Google for Travelers
I was a Googlephile long before I realized how many tools the search engine has for travelers. For instance, only recently did I learn that you can use Google to quickly find out about the status of a flight or an airport, or to calculate a currency conversion. Sure, you don't need to use Google to get this info, but it'll save you a bunch of steps. Here's how:
Flight status: Say you're picking up a friend and want to know if their flight is getting in on time. Type the airline and flight number into Google's homepage (Delta 1860, say), and the top links will be to flight status updates on Travelocity, Expedia, and fboweb.com.
Read on for more travel-friendly Google tips.
Currency conversions: So you're browsing hotel websites and want to
know just how much 265 euros is going to cost you these days. Type 265
euros into Google, and once again, the top of your results page will
display your answer: $360 (yikes!). Before I discovered this, I had to
surf over to oanda.com, click on their FXConverter, and input the
correct amount and currencies. Never again.
Airport info: What if you're flying out of Newark this evening and want to know how long a delay to expect. Type "ewr airport" into Google, and you'll be given a link to the FAA's Airport Status page, with general arrival and departure delay information.
Google's mapping functions are more widely known, but are just as useful to travelers. Type in a street address and city or zip code and you'll immediately get a map; with a few more clicks, you can have driving directions too.
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I've been using google for a while now to convert all kinds of things, like measurements, distances, etc.
You can go from American measurements to metric and back easily. Despite the fact that I understand the metric system, I still have a hard time imagining quantity unless it's in the units we use in the United States. I just have to convert things.
For example, in the Google search box, type "250ml to ounces" and you find that it equals 8.45 ounces. Or perhaps you want to know how far something is, just type "5km to miles" and you'll find that is 3.1 miles"
Temperature works too, type "32 celsius to fahrenheit" and you'll find it's 89 degrees out. This is really helpful for traveling to Europe where measurements differ from the United States.
Posted by: tracker1312 | August 17, 2007 at 10:50 AM
You can also do all of this from your phone via text message.
Posted by: mramirez | August 17, 2007 at 01:59 PM
http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/mobile/sms/
Posted by: mramirez | August 17, 2007 at 01:59 PM
If you have a google account, you can add travel tools to your google home page including global flight status from FlightStats. Just log in. Click on the iGoogle link at the top. Once that page loads, find and select the "add stuff" link and type in "Travel". Lots of cool tools for travelers.
Posted by: flightstats | August 24, 2007 at 04:32 PM