Tech Savvy Guest Karen Waters Shares the Amazing Capabilities of Google

Today’s Tech Savvy guest is Karen Waters. Karen is a technical project manager who is passionate about work/life balance. With three kids, a husband, and a full-time job, her life demands technology to maintain equilibrium. She uses her technical skills to help promote efficiencies that allow her to flourish in her career while being the best mom she can.

My son is very inquisitive. From early on in his speech development he began asking questions. From “how do the stars stay up in the sky” to “what’s the name of that woman who was the fastest runner in the world and had polio”, we’ve been asked them all!

Recently, a friend suggested I have him “Google” it. After I lamented myself with “duh” several times, I realized that my kids probably had no idea how to use an internet search engine. Of course, they can enter a term in the search box and expect to get results, but search engines can be so much more.

Test yourself and see if you knew of these Google capabilities:

• Did you know you could enter a mathematical expression in the search box, click search, and get the answer? (Oops, maybe we better not teach them that one!)

• Did you know you can simply type in a zip code or the name of a city followed by the word “map” and Google returns a map of the area?

• Do you want to find local movies? Type in the name of the movie followed by your zip code for times and nearby locations.

• Did you know you can enter a historical figure’s name and click “images” in the upper left corner to return several pictures containing that person?

• Did you know that Google can convert measurements simply by typing in the measurement followed by the conversion units?

• Did you know that Google ignores single numbers, single digits, and common words such as “the” and “how”? Those types of words generally slow down the search. If they are important to your research, though, put a “+” sign in front of the word to have it included.

So, what about my inquisitive little boy? I did get him to Google his questions. He found out that stars stay in the sky because they are so far away from the Earth they are not affected by the Earth’s gravity.

And the woman who was the fastest runner in three Olympic events despite having polio? That was Wilma Rudolph.

Karen shares her work/life balance insight over on her blog at http://findingme.typepad.com.

Today’s Tech Savvy guest is Karen Waters. Karen is a technical project manager who is passionate about work/life balance. With three kids, a husband, and a full-time job, her life demands technology to maintain equilibrium. She uses her technical skills to help promote efficiencies that allow her to flourish in her career while being the best mom she can.

My son is very inquisitive. From early on in his speech development he began asking questions. From “how do the stars stay up in the sky” to “what’s the name of that woman who was the fastest runner in the world and had polio”, we’ve been asked them all!

Recently, a friend suggested I have him “Google” it. After I lamented myself with “duh” several times, I realized that my kids probably had no idea how to use an internet search engine. Of course, they can enter a term in the search box and expect to get results, but search engines can be so much more.

Test yourself and see if you knew of these Google capabilities:

• Did you know you could enter a mathematical expression in the search box, click search, and get the answer? (Oops, maybe we better not teach them that one!)

• Did you know you can simply type in a zip code or the name of a city followed by the word “map” and Google returns a map of the area?

• Do you want to find local movies? Type in the name of the movie followed by your zip code for times and nearby locations.

• Did you know you can enter a historical figure’s name and click “images” in the upper left corner to return several pictures containing that person?

• Did you know that Google can convert measurements simply by typing in the measurement followed by the conversion units?

• Did you know that Google ignores single numbers, single digits, and common words such as “the” and “how”? Those types of words generally slow down the search. If they are important to your research, though, put a “+” sign in front of the word to have it included.

So, what about my inquisitive little boy? I did get him to Google his questions. He found out that stars stay in the sky because they are so far away from the Earth they are not affected by the Earth’s gravity.

And the woman who was the fastest runner in three Olympic events despite having polio? That was Wilma Rudolph.

Karen shares her work/life balance insight over on her blog at http://findingme.typepad.com.