five hot Google search tricks

Google is always adding nifty ways to get information faster, like typing define before a word to bring up a dictionary definition or doing multiplication for you.

To help you stay a search master, here are five of the hottest search tricks to bust out of the Google labs.

Need to know the hours of the museum you want to visit? Type the word "hours" as part of your search, like "San Francisco museum of modern art hours," and you get the hours it's open right there in the results, without having to click through to the Web site.

Tracking a real-time event, like an election or sporting event? Search for the term you're looking for info on, then click on "Latest results" or select "Latest" in the search options. You get a full page of the latest posts on the topic from around the Web as they happen.

The suggestion box has been around for a while in Google, but the company recently added some more information. Try a weather search. Before you even finish typing, you may have the weather report ready for you in the suggest list. Just look down.

Google has also expanded public transit information, so you can plan your route fast.

Let's say you want to visit the Metreon in San Francisco. Search Metreon. Then click the public transit link. It will come up with all your options and you can enter your starting location to plan a route.

Finally, an oldie but a goodie that not everybody knows about. Do you need to track flight status for yourself or a loved one? It's easy, just type in the airline, the word "flight," and the flight number. You get the status in the drop-down suggestions without having to click, or if you do click they're right at the top.

There are a bunch more where these came from. Share your own with us in the comments below.