Google Tips and Tricks
By Jeff Hilimire on Thursday, May 31st, 2007I just finished reading The Google Story, which I recommend to anyone interested in learning the history of this amazing success story (and for those of you that know where my office is, you’re more than welcome to borrow my copy).
At the end of the book the authors provide some very cool Google search tips and I thought I’d share a few of them:
- Phone book - type a person’s name or address in the search box and Google will deliver phone and address listings. Or if you only have a phone number, type that in to the search box and you’ll (usually) get the person’s information that it belongs to
- Calculator - type in a math problem and sure enough, you’ll get the answer
- Dictionary - type in “define” followed by any English word and you’ll get the definition
- Book learnings - go to print.google.com and you’ll be able to search actual books that Google has scanned and indexed
- The new stuff - to keep up with all the cool stuff Google is doing, check out their Google Labs page
And my personal favorite, Google has a text message service that is very impressive. Get any number of things (such as directions, airport delays, movie times, etc) by texting to 46645 (or GOOGL on most phones). Check the link above to find out all the possibilities with this one.
I haven’t read the book yet. Hmmm… but I do know where your office is! I have been using the “define” and “calculate” features in Google for quite some time now and I find them very handy! I’ll have to give the text tool a whirl now. Neat!
Speaking of cool Google items…they’ve recently launched a “Street View” for select cities (New York, Miami, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Denver). With this view you can look around the city as if you were walking down the street.
It’s pretty awesome, they’ve got a demo up on their site explaining how to use it. I can’t wait to see which cities will follow!
Great tips! Phone Book, Calculator, and Dictionary remind me of a recent column by Don Norman, usability guru.
Called “UI Breakthrough - Command Line,” the column describes how Google and other search engines are returning us in many was to the command line interface. Type in a command, get what you want!
He argues they won’t replace GUIs, but they’re useful because they scale. No matter how big the Internet gets, typing a short command is easy.
SMS is cool, but *calling* Google is cooler — and a free version of 411!
To try this service, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone.
Using this service, you can:
- search for a local business by name or category.
- get connected to the business, free of charge.
- get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone.
http://labs.google.com/?tab=wz&hl=en