Google has a lot more features to offer than just searching the web. Google is a giant on the internet, and you can use www.google.com for much more than just that.

I’ll give you a brief overview of what I have on my page when I first hit Google. Above is the screenshot of it, and here is mytop 12 list :

1.  A George Bush Quote Generator : This insert will give you a randomly generated quote by the US President, George W. Bush. It’s good for laughs.
2. The Weather : This will show you the weather. You can, of course, customize it to show the weather of your city, and if you travel a lot, you can add multiple cities.
3. IP Address LookUp : It automatically shows your own IP, and you can trace other IP addresses. I’m sure there’s an insert for domain lookups as well - I just haven’t installed it yet.
4. DIGG Integrator : This will display the hot stories. It doesn’t show the top stories necessarily, but the hot stories of the moment (the stuff that got a lot of diggs in a short period of time). It’s great to find random things to read if you’re craving some knowledge or input.
5. Driving Directions : This will link you to Google Maps to show you the driving directions for whatever you type in. It’s the same as using Google Maps, except you can do it directly from your Google homepage.
6. RSS Feeds : You can add RSS feeds of any blog you want. Now, I already have an RSS reader natively on Firefox, so I just put my own blog there to increase the # of RSS subscribers on my Feedburner Widget.
7. A Stock Ticker : You can add whatever stock codes you are watching.
8. Horoscope : You can set it to your own Zodiac sign and it displays your horoscopes. I’m not superficial, but stuff that they say in Horoscopes are ALWAYS good for advice for anybody (which is also why I don’t believe in horoscopes - it can apply to anyone really) and I like some words of encouragement all the time!
9. Quotes of the Day : Another self-encouragement scheme. It displays famous quotes from famous people. Food for thought!
10. Word of the day : Dictionary.com provides a word of the day. It’s great to expand your vocabulary to obscure words that nobody else knows so that you can sound smarter! Play a game with your self - memorize the word of the day, and see if you can use it in a conversation that day! I know, I’m such a nerd!
11. Top Newsfeeds from CBC and other major news sites : This is an RSS feed module except for specific news sites. It’s a great way to be when you don’t have the time to go through newspapers.
12. Famous Optical Illusions : For sh*ts and giggles. It’s just plain fun.

So there it is. To add these things? Here’s how you do it. When you go to Google, on the top-right corner, you’ll see some links. Among them, there is one that says “Personalized Home”. Click that. And you can browse through all the inserts available, and add them one by one. Once you’ve added them, come back to your Google homepage, and you can drag-and-drop to rearrange them, customize to your own settings (zodiac signs, local area etc) and then you’re done!!!

That’s how I get more from Google!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Google, Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.