5 'hidden' things Google Search does incredibly well

Google for Nigeria brought with it several announcements/awareness and improvements to Google’s core consumer products in Nigeria most notably Search. Now on Search, you can see in a very clear and concise way; the scores from the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL), popular Nollywood movies and movie showtimes in Cinemas etc across both Web and Mobile platforms. So, in this post, I have compiled a list of 5 things you can do with Google Search aka ‘google’

Combining an improved Search facility with their other suite of products such as Maps, Google is well on its way to fulfilling her mission of organising the worlds’ information and making it useful.

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

In this post, I have compiled a list of 5 things you can do with Google Search aka ‘google’.

Google Search displaying top movies in Nigeria via a web search

1. Movie timings and review

Stop reading now and type something like “movies in ICM” (by the way, notice how I assumed Google knows the meaning of ICM).

Also, by default, it gets your location and finds movies ‘near you’. See:

Google search result for a *London* user

When you do search for movies in a cinema, you get three things: movie timing, directions to the cinema and what cinemas will be showing it.

It is common knowledge that if you search for your symptoms online, you might be scared to death.

Don't go to google whenever you feel ill
Your mind wld start going far !

— Sammy Gatsby. (@Sammy_PPH) September 5, 2017

https://twitter.com/DadaBen_/status/905157692746031104

In Nigeria, Google has partnered with the University of Ibadan to ensure answers to health-related questions are reviewed by Nigerian doctors. malaria symptoms and treatments. Google has health knowledge panels available for over 800 common diseases and ailments with corresponding symptoms and treatments.

However, I fear that this could encourage self-medication which is dangerous.

3. Learn about (un)famous Nollywood Movies by Genres and Year

With Google Search you can dig deeper into any Nigerian movie of your choice, think of your all time favourites like: Osuofia in Londong, Jenifas Diary, Wedding Party etc.

Simply search the name and it will display (sufficient) information about the movie in a colourful knowledge panel.

4. Stalk stories from and about your favourite celebrities like Wizkid

At the Google for Nigeria event, Posts was announced. Basically, with posts, entertainers and businesses can share visible updates directly to Google.

Posts makes it possible for musicians, entertainers and other public figures to share updates, images and videos directly on Google, for people to see while they explore on the web. Nigeria is the third country where we’ve made this feature available and some of the country’s popular musicians are already using it like Bez, Wizkid etc.

These Posts expire after a week, unless they are event-based, in which case they expire after the event date. So, no stale gist. To get notified of news about a particular entity, simply click on the little ‘follow’ button and Google will send you notifications. Already, I think it does that for some of the things you show interest in via your search history. For example, I get notified about Amazon.

5. Use the Gboard to send SMS in your local dialect to your relatives, friends and even colleagues

The next time you need to type a message on SMS, Whatsapp or any other messaging app, simply click on the Google ‘G’ logo on your keyboard and click on the translate icon. Gboard will do the translation for you. Gboard is a new keyboard from Google for your Android or iPhone and it has all the things you would expect from a great keyboard — GIFs, emojis, and ‘glide typing, where you just move your hand over the characters you want to be displayed’. What more? It comes with Google Search built in. No more app switching; just search and send, right from your keyboard.

Gloss over the image below to see my Gboard translate from English to Yoruba.