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

Who knew you could use Google to play Lego? (H/T this Imgur post).

1. Translate symbols or characters by drawing them.

google.co.uk

google.co.uk

If you go to Google Translate, there's an option where you can manually draw things like Chinese characters, which will then be translated for you into English.

2. Get a calorie comparison of your favourite foods.

google.co.uk

If you google "[food] vs [food]" then a chart will appear comparing the nutritional value of the two choices in great detail – everything from calories to the amount of magnesium.

3. Set a timer.

google.co.uk

If you Google any amount of time, followed by "timer", you'll get a countdown, and you can even make it sound an alarm at the end – perfect for use in the kitchen.

4. Tackle geography trivia.

smartypins.withgoogle.com

smartypins.withgoogle.com

Using the new Google Maps tool Smarty Pins, you can take on Google in a geography trivia game in which you will be asked questions with location-based answers, and you will answer by placing a pin in the world map. You can try just general knowledge or tackle specific categories like science or sport.

5. Split a bill and calculate the tip.

google.co.uk

End the struggle of paying the pill at the end of a group meal by googling "tip calculator", entering the full cost, the percentage you want to tip, and the number of people, and it'll work out exactly how much you need to pay each. Easy.

6. Filter your Gmail.

imgur.com

If you add "+anything" to your Gmail address it will still work, which means you could sign up to certain websites using [e-mail] and create a folder that all emails from that site automatically go into.

7. Discover how popular different words are.

books.google.com

Using the Google Ngram viewer, you can search more than 5 million books published between 1800 and 2008 to find out how often different words were used, and then compare them on a graph. TIL: For a brief period in the 1830s, elephants were more popular than cats.

8. Play zerg rush.

google.co.uk

Another bit of proof that Google just does not want you to do your work. Destroy the Os by clicking on them before they destroy the rest of the page (and try not to give yourself finger cramp in the process).

9. Find and download loads of cool fonts for free.

google.com

If you go to Google Fonts, there's a huge collection of completely free fonts you can use. You can either download them to your computer or make them the default font in your browser.

10. Learn how to pronounce massive numbers.

google.co.uk

If you search a number up to 12 figures followed by "=english", Google will tell you how to pronounce it.

11. Plan your wedding.

google.co.uk

Yep, Google even has a comprehensive wedding planner to make sure everything is in place for your special day. It'll help you do everything from announcing the news of your engagement to finding a venue, making a budget, creating a schedule and guest list, setting up a shareable photo stream from the day, and even making an entire website to keep everything in one handy place.

12. Easily find out the week's football fixtures.

google.co.uk

Simply google the name of the league and you'll get a list of all the week's fixtures right there at the top.

13. Play Atari Breakout.

google.co.uk

Simply search "Atari Breakout" on Google Images and that's your productivity dead for an hour.

14. View art from galleries all over the world.

google.com

Google Art Project lets you view super–high-quality photos of artwork from nearly 600 international galleries. Why bother even leaving the house?

15. View and play all the old doodles.

google.com

Bu hitting "I'm feeling lucky" without anything in the search bar, you'll be presented with a catalogue of all of Google's old doodles and games back until when they started in 1998 (including the brilliant Pacman game).

16. Explore the universe.

google.com

google.com

Google Sky uses images from the Hubble Telescope and NASA Satellites to let you delve into the far reaches of our universe. You can explore galaxies millions of light years from Earth, learn about astrological signs, and even listen to space-related podcasts.

17. Take a journey through Middle-earth.

middle-earth.thehobbit.com

middle-earth.thehobbit.com

This hugely interactive site was set up by Google to celebrate The Hobbit films and lets you play your way through five famous battles, follow the stories of your favourite characters (including clips from the films themselves), or simply explore the map itself.

18. Play with Legos.

buildwithchrome.com

Feel like a kid again by going to buildwithchrome.com. You can put up constructions all over the real world using its map function, check out cool stuff other people have already built, or learn to become a master bricklayer with Build Academy.