Back to all articlesWe already rely on Google to help us out with multiple types of queries and searches. Of course it provides easy access to billions of webs pages. But, did you know it has a number of features that allow you to improve your search experience and find exactly what you are looking for?
Here are the most popular:
WEATHER
Us Brits always like to talk about the weather, and complain about it mostly! This handy search from Google allows you to see the weather for most UK and worldwide cities by typing “weather” followed by the name of the city or postcode.
STOCK QUOTES
If you’re interested in stocks and shares and want to keep up to date on current market data for a given company or fund, type the ticker symbol into the search box. For example Coca Cola’s is “KO”. It’s possible to see further data on a company by clicking the link on the results page.
TIME
Are you always on time or always late? Want to know if that call to the U.S. is too early in the morning? Whatever your reason, there’s no excuse now as all you have to do is type “time” and the name of the city.
SPORTS SCORES
To see scores and schedules for sports teams, type the team name or league name into the search box. STATS, Inc will return all the info you need to stay informed.
CALCULATOR
A particular favourite of ours is Google’s built-in calculator function; simply enter the calculation that you’d like done into the search box and hay presto…. the answer!
BOOK SEARCH
Books? Yes, those things that used to be written on paper but now fit handily into a digital device (also known as Kindle). Google will helpfully return any book content they have as part of normal search results – if you have entered the name of the author or the book itself.
UNIT CONVERSION
A personal favourite of ours is Google’s ability to convert between many different units of measurement. For example, height, weight and length, etc. Always handy when you work in stones and inches, whilst the metric world doesn’t!
SYNONYM SEARCH
If you want to search not only for your search term but also for its synonyms, place the tilde sign (~) immediately in front of your search term.
DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS
Malapropism. I didn’t know what it meant either, so I had to look it up using… Google. It is easy though. Just type the word “define” then a space, then the word in question. To see a list of different definitions from various online sources, you can type “define:” followed by a word or phrase.
FILM SHOWTIMES
To find reviews and showtimes for films playing near you, type “films” or the name of a current film into the Google search box.
AIRLINE TRAVEL INFO
To see flight status for arriving and departing UK flights, type the name of the airline and the flight number into the search box. If you’re waiting to pick up a loved one or business colleague (or both!), Google will also show you delays at a specific airport. All you need to do is type in the name of the city followed by “airport”.
CURRENCY CONVERSION
The world may be a much smaller place these days. We’re ordering goods and services from all over the world. One problem, we don’t all use the same currency. How annoying. Not anymore! There’s no excuse for not knowing the exact price in the currency you want. Google has a built-in currency converter. Simply enter the conversion that you’d like done and Google will provide your answer directly on the results page.
RELATED SEARCH
To search for web pages that have similar content to a given site, type “related:” followed by the website address into the Google search box.
BLANKETY BLANK
We wish they’d bring this great show back! Alas Google isn’t that influential, yet. However it can fill in the blanks to any of your Les Dawson style questions, even serious queries. Add an asterisk (*) at the part of the sentence or question that you want finished into the Google search box. (Chequebook and pen not included)