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:Calculator and spell checker (Score:5, Interesting)
Google Calculation [google.com]
And the ever popular Question [google.com]
unit conversion (Score:5, Interesting)
In the google search box type "80 calories in joules" and voila.
Re:Google's Best Feature (Score:4, Interesting)
See: jargon kibo [google.com]
Or better yet: Who's got the biggest ego? [google.com]
Re:unit conversion (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
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.
Have you seen (Score:5, Interesting)
kewl languages (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Fave "hidden" feature (Score:2, Interesting)
This rumor rings particularly true with Google Groups. So, you post something controversial to Usenet with "X-No-Archive: Yes." You, me, and every other average Joe don't see the post in groups.google.com. But guess who does see it? How about well-funded clients who are paying Google a premium to access archives of supposedly "unarchived" Usenet posts?
The same can be said of binaries. If Google has the resources to cache just about every web page in existance, and a newsfeed strong enough to capture all of the text groups, then they certainly have the resources to maintain an archive of Usenet binaries. Imagine the spook potential of having access to every mp3/warez/child porn/etc binary Usenet post for long enough to conduct an investigation, with the ability to search back through reasonably recent posts to prove prior offenses by the same person. Absolutely priceless.
I have to admit that if I were running the show at Google, I'd quickly cave in to governmental or other high-paying requests to archive things that the general public thought I wasn't archiving. Monetary offers to do this sort of clandestine spidering - whether by governments or wealthy individuals - are almost certainly too outrageous to pass up.
Just food for thought.
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 ounces (~30 grams). Fortunately, I have accustomed myself to cooking by eye (I can measure a teaspoon pretty accurately in the palm of my hand), but still, it's important to know just how hot to make a 350 oven (180 C).
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)
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
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?
for finding wares (Score:3, Interesting)
je ll gho nerds... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:something I miss from altavista: (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:My favorite Google Feature (Score:2, Interesting)
(Clicking "I'm Feeling Lucky" just opens the first link automatically, and makes for a better punchline if you're showing a friend.)
Re:Define: (Score:3, Interesting)
define: google [google.com]
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
Re:Google Calculator (Score:5, Interesting)
found through google of course.
google tracking clicks from Main page (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyone else notice that google now tracks all the links from the main page? Google now knows which links you go to. It has the format http://www.google.com/url?&URL&e=tracking.
Try this one: (Score:3, Interesting)
http://random.bounceme.net
Google Stats (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:google tracking clicks from Main page (Score:2, Interesting)
You probably don't run many searches. Upon further research, it seems that they have announced that they will track users who do more than a certain number of queries, but the count is kept using cookies, so if you refuse cookies you should be OK.