Is the Word “Google” a Verb?

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Let’s be honest – most of us probably use the word Google as a verb in everyday conversation. I do it all the time – especially so when my wife and I don’t know the answer to something. Sure enough, whenever we type our question into Google, we usually get a pretty good response.

But did you know that there is a whole lot more that Google can do other than just searching for words? There are a ton of neat tricks out there that people have discovered, some of which I’ve compiled here. Try some of them, and see if you’re able to Google more efficiently.

Tips and Tricks

Track Packages

You can track your UPS, Fedex, and USPS packages without having to visit their respective website – just input the tracking number in the search field.

Get the Local Weather

If you don’t want to wait for the weather on the 8′s on the Weather Channel, and don’t want to navigate through your local newspaper/TV station website, simply type weather “your ZIP code” in the search box.

Product Reviews

Do want to find consumer reviews for a product that you’re interested in buying, but you don’t want to be taken to websites that are trying to sell you those same products? Try typing “product name” sucks into the search field to get more accurate reviews.

What Time Is It?

Want to know the time anywhere else in the world? Simply type in time “city” and it should display the current time in that part of the world.

Movie Times

Want to go see a movie, but you don’t have the local paper in front of you to find out when it’s playing? Type in “movie title” “your zip code”.

Use as a Calculator

You can use Google as a calculator to answer anything from the simplest math to the most complex equation.

When entering your math, + is used to add terms, – to subtract terms, * to multiply terms, and / to divide terms. Besides these basic operators, you can use ^ to work out something to the power of something (for example, “2^4” would be 2 to the power of 4), and “sqrt” to calculate the square root of a number (for example, “sqrt 4” would be the square root of 4).

Track a Flight

Don’t want to go to your airline’s website to find out when your flight is departing or someone’s flight is arriving? Then just type in “airline” flight “flight number” and get back the arrival and departure times right inside Google’s search results.

Convert Currency, Metrics, and more

Google’s powerful built-in converter calculator can help you out whether you’re cooking dinner, traveling abroad, or more. Find out how many teaspoons are in a quarter cup (type in “quarter cup in teaspoons”) or how many seconds there are in a year (type in “seconds in a year”) or how many euros there are to five dollars (type in “5 USD in Euro”).

Dictionary Definitions

By typing in “define” before a word, Google will display a list of dictionary definitions for that word.

Other Tips

• Phrase the question you are typing in the search engine in the form of an answer. For example: Instead of typing in, “What is the average rainfall in Chicago?” you might want to try typing, “The average rainfall in Chicago is”
• Place quotes around phrases that must be searched together. For example: If you put quotes around the words, “baseball hat” Google won’t waste your time by looking for Web pages with the words “baseball” and “hat”.
• Google is a global White Pages and Yellow Pages. Type in phonebook “business name” “city, state”, and Google will automatically display the address and phone number.

Suggest Your Own

Have tricks for using Google that you think others would find useful? Share with everyone by commenting below!

3 Comments

1. 

   Reply

   Geoff wrote on November 5, 2008:

   Just to add to the Google calculations, you can also use pi to calculate the (approximate?) value of Pi.
   e.g: searching for pi*2 will calculate double the value of Pi.

   Makes for fun times

   Posted at 2:22 pm

   • 

     Reply

     Addicott Web wrote on November 5, 2008:

     That’s pretty neat, thanks for sharing! And to think that if I had Google when I was in school I would’ve done so much better in math!

     Posted at 5:34 pm

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1. » Is the Word “Google” a Verb? says:

   October 29, 2008 at 4:38 pm

   [...] Google’s powerful built-in converter calculator can help you out whether you’re cooking dinner, traveling abroad, or more. Find out how many teaspoons are in a quarter cup (type in “quarter cup in teaspoons”) or how many seconds there … Is the Word “Google” a Verb? [...]

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