Talk:Google search features

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Created[edit]

The article "Google search features" was created on 04-June-2009 by long-term user Wikid77 (me) as a detailed sub-article of "Google Search", to allow description of 40 features, considered as excessive detail, for even just 30 features, when described in the main overview article "Google Search". -Wikid77 (talk) 14:07, 4 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Should the title be "Google Search features" then? WP:CAPS says the second and following words in a title should begin with lowercase letters except when a word would normally begin with an uppercase letter. If "Google Search" is a proper noun i.e. the brand name of a specific search engine (as opposed to the generic act of searching with Google) then the title of this article should probably be "Google Search features". --Teratornis (talk) 15:42, 9 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I think most readers use the lowercase word "search" and so they are more likely to use title "Google search features" (with small "s"). However, a redirect title as "Google Search features" seems like a good idea, to allow either form. -Wikid77 17:59, 9 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Purpose of article[edit]

04-June-09: The article "Google search features" is intended to allow highly detailed explanations because Google-Search features include more than 40 options or keywords to modify the type of search. Beyond the original word-search capability, Google Search provides more than 22 special features, such as: similar synonym words; weather forecasts; time zones; stock quotes; maps; earthquake data; movie showtimes; airports; home listings; sports scores, etc. (see below: Coverage of special features). There are special features for numbers: prices; money/unit conversions ("10.5 cm in inches"); temperatures ("50 Fahrenheit in Celsius"); general calculations ( 3*4+sqrt(6)-pi/2 ); package tracking; patents; area codes; plus rudimentary language translation of displayed pages.

A Google search-results page is ordered by a priority rank called "PageRank" which is kept secret to avoid spammers from forcing their pages to the top. Google Search provides more than 15 options for customizing a search (see below: Coverage of search options), such as: exclusion ("-xx"), inclusion ("+xx"), alternatives ("xx OR yy"), and wildcard matching ("*"). -Wikid77 14:07, 4 June 2009

Coverage of special features[edit]

04-June-09: The article "Google search features" is intended to describe all major features. However, some might have been deleted during hacking of the article text. The coverage about features might seem excessive, however, please note that Google Search is not some "app" or even a mere "killer app". Hell no, Google Search is a massive system architected as a vast array of computers and many numerous applications organized into a gargantuan retrieval system. Hence, the article should describe the following special features: [1][2]

  • synonym search - A search can match words similar to those specified,[1] by placing the tilde sign (~) immediately in front of a search term, such as:  ~fast food.
  • weather - The weather humidity, temperature and forecast,[1] for many cities, can be viewed by typing "weather" followed by the city and state, U.S. zip code, or city and country (such as: weather Lawrence, Kansas; weather Paris; weather Bremen, Germany).
  • stock quotes - To see current market data[1] for a specific company or fund, type the ticker symbol (or include "stock"), such as: CSCO; MSFT; IBM stock; F stock (lists Ford Motor Co.); or AIVSX (fund). Results show inter-day changes, or 5-year graph, etc.
  • time zone - The current time in many cities (worldwide),[1] can be viewed by typing "time" and the name of the city (such as: time Cairo; time Pratt, KS).
  • sports scores - The scores and schedules, for sports teams,[1] can be displayed by typing the team name or league name into the search box.
  • calculator - Calculation results can be determined,[1] as calculated live, by entering a formula in numbers or words, such as: 6*77 +pi +sqrt(e^3)/888 plus 0.45. The user is given the option to search for the formula, after calculation.
  • unit conversion - To convert measurements,[1] enter each phrase, such as: 10.5 cm in inches; or 90 km in miles.
  • temperature conversion - Temperatures can be converted, such as "50 Fahrenheit in Celsius" or "50 Celsius in Fahrenheit" (as of May 2009, it cannot handle Kelvin temperatures: Kelvin = Celsius + 273.15 degrees).[8]
  • currency conversion - For the money or currency converter,[1] type the names or currency codes (listed by ISO 4217): 6789 Euro in USD; 150 GBP in USD; 5000 Yen in USD; 5000 Yuan in lira (the U.S. dollar can be USD or "US$" or "$", while Canadian is CAD, etc.).
  • dictionary lookup - To see a definition for a word or phrase,[1] enter "define" plus the word(s) to lookup (such as: Define philosophy)
  • maps - To display some related maps,[1] type in the name or U.S. ZIP code of a location and the word "map" (such as: New York map; Kansas map; or Paris map).
  • movie showtimes - To find reviews or film showtimes for any movies playing nearby,[1] type "movies" or the name of any current film into the search box. If a specific location was saved on a previous search, the top search result will display showtimes for nearby theaters for that movie.
  • public data - To view trends for population (or unemployment rates)[1] of U.S. states & counties, type "population" or "unemployment rate" followed by a state or county name.
  • real estate and housing - To see home listings in a given area,[1] type "housing", "home", or "real estate" followed by the name of a city or U.S. zip code.
  • travel data/airports - To view flight status for arriving or departing U.S. flights,[1] type in the name of the airline and the flight number into the search box (such as: american airlines 18). Delays at a specific airport can also be viewed (by typing the name of the city or three-letter airport code plus word "airport").
  • package tracking - Package mail can be tracked[1] by typing the tracking number of a UPS, Fedex or USPS package directly into the search box. Results will include quick links to track the status of each shipment.
  • patent numbers - U.S. patents can be searched[1][2] by entering the word "patent" followed by the patent number (such as: Patent 5123123).
  • area code - The location (for any U.S. telephone area code)[1] as three-digit area code (such as: 650).
  • U.S. Government search - Searching of U.S. government websites can be performed from webpage: www.google.com/ig/usgov.[2]

