Google Is Not Only A Search Engine!

When you now organize a street interview and ask people "What is Google", I assume more than 90 percent of the people answer that Google is a search engine. Indeed, Google is a search engine and it is probably its core business, but Google is much more!

A short overview of the main services of Google:

++ Category One : Google Web Search Features ++

- Besides the traditional Google search engines in different languages, there is also a local search engine available: Google Local. As Google Local is in beta, only US searches are possible. Are you living in Detroit and hungry and you want a taco, do a search on http://local.google.com and you get a list of all taco restaurants.

- Google Mobile : search with your cell phone online information http://mobile.google.com

- Google Print puts book content right in the Google search results http://print.google.com

- Calculator: Type a mathematical expression (e.g. 5+2*3) in the Google seach box and you get the result, even with complicated math!

- Definitions: when you search for 'define Personal Computer', you get the definition of that word;

- With Froogle, you can search for products (independent free service) http://froogle.google.com and http://labs.google.com/frooglewml.html (Froogle for your cell phone)

- With 'I'm Feeling Lucky™' next to the Google search box you will see directly the first web page for your query. You will not see the other search results at all.

- Movies: To find reviews and showtimes for movies playing near you, type 'movies', 'showtimes' or the name of a current film into the Google search box

- With PhoneBook you can search for US business and residence phone numbers in the Google search box, e.g. 'John, Fitzgerald, Washington'

- Q&A answers (all) your questions in the Google search box, e.g. birthplace Bill Clinton

- You can get specialized information in the Google search box of parcels, patents or other specialized numbers.

- Restrict your search to a specific site (Site Search), e.g. 'google site: www.wallies.info' for wallies.info pages with the word 'google'

- Stock Quotes in the Google search box, e.g. GOOG for the Google stock quote

- Weather conditions and a four-day forecast for a particular U.S. location, e.g. 'weather Miami, fl' in the Google Seach box;

- Travel information: To see delays and weather conditions at a particular airport, type the airport's three letter code followed by the word 'airport'; To check the status of a U.S. flight, type the name of the airline followed by the flight number.

- Google Alerts send you an email with the latest search results of your query. http://www.google.com/alerts

- With Google Catalogs you can search mail-order catalogs online. http://catalogs.google.com

- Search for images with Google Image Search http://images.google.com

- Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature. http://scholar.google.com

- Google special searches: http://www.google.com/unclesam (U.S. Government), http://www.google.com/linux, http://www.google.com/bsd (BSD), http://www.google.com/mac.html (Apple Macintosh), http://www.google.com/microsoft.html

- Google University Search enables you to search to a specific school website. http://www.google.com/options/universities.html

- The Google web directory http://directory.google.com/

++ Category Two : Webmaster Tools ++

- Enter 'link: www.wallies.info' in the Google search box will show you all pages that point to wallies.info;

- Add your URL to Google on http://www.google.com/addurl;

- Develop your own Google applications with Google Web API's. http://www.google.com/apis/

- Google Adsense: place relevant ads on your pages and get paid https://www.google.com/adsense/

- With Google Adwords you can create your own ads. https://adwords.google.com

++ Category Three : Stand alone services ++

- With the xml Google Sitemaps, https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ the Google crawler should index faster your website. See also http://www.wallies.info/blog/item/132/index.html.

- Google Blog is the official weblog of the people behind Google: http://googleblog.blogspot.com

- Blogger is the free weblog service of Google http://www.blogger.com

- With Google Maps can you search for a specific US location on street level and see a satellite image of that location http://maps.google.com/!

- Gmail is Google email with 2GB space http://www.gmail.com

- Google Groups are discussion groups http://groups-beta.google.com/

- Keyhole: nice satellite imagery of our world. http://www.keyhole.com

- Google Video enables you to search a growing archive of televised content – everything from sports to dinosaur documentaries to news shows. http://video.google.com/

++ Category Four : Google Software

- Gmail Notifier : Check your Gmail messages without opening your browser. http://toolbar.google.com/gmail-helper/index?promo=gdl-en

- Google Deskbar lets you search with Google right from your Windows taskbar http://toolbar.google.com/deskbar/

- Google Toolbar is the open-source Googlebar for your browser http://toolbar.google.com/googlebar.html

- Search your own computer with Google Desktop http://desktop.google.com/?promo=gdl-gds-en

- Picasa is free software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC: http://www.picasa.com

- Google Video Viewer is needed for Google Video http://video.google.com/video_download.html

++ Google Labs ++

Google labs showcases a few of our favorite ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time - http://labs.google.com/

- Google Personalized Search: Get the search results most relevant to you http://www.google.com/psearch

- Personalize your Google Homepage with information for you http://www.google.com/ig

- Save time online by loading web pages faster with Google Web Accelarator http://webaccelerator.google.com/

- My Search History Easily access and manage your Google search history from any computer http://www.google.com/searchhistory/

- Find a taxi, limousine or shuttle using real time position of vehicles with Google Ride Finder http://labs.google.com/ridefinder

- As you type your search, Google Suggest offers keyword suggestions in real time http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

- Google SMS: Get precise answers to specialized queries from your mobile phone or device http://sms.google.com/ and http://www.google.co.uk/sms/

- Google Sets: Automatically create sets of items from a few examples http://labs.google.com/sets

++ Various ++

- Google Store: pens, shirts, lava lamps of Google, http://www.googlestore.com/

Maybe there are a few services we've forgotten as this list is already so extensive.

Last to know the Google quote on Nasdaq (GOOG): http://quotes.nasdaq.com/asp/summaryquote.asp?symbol=GOOG%60&selected=GOOG%60

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