Google is an amazing search engine. Most of us use it to find
websites with information, but it can do so much more than show you websites
with answers. There are hundreds of built in features that can give you the
information directly, without having to go to another site.
Movies Times
Enter “movies” followed by your town/city/postal or zip code
and you’ll see some movie times for a couple popular movies along with a link
to get the full list of movie times for your area.
Track Packages
Just type in a FedEx, UPS or USPS tracking number and Google
will give you a link to see the shipping details.
Track Flights
Enter the airline and flight number and search. No more
clicks, the info will be right there.
Find the Best Price
Enter the model name or number of a product you’d like to
buy. Then click the “shopping” link at the top and Google will show prices at
online retailers. To ensure you get the lowest price, you can sort by price
(including shipping). There will likely be some retailers that you’ve never
heard of, so you can read retailer reviews and sort by their rating as well.
Define a Word
Let us say some fancy pants uses the word “noetic” and you
don’t know what it means. You could go to your favorite dictionary site, or you
could type “define:noetic” into Google search. It’ll give you a list of
definitions from various sites.
Unit Conversion
Whether you need to convert cups to gallons or go between
metric and imperial units, Google’s conversion engine can help.
Currency Conversion
Just type in the value and the currency to convert from and
to, example: 100 Euros in Australian dollars
Time
You think you’re doing a nice thing, calling somebody far
away to make sure they’re well and give them a familiar voice to talk to. Then
they answer the phone as if you woke them up in the middle of the afternoon,
but you forgot that’s 4am in Tokyo. You can easily avoid this by checking the
local time before calling.
Weather
Should you pack shorts or pants for your weekend getaway? Get
a 5 day forecast in seconds (and easily switch between F/C). Just make sure to
type both the name of the City, and either the State or Country that it is
located.
Stock Quotes
Just enter
the stock symbol and search.
There are
many more of these features and I’ll be sure to share more with you later.
-Birdy
