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Area
Code Information: Enter a U.S. telephone area code
into a Google search box (e.g. 760), and results feature
a thumbnail map naming the geographic region at the top
of the results page. Clicking the thumbnail displays the
full Mapquest map of the area, a less useful result
since it's an approximation, not an exact map, of the
area code's coverage zone.
Universal Product Codes: Want information about a
specific product? Enter its Universal Product Code (UPC),
the number on the bottom of a bar code displayed on
product packaging into the Google search box (e.g.:
074101420241). If the product can be found, results
include a link to the UPC Database for more information.
This
feature isn't well implemented--two of the three tests I
ran for reasonably common products returned zero
results. Whether that's a problem with Google or the UPC
Database isn't clear. You also need to be careful to
enter all digits of the UPC code, including leading and
trailing digits outside of the barcode, or you may not
get results, either.
Flight
Tracking: Enter an airline name or code and a flight
number (e.g.: UA 44) and you'll get two links to flight
information, from Travelocity and fboweb.com. This
feature works well and is robust, accepting variations
on the example above such as "united 44" and "ual 44",
two other ways of referring to United Airlines. It only
appears to work for major airlines, however--I got no
results for either Frontier or ATA airlines.
Vehicle
ID Numbers: Entering a Vehicle ID number (VIN) (e.g.
JM1BJ225431140254) returns a link from carfax.com for a
page with more information about the year, make and
model of a specific car.
U.S.
Postal Service Tracking Numbers: USPS tracking
numbers generate a direct link to the USPS Web site with
information about the shipping status of a package. |
