Google Search Engine Features You Might Have Skipped

by Dan Vlasic on 7 May 2014 · 3943 views

A search engine is the key element and a gate to the Internet in any online research, so what more can it be but a search engine, search results, and advertisements? Google search engine can be fun and productive tool.

Here are some Google features some of you are aware of, while others may find it new and quite useful to know.

Let’s start with entertainment.

1. If you enter a search query, “Atari breakout” you’ll see an interactive game you can use as a five-minute distraction in between your daily routines.

2. If you enter a search query “zerg rush” the red and yellow “O”’s will start attacking search results and you will have to click those to kill them. It’s a fun game based on Starcraft that will make you reminiscent of the zerg battles.

3. If you enter a search query “do a barrel roll” the page rolls.

4. If you enter “cinema your city” you will see an interactive schedule with cinemas, timetables and genres of the movies that are currently playing, as well as the link to see the trailer.

Here are some productivity tools.

1. “” Quotation marks. A lot of people don’t know about this feature – if you enter a search query in quotation marks, the search engine looks for the exact match only, with the exact word order and only the given meaning. Very often, you can find the exact page you’re looking for without weeding through tons of garbage.

2. ~ Mark entered before any search query makes the search engine look for the word, and its synonyms.

3. & mark is used to find two standalone words used in the same sentence. For example, the search query “Selfie & Obama” will give you the corresponding search results with maximum accuracy.

4. Use ext: command if you’re looking for specific documents. For example, if you are looking for bank documents in pdf format, you should enter “loan requirements Bank of America ext:pdf” and you will only get the search results full of documents in pdf format.

5. Time. If you enter the search query “Your City Time,” Google will show you the current time in your city, date and time zone. Here is how it looks for the search query “London Time” –

6. Currency converter. Google has a built-in currency converter, so when you enter a search query “100 eur to dollars” you will get an interactive currency converter.

7. Google has an inbuilt function that displays definitions of the words. Just enter the required word and add “define” and you will see a short definition for the word or notion. It’s a great timesaver that spares you the time you would have otherwise spent on Wikipedia and other dictionary websites.

8. This may be nothing new to most of you but Google has an inbuilt calculator, so whenever you need to calculate something pretty quick or solve an equation, you can do this in the search engine. So if you enter a search query “505+456” you will see an interactive calculator and the answer to your query. Google calculator supports some advanced functions, too.