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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Walter V. is a self-employed internet entrepreneur and founder-webmaster of several websites, including wallies.info :: A snappy blog about snappy blue things :: blog | wiki | forum | links – http://wallies.info mblo.gs :: A snappy moblog community – http://mblo.gs