Techode& Pie: 16 handy Google search perks

It's been 16 years since Google started! Sixteen!

To celebrate, here's a list of 16 handy Google search perks to help you save time, discover more and hopefully do more. The beauty of most of these queries is their interactivity where you can tinker with the values right there in the search results with no need for a new query. Those search perks can definitely be replaced by other online tools with richer features; however there's something satisfying about having a search query result in a tangible answer, not merely a list for potential ones. Plus, it's faster.

graphic designed via canva.com using pattern from thepatternlibrary.com

Here goes:

Site search. Narrow down your search to a certain website's content. Great for websites with no built-in search, or simply for a quicker access to what you're looking for.
Comparative search. Compare planets trivia, food nutritional information and more.
Discover movies and books. Simply type in [year] movies, or [year] books and a list of the most popular (or 'frequently mentioned on the web') results. With movies you can even narrow down your search by genre, for instance; '2014 animated films':
Animated images. For finding that perfect GIF. In image search, head to Search tools > Type > Animated.
Calendar. You can access your calendar right from Google to view or add to your agenda. To view your agenda for a certain month, type in [month] [year] calendar. To add appointments from Google search, type in add [your task] to calendar [date/time].
Timer. Quite nifty!
Instant translation. Not that going to translate.google.com was difficult, but the more accessible the better!
Send email. Truth be told though, I had to edit the email from Gmail before being able to send for some reason, but still - the idea's pretty neat!
Ngram viewer. Google's dictionary feature is pretty popular, where you simply type define [word]. Naturally, you'd get the definition, and since recently also a wealth of other metadata including the 'Use over time' graph. Click on that graph and you reach the Ngram Viewer which helps you get frequency analytics from years' worth of prose. Handy if you're into language or writing.

Calculator. You may have come across Google's calculator by typing an equation:

which by the way if you're a chrome user, offers answers straight from the omnibox:

The calculator's very handy, but there's more, they have a very convenient geometry calculator:
Graphing calculator. This is really cool. It makes a wonderful tool for math students to easily understand graph equation patterns and experiment with different formulas. There are other handy graph calculators online, such as desmos (which offers a myriad of user-posted graph renders, alongside their composing functions) but it's not bad to have instant access to a graph from search!
Flight Tracker. Not only can you find flight schedules (type in flights from [source] to [destination]) but you can also track a flight's status by typing in the flight number.
Weather. Not just what's the weather today but also do I need a raincoat today or is it sunny tomorrow? and similar queries give weather results. Also some landmarks are mapped to their geographical locations, such as Disneyland!
Tip calculator. Very handy to swiftly calculate tips per person when dining with a group. You can easily customize the tip to your preference by altering the tip percentage, as well as number of people in the group.
Converters. Whether it's currency conversion or metric conversion, all you need is to type the conversion values and units required. With currency conversion, you can easily switch currencies, and with metric conversion, it's easy to alter the units being measured as well as the metric category (for example: Temperature, Digital Storage, Length).
Finally, the last perk is a way to find more search tips, check out Google's search Tips and Tricks which offers colorful search tips that can be filtered by device platform or category.