What Google Can Do for You
Google Has a Number of Applications for Business Users
Google is a lot more than just a search engine and offers useful applications for business as well as the home internet user.
The Google search engine has quite a large number of lesser-known features. Google is a lot more than just a search engine and offers useful applications for business as well as the home internet user.
Here are just a few of Google’s more business-oriented applications.
Currency Conversion – To use Google’s currency converter you simply have to type the conversion you want into the search box and hit enter. For example, if you wanted to convert the U.S. dollar into British pounds you could enter ‘5 USD in GBP’.
Calculator – Google has a built-in calculator function. Enter your calculation into the search box and hit enter or click on the Google Search button. Google’s calculator can solve basic and some complex math problems.
News – Google continuously monitors many world news services. When you search on Google you may notice links at the top of the page marked as ‘news’. These links appear if the words used in your search are currently featured in the news and clicking on them will take you directly to the news service featuring the relevant story.
Phone Directory – A convenient service that Google offers internet users in the States is a U.S. street address and phone number lookup. At the top of the results page for your searches you’ll see publicly listed addresses and phone numbers. Various combinations of first and last names, city, state, area code and zip code can help you find the phone number or address you are looking for – simply type them in the search box and hit enter.
Question and Answer – You can type a fact based query into the Google search box (for example, ‘population of Texas’) and it will search the web and show the answer at the top of the page. Google will also show a link to the source of the information so you can find out more.
Search by a Number/Parcel Tracker – Many specialized numbers, including parcel tracking id’s and patents, can be entered into the Google search box to find out information about them. Entering a courier service parcel tracking number will return the latest information about the parcel’s location. Other special search by number types include UPS and Fed-Ex numbers, telephone area codes and vehicle ID numbers.
Translation – Using machine translation technology, Google allows you to access web pages in other languages. If your search results contain a page in one of the supported languages, and Google supports your translation pair, a single click will translate that page into your language. Currently supported translations pairs are English to and from Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese; and German to and from French.
Find Out Who Links to Your Site - Some words, when followed by a colon, have different meanings in a Google search. A useful example of this is the ‘link: operator’. The query link:siteURL shows you pages that point to that website. For example, link:www.google.com will show you web sites that point to Google's home page.
Google can work for you and your business.
For more information, check out http://www.google.com/help/features.html
