22 Very Important Google Search Tricks You Might Not Know...

To most people, Google is nothing more than a regular search engine where you type in keywords and questions and a couple of relevant links containing answers are displayed. But to many others who are in the know, Google is much more than that. It has become a multipurpose tool that you can utilize for performing a couple of day-to-day tasks.

Google has really changed the way we see and use the internet in so short a time and it's poised to even do more. Today, Google has added some cool features to its search engine platform which many people still do not know about. Below is a compilation of some of the coolest ways the big G is many life easier. With Google you will be able to:

1. Check today's date

Format: What is today

2. Know the current time in your locality and elsewhere

Format: City time

Examples: Enugu time, Tokyo time

3. Know when it is sunrise and sunset anywhere in the world

Formats: Sunrise time city, Sunset time city

Examples: Sunrise time Cape Town, Sunset time London

4. Get to know the English Premier League (and other competitions') fixtures, results, table and latest scores

Formats: EPL fixtures, EPL results, EPL table, UEFA Champions League fixtures, La Liga table, e.t.c.

5. Run scientific calculations

Formats: Google calculator, or manually e.g 546 x 664, 78 + 54, 2^2, 6 cos 7

6. Get the definitions, synonyms, antonyms and etymologies of words

Formats: Define word, Word definition, Word synonym, Word antonym, Etymology of word, e.t.c.

Examples: Define xenoglossy, Etymology of democracy

7. Convert measurements online

Examples: 458 feet to yards, 65 centimeters to miles, 34 kilograms to pounds

8. Convert currencies online

Examples: 1 dollar to naira, 1 yen to yuan, 1 pound to euro

9. Set a timer

Examples: Set timer for 10 minutes, Set timer for 1 hour

10. Discover the distance between cities and towns

Format: Distance between CityA and CityB

Example: Distance between Onitsha and Lagos

11. Know the weather conditions

Format: Temperature of City

Examples: Temperature of Jos, Temperature of Abuja

12. Know popular books, movies and works by famous authors, movie makers, actors, artists etc

Formats: Books by Author, Movies by Director, Works by Artist, etc

Examples: Books by Achebe, Movies by Spielberg, Works by Michelangelo

13. Know a movie's casts

Format: Cast of Movie

Examples: Casts of Guardians of the Galaxy, Casts of Hercules, Casts of Half of A Yellow Sun

14. Translate words

Example: Translate book to Igbo

15. Check a flight status

Example: Virgin Atlantic 201

16. Get local cinema listings

Formats: Movies for City, Movies for Area Code

Examples: Movies for Miami, Movies for 786

17. Extract data online

Examples: Unemployment rate of Britain, GDP growth rate of Nigeria

18. Track your package online

Examples: 1D4678767292920862, 1Z35678546492920862

19. Play a game online

Example: Play Pacman on Google

20. Get stock quotes

Format: Stock quote Company

Examples: Stock quote Apple, Stock quote Berkshire Hathaway, Stock quote Microsoft, Stock quote Google

21. Discover your IP address

Example: IP address

22. Highlight and ignore words

Examples: [Highlight word] GDP "statistics" in Nigeria (This will not display any webpage that does not have the term 'statistics' in it), [Ignore word] Education in developing countries -Nigeria (This will remove all webpages with the term 'Nigeria' when displaying the results)

Note: Most of these tricks only work on high-end smartphones, tablets and personal computers.