Ten Cool Things You Didn't Know You Could Do With Google

Why click thrice when once will suffice? Of late, this seems to be Google's 

mantra for search results. You might have noticed that one no longer needs

 to click on articles to gather information. Google's Knowledge Graph puts a

 tonne of information next to search results in an attempt to become the world's 

most powerful database of knowledge.

Here are some of the best ways to use this massive trove of information to 

speed up searches and tasks:

1. Your Personal information

Google knows everything about you - as long as you're signed in to your 

Google account. If you have a contact in your smartphone with your name 

and email address, Google can show you your contact details via search 

results. If you use Google contacts, you can search for any contact with

 these keywords: "what is ...'s number". Just fill the blank with the name of 

the contact. Remember that this result will only be visible to you as long as

 you're signed in to your Google account.

There's more Google can tell you about yourself though - search for "what
is my IP address" or "where am I" and it will answer in a box under the
 search bar.

2. Translation and dictionary

Found someone online who doesn't speak your language? Fear not, just
search for "translate", followed whatever the person said. We tried this with
 phrases in European and Indian languages and found the translations to
 be useful when working with short phrases, but not always accurate when
 we had long sentences.

You can add modifiers, like "translate from", or "translate to", to set the
operative languages - for example, "translate reis from german to hindi".

Google can also help you with the meanings of words, or finding synonyms
and more. For best results, put define (or synonyms, or antonyms) before
the word you want to look up.

You can also use Google to get on-the-spot meanings of words. Simply add
 the prefix define - e.g. "define Schadenfreude".

3. Time, weather, and even a timer

Time and weather are another cool function of Google search. Just search 

for "Time in New York" or any other city and country. The same thing works 

for the keyword "weather".

You can also use Google as a timer. Just search for "timer" and Google will

 show you one. By default it is set to 5 minutes, which you can change by

 clicking on the time. It supports full-screen mode and rings when the time is up.

4. Flight information

All you need to know is the flight number of any aircraft, and Google 

Knowledge Graph can show you arrival and departure times and the flight's 

destinations in a neat graphic that shows the departure time, arrival time,

 and even the terminal and gate.

We found this very useful when planning trips, but we really wish Google
could make a similar feature for trains.

5. Converting units and currencies

Not sure how many teaspoons to use when the recipe mentions
tablespoons? Just Google for "2.5 tablespoons to teaspoons," to get your
 answer. The same format can be used for other like "feet to cms" too.
You can also search for "USD to INR" or "$30,000 to INR" to get the
current exchange rate and trends over the past few years.

Google's units conversion tool supports temperature, fuel consumption
(MPG to km/litre, etc), length, mass, speed, volume, area, time and even
 digital storage (from Gb to MB, for example).

6. Location and directions

Google search is very good at finding places and telling you how to get
 there. Whether you know the entire address or just a pin code, a quick
search will show a map marking the area. For example, searching for
 "110001" will show which areas fall under the pin code.

Google has a fairly large database of addresses of public buildings and
commercial complexes. Queries such as "where is India Gate" or "where
 is the nearest hospital" will either show you the answer in a big box above
 the search results or show a map preview with the locations marked.

And in case you're about to hit the road, searching for "directions to" (say
 "directions to Khan Market") your destination will show you a map preview
 with how much time it will take to get there in current traffic conditions.

7. General Knowledge

Not surprisingly, Google is really good at answering general knowledge
 questions. Some queries will only land you the answer, while some other
 queries will show you answers to related questions as well. For instance
, "when was Mahatma Gandhi born" also shows the birth dates of
Jawaharlal Nehru, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.

It can answer questions such as "who is the prime minister of Japan" and
"who is the richest man in the world".

8. Astronomy guide

What's bigger, Mars or Venus? How about the relative difference between
 the Moon and the Earth? Search for "Mars vs Jupiter" to get the comparison
, while searching for "Moon to Earth", or "Earth to Aplha Centauri" will show
 you the distance between the two. To find how far the others are from Earth,
 try searching for "how far is ... from Earth". Fill in the blank with the celestial
 body (or man-made satellites such as Voyager I) to find the distance.

9. Popular culture including show timings

Google Knowledge Graph can also give you information about films, television
 shows, books and comics - when you search for an actor, book or film, this
carousel shows up with information on related people or works. A search for
 "best graphic novels" or "best films of 2014" will show you what other people
 are searching for.

Google can also name the films currently in movie halls. It can also list show
 timings. Search for "'movie name' show timings" or simply "films" for this.

10. Sports and stock information

Google can be used to track sporting events and even schedules. A search
 with the name of the team, such as "India cricket team" or "Arsenal FC" show
s you the result from the previous match, live score (if a game is on) and when
 the next match is scheduled. Google also shows some other information about
 the team and its achievements, pulled from Wikipedia.

If you search for a company's name followed by the word stock, you will see the results

 right away, and while the default view shows you the day's valuation, you can set this

 to 5 days, a month up to the time the company was first listed - try entering "Wipro

 stock" or "Google stock" to see.

With these ten tips, you should be able to save time with Google. In case you come 

across some handy uses for Google that we haven't listed, tell us via the comments.

Google Updates Play Music and Search Apps for Android With New Features

Google on Wednesday updated its Search and Play Music apps for Android with new features.

The Google Search app has been updated to version 3.6. The update is said to enable deep linking of apps through search and could possibly allow "Google to show content from inside an app and link you directly to it if you've got it installed," reported Android Police.

