Google Main Page Features

The Google main page is the page that is displayed when you navigate to the Google homepage: http://www.google.com/. The main page looks deceptively simple on the first glance, but there are plenty of features. Let's go through these features:

Web, Images, Videos, Maps, News, and more tabs

These links allows you to search Web pages, images, videos, maps, news stories, message groups, etc, or provide access to many other Google's services. Each of the search area share the same basic search functionality but may provide different search operators used for very specific queries.

iGoogle, Search settings, Sign in

Use iGoogle to customize your own personal Google homepage by adding a variety of gadgets. Search settings allows you to change both search preferences and your Google account settings. Your search preferences are stored in cookies on your computer. Sign in allows you to log-in to your Google account. Your email will be displayed on the main page once you have signed in.

Search query field
This is the textbox that you usually use to enter your search term(s).

Google Search button
Clicking this button or pressing the Enter key will submit your search query to Google.

I'm Feeling Lucky button
Clicking this button will take you directly to the page that is ranked the highest based on your search results.

Advanced Search
The Advanced Search page provides a simple interface for specific queries. Note that not all advanced operators are accessible here.

Language Tools
Allows you to search and translate across various languages.

Advertising Programs, Business Solutions, About Google
These links are more for advertisers, investors, webmasters, etc.

The features described here is more or less the same even if you are accessing the Google main page on your local domain. I highly recommend exploring the Web, Images, Videos, Maps, News, and more tabs, the Advanced Search, and the Language Tools features. These are simple-to-use features that can save you time on your Google queries.