Most of us use Google at some point throughout our day to find sites and subjects but did you know that it can do so much more than just search?

Yeah, that is right!  It can tell time, calculate, convert, spell check, do dictionary lookups, synonym lookups and more.

I was amazed at how much it can do besides search.  I am going to go through the list of things that I have found out it can do.  I am sure there is even more that I do not know about so please comment on other items if I missed one.

Time

Ever wonder what time it was in lets say London or maybe Sydney?  Well google can tell you, really!  In the search bar of your browser or on www.google.com type just simply type:

time London

and click the search button.  You will get back the current time at that location.  Change the city name to any city.  How awesome is that?

Calculator

Every had a simple calculation that you needed to figure out.  Well Google can do that for you.  Google’s calculator functions are full featured.  Sure it can do the simple 5+5 or (5 + 5) * 5 calulations but it can do sqrt (square root), power, etc.

Let’s try a couple:

5+9+10=

returns:

5 + 9 + 10 = 24

5^5=

returns:

5^5 = 3 125

sqrt 16=

returns:

sqrt(16) = 4

5*9+(sqrt 10)^3=

returns:

(5 * 9) + (sqrt(10)^3) = 76.6227766

Unit Conversion

If your like me you cannot always remember how many of this go into this and then to convert from Metric to Imperial or vica versa.  Well Google to the rescue again.  It can do all of those conversions for you in a split second.  Check out some of the examples below:

15 cm in inches

returns:

15 centimeters = 5.90551181 inches

2 pints in oz

returns:

2 US pints = 32 US fluid ounces

2 liters in oz

returns:

2 liters = 67.6280454 US fluid ounces

11 feet in meters

returns:

11 feet = 3.3528 meters

Currency Conversion

Heading on a trip and want to know how much money your cash is in the currency of where you are going?  Looking at purchasing something online that is not in your currency and wondering what it will cost in your money?

Of course, Google can do all of the calculation for you and you do not even have to know the exchange rate, Google knows the current exchange rate.

Below are some example:

150 GBP in USD

returns:

150 British pounds = 296.89500 U.S. dollars

500 USD in pesos

returns:

500 U.S. dollars = 5 012.73234 Mexican pesos

350 USD in pounds

returns:

350 U.S. dollars = 176.830192 British pounds

50 euros in USD

returns:

50 Euros = 77.91 U.S. dollars

Stock Info

Want to do a quick check on one of your investments.  With Google it is simple, just type in your stock code (in upper case) in the search bar and click search.

For example,  type:

CSCO

and click search and you get back stock details for Cisco Systems.

Weather

Curious what the weather is like where your friend lives or just want to dream of the upcoming vacation and see what the weather is like there?

With Google it is a simple as typing weather followed by either the City Name or the Zip Code.  Try a few of them:

weather 21701

weather washington dc

weather london england

weather murrells inlet

Book Search

Want to look up your favorite author or a particular book.  Let Google do it for you.  Just type in the name of your favorite author of the name of the book into the search field and click on search.

Try a few of these:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Searching Synonyms

Have you ever done a search only to later to find that if you would have searched for a synonym of the same word you might have had more success?  Well, the easy way to solve the problem is to search with a ~ in front of the word you want to search the synonym for.  For example lets say you are searching for fast cars.  You could search for ~fast cars and you would get results where speedy cars are used.

This is something to play around with when you are not getting the results you are looking for.

Dictionary Definitions

You just heard a word and you are not sure what it means.  Well, go to the Google search field and try the following searches:

define:candle

define:computer

You can replace candle and computer with any word you want to have defined.

Spell Check

This is a feature that most of us have probably seen and used but never knew it.  Have you ever searched for something and Google comes back and asks: Did you mean x?  That is Google trying to spell check for you.

So, to perform a spell check on a word, just type in the word in the search bar and click search.  If Google comes back and says “Did you mean ?” then it thinks you spelled it incorrectly.

Flight Status

You have to go pick up your significant other at the airport but you want to quickly check on the flight status.  Another easy task for Google, in the search bar just type the airline name and the flight #.  For example, your could type “US Air 1854″ to check the status of US Air Flight number 1854.

If you want to check an airport in general you can type the airport name like “BWI airport”.  You will be presented with a link that allows you to see flight delays, etc. from air traffic control.

Local Search

So you are sitting in a hotel on the road on your laptop and have a hankering for some Chinese Food but you do not any idea what is around.  Google can help you find what is close to you.  For Chinese Food just type Chinese food and the city name and state where you are staying.  Or, if you know the zipcode, you can just type in the zipcode in place of the city name.

When you click search Google will bring up a map with all of the Chinese restaurants close to you with phone numbers, links to their websites and reviews of the restaurants.

Maps

Need a map of where you are going or just want to check out some other place?  In the Google search bar type the city and state followed by map or just the zipcode followed by map.  For example:

21701 map

Frederick MD map

Seattle map

All of the above example will bring up a map of the area.

Movies

Want to see what is playing in your area.  Just like maps, type in the city name or zipcode and following it with movies.  You will see a showtimes link, click on it and wallah, you have the movies, showtimes and theaters right there in front of you.

We have gone through a ton of Google’s other features besides searching.  So many it will be hard to remember them all until you have used them a few times.

One of the places where some of these features come in handy is on cell phones that have some web access.  Google mobile has the same search features as regular Google.  So when you are sitting in the restaurant trying to figure out what movie you want to see, just search for the movies.

Out with some friends and getting hungry and not sure where the closest Italian restaurant is, Google it.

Making plans for tomorrow but not sure on the weather, Google it.  Running late for your flight, see if you really have to hurry.

Have fun and Google it!

Related Posts

• No Related Posts