There might be others, in the article, beyond those listed above. -Wikid77 (talk) 14:50, 4 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "Search Features", Google.com, May 2009, webpage: GFeat.
  2. ^ a b c "Google and Search Engines", Emory University Law School, 2006, web: EmUniv-Gfind.

Coverage of search options[edit]

04-June-09: The article "Google search features" is intended to describe all major search-options. However, some might have been deleted during hacking of the article text. The article should describe the following 15 search options:

The Google operators:

  • OR - search for either one, such as "price high OR low" searches for "price" with "high" or "low".
  • "-" - exclude a word: "apple -tree" omits pages with word "tree".
  • "+" - force inclusion of a word, such as "Name +of +the Game" to require the words "of" & "the" to appear on a matching page.
  • "*" - Wildcard operator to match any words between other specific words.

Some of the query options are as follows:

  • define: - Prefix "define:" provides a definition[1] of words listed.
  • stocks: - After "stocks:" the query terms are treated as stock ticker symbols.[1]
  • site: - Restrict the results to those websites in the given domain,[1] such as, site:www.acmeacme.com. The option "site:com" will search all domain URLs named with ".com" (no space after "site:").
  • allintitle: - Only the page titles are searched[1] (not the remaining text on each webpage).
  • intitle: - Prefix to search in a webpage title,[1] such as "intitle:google search" will list pages with word "google" in title, and word "search" anywhere (no space after "intitle:").
  • allinurl: - Only the page URL address lines are searched[1] (not the text inside each webpage).
  • inurl: - Prefix for each word to be found in the URL;[1] other words are matched anywhere, such as "inurl:acme search" matches "acme" in a URL, but matches "search" anywhere (no space after "inurl:").

The page-display options (or query types) are:

  • cache: - Highlights search-words in a cached document, such as "cache:www.google.com xxx" shows cache-page & word "xxx" highlighted.
  • link: - Prefix "link:" will list webpages linking to the specified webpage.
  • related: - The prefix "related:" lists webpages "similar" to a specified page.
  • info: - The prefix "info:" will display some background information about one webpage, such as, info:www.google.com (typically, first 160 bytes (about 23 words) of a page.

There might be other options, in the article, beyond those listed above. -Wikid77 (talk) 14:50, 4 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Google Help Center - Alternate query types", 2009, webpage: G-help.

WP:NOTHOWTO[edit]

From WP:NOTHOWTO:

Wikipedia is an encyclopedic reference, not an instruction manual, guidebook, or textbook. Wikipedia articles should not read like:
Instruction manuals. While Wikipedia has descriptions of people, places and things, an article should not read like a "how-to" style owner's manual, advice column (legal, medical or otherwise) or suggestion box. This includes tutorials, instruction manuals, game guides, and recipes. Describing to the reader how other people or things use or do something is encyclopedic; instructing the reader in the imperative mood about how to use or do something is not.[4] Such guides may be welcome at Wikibooks instead.
Can anyone explain how this article doesn't fall firmly into WP:NOTHOWTO territory? AndyTheGrump (talk) 03:02, 12 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed merger with Google Search[edit]

There is way too much of duplication between the two articles. Everything in this article is already covered in Google Search, and in some cases in even more detail. Besides, there is no need for a specialised article on features – it can easily be covered in the main article. - SD0001 (talk) 14:47, 9 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yup. Though as I noted above, this article violates WP:NOTHOWTO, and accordingly much of the content of this article can simply be deleted. AndyTheGrump (talk) 16:54, 9 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Please see this diff that compares the content of this article (excluding the lead section and the section lead) with the corresponding content on Google Search. This diff can be used for reference purposes. There are many differences in the text. Additionally, some of the stuff requiring citations are not there on the main article. This article is being redirected to Google Search#Functionality for now. - SD0001 (talk) 15:01, 16 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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