Favorite Hidden Google Features? 267
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?"
Define: (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Define: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Define: (Score:3, Interesting)
define: google [google.com]
Re:Define: (Score:3, Funny)
"french military victories" and click the 'I'm feeling lucky' button!
Re:Define: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Define: (Score:4, Informative)
Calculator and spell checker (Score:2)
Re:Calculator and spell checker (Score:5, Interesting)
Google Calculation [google.com]
And the ever popular Question [google.com]
Re:Calculator and spell checker (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Calculator and spell checker (Score:2)
Someone mod this guy up as funny! That's hilarious!
If you don't know what he's talking about, you need to catch up the classics. [bbc.co.uk]
Dave
Re:Calculator and spell checker (Score:5, Funny)
How about this one [google.com]?
Yes, but ... (Score:4, Funny)
Try 40 rods per hogshead in miles per gallon [google.com], and all you get are Simpsons references. Of course, one of the first is Shafe's Simpsons Stuff - Grandpa's Hogshead Converter [shafe.com], so it works. Sort of.
Re:Calculator and spell checker (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Calculator and spell checker (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.google.com/help/features.h
Re:Calculator and spell checker (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Calculator and spell checker (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Calculator and spell checker (Score:2)
Google has some pretty cool technology.
Re:Calculator and spell checker (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Calculator and spell checker (Score:5, Funny)
Google can help you find some pretty cool things.
I just learned that with my internet service I can theoretically download 11 terrabytes per year. [google.com]
I really need a bigger hard drive
My favorite Google Feature (Score:4, Funny)
But then, given the /. debates here, I'm sure you all know that already.
Re:My favorite Google Feature (Score:2, Informative)
Re:My favorite Google Feature (Score:5, Informative)
-Adam
Re:My favorite Google Feature (Score:3, Informative)
The "French Military Victories" +I'm feeling lucky does too work.
Check it out for yourself: Here [google.ca]
Pity you can't fact check before looking like a complete idiot.(but that's slashdot eh?)
The Standards (Score:5, Funny)
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:The Standards (Score:5, Interesting)
Turns out that it's a numeric variable built into Calculator! Search for:
10 * answer to life the universe and everything + 5
and you'll get back:
(10 * answer to life the universe and everything) + 5 = 425
The Ghost of Douglas Adams would smile at that one. Or he'd be sick of hearing about 42 and slam the door in their face. Who knows which? I guess we'll never know
It sure brightened up my morning, on a chill rainy day, and that must count for something.
D
Fave "hidden" feature (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Fave "hidden" feature (Score:5, Informative)
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" [snopes.com], 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 (Score:2, Interesting)
I won't bother making you guess, I'll get straight to the point. There have been rumors for some time now that Google's largest paying clients are governments.
This rumor rings particularly true with Google Groups. So, you post something controversial to Usenet with "X-No-Archive: Yes." You, me, and every othe
Re:Fave "hidden" feature (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Fave "hidden" feature (Score:5, Insightful)
Things once legal tend to become otherwise. If you feel you've got nothing to hide because you've never done anything illegal, you better pray that none of the things you've done ever becomes illegal. Or even immoral, especially if you might one day run for public office or be involved in a lawsuit.
Me having sex with my SO is legal. That doesn't mean I want information about it out in the open.
Me buying large numbers of left-wing books from Amazon is also perfectly legal, but could put me on a no-fly list if I ever travel to the US.
But above all - YOU will not decide what I should or should not hide, nor will any company or any government. That choice is mine.
"I don't think it means what you think it means" (Score:3, Funny)
As far as I know, having sex with your Superior Officer is universally illegal.
Set preferences without using Google's cookie (Score:5, Informative)
1. Enable cookies. 2. Go to http://www.google.com/ 3. Click on "Preferences" on the right side of the search box. 4. Set your preferences and click "Save Preferences." You're back to the search box. 5. Click on "Advanced Search" on the right side of the search box. 6. Do not fill out anything, but just click on "Google Search." 7. Bookmark this new search page. 8. Delete your Google cookie. 9. Disable all cookies, or at least your cookies for Google. Now when you use your new bookmark for Google searches, your preferences are passed to Google in the URL, without a cookie.
