Google Search Engine's Calculator

As Justin Pot writes in How To Use Google As A Calculator, the Google Search Calculator associated with the Google search engine is particularly helpful because that search page is often already up on most peoples' web browsers. This makes it easy to perform different calculations without having to bring up different, separate tools.

I include several screen snapshots in this post to illustrate different mathematical computations that can be performed using the calculator built into the Google search engine. The first examples show basic arithmetic (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) and use of parentheses.

The calculator built into the Google search engine can do more than basic arithmetic. The next examples demonstrate use of exponents.

The next screen snapshots demonstrate Google search calculator's support of the keyword "Pi", square root functionality, and imaginary numbers.

The Google search calculator also supports trigonometric functions such as sine, cosine, tangent, and the inverse/arc versions of each of these. Radians are assumed unless degrees are explicitly specified. The following screen snapshots demonstrate these concepts.

The Google search engine's built-in calculation capabilities go beyond the simple mathematics shown above. The post Google Is Now a Graphing Calculator discusses this more and provides an example that can be pasted into the Google search engine.

Amazon.com and Discover Card Free 1-Day Shipping

Through 31 March 2012 ("or while promotional funds last"), Discover Card is offering free 1-day shipping on "select items" purchased at Amazon.com. Details are currently available online at http://amazon.com/discfreeship and that page lists the details and provides access to some of the items eligible for this promotion. The Promo Code to use is DSCVRSHP. The instructions to follow for taking advantage of this offer are all listed at the top of the page at http://amazon.com/discfreeship.

Spokeo: Personal Information Aggregation

The Spokeo web site defines itself as a "search engine specialized in organizing people-related information from phone books, social networks, marketing lists, business sites, and other public sources." The site combines details available from various publicly available sources online into a single location. For example, it aggregates residence photographs provided by Google Maps with details from various social sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

Not surprisingly, some people have privacy concerns about the ready availability of all this personal information in one place. Spokeo makes it possible to opt out of having one's information made available via its Privacy page (there is a link to this on the bottom of Spokeo's main page). The important thing to realize, however, is that Spokeo is just aggregating this information; it's still going to be out there and available even if its reference is removed from Spokeo. This is why I'm surprised when I see people revealing so many personal details online. Once it's out there, you cannot get it back. After all, this is what the people behind the http://pleaserobme.com/ site wanted to remind us.