1. Translate Symbols by Drawing Them
Some languages can be translated by drawing their symbols. Most languages, including English, and of course Chinese, Russian, Tamil, Georgian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Arabic, and other languages that use unique symbols, can be written using the “Writing” feature in Google translate. To use the writing feature, go to Google Translate.
Choose the language you want to translate from, and if it shows a pencil symbol, the language allows you to write and translate symbols.
Click on that pencil symbol to access a dropdown menu with the “Handwrite” option. Click on that option.
Draw what you want on the drawing board that comes out. Note that drawing symbols for a different language will not translate well since it might mean something else in the language.
Below you’ll see I created an example by entering Georgian symbols on the drawing board.
Next, I clicked the “Enter” button on the board.
See what it translated into when I hit the “Enter” button.
This could be a fun way to learn a new language or play with languages!
2. Tour Art Galleries and View Artworks Across the World
You can tour world-class museums and see the artwork of your favorite artists from the comfort of your computer. One of my favorite galleries here is the Eglon Schiele Art Centrum in Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic. You can even find arts and galleries near you. If you wish to go from seeing these works on your PC to seeing them live, you can do that on a short notice. This is also a good way to decide if you’d love to visit a gallery nearby (or not) before you set off to visit.
3. Get and Play Google’s Old Doodles
The Google Doodles quickly became popular once it started gracing the search giant’s homepages across the world. Now if you like the doodle games and videos, you can have them forever! Google has archived all their interactive doodles for you. From Snow Games to Fruit Games, the Anniversary of PAC-MAN to Rubiks Cube, you can now play them all whenever you are bored.
4. Explore Outer Space
Starting in October 2017, you can visit Saturn, Pluto, Venus, and other planets using a newer feature on Google Maps. Google had earlier made it possible to explore outer space using Google Sky. So if you’ve longed to use an observatory but never got around to it, this is your opportunity. And if you’ve been at an observatory, you can explore the universe better. Google gives you the leverage of their partnering observatories across the globe.
5. Time Travel with Street View and Earth Machine
Time travel is no longer fantasy, thanks to Google. Using a Google Maps feature, you can travel back in time to see streets in any city across the world as they once were. If you’d rather see how our planet has changed over time, then you’ll love Google Timelapse. It’s called the Google Earth Machine and details how our world has changed since 1984.
6. Solve Mathematical Problems from Your Browser
You can solve mathematical graphs using Google search directly. For example, I entered graph for sin (x) + cos(3x) into the search box and got the graph below.
You can solve any geometry problems using Google search as well. Simply enter Solve [NAME OF SHAPE], and it gives you the option to enter the values and get your answer. Any shape – circle, cylinder, pyramid, triangle, square, rectangle, etc.
And you can calculate a tip from Google search, too. Just enter “calculate tip” into the search box and hit “Enter.” Google brings up a tips calculator for you to use.
Wrapping Up
You’ve probably used one or more of these cool Google tools, but you may not have tried all of them. Try them out and share your experiences in the comments section below.
