Favorite Hidden Google Features?

fredtheshingle asks: "Google now seems to allow you the option to track your FedEx and UPS shipments! Search using the tracking number for either carrier and a page that offers to track the package appears. Simply follow that link and the carrier's current status report is displayed. Nice! So what's your favorite hidden Google feature?"

Comments

Define:

[unixbum]

The "define:" clause which comes in very handy... define: PHP

The Standards

[amcnabb]

I'm not sure if I know of any that aren't pretty much common knowledge. Anyway, it's fun to search for "answer to life the universe and everything". I also like the calculator function: just enter "2 + 2". The ability to search for "definition any-word-you-want" is nice, too.

But of course, the best hidden feature is the ability to search for "litigious b******s" and to have the most relevant link appear first. In fact, you can leave off the word "litigious" and it still works, now that so many people have put links with that phrase on their web pages.

Re:Calculator and spell checker

[Bombcar]

Forgot to give an example:

Google Calculation

And the ever popular Question

Re:Calculator and spell checker

[iota]

A list of some of the google features available:
http://www.google.com/help/features.ht ml

Fave "hidden" feature

[redfiveneo]

Let's just say Google images. ...with SafeSearch off. ;)

Re:Fave "hidden" feature

[orthogonal]

Yeah, but that means letting them use cookies. No thanks

I, too, prefer not to let Google set cookies. So far Google has been -- so far as I know -- a good respecter of privacy, but their insistence on recording all searches, along with the requesting IP address, gives me serious pause.

It's not that Google is evil, but that reposing that much information in any hands is a temptation to evil -- either on Google's part, or on the part of whomever ends up controlling it when and if Google goes public, or on the part of whatever government can issue subpoenas, or whatever lawyer can get subpoenas issued.

I'd feel much more comfortable if Google would purge its records of searches, or at least remove the IP addresses, but I suppose they have their reasons. I'll let you guess what those reasons might be.

Imagine Microsoft subpoenaing Google for the IP of whomever searched for "leaked Microsoft source" and then using that to allege an open source project is built on top of proprietary Microsoft code.

This is why I won't use the Google toolbar, and why for especially sensitive searches, e.g., "STD symptom" or "John Ashcroft calico cat", I go through an anonymizing proxy.

But while the easiest and permanent way to set image search SafeSearch off is through a cookie, I believe it can also be set per individual search using a check box that is sent to Google in the http GET as a parameter, bypassing cookies.

Re:Fave "hidden" feature

[J'raxis]

You can turn SafeSearch off by adding "safe=off", by hand, to the URL. "filter=0" is also useful; this prevents Google from hiding multiple images originating from the same host.

Here's what I use. If you use Mozilla, make a bookmark out of the following (fix the spaces Slashdot inserted):

http://images.google.com/images?q=%s&filter=0&hl=e n&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off

Give the bookmark a keyword such as "gis". Now, when you type "gis foo" into the address bar, it goes to this URL, replacing the "%s" in the URL with "foo".

[Those other parameters are language, input encoding, and output encoding, respectively.]

unit conversion

[jhawk94]

As a physics/physical science lab instructor at the local university, the discovery of the unit conversion feature on Google has been extremely handy. Now when students ask whether their conversion are correct or not, I can point them to a quick easy place where they can check their own work.

In the google search box type "80 calories in joules" and voila.

Google Calculator

[Lendrick]

Not only does it do math, it's also got a bunch of constants built in, and it can convert units on the fly, even to some more esoteric ones. Try entering the following searches

gravitational constant
speed of light in cubits per fortnight
mass of jupiter in stones
radius of earth * 2 * pi in light years

It's enough to keep a science nerd occupied for hours. :)

Re:Google Calculator

[Undefined Parameter]

It's still missing a few things; for instance, it won't tell me the speed of an unladen swallow in knots.

But I do like the speed of light in cubits per fortnight. The history geek in me is still laughing. :)

~UP

Re:Google Calculator

[BrokenHalo]

That's because you need a separate unit for African and European Swallows... :-)

~stuff

[outlier]

It's amazing how helpful the "~" can be when doing searches. Prefixing a word with a tilde will search for that word and many of its synonyms. Very helpful when doing things like:

linux ~tutorial

Also, I think this list of google tricks was listed on /. a while ago.

bork bork bork!

[sdibb]

Seerch zee Veb

feature preview

[LoganEkz]

And don't forget Google Labs for a taste of things to come.

UPC barcode lookup...

[TeddyR]

Google also allows you to do a lookup on a UPC code.. (it actually uses the database from www.upcdatabase.com)

works great if you have one of those modified cue cats

Regular Expressions

[Michael.Forman]

My favorite feature is the ability to search for items using regular expressions. Just type the string "site:/^[cs].*?edu$/" and BAM! You get jack squat.

Some day our Linux search engine heros will grace us with regular expressions.

Open Source Industrial Music.
Michael.

Have you seen

[dtfinch]

Google's Britney Spears page?

Re:Have you seen

[Anonymous Coward]

britney6 spears

I bet this person was typing with one hand. :)

Google Wireless

[Laverne]

I found out that google offers a wireless search engine. Just go to that URL with your mobile, enter your search query and google will convert any site it returns to WAP format that your mobile can handle.

Google ~Guide

[Frambooz]

Here is a page that lists a bunch of features. Handy dandy.

OT: My favorite quote about regular expressions

[Big Sean O]

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.

--Jamie Zawinski, in comp.lang.emacs

Re:Calculator and spell checker

[sbennett]

And the ever popular Question

How about this one?

It's not really a feature, per se...

[josh glaser]

...but if you type in your search terms twice (monkeys monkeys) you tend to get better results, because that (I believe) only looks for sites with "monkeys" written twice, removing sites just linking to the topic (and the glut of link directory things). It's cool.

Re:Calculator and spell checker

[rolocroz]

The page is Slashdotted - here's a Google cache..