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Google Currency Converter
Google made its name on the web by doing things differently. When every other search engine was trying to fit as many bells and whistles as they could onto the main search page, Google was doing the complete opposite by stripping out everything except their name and the search box. They focused on the getting high quality results, and users voted by leaving other search engines behind.
Nothing much has changed now, except to say that it still has plenty of great features to offer once you get past the home page. That home page still offers what you need the most from Google – an easy way to search the internet to find what you really want.
Take me to the site! How do I get there?
Well you should know the home page address for Google by now – stick to www.google.com and you will find plenty of other useful pages from there onwards.
What does the site offer?
How about virtually everything you could possibly want? The trick is in knowing how to find it on Google’s huge site. Google is a mega-billion dollar corporation with a huge range of unobtrusive features such as the ability to “search by number” for ISBNs or patents, or other things sorted by number; web page translation which allows you to look at pages written in a foreign language in your own language (although this is imperfect you do get a good flavour of what is being said); right the way through to US phone book entries and street maps/ satellite images. And of course there is now the Google Street View, which has been hitting the headlines for all kinds of positive and negative reasons across the UK of late!
Google also offers many pieces of satellite software useful to office workers: spreadsheets; word processors, the works. As well as all those there is a simple and unusual currency conversion calculator online.
What is their currency converter like?
The first thing you will notice is that unlike almost every other currency exchange calculator you'll ever see online, Google Currency Converter does not have a separate set of input boxes for “from”, or “to” currencies. Nor is there any box specifically for the volume of currency that you'd like to convert.
You only get one box in which to put ALL your criteria, and you can use different formats for your currencies. Explaining all this is much easier when using examples.
These are the examples as they appear on the Google calculator:
* 3.5 USD in GBP
* currency of Brazil in Malaysian money
* 5 British pounds in South Korean money
* 2.2 USD per gallon in INR per litre
The first example is fairly easy to follow – we’ll convert $3.50 US to pounds Sterling. This example uses the 3 letter international currency code to designate which currencies are involved – USD and GBP.
“Currency of Brazil into Malaysian money” is more of a naturally-spoken query, and not the sort of query most people would expect software to answer. But it does. This is where it can take a little longer to get used to, purely because you are only familiar with using a more traditional currency converter. No worries though, because you will soon get the hang of it.
“5 British pounds in South Korean money” is essentially the exact same example, but with a number of units assigned (5 pounds) instead of “no volume” for either currency.
And finally there is “2.2 USD per gallon in INR per litre”. If you're not sure what this example is converting it may be because it is mixing the conversion of currency and the conversion of units of measurement in the same query. It is asking Google to convert $2.20 (American) per gallon to how much that would be per litre in Indian rupees (as Indians buy their petrol in litres this is the most effective way of comparing the cost of petrol).
Incredibly, Google just says “yes, fine” and spits out the answer!
You can mix and match all kinds of price-per-unit for all kinds of units (weights, lengths, volumes) and all kinds of currency. It is actually shocking, but once you get your brain around it you will be using it for all kinds of things. As a result, this currency converter knocks all the others online into a cocked hat, because it is capable of going much deeper than any other currency converter you will have seen elsewhere. Enjoy using it!
Simply go to http://www.google.com/help/features.html#currency and you’ll see the converter right in front of you.
Supposing I need some help and advice – can they help me with that?
You bet. You’ll notice that if you go to the top of that page where the currency converter appears, Web Search Help Center appears near the top left of the page.
Click on that link and you’ll be taken to the nerve centre of Google’s help facility. If you cannot immediately find what you need to know from that page, there is also a link to a forum which might well be able to help you out.
You can also contact Google Support from that first page, which means you are never more than a click or two away from getting to the answers you require. How efficient is that when you consider the sheer size of Google itself?
In conclusion
Google is as big and well known as it is for one good reason – it delivers what people want and are looking for. As a result you can enjoy their currency converter as well as a whole range of other applications. Google is much more than just a simple search engine.
Rating (out of five stars)
It has to be five stars out of five for Google Currency Converter. It may be controversial at times but on the whole it has been exceptionally well put together and the currency converter alone deserves five stars for being well out of the ordinary! Try it and you’ll see what we mean.
- 5 Stars
Link: http://www.google.com/help/features.html#currency
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