28 Magical Things Google Search Engine Can Do

Posted on October 6th, 2015 by Quertime Writer in Search Engines

Google is the world’s biggest and arguably one of the best servers in the world. The founder’s mission in 1995 was to develop a page ranking system based on the rules of academic citation. The founders of Google created this search algorithm with an idea of ranking pages based on how often any other pages cite. This is the very basic premise of Google that few of us can do without.

Here are 28 magical things Google search engine can do:

1. Google Nutrition Comparison Search
It helps you to find out the difference in nutritional values between any two different things. You can do this by typing; compare ____to ____.

2. Split bills and calculate tips
Share a group meal bill by searching for “tip calculator”. You will fill in the total bill, the percentage you are willing to tip and the number of people. The tip calculator will work out exactly how much each person should pay.

3. Set a timer
You can Google any amount of time, followed by the word “timer”. This will give you a countdown and allows you to add an alarm at the end.

4. Google Ngrams
Perfect for all word aficionados and book worms. It helps you look up the number of times a particular word shows up in over five million books written since the 1800s. It allows one to see when words become more popular or not over time.

5. Locate files to download
If you enter “filetype:pdf” before any search query, Google gives you PDF documents only. The other common file types are pptx, xlsx, pptx and docx.

6. Reminisce about 1998
Typing in “Google in 1998” into the search bar will bring a retro version of the site in 1998.

7. Filter Gmail
If you add “+anything” to your Gmail address, it will work, meaning that you can sign up to websites using your email and websitename@gmail.com. This creates a folder where all emails from that site will automatically go into.

8. Download Fonts
You can visit Google Fonts to access a collection of free fonts that you can use and download them into your computer or have them as a default on the browser.

9. Learn how to pronounce big numbers
Google a number with up to 12 figures followed by “=English”, Google tells you how to pronounce the number.

10. Translate symbols
Go to Google Translate and draw things like Chinese characters. They will be translated into English for you.

11. Football Fixtures
Google the game of any league and you will see a list of all the week’s fixtures at the top.

12. Know the time in another country
Find out the time of any country by typing in “time:” then the country or city.

Or the time the sun will rise or set in that country or any other simply by searching “sun rise followed by the city name.
Or the times movies are showing in different cities.

13. Voice Google
Too lazy to type? Use the microphone icon in the Google search bar. It allows you to speak and searches your commands.

14. Play Atari
Type in “Atari Breakout” into the Google search bar. You will see an Easter egg created in honour of the games anniversary. The directional keys control the paddle. If you advance to the next level, Google performs a random search, with the images as bricks.

15. Narrow down a search
By clicking the “Search Tools” menu, you can specify the type of search results to be displayed. You can also use Google to find GIF by selecting “Animated” under the “Type” menu.

16. Listen to music
Searching for “songs” followed by the artist brings up a list of their songs and a brief bio. If you click on the individual tracks, the YouTube music videos will play through Google.

17. Calculator
If you search “calculator” on the search bar, a spiffy one comes up. You can do all your additions on it, whether numerical or in words.

18. Show movies an actor has been in
Searching an actor’s name into the search bar brings up a slideshow of their filmography. The same goes for all musicians discographies.

19. Know the weather
Type in “weather” followed by the city in the search bar. Google compiles the weather forecast from other weather sites into one package.

20. View Art Galleries
The Google Art Project allows you to see high quality pictures of artwork from 600 international galleries.

21. View and play old doodles
If you hit “I’m feeling lucky” with nothing in the search bar, you are presented with a catalogue of all the Google’s old games and doodles back to when they started in 1998.

22. Play with Legos
You can go to Buildwithchrome.com and put up constructions all over the world using the map function.

23. Fly with Google Earth
Fly by pushing the CTRL+ALT+A and pick your flight of choice.

24. Google Mars
Google allows you to chat with aliens in Mars. It lets you roam this red planet and witness Mars.

25. Google Sky
If you want to feel like a bug smeared on the window pane of the universe, you should try Google Sky.

26. Set your Google homepage to a language of your choice
There are over 150 languages available under the Google Language tab on the settings page.

27. Track any flights
Instead of going to an airline’s website to search for a flight, Google the airline and flight number and it will track down the flight for you.

28. Tilt Google webpage
Type “do a barrel roll” or “tilt” into the search bar. The webpage will actually tilt.

Author: Andy G

This article was written by Andy G, a tech geek and Linux fan from Austria. At the present moment he maintains firmware and driver download website called Helpjet.net.