25 Fun Google Tricks You'll Want to Try Immediately

Damon Beres

RD.COM Culture

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From functional to fun: The all-powerful search engine is

packed with more cool Google tricks than you realized.
It’s a crime-stopper!

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Reverse image technology is allowing Google to assist child protection agencies in clearing the Web of
child pornography. How it works: Google indexes problematic images and finds any copies online, making
it easy for Internet providers to cut them down.

It’s a little unbalanced!

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Something isn’t quite right here. If you type “askew” into Google, you’ll find something funny: The whole
screen tilts down a bit to the right.

It knows the meaning of life!

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Type in “answer to life, the universe, and everything,” and Google has a pretty clear answer: 42. The search
results are a nod to Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which claims the number is, in
fact, the answer to life. If it knows the meaning of life, then it definitely knows a lot more. Here’s how to
find out all the creepy things Google knows about you.

It doesn’t like to be alone!

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Google has hundreds of billions of web pages in its index (though some estimate it’s even more), so it
probably can’t take loneliness very well. Type in “the loneliest number” in the search box and some fun
Google tricks show you a calculated number—the same one you’ll get if you type “number of horns on a
unicorn.”

It likes to get specific!

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Thought “once in a blue moon” was just a vague expression? Not according to Google. Search that phrase
and you’ll get a very specific frequency: 1.16699016 × 10-8 hertz. It’s a play off the fact that blue moons
happen every 2.71 years.

It never stops moving!

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Want to see something cool? Type “bvsdf” into your Google browser. But be warned: you probably won’t
be able to handle watching the blinking words for very long. Close the page and check out the most
popular “how to” searches on Google instead.

It tries to make you feel better!

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There’s nothing more frustrating than that “Unable to connect to the Internet” message on Chrome.
Luckily, Google knows your pain and lets you blow off some steam. Hit the space bar on your keyboard
and the dinosaur will jump into action, launching a game that provides endless fun. Or at least as much
fun as you can fit before remembering you had work to do.

It can go back in time

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Haven’t you always wondered what old web pages used to look like? Google lets you see what it looked like
back in the day. Just type “Google in 1998” into the search bar and you’ll be brought back in time. Wow,
the Internet really has come a long way. This is the truth about Google’s incognito mode.

It can challenge you

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Want a game break? Just go to Google images and type in “Atari Breakout.” The images turn into bricks
and you can move the bar along the bottom of the screen to break them. Challenge on!

It can time you

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If you need to time yourself for an oral presentation or maybe you’re trying to clean your kitchen in less
than five minutes, there are Google tricks to help you with that. Type “set timer for x amount of time” and
the search engine will pull up a timer at the top of the screen.

Reader Interactions

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