Apart from regular search queries, do you know that you can use the Google search engine in a variety of creative ways? You can use Google to know the sunrise and sunset timings, convert currency amounts, perform local searches, find movie show times and so on. These type of Google search, better known as Google special search requires the user to type a specific query and add an attribute to the query. A very good example of a special Google search is knowing the time of a particular city. I live in India and want to know what time is it in London, UK. To perform this Google special search, I will have to type the exact query as “What time is it” and supply the parameter as “London”
What’s interesting to note is that these Google searches depend upon your geographic location (in some occasions) and the results are displayed accordingly. In this article, we look into some special Google searches which can be used in a more creative way to know important things you have always wanted:
Know the Weather of a Any City Using Google
To know the weather conditions of any city, go to Google.com and enter the name of the city in the search box. Then type the state and the country of the city, as shown in the following example:
Not only will Google display the current average temperature of your city, but you can also see the weather pattern for the last week. Additional details like humidity and wind speed are also shown in the same page and you can add the result to your iGoogle home page using the link “Add to iGoogle”.
Know the Time of Any City Using Google
Similarly you can also know the present time of any part of the world using a simple Google search. Just type time in the Google search box followed by the name of the city or country as shown in the following example:
Use Google as a Calculator
You can perform simple arithmetical calculations from Google search. This includes addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square root and power. To perform the calculation, type the complete arithmetical expression in Google search and you will get the end result as shown below:
Use Google as a Currency Converter
Often I would want to know what how much money I have in my Paypal account. Since funds in Paypal are represented in U.S Dollars, I use Google for converting the currencies to Indian Rupees. To use Google as a currency converter, type the amount followed by the source currency name in the Google search box. Then type in followed by the name of the destination currency. Thus, if I want to convert 237 USD to Indian rupees – I would perform the following Google search:
Use Google to Know the Time of Sunrise and Sunset in your City
This one is one of my favorites. You can use Google to know the exact time of sunrise and sunset in any city of the globe. Simply type Sunrise and then enter the name of your city. The sunrise and sunset timings will be displayed right under the search box, as shown below:
Use Google to Know Public Data of Various Countries
Google can be used to know the trends for population and unemployment rates of any country of the world. Type population or unemployment followed by the country name and the results will be shown as in this image:
The data is shown from World bank’s database, you can click through the thumbnail to view more information regarding the population growth and unemployment stats of the particular country. The resulting page will contain public data of all the countries of the world, just select the corresponding checkbox from the left sidebar as shown below:
Use Google For Local Searches
Not many people know that Google is a great tool to find local stores, restaurants, shops and other business entities in your city. Say you are looking for a good restaurant that serves “thai food”. Go to Google.com and type thai food followed by the name of the city where you want to find the local business listings. Google will show a map on top of the search results, pointing you to all the restaurants who serve the type of food you are looking for.
In the same way you can search for book stores, dentists, grocery store and other local business listings of any city.
Use Google to Find Movie Showtimes
If you are a movie addict and want to know the movie timings of theaters in your city, Google can help. Just type movies in the Google search box and enter the name of your city in the “Find Movie Showtimes” search box. Then hit “Get Showtimes” and Google will display the movie timings of popular theaters in your city, as shown below:
These are just a few ways you can use Google for performing special searches. You can visit this page to know more about Google special searches. What’s your favorite Google special search trick? Let us know your ideas through a comment.
