Google-related coolness

[jrtom]

Some of this is probably not news to some of you . . . but I'm betting that at least one of these is new to anyone who reads this. (Actual Google employees excluded.)

• Things you can do with Google Maps that I didn't know about:
  • Ride Finder: shows where taxis actually are, gives general availability and contact information. In beta (what isn't?), and only in a few metro areas, but damn, this is a cool idea.
  • Apparently by putting "wifi hot spot [zipcode]" in the search box, you can find local hotspots.
• Cheat Sheet, which mentions operators such as "~" ("~foo" searches for synonyms of "foo"), "..." ("100...150" looks for numbers in the range 100-150) and "*" ("red * blue" searches for "red" and "blue" separated by exactly one word). "date:" is also nice, if not as flexible as I'd like.
• A Google mirror, you say? Doesn't Google have more computers than, well, [INSERT DEITY HERE]--why would mirroring it be useful? (This is one of those times in which being less technically sophisticated will probably cause you to make the right guess as to what this actually is, before seeing it.)

Comments

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Hadn't known about the feed, no--thanks. (And in truth I only learned about the blog itself this afternoon--although not all the things I mentioned have been covered on it, AFAIK.)