All about Google's Products and Services

In 1996, Google started out as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University. In 1998, Page and Brin — while continuing to perfect their technology — bought a terabyte of disks at bargain prices and built their own computer housings in Page's dorm room, which became Google's first data center. In 1999, the beta logo came off the Google Web site. Since then Google has expanded its search technology into blogging, mapping, shopping, research and more. In fact, Google now has so many services it's hard to keep them straight. To help you get a grip on Google, our Google Services Quick Reference will highlight the many Google-branded services and provide links and references for each.

Google Search, Search Services, and Applications

Google Search
Throughout its brief history, Google has focused on developing the "perfect search engine" by combining overall importance and query-specific relevance to present search results. Google offers a host of Web search services you can access through the main search page. For example, to use the calculator you simply type your math question into the Google search box, or for dictionary listings simply type "definition" in the search box before the search term — there is no need to load a separate search page. Google also provides quick links to different types of searches directly from the main Google search engine page, or you can access them by clicking "more" on the main search page.

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• Book Search: Search the full text of books
• Catalogs: Browse online catalogs
• Calculator: Google has a built in calculator function. To compute enter the calculation into the Google search box and hit the Enter key
• Currency Conversion: Google has a built-in currency converter. To convert, enter the conversion you'd like done into the Google search box and hit "Enter". For example you could use "100 USD in CAD" or "Canadian money in American dollar".
• Definitions: To see a definition for a word or phrase, simply type the word "define," then a space, and then the word(s) you want defined.
• File Types: Google Search automatically searches 12 non-HTML file types and provides an option to view as HTML. The file types appear in Google search results
• Froogle: Google's product search (Shopping) service
• Groups: Search results from Google Groups may appear at the bottom of your relevant search results page.
• I'm Feeling Lucky: Skip the Google search results page and go to the first Web page returned for your query.
• Images: Google Image Search shows images matching your search query.
• Local Search: Search the Web for businesses in a specific area by including a city or zip code in your search and Google.
• Movies: To find reviews and show times for movies playing near you, type "movies", "showtimes" or the name of a current film into the Google search box.
• Music Search: Enter the name of an artist popular in the U.S. and reviews, song titles, and more is shown at the top of the search results.
• News Headlines: These links connect you to reports culled from numerous news services that Google continuously monitors.
• PhoneBook: U.S. street address and phone number lookup publicly listed phone numbers and addresses
• Refine Search: For searches within certain topics, you'll notice links at the top of the search results page that help you narrow the search.
• Results Prefetching: On some searches, Google automatically instructs your browser to start downloading the top search result before you click on it so the destination page loads faster.
• Search By Number: Parcel tracking IDs, patents and other specialized numbers can be entered into Google's search box for quick access to information about them.
• Similar Pages Display: The "Similar Pages" sends Google to scout the Web for pages that are related to the result.
• Site Search Restrict: Type the word site" followed by a colon enables you to restrict your search to a specific site. For example "memory site:webopedia.com" would search only Webopedia.com
• Spell Checker: Google's spell checking software automatically looks at your query and checks to see if you are using the most common version of a word's spelling, and may offer spelling suggestions.
• Stock Quotes: Enter a stock of mutual fund symbol in the search box to obtain fund quotes
• Street Maps: Use a U.S. street address with Zip or City and state to search. When recognized links are returned from Google Maps
• Travel Information: Use an airport's three letter code followed by the word "airport" to obtain delay and weather condition information.
• Weather Check: Type "weather," followed by the location to obtain weather information
• Web Page Translation: For results in other languages, click "Translate this page" and translate that page into your language.
• Who Links To You?: The query link:siteURL shows you pages that point to that URL.

Source: http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/Google_Services.asp