September 10, 2007

Google Tells You What Time It Is

Google updated the OneBox (or the instant answer, if you will) that shows the local time in different parts of the world. Instead of just showing the local time...


... Google now adds a dynamically-generated clock, the time zone and other possible matches:


To trigger the OneBox, use one of these formats:
time city (time madrid)
time region/state (time queensland)
time country (time usa)

or other verbose formats:
time in...
the time in...
local time in...
current time in...
what time is it in...
what's the time in...

Other search engines also show the local time, but Ask.com does a really good job. It shows the seconds and more information about the place: a map and the current weather.

{ via Google Blogoscoped }

9 comments:

  1. This is actually very useful as I use google for EVERYTHING.

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  2. That's much better than before.

    BTW, you can also use a combination of those formats to make sure you get the right location:

    e.g. time city country (time sheffield uk)

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  3. Interesting but would be nicer to have even more functions...

    like:
    time in PST (or CET, GMT etc...)
    time in CET at 11 sept 03:00am PST (or a form like that)

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  4. did any one try ask.com.....

    sometime its good in many ways..

    just go to ask.com and type yr city... i am sure you will get more info than google.com

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  5. Don't know if you knew this already, but apparently they also serve weather. Google for "weather in bucharest"

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  6. I know. This is really strange: I was just searching something about another Andrei Gheorghe.

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  7. Long time no see, eh? Do you miss your old highschool? ;)

    Been reading you for a long time, great job :)

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  8. I'm not sure if Ask.com's showing of a map and a weather report when you enter e.g. time in bronx, cy is really relevant. When you enter "bronx" then perhaps, but if you already specified that it's the time you want, something like a weather report may be confusing (it may also be helpful in some contexts, so I guess it's partly a question of whether to err on the side of too-little, or too-much).

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  9. This is something very cool.

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