The Hidden Way to Zoom in Closer in Google Maps

Did you know that through a simple bit of URL hacking in some locations in Google Maps, you can zoom in even more than the interface allows you to.

Start by going to somewhere on Google Maps, say, http://goo.gl/maps/t4sph

Zoom in as far as it will let you by clicking on the "+" sign at the top of the magnification slider at the top left of the map.

When you're in as far as you can go (heh) but not all the way to street view (if the location you're looking at even has street view), look over at the white space just to the top left of the map....where the little printer and chain link buttons are.

Click on the chain "link" button. That will show you a box with a long URL to the map you are looking at and another box with some HTML code to embed. Ignore the HTML code.

Copy the long URL and paste it into your browser's address bar, but don't hit enter to go to that URL yet. Instead, click to edit it and scroll all the way to the right. It should end with something like "&z=22". Change the 22 to 23 ("&z=23") and hit enter. If Google Maps has imagery at that higher zoom level, it will show it to you.

Read the full article @ LifeHacker.

More Money Math

Did you know you can do math in Google Search using multiple currencies?

For example: 99 GBP + 15 EUR in USD

Thanks to Tasha Bergson-Michelson for this one.

Pi

In the book we mention that you can enter math formulas into the Google Search box. But if you're looking for the radius of a circle, here's a neat trick Google posted about on Pi day:

When you're using Google's calculator, use the word "pi" in the search bar to do your calculation. Say that you're measuring a tree and you want to know the radius. If you know that the circumference of the tree is 12 feet, then you can calculate the radius by entering in the equation 12/(2*pi) into Google. On the calculator, you'll see the result is 1.9098593171 and that's the radius.

Find What You’re Looking for on Google’s Help Pages Instantly with a Search Operator

How'd you like one search operator that would limit Google searches to the Google Help pages? Here it is courtsey of LifeHacker:

site:support.google.com/*/answer [your question]

Here's an example search looking for help with uploading to Google image search.

Google Web Page Spam Archive Replay

From the folks @ RustyBrick.com:

Starting on March 1, 2013 Google began documenting examples of web pages they have manually marked as spam. Google said they will show recent examples, updated every hour or so of pages that are removed from their index for spamming. Here is an archive of those pages including the URL, title, snippet, the date and time it was removed and a screen capture of the page.

How Search Works: From algorithms to answers

Google has posted a wonderful animated infographic about how Google search works on the large-scale level. Sections include The Story, Overview, Crawling & Indexing, Algorithms, Fighting Spam, and Policies. Check it out @ http://www.google.com/insidesearch/howsearchworks/thestory/.

Gmail Search Field Trial

Find what you're looking for faster in Gmail and Search

Join this field trial to preview upcoming features we've been working on, such as:

• Improvements to search in Gmail
• Improvements to search on Google.com
• Additional related features and improvements
• Desktop, mobile, and tablet availability

For more details and to sign up go to http://www.google.com/experimental/gmailfieldtrial