The updated Search app also includes a new pop-up warning when a user tries to enable 'Ok Google' hotword detection from any screen with a message, "Someone else may be able to use voice commands, such as calling or texting, or access your address, contacts and other personal information -even if your device is locked."

The updated Search app is also said to have new hands-free features from the rumoured KITT project from Google. While not much is known about the rumoured Android KITT project, it is said to be a project that's internally codenamed 'Android Eyes Free' that will allow car drivers to safely perform searches via voice.

The updated Google Search app seems to be rolling-out gradually across the world, as the Wednesday-updated app listed on Google Play India actually refers to other new features, specifically the new ability for public transport commuters to set an alarm "when it's time to get off the train/bus" (a feature that was being tested in June), along with a 'Things to watch on Chromecast' section, as well as some bug fixes and performance improvements.

Users who don't want to wait for the updated Search app to roll-out to their region can install the Google-signed apk from Android Police.

On the other hand, the Google Play Music app received a minor update which bumped the version up to 5.6.1616, from the previous 5.6.1609P. Notably, Google Play in India still lists the older updated version 5.6.1609P with the app updated on Wednesday.

The Google Play Music update includes a revamped 4x1 widget and has also added another 1x1 widget that gives instant access to the "I'm feeling lucky" radio, notes Droid-Life.

Users can simply tap on the new 1x1 widget to play random music directly from the home screen. The Manage downloads section in the updated Play Music app now shows the downloaded files along with the available space. Users can also 'undo songs that have been swiped away', while a long-press on a song in a playlist or the queue now lets users move it around. Those who don't want to wait for the updated Play Music to roll-out to their regions can download the Google-signed apk from Droid-Life.

Using Google Search for music cannow redirect you to compatible apps

Figuring out what apps have your favorite artists and tunes just got a whole lot easier. Performing a search with Google Search regarding a particular artist will return results that can redirect you to music streaming apps that are already installed on your device. 

The list are apps that contain songs with that particular artist. Currently, the function works in the United States with Rdio , iHeartRadio, Spotify , Google Play , TuneIn , and YouTube .

We Search More On Apps, Less On Google Now

We’re using apps on our smartphones and tablets much more to look things up now, according to a new report out from eMarketer. That means a serious drop in ad revenue for many of the major search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo.

According to the report, Google mobile ads saw a dramatic 17 percent drop in revenue from 2012. The search giant owned 82.8 percent of the $2.24 billion search market just two years ago. While the U.S. mobile ad market brought in a whopping $17.73 billion this year, mobile search spending jumped to more than half of that at $9.02 billion — but Google’s piece of that pie dropped to just 65.7 percent.

Basically, we’re on our smartphones a lot more when looking things up than we are on our desktops. And we’re fragmented in the way we search now as well. Google is all search for everything but can’t necessarily tell us in a click the best restaurant or what the price is on a coveted item. We use niche travel apps such as Kayak to look up travel info, Trulia to search for homes and local business search company Yelp to look up local businesses.

A Nielsen consumer report out earlier this year confirms the shift to mobile. We’re spending an average of 34 hours using the Internet on our mobile phones every month compared to 27 hours using the Internet on our desktop.

According to the eMarketer report, we’re really big on local search. Yelp is leading the pack here in terms of ad-revenue growth. Predictions for the local business search company are at 136 percent, or $119 million in mobile ad revenue this year. While that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the spend for Google, Yahoo or Bing, it’s a telling shift in consumer behavior. Revenues are expected to triple by 2016 for Yelp. Meanwhile, Google revenue is expected to drop to 64.2 percent of the overall market by then.

No word yet on what the “other” category is in the report. Also note that this report does not mean Google is losing revenue. On the contrary, it’s still growing — it’s just capturing less of the overall market than it was before. As mentioned above, the total mobile ad spend has jumped by nearly $7 billion in the last two years. That still gives Google close to $6 billion in mobile search ad revenue.

The bottom line here is that niche apps are taking over the way in which we search online, and they’re doing this because we are spending much more time looking things up on mobile devices than we are on our desktops.

Google Partners With Twitter to Include Tweets in Public Disaster Alerts

Google has announced that starting Tuesday, its Public Alerts service has begun incorporating tweets from disaster-struck locations.

Now, when the company issues a public disaster alert from official sources, such as the National Weather Service, it will include relevant tweets in Google Now, Search and Maps, as well as on its Public Alerts website.

The announcement came via a Google+ post from the Google Crisis Response team. Google made the Crisis Response page to make critical information more accessible in times of disaster.

"Starting today [June 3], you can find relevant data from Twitter on a subset of Google Public Alerts. We launched Public Alerts to provide updates from official sources, such as the National Weather Service, via Google Now, Search, and Google Maps. Now, some of the more extreme Public Alerts will include Tweets to help answer important questions: are schools closing? Are neighbours evacuating? What are people seeing on the front lines of a storm?" Google noted in its post.

The idea behind this is to have the public's tweets help answer questions in emergency situations. The feature is currently for English-speaking regions and only for Google's Public Alerts product. The company is also working towards adding "new kinds of social content to other products and geographies in the future."

Once partners in 2011, both companies has had issues in past. It seems that Google is leaving things behind and using Twitter's public API.

Although Twitter declined to comment on the news, but a Google spokesperson told Wired that the tweets are sourced via Twitter's public API and not the "firehose," or real-time data stream.