(Reference: http://www.searchguild.com/printer/fm1/792)
Re:Fave "hidden" feature (Score:5, Informative)
Here's what I use. If you use Mozilla, make a bookmark out of the following (fix the spaces Slashdot inserted): 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.]
Evil Cookies (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, you don't want anybody keeping track of your activities and transactions? Then you can't use a credit card, you can't write checks, you can't ever show anybody your driver's license or social security card. Which means you can't legally hold a job in the U.S.!
I think cookie-phobia is a sort of an inverse example of what Bruce Schneir calls the Line-Item Fallacy of Security. He's refering to people who think the solution to their security problems is to just buy a bunch of magic technology that will solve their problems for them. But there also seems to be an attitude that some technology is tainted by the evil anti-security/anti-privacy boojum, and by avoiding it you also solve your security problems. Not true. As Schneir keeps saying, security is not a product, it's a process. And of course privacy is an aspect of security.
Cookies are presumed to be evil because they can be used to gather information. But you can't avoid giving out information. The best you can do is avoid giving information to people you don't trust.
What, you don't trust Google? Fine, then configure your browser to only allow cookie settings to trusted sites, and don't add google.com to the list. That way you can at least use Slashdot without logging in.
What, you don't trust Slashdot? Then why are you even using it? They're perfectly capable of tracking your activities on their site without using cookies.
You don't trust your browser to enforce your cookie policy? Then you're already screwed, cause you've been trusting your browser not to not use cookies at all.
It's not about what technology is evil and what isn't. It's about who you trust and who you don't.
unit conversion (Score:5, Interesting)
In the google search box type "80 calories in joules" and voila.
Re:unit conversion (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:unit conversion (Score:2)
units '80 calories' 'joules'
Google's Best Feature (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Google's Best Feature (Score:4, Interesting)
See: jargon kibo [google.com]
Or better yet: Who's got the biggest ego? [google.com]
Google Calculator (Score:5, Funny)
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 (Score:5, Funny)
But I do like the speed of light in cubits per fortnight. The history geek in me is still laughing.
~UP
Re:Google Calculator (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Google Calculator (Score:3, Informative)
Pity the Google Calculator has a bug, though. (Score:2, Informative)
Try this...
16 hertz in radians per second [google.com]
Notice that the answer is off by a factor of 2*pi.
I reported it to them months ago, but they haven't fixed it.
Re:Pity the Google Calculator has a bug, though. (Score:2)
Re:Pity the Google Calculator has a bug, though. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Google Calculator (Score:3, Interesting)
I swear, cooking is probably one of the biggest things holding the metric system back, with its much-prized teaspoons (~5 mL), tablespoons (~15 mL), cups (~200 mL), and
Re:Google Calculator (Score:2)
I don't quite see the problem with the metric measurements either, my impression is that the biggest difference is that in US recipes, the "cup" is used for most things, whereas in metric, we use the deciliter. Big deal. Both use various spoons, so what was the problem with that?
Re:Google Calculator (Score:3, Funny)
airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow in miles per hour
Re:Google Calculator (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Google Calculator (Score:5, Interesting)
found through google of course.
Travel information (Score:5, Informative)
Google knows all, ask the google, google will know....
non-hidden features (Score:4, Informative)
NOT (Score:4, Interesting)
I used to like AltaVista's old logical operators, which included parentheses for nested operations. I could do things like
((foo AND bar) OR (foo AND baz))
but I don't think Google supports anything like this.
meanin' o' liff (Score:4, Funny)
~stuff (Score:5, Informative)
linux ~tutorial [google.com]
Also, I think this list of google tricks [pcmag.com] was listed on
bork bork bork! (Score:5, Funny)
je ll gho nerds... (Score:3, Interesting)
Spell Checker (Score:5, Insightful)
It's probably so often used, it's practically overlooked as feature.
feature preview (Score:5, Informative)
Reverse Phone Lookups (Score:5, Informative)
It's a little picky on format (you have to do (555) 555-4444, not 5555554444 or 555-555-4444), but in general very awesome.
Re:Reverse Phone Lookups (Score:2)
Re:Reverse Phone Lookups (Score:5, Insightful)
It's probably really picky because of the Google calculator [google.com]. The other versions of the phone number you have there are valid mathematical expressions.
