Internet Marketing &
Business Promotion
Google Searches the Web
And Does Math Homework
By Leslie Walker
Between
Blaster and the blackout last week, one of the Google
search site's quirkiest experiments yet went largely
unseen.
The Internet's top search engine announced it had crammed
a mathematical calculator into its search service, letting
users type math problems directly into the search box
and get instant answers. Google's calculator is trained
to recognize words as well as numbers, so you can type
in "eight plus seven minus four" or "8
plus 7 minus 4." Both will yield 11.
You can type numeric expressions either into the search
box at Google's Web site (www.google.com) or directly
into your Internet browser if you've installed Google's
tool-bar software or you use a browser with built-in
Google searching, such as Mozilla or Apple's Safari.
Below the numeric answers Google returns, it will present
a link to a regular Web search for your phrase in case
you weren't trying to use the calculator.
But this calculator doesn't just do simple multiplication.
It also handles conversions. Cooks may like being able
to type in "quarter cup in teaspoons" and
see Google reply "1 quarter US cup = 12 US teaspoons."
Does a mechanic want to know the size of a replacement
part for a clock in inches, but you only know it in
millimeters? Enter " .715 mm in inches" and
Google will inform you it equals 0.0281496063 inches.
Google's calculator goes beyond basic arithmetic to
do complex math and crunch physical constants, too.
It will process such queries as "G * mass of earth."
or "speed of light * two." Type "What
is the speed of light in furlongs per fortnight"
and you'll get this reply: "the speed of light
= 1.8026175 x 10{+1}{+2} furlongs per fortnight."
If only Google marketed its own pocket research tool,
it could be the pocket calculator of this decade. With
all the other new tools it's rolling out, can one be
far behind?
About
the Author E-mail Leslie Walker at walkerl@washpost.com.
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