Quick Google Searches

Google is a service that many of us are quite familiar with, but there's more to Google than meets the eye. For example, did you know that by simply typing "weather" you will get the current weather and the next 4 days forecast for your current location, and it gets even better! Quickly find conversions, time, definitions, when the sun will rise and even more. Check out the quick (I promise it's short ;) video below.




If you like these tips and would like to know even more, check out Google's Features page by clicking here.

Wolfram Alpha...More than a Search Engine

This week the Webby Wednesday site is Wolfram Alpha www.wolframalpha.com. Wolfram Alpha describes itself as a "computational knowledge engine"...what does that mean? Well for starters, when you enter something into the search window on the site, the results that you receive will not be a list of websites. When you search for something, Wolfram Alpha gives you results about whatever you searched. For example, when searching for "Saginaw, TX" I received the following results...

This was just the beginning. Additionally, I received a local map, the local time, current weather, median home price, crime rates, and geographic properties. 

By entering a math problem in the search window, and I pretty much mean any math problem, Wolfram Alpha will yield the results of the equation in detail.

In the information boxes that you receive from a search, you have the ability to save the information as a picture or in plain text. To do this, hover over the page curl that appears when your cursor is in a box. Once you do this you will see the links to "Save as Playlist" or "Copyable Plain Text".

To get a better idea of what Wolfram Alpha is capable of, I highly recommend that you click to view "Examples by Topic". You will find this link from the homepage (under the search window). To see even more, once you have completed a search, to the right of the page reference the "New to Wolfram Alpha?" section.

If you find more super uses, particularly for classroom use please reply to the post and share =) 

Enjoy!

RSS Feeds...What are they and are they useful to me??

RSS feeds have been a part of my life for a while now, so I forget sometimes that others are not aware of the benefit of using them and the time that they can save you. If you're in the habit of checking your favorite sites regularly for new and updated information, then RSS feeds are certainly for you! To take advantage of RSS feeds you need an RSS Aggregator or Reader. I use Google Reader for my RSS feeds because it's online and free. Want to try it out? I think the video below does a good job of explaining the function of Google Reader and how to use it.





More sites than you may realize contain RSS Feeds that you can subscribe to including most all news sites, blogs, and podcast pages. If you see an image on a webpage similar to the one below, then it has an RSS feed  that you can subscribe to.

Usually you can just click the image and select to subscribe to the feed, or copy the address of the page and paste it into your Reader. Take a look at the RSS feed button at the top of this blog to see what I'm talking about...and feel free to subscribe =)

ELECT.IO...Election Candidate Information

ELECT.IO provides an easy to understand format for finding out some information about candidates for different positions in our local election. It's easy to use, just go to elect.io (all you have to do is type that in your browser), and then enter your zip code and Find Elections. You'll see a tab for each position that is up for re-election and the number of candidates running for said position. If you click a tab you will most likely see more information about the individual candidates.