Here’s three things you can do with Google that save a lot of time:
1. Use Google as a calculator
No need to get out a calculator – just use Google to do it. Type in a calculation using +, – , * (multiply, / (divide), and =. Pressing ‘return’ or ‘search’ gives you the answer.
2. Use Google as a unit/currency converter
You can use type things like the following into Google, and it will come out with the answer:
- 27 miles in kilometres
- 6 stone in kilograms
- 159 dollars in pounds
3. Use Google to find things on a particular site, or type of site
If you type your search term followed by site:example.com (strip off the www or http://www first) Google will search only that site for the term. Handy when you know that you found something on a site, but can’t remember where, or you want to know what particular people have said about a topic. For example, let’s see what the ladies at mumsnet think of Jeremy Clarkson (not a lot, and they don’t hold back)
jeremy clarkson site:mumsnet.com
You can also use this to search particular domains. For example, to find out what’s on UK university sites about Jeremy Clarkson, you can type
jeremy clarkson site:ac.uk
This reveals for example that Clarkson, has an honorary doctorate in Engineering from Oxford Brookes University.
It’s very handy for checking spelling of foreign words. English-speaking sites often miss the accents off words, so if you want to know how Kylian should be spelled, type
jiri kylian site:cz
This will bring up sites about Jiří Kylián from the Czech republic only, where they are more likely to spell his name correctly. If you’re not sure what the letters are for a country, check a list of country domains.