AAA-PPP-NNNN *is* valid! (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.google.com/search?q=225-922-5400
Froogle for the frugal. (Score:5, Informative)
Froogle [google.com], for those who like to be careful with money.
UPC barcode lookup... (Score:5, Informative)
works great if you have one of those modified cue cats [ebay.com]
Searching in Klingon, Swedish Chef, or Elmer Fudd (Score:5, Funny)
Dave
Regular Expressions (Score:5, Funny)
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. [naquadria.org]
Michael. [michael-forman.com]
OT: My favorite quote about regular expressions (Score:5, Funny)
--Jamie Zawinski, in comp.lang.emacs
This "hidden" category... (Score:5, Interesting)
I have no idea, why it is always hidden (even if the content filtering is turned off) or how to reach it from the toplevel.
Re:This "hidden" category... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This "hidden" category... (Score:3, Informative)
ettore, ffabris, gigi, hotpink, hudson, jezebel, peterrobson, seepatrick, susies, wilky
Although they don't get paid
Have you seen (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Have you seen (Score:2)
Re:Have you seen (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Have you seen (Score:2)
Re:Have you seen (Score:2, Funny)
(Sheesh, what a way to spend an afternoon.)
Re:Have you seen (Score:5, Funny)
I bet this person was typing with one hand.
Best units to convert with google calculator. (Score:4, Funny)
kewl languages (Score:5, Interesting)
Google Wireless (Score:5, Informative)
Wildcard searches (Score:5, Informative)
Google ~Guide (Score:5, Informative)
Google H4xx0r (Score:4, Funny)
Favorite Hidden feature (Score:2, Funny)
2 things (Score:5, Interesting)
1. The Dot. Instead of "search string", search.string works.
2. Search By Location [google.com] (currently in google labs, hopefully to be released soon). I made a mycroft plugin [glayven.com] for it. Download and unzip to your mozilla/firefox searchplugins directory, edit googleloc.src to reflect your zip code, restart browser, and it'll appear in your search dropdown. Just choose it from the dropdown and enter a query, say "pizza hut" or whatever, and bang, you get your nearest pizza huts with map and distances. (It'll stop working when search by location is eventually moved out of labs.google.com, obviously)
It's not really a feature, per se... (Score:5, Informative)
something I miss from altavista: (Score:3, Interesting)
They had a link that would return a random result out of the database. Many a boring night was saved by that link. Does anyone know if google has something similar?
Re:something I miss from altavista: (Score:5, Interesting)
Try this one: (Score:3, Interesting)
http://random.bounceme.net
for finding wares (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:for finding wares (Score:3, Informative)
Other Oogles (Score:3, Interesting)
Once, for the hell of it, I tried www.boogle.com [boogle.com]. It's Google with a different quote and a different pretty picture each time you go. So, just for more hell of it, I tried a bunch of other oogles just now. Here are a few:
joogle.com [joogle.com] - a directory site. Never used it or heard of it.
koogle.com [koogle.com] - same as joogle.com.
moogle.com [moogle.com] - Part of Strayer University. Never used it or heard of it.
noogle.com [noogle.com] - Part of moogle.com
ooogle.com [ooogle.com] - sex
roogle.com [roogle.com] - not taken
toogle.com [toogle.com] - got a casino alert box and then sent to usseek.com
uoogle.com [uoogle.com] - redirected to sharewareisland.com
voogle.com [voogle.com] - get free email addresses and a disturbing picture of a frog in a bikini.
woogle.com [woogle.com] - same redirect as toogle.com, to usseek.com
xoogle.com [xoogle.com] - not taken
yoogle.com [yoogle.com] - under construction
zoogle.com [zoogle.com] - Xaraya Content Management Solutions
Google sets set the standard (Score:3, Interesting)
http://labs.google.com/sets [google.com]
Its amazing, the google engine at its best. If u havnt tried it yet give it a go.
Vinit
Thank you google drone? (Score:3, Funny)
Q.
Re:Features List (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Old News (Score:2)
Re:Search for word 'test' (Score:2)
Re:What people think of you (Score:2, Informative)
Re:# of cubic inches in one gallon?!!? (Score:3, Informative)