8 cool things you can do on Google

I love geeks. I particularly love the ones over at Google (who we’re partnered with, by the way). Not only are they so awe-inspiringly smart, I admire their sense of humour and appreciate the fact that their handy inventions make life a little simpler and procrastinating more fun

I will forever be indebted to the search engine giant’s “synonyms” and “define” features for saving me from writer’s block at uni, as well as their Google Maps tool for keeping me entertained; it’s always nice to know you can take a virtual trip to the Antarctic to look at the penguins. Every once-in-a-Google moon, the geniuses put their algorithm-changing, user-enhancing, spam-fighting activities on hold to create something weird, wonderful or useful. Who said computer geeks were boring? Not me! Here are 8 more cool things you can do on Google, which I’m pretty fond of…

1. Let me Google that for you (LMGTFY)

For those people in the office who are right in front of a computer, but find it more convenient to bother you with a question rather than ask Google and get an answer in 0.22 seconds, Google invented the wonderfully facetious ‘Let me Google that for you’ tool. You simply type the question that you’ve just been asked into the tool’s search bar and press the “Type a question. Click a button” button. This generates a link to the answer to your lazy colleague’s question, which you can email to them. Voilà! Point proven. Who said the art of conversation is dead?

2. Heads or tails

The resolution to many a ‘who’s brew round is it?’ conundrum on this side of the screen, the heads or tails function gives you all the flip you need without the ensuing undertable scrambling or accusations of trickery. Tails tails, never fails.

Damn it.

3. Google Books Ngram Viewer

The Google Books geeky Ngram viewer tool lets you analyse the rise and/or fall of a specific keyword or keywords over a 500-year time span. You can search for one keyword to view its history or search for a few to compare their popularity.

4. Think With Google

Think With Google is one of my favourite recent discoveries; it’s a huge help when doing research for articles and it’s a great resource for anyone in the digital marketing industry. The site is brimming with insights, trends and research in digital marketing as well as inspiration, statistics, industry intelligence and best practices for businesses. The drop-down menus along the top of the page allow you to narrow your research down by industry, marketing objective and ad types. The ‘perspectives’ tab gives you free, unlimited access to viewpoints from industry professionals, while the ‘creative sandbox’ rounds up the top creative ideas within the technology industry – a great source of inspiration.

5. Weather forecast

Is it a shorts day or a jeans day? Google knows. Simply type “weather” into the search bar and you will be presented with a comprehensive weather guide, featuring details of precipitation levels, humidity and wind speed in your area.

6. Make Google beatbox

Go to Google Translate and paste the following text into the translation box:

pv zk pv pv zk pv zk kz zk pv pv pv zk pv zk zk pzk pzk pvzkpvpvzk kkkkk bsch

Translate it into German and press the ‘listen’ button (which will now say ‘beatbox’ when you hover over it). Thanks to whoever had too much time on their hands and discovered that little gem.

7. Cool tricks

“Do a barrel roll”, “zerg rush” “tilt” and “askew”, “elgooG”. If you haven’t already typed these into Google, you should do it now. Anyone who’s played Nintendo’s Star Fox game will understand the barrel roll. ‘Zerg rush’ makes Google’s ‘oo’s act like zerglings from the Starcraft game. ‘Tilt’ and ‘askew’ are pretty self-explanatory.

8. Atari Breakout

Take yourself back to the good old days with an image search for ‘Atari Breakout’ which our Google Analytics demographic data suggests at least half of you should remember.

Blasting search results is a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a break. Thanks Google.