Why do your teachers and librarians keep making you sit through those put-you-to-sleep lessons about what they call safe and effective searching? Maybe they worry because, like you, they've come across not-so-wonderful sites online or perhaps, even they can't find the information they want.

Sure, you know how to find information online, but you've got to admit that finding it faster and finding what teachers would like in your reports would be a plus.

Chances are, you already use Google for searching, but have you tried Google Blog Search? Just put in what you need to find for a report or project on the Blog Search site, and make use of tools you'll see on the left. These should help you narrow your search so that you can find just what you want.

Here are some of the coolest options:

Search by Time

If your teacher asks you to find the latest news on a topic, you can search the past 24 hours, the past week, past month, past year, or set your own beginning and ending dates.  You're doing what's called a Custom Search when you put in your own dates. This is especially helpful if you can't recall the name of an article you want but you remember approximately when it was published.

Search by Image Color

Maybe you are doing a presentation about the different shades of blue used in Renoir's paintings. You select Images on the left, type in your keywords, perhaps "Renoir, paintings", and then select the color blue in the color list. All of the artist's paintings with hues of blue in them will be displayed. In one of the videos featuring Google Search options (see link below), a student is searching for a good image of a baseball field. He puts in the keyword "baseball", clicks green, and he has more green diamonds than he could possibly use.

Search by Image

You can, of course, use search words to find an image you want, but what if you want to know more about a particular image or work of art? Pick a photo from your computer, mobile device, or one from the Web.  Select Images, click on the camera icon, and upload your image or drop it into the search box.  This option works best with famous buildings, photos of famous people, and works of art. It can help you find the history of the object or person targeted in your search.

Search by Voice on Your Computer

You've been able to search by voice on mobile devices, but now you can search by voice on your computer. Open the latest version of Google Chrome, go to Google.com, click on the microphone, and tell your computer what you want it to find.

If you want your pages to appear faster, make sure that you use Google Chrome.  Check out the videos on the WebPro News Page for Google to find out more about the tools available to you.

When your teachers ask you about how you discovered all these search tricks, send them to Google's Search Education Website where they can find lesson ideas, activities, and training by search experts. They'll be impressed with your knowledge.