The Mad Rants of a Raving Genius

I’m taking a page from ItsMnM with this (and hopefully future) guides. This particular one was originally intended as an entry in their contest, but I decided against submitting it. And now I am submitting it. I just can’t make up my mind. Anyways, enough history. MRoaRG proudly presents:

5 Things You Can Do With Google (that I bet you had no clue you could do)

This is first and foremost a guide for complete newbies. In other words, if you know what Google bombing and Google whacking are (and how to do both), you shouldn’t be reading this. Anyways, Google is, hands-down, the most useful thing you can find on the Internet. Except maybe Wikipedia. There’s really no end to what you can do with Google services, but this guide is mainly concerned with the various uses of the basic Google search. These are in no particular order, just so you know.

1. Define words: When using the Google search box (be it the one on the Google homepage, or one in a third-party program like Firefox or Internet Explorer), simply type in “define:” followed the the word you wish to have defined. Google will bring up a page of definitions for your word gleaned from online dictionaries from across the Web. So, typing “define: love” (without the quotes) will bring up any definitions of love that Google can find.
2. Perform calculations: Can’t find a calculator and are too lazy to use the one in Windows? Simply type in your math problem in Google, press enter, and it will solve it for you. The Google calculator can do basic math functions (add, subtract, divide, and multiply) as well as more advanced functions (such as square roots), units of measure and conversion, and finally give you the values for physical constants (try typing “pi” in the search box and see what you get). So, typing in “(sqrt(4)*3)-1″ (again, no quotes) in Google will return an answer of 5.
3. Convert currency: Figuring out just how much your buck is work in Grenada has never been so easy. Type in the currency conversion you want to figure out and Google does all the work. So, if you need to find the number of British pounds sterling in US$10.54, type in “$10.54 in British pounds” (or any variant of pounds; for instance, GBP works, as well as pounds), which returns an answer of about 5.37 British pounds.
4. Find movie times: Forget the newspaper. Google is an easier way to find up-to-date movie times for theaters anywhere. There are many ways to do this, but my favorite is by zip code. Other ways to find movie times include using the movie title or simply typing in the search term “movies.” Anyways, if you were to use the zip code method, you would type in “movies xxxxx” where xxxxx is your five-digit zip code. Google will then return movie times for the theaters nearest to that zip code.
5. Check the weather: Again, why wait for the newspaper when you’ve got Google? It will give you a four-day forecast (as well as current weather conditions) easily. Type in “weather” followed either by your city and state or zip code. So, checking the weather in Beverly Hills would either turn out to be “weather 90210″ or “weather beverly hills.” Google returns the results right at the top and off you go.

There are, of course, more things Google can do for you, but these are the five I’ve found to be most useful. Yes, it does seem like Google will one day rule the world. I won’t mind.