Sunday Sharing--More Google Hints

Here are a few more little Google hints that I didn't know about until I attended a workshop a few weeks back. Not all of them are spectacular, but most could come in handy every once in a while.

Say your computer clock is off, and you want to know the correct time. In the Google search box type "time." At the top of the results will be your local time and the time in several cities. Say it's 1:46 pm Saturday where you are, and you're looking to call a friend in another part of the world, but you're not sure what time it is there, type "time:city name." For example, you type in "time:bangkok" and find it's 12:46 am Sunday, perhaps a little too late to be calling, unless your friend likes to party on the weekend!

Same thing goes with the weather. I type in "weather" and get the weather for my general area, New Hampshire. If I type in "weather:03079" I get the weather for my town in NH.

You can check out a movie by typing in "movie:film name" and bring up sites related to a particular film. I'm not crazy about this feature though, I'd rather go to Internet Movie Database, which I have on my bookmark toolbar because I use it so frequently. But, try it for yourself, you may like it. I do like getting movie times for my local theaters by typing in "movie times" (no colon here). The first time you do this, you may have to put in your zip code. You can change the location to check listings in other areas.

The last thing I'll show you today has to do with music. Say you want to learn more about the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Type in "music:squirrel nut zippers." The first thing showing is "Artists-All Artists Shown," and under it is Squirrel Nut Zippers. Click on it and it brings you to another page that lists albums. On the left you can click on "Show Summary" to get a listing of all the tracks on the group's albums. Also on the left is the group's website and other links to photos, etc.

Perhaps you already knew all this, but if not, the above mentioned searches, and more, are explained by Google here. You will notice that I use a colon in my searches above, but Google doesn't. In some cases it makes a difference, but in others it doesn't. Experiment to see what works best for you.