Google Hacks

Google Labs

Google Labs, as the name suggests, sports Google’s experiments, fun little hacks, and inspirational uses of the Google engine and database.

Be sure not to miss Google Labs (http://labs.google.com/). The whole point of this part of Google’s site is that things will appear, vanish, change, and basically do whatever they want. So it may be different by the time you read this, but it’s still worth covering what’s here now; you might find one of the tools here useful in sparking ideas.

At the time of this writing, there are four experiments running at the lab:

Google Glossary (http://labs1.google.com/glossary)

A search engine for acronyms and abbreviations. It found TMTOWDI and Ventriculoperitoneal Shunt, but missed on MST3K and googlewhack. Entries include a brief definition, a link to an informative page, definition links to Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster, and related phrases if any.

Google Sets (http://labs1.google.com/sets)

Enter a few terms, and Google will try to come up with an appropriate set of phrases. For example, enter Amazon and Borders, and Google will come up with Borders, Amazon, Barnes Noble, Buy Com, Media Play, Suncoast, Samgoody, etc. It doesn’t always work like you’d expect. Enter vegan and vegetarian and you’ll get veal, Valentine’s Day, Tasmania—it goes a bit far afield. Clicking any item in the group list will launch a regular Google search.

Google Voice Search (http://labs1.google.com/gvs.html)

Dial the number on the page, and you’ll be prompted ...