Earlier this week, Google's CEO Sundar Pichai faced a House Judiciary Committee in the United States Congress to answer questions about recent data breaches and other important security matters. So, naturally, the discussion turned to extremely serious and important matters. Like why searches on Google for the word "idiot" turn up images of President Donald Trump.

Finding a podcast is easy; finding relevant episodes is harder. If you want to find, say, all of Paul F. Tompkins's guest appearances, or podcast episodes about the Russian Revolution, try the podcast search engine Listen Notes.

A little under five years ago, I got angry about a piece of fake information, and I decided to do something about it. I was reading a recipe in the New York Times, and the recipe told me, as many, many recipes had told me before, that it would take about 10 minutes of cooking to caramelise onions.

Google has been synonymous with search for years, and Bing -- poor Bing -- quickly became synonymous with sarcasm about why anyone would ever use Bing. Believe it or not, though, the two search engines aren't as different as the jokes would have you believe.

Wolfram Alpha is a great search engine for data geeks, but it has plenty of computation tricks up its sleeve that are useful for the rest of us too. Here are some of the most useful.

Google's search predictions that pop up in the URL bar of modern browsers are often useful, but they're just as often an annoyance. If you'd prefer to ditch them altogether, it's really easy to do and it just depends on which browser you're using.

Mac: Wolfram Alpha is packed with a ton of great info, but it's easy to forget about it sometimes. Nimble is a little menu bar app that will stuff that search engine into your Mac's menu bar.

Woodworking is a skill that you can take as far as you want. The more you learn, the more complex projects you'll be able to tackle. But no matter your skill level, your project can always benefit from plans someone else has made. Here's how to find plans for just about any project online.

Windows 10 brings a ton of sweet new features. Among them, you can now search the web directly from the Start menu. However, it will always use Bing. The Bing2Google extension for Chrome will redirect your searches to Google instead.

Custom search engines are one of the coolest features of any modern browser. With just a few keystrokes, you can search Wikipedia right from your address bar, do a custom Google search for Lifehacker articles, or even get driving directions to a specific location. Here are five searches you should enable right now.

Blogger and developer Matt Gemmell has gazed into the dark side of of search engine optimisation (SEO), and while he understands the value of having your personal site, your blog or your company's website rank well in search results, he's not willing to sell his soul to do it. Instead, he's written a simple guide to SEO for the less cut-throat.

Finding your way around a new airport -- at least major ones in the US -- just got a little easier with the help of Bing search. The new airport maps show you the location of terminals, ticket counters, restrooms, eateries, ATMs and more.

Last year, Gina switched to Yahoo for her search because she felt Google already had enough of her data. Over at our gadget-obsessed sibling site Gizmodo, blogger John Herrman took things a little further, ditching all of Google's apps. He explains.

Domain name search engine Domainr suggests web site addresses that make clever use of non-.com top level domains, subdomains, and folders, like del.icio.us, burri.to, or stop.spamming.us.

Search engine Scour aggregates results from Yahoo, Google, and MSN on one page, displays reviews and feedback from other Scour members about those results, and rewards you with points that you can trade in for a Visa gift card. Register for a free account at Scour, and use it each time you search the web. Accumulate enough Scour points and you can get a $25 Visa gift card. Every member is awarded one point for every search, two for a vote and three for a comment with a maximum of 4 points a search. Once you aggregate at least 6,500 points you can cash them out for a $25 Visa gift card... it's more than you currently make from searching, right? Since Scour uses results from Google, Yahoo, and MSN anyway, you're getting the same results you'd get if you were using those engines—but racking up points while you do. A Scour browser toolbar's available for for download as well. Scour

Web site RateBeer contains an enormous user-rated database of beers to help you find your new favourite beer. Last weekend we highlighted Beer Suggest, a new site scouring the net to bring you a good beer, but several commenters pointed out RateBeer (and BeerAdvocate) as sites that have been around for much longer—which means they boast more reviews and a more robust database of brews. So while you're enjoying some nice late spring weather this weekend, check out RateBeer to find something tasty to relax with. RateBeer

You've got a long weekend ahead, and aside from your inevitable grill mastery, you need to find the perfect brew for your weekend feast. Beer-lovers web site Beer Suggest is here to fill that need, rounding up and reviewing over 4000 beers and over 1100 breweries to help you find the perfect beer for any occasion. The site has both wiki and review elements, so if you consider yourself a connoisseur you can update or review any beer on the site to provide your expert recommendations. Beer Suggest

Web search engine interface Katapulco is a one-stop search box to dozens of engines, from Google to Wikipedia to IMDB—and you choose which engine to search by entering a keyboard shortcut. For example, to Google Lifehacker from Katapulco, enter "Lifehacker" then "g" into the shortcut field. While Katapulco's premise—that keyboard shortcuts are faster—is spot-on, you can achieve this same result using the search box in Firefox (Ctrl+K to put your cursor there, Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down to switch engines) or my personal favourite, Firefox keyword bookmarks. If you're serious about searching with your keyboard, be sure to check out Google's experimental keyboard shortcut search results as well. While it's not something I'll use instead of those methods, Katapulco still has the right idea. Katapulco.com

US-Centric (for now!): Google Maps now makes it easy to check out real estate listings in a certain area: click on the "Show search options" link next to the Search Maps button, and choose "Real Estate" from the drop down. Your search will map homes for sale, with photos and prices. Search blog Google Operating System reports that the results come from real estate site feeds, not Google Base. You can also refine your search by price, number of bathrooms and bedrooms. Looks like Google Maps is giving Zillow a run for its money, though Zillow offers home valuations for property that's not necessarily for sale.

Google Maps Adds Real Estate Search