{"id":1184,"date":"2006-04-24T22:54:26","date_gmt":"2006-04-24T17:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2006\/04\/the-big-google-search-tools-collection\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T12:40:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T07:10:06","slug":"the-big-google-search-tools-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2006\/04\/the-big-google-search-tools-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Google Search Tools Collection (2026 Update)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Google is much more than a search box. This is our big collection of <strong>Google search tools<\/strong>, first compiled in 2006 and fully updated for 2026. Many tools from the original list, like Google Directory, Blog Search, Catalogs and the Google Toolbar, have been shut down. Others, like Google Lens and AI Mode, did not exist back then. Here are the Google search tools that are useful today, grouped by what you want to find.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-44141\" src=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-trends-1024x488.png\" alt=\"Google Trends, one of the most useful Google search tools\" width=\"970\" height=\"462\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-trends-1024x488.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-trends-150x71.png 150w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-trends-300x143.png 300w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-trends-768x366.png 768w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/google-trends.png 1154w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 970px) 100vw, 970px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Quick answer:<\/strong> The most useful Google search tools in 2026 are Google Search with AI Overviews and AI Mode, Advanced Search and search operators, Google Lens, Google Images, Google Scholar, Google Books, Google News, Google Trends, Google Alerts and Google Search Console for site owners. All are free.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_88 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6ac8f4d4df600\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"ez-toc-cssicon\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6ac8f4d4df600\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2006\/04\/the-big-google-search-tools-collection\/#Core_Google_search_tools\" >Core Google search tools<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2006\/04\/the-big-google-search-tools-collection\/#Search_images_visuals_and_the_world_around_you\" >Search images, visuals and the world around you<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2006\/04\/the-big-google-search-tools-collection\/#Specialised_searches\" >Specialised searches<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2006\/04\/the-big-google-search-tools-collection\/#Research_and_monitoring_tools\" >Research and monitoring tools<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2006\/04\/the-big-google-search-tools-collection\/#Google_tools_for_website_owners\" >Google tools for website owners<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2006\/04\/the-big-google-search-tools-collection\/#Discontinued_Google_search_tools\" >Discontinued Google search tools<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2006\/04\/the-big-google-search-tools-collection\/#FAQ\" >FAQ<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2006\/04\/the-big-google-search-tools-collection\/#What_is_the_best_free_Google_search_tool_for_research\" >What is the best free Google search tool for research?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2006\/04\/the-big-google-search-tools-collection\/#How_do_I_search_Google_with_an_image\" >How do I search Google with an image?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2006\/04\/the-big-google-search-tools-collection\/#Can_I_turn_off_AI_Overviews\" >Can I turn off AI Overviews?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Core_Google_search_tools\"><\/span>Core Google search tools<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Search<\/a> &#8211; the search engine, now with AI Overviews at the top of many results.<\/li>\n<li><strong>AI Mode<\/strong> &#8211; a conversational search tab in Google where you can ask follow-up questions and get answers with links.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/advanced_search\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Advanced Search<\/a> &#8211; search by exact phrase, site, file type, language, region and date.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Search operators<\/strong> &#8211; type <code>site:<\/code>, <code>filetype:<\/code>, quotes for exact phrases, or a minus sign to exclude words.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Autocomplete<\/strong> &#8211; the old Google Suggest, now built into every search box.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/myactivity.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google My Activity<\/a> &#8211; see and delete your search history, and set auto-delete.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Want more results per page? Here is how to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2012\/09\/100-google-search-results-one-page\/\">show more Google search results on one page<\/a>. You can also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2013\/11\/desktop-google-voice-search\/\">search Google by voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Search_images_visuals_and_the_world_around_you\"><\/span>Search images, visuals and the world around you<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/images.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Images<\/a> &#8211; search pictures with filters for size, colour, type and usage rights.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/lens.google\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Lens<\/a> &#8211; search with your camera or any image to identify objects, translate signs, solve homework and shop. It replaced reverse image search; see how to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2007\/06\/how-to-search-faces-with-google-images\/\">search faces with Google Images<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Circle to Search<\/strong> &#8211; on many Android phones, circle anything on screen to search it.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Maps<\/a> &#8211; search places, reviews and directions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Specialised_searches\"><\/span>Specialised searches<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Scholar<\/a> &#8211; academic papers, theses and citations.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Books<\/a> &#8211; search the full text of millions of books.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google News<\/a> &#8211; headlines from thousands of sources, personalised by topic.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/shopping.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Shopping<\/a> &#8211; compare prices across stores. It began as Froogle.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/travel\/flights\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Flights<\/a> &#8211; find and track cheap flights.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/finance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Finance<\/a> &#8211; stock quotes and market news.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/datasetsearch.research.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Dataset Search<\/a> &#8211; find public datasets.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/toolbox.google.com\/factcheck\/explorer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fact Check Explorer<\/a> &#8211; see what fact-checkers say about a claim.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Research_and_monitoring_tools\"><\/span>Research and monitoring tools<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/trends.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Trends<\/a> &#8211; compare what the world is searching for over time and by region.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/alerts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Alerts<\/a> &#8211; get an email when new results appear for your name, brand or topic.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/translate.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Translate<\/a> &#8211; translate text, documents and web pages.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Google_tools_for_website_owners\"><\/span>Google tools for website owners<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/search.google.com\/search-console\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Search Console<\/a> &#8211; see which searches bring visitors and fix indexing problems.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/programmablesearchengine.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Programmable Search Engine<\/a> &#8211; add a Google-powered search box to your site. It grew out of Google Co-op; read our history of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2008\/03\/google-coop-builds-social-search-engine-for-blogs\/\">Google Co-op custom search<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/pagespeed.web.dev\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PageSpeed Insights<\/a> &#8211; test how fast your pages load. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2009\/06\/faster-sites-with-google-page-speed\/\">make your site faster with Google PageSpeed<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>More in our list of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2023\/01\/free-google-seo-tools\/\">free Google SEO tools<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Discontinued_Google_search_tools\"><\/span>Discontinued Google search tools<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>These appeared in our 2006 list but no longer exist: Google Directory, Google Blog Search, Blogger blog search, Google Catalogs, Google Music Search, the original Google Video search, Google Toolbar, Google Instant and the News Archive search interface. Fun extras like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2021\/10\/google-gravity\/\">Google Gravity<\/a> still live on through fan-made demos.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"FAQ\"><\/span>FAQ<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_is_the_best_free_Google_search_tool_for_research\"><\/span>What is the best free Google search tool for research?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Google Scholar for academic work, Google Trends for interest over time, and Advanced Search for precise web results.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_do_I_search_Google_with_an_image\"><\/span>How do I search Google with an image?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Click the camera icon in Google Images or use the Google Lens app, then upload or snap a photo.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Can_I_turn_off_AI_Overviews\"><\/span>Can I turn off AI Overviews?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Not completely, but the &#8220;Web&#8221; filter under the search box shows plain links without AI summaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google is much more than a search box. This is our big collection of Google search tools, first compiled in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":44141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-1184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-google","tag-popular"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63445,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184\/revisions\/63445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}