Reports are showing that Google, the Web search page, is planning to go public this spring with a valuation hitting as high as $25 billion.

The following are some of favorite tricks and tips from Google executives and staff:

• By downloading and installing the Google toolbar, you can block those annoying pop-up ads and Google will also fill in forms for you.

• Phrase the question you are typing in the search engine in the form of an answer. For example: Instead of typing in, "What is the average rainfall in the Amazon basin?" you might want to try typing, "The average rainfall in the Amazon basin is."

• This is an old one, but very helpful and timesaving. Place quotes around phrases that must be searched together. For example: If you put quotes around the words, "electric curtains," Google won’t waste your time by looking for Web pages with the words "electric" and "curtains."

• Similarly, if you want any word screened out, put a hyphen right before that word. This way if you’re looking up the word dolphins, you won’t have to weed through a million Miami Dolphins pages.

• Google is a global White Pages and Yellow Pages. If you simply search for "phonebook": followed by the name, city and state of the business you are looking for, Google will automatically display the address and phone number.

In addition to all of these above features, Google also acts as a package tracker, calculator, a stock ticker, an atlas, a measurement converter and a flight tracker.

Before you know it, you’ll need Google just to search Google!

New York Times March 25, 2004