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Change the way you use the Internet with these 10 incredible tips and tricks

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 9:06PM EST
BGR

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Every once in a while, we’ll share some of the most interesting life hacks we find around the Internet —  simple ways you can improve your life without drastically changing your daily habits — but this week we found something slightly different.

SEE ALSO: How to make yourself invisible on Facebook

This Thursday, on The Guardian’s Tech page, writer Hannah Jane Parkinson put together a list of 10 “Internet hacks” — life hacks for the Internet. Some may seem obvious, but with as much time as we spend on the Internet every week, every day and every hour, it’s always nice to find new ways to streamline our routines.

I’ll share a few of my favorites here, starting with one that I wish I’d known about years ago. Have you ever been trying to remember a song lyric or a line from a movie, but you just can’t remember part of the phrase?

Google has a solution.

Rather than trying to search for pieces of the quote or lyric, simply replace the missing word or phrase with an asterisk. So if you wanted to look up one of Shakespeare’s most iconic phrase, you’d search “to be or * to be” and Google will fill in the rest.

Here’s another one I’d never thought of (but totally should have): you can play any YouTube video in slow motion by holding down the space bar while you’re watching it. It’s a great way to find a specific frame you want to take a screenshot of, or if there’s something hidden in the background at a specific time code.

Finally, and I’m sure this is one that’ll be familiar to anyone who frequently uses their email for work, you can mute an email thread in Gmail by clicking on the “More” button at the top of the thread and then clicking “Mute” in the menu.

Be sure to check out the full list on The Guardian for more Internet hacks to make your Web surfing experience smoother than ever.

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.