Since the dawn of the new millennium, Google has systematically indexed the World Wide Web and transformed the world in the process. Be it Google Maps effectively vanquishing the use of paper maps for good or Gmail revolutionizing the email client, Google hardly misses when it comes to taking simple problems and providing simple, easy-to-use solutions. There are, however, many Google products you never knew existed.
While Google has a reputation for teasing or outright releasing fascinating services and products before randomly canceling them, there are still plenty of obscure Google products out there that can solve problems for you that few other companies can. Plus, what’s great about Google compared to other tech companies is nearly all of its products, from the simplest to the most comprehensive, are provided free to anyone interested. In this article, we will explore 20 Google products you never knew existed. Some of them are lifesavers.
To compile a list of 20 Google products you never knew existed, 24/7 Tempo consulted a range of technology and entertainment sites including Komando, Digitrio, and The Next Web. From there, we selected products and services put out by Google that were less known than its flagship products yet still provided fun, helpful, and informative features. After that, we confirmed aspects of each product/service and their features using Google itself. (For other obscure tech products, discover 20 Microsoft products you never knew existed.)
Google Timer
One of the Google products you never knew existed is Google Timer. Available as a browser extension on most browsers like Chrome or Mozilla, Google Timer is a simple, easy-to-use online timer. Hit start and the timer lets you know when your time is up. It can be set for up to four hours but can be paused anytime or restarted. It also features a looping desktop notification for when you’ve hit zero. Furthermore, additional alarm sounds can be had through in-app payments. If you don’t want any more downloads clogging up your phone, Google Timer works right through the Google search engine as well.
Google Sky
Another fantastic one of the Google products you never knew existed is Google Sky. If you’re looking for a way to track the planets and stars, look no further than Google’s celestial app. Featuring an interactive map of the known constellations, stars, and planets, Sky allows searches for many space landmarks. Say you look up the Crab Nebula, for example. Google Sky features high-definition pictures of the star system if you keep zooming in. Furthermore, Google Sky features infrared, microwave, and historical views of each pinpoint. If you like what you see, a picture of the location can be easily printed.
Google Keep
One of the better note-taking services out there, Google Keep features a range of note-keeping tools like images, texts, audio, and lists. The service also allows text to be extracted from images using its special optical character recognition technology. Beyond that, notes can be color-coded and viewed in multiple ways. Recent updates allow users to pin notes or collaborate with other Keep users in real time. Like most other Google products, Google Keep is free as part of the online Google Docs Editor suite.
Google Books NGram Viewer
Like a smattering of other Google products and services, Google Books NGRam Viewer features all the tools statheads love. To use it, simply enter a phrase and see how it occurs in the corpus of literature over the past few centuries. From there, you can plug in similar phrases and see the usage percentage and how it compares to other word pairings. Beyond that, Books NGram Viewer features the ability to plug in wild card queries, inflection searches, case-insensitive searches, and parts of speech locator. While the service becomes dizzying quickly due to statistics modeling, it provides a fascinating look at how we use words and how they change over time.
Google Scholar
Another one of the Google products you never knew existed is Google Scholar. Acting as a specific search engine, the service features an impressive index of scholarly work available online. These include technical reports, dissertations, theses, preprints, and peer-reviewed online academic journals, as well as more obscure documents like court opinions and patents. Though content must meet certain criteria for inclusion in Google Scholar, the company’s web crawler features an estimated 100 million documents in its index. Though Google released Scholar as a beta service in 2004, it remains a staple of the Google search arsenal.
Symbol Translation
While many people know about Google’s instant language translator option, far fewer know about the symbol translation option hidden within the translator. In the right-hand corner of the entry box, a small pen symbol opens up a drawing box. This allows you to draw any type of symbol for Google to find manually. It’s so accurate, that you can can even play it as a game. Draw any type of symbol or shape you can think of and watch Google place it in a language and give you a translation. This works especially well with pictorial symbol-based languages like Chinese.
Google Fonts
Another one of the Google products you never knew existed is Google Fonts. While many companies offer a range of fonts for purchase, none come close to the free offering of open-source fonts Google offers. Indeed, just visit the fonts section on its homepage and treat yourself to thousands of fun and diverse font selections, completely free to use. After seeing just how many font styles Google offers, from simple to ornate and classical, one wonders how any company can sell fonts in good conscious.
Think with Google
Think with Google features a comprehensive library to meet all your marketing needs. These include useful tools for calibrating marketing for a specific goal and accessible customer insights. Furthermore, Think with Google provides excellent information about marketing data, marketing trends, and inside looks at different campaigns to further enrich your marketing strategies.
Google Arts & Culture
Another one of the Google products you never knew existed is Google Arts & Culture. Say you want to see all that an art museum has to offer but lack the means to get to one. Never fear, as Google Arts & Culture provides a comprehensive one-stop shop for all your art-viewing needs.
With an easy search function and a true compendium of art, the service also features curated pieces and contextual information for each work of art. While it doesn’t specifically provide lesson plans, it’s the perfect tool for teachers looking to educate their students on the history of art. Furthermore, like other Google products, it provides a nicely organized interface featuring thousands of beautiful and detailed painting renderings.
Sound Search
Move over Shazam, as Google Sound Search is another great listening search product you never knew existed. Sure, Shazam works well, but often it’s hard to pull out your phone and the app in time to catch a tune. Luckily, you can instantly summon Google’s Sound Search by asking your Android device, “Hey Google.” While it works best with recorded music, Sound Search can just as well figure out songs if they are hummed, whistled, or sung in your voice. Furthermore, a setting can be triggered that automatically notifies you to tell you what song is playing nearby.
Google Trends
Although it’s perhaps one of the better-known obscure Google products, Google Trends deserves a mention just because it’s so informative and useful. As a statistical graphing interface, Trends allows users to analyze the popularity of different terms searched on Google across days, months, years, or even decades.
Plus, it lets you compare one trend with another, resulting in interesting correlations between wildly different searches. Though correlation does not equal causation, Trends still provides a fascinating look at the public imagination in real-time. While Google launched a more complex version of Trends in 2008 called Google Insights for Search, it has since been absorbed into the more general Google Trends product.
Animal Sounds
Another one of the Google products you never knew existed is Animal Sounds. Much like the speaker-infused children’s picture books of yesteryear, Google Animal Sounds provides a comprehensive soundboard for any barnyard animal you can think of. Recorded using real-life farm animals from locations across Missouri, the product gives children a fun and free soundboard to learn more about pastoral critters. While it’s only available on ChromeOS, Animal Sounds also hooks up to your car stereo or any other speaker system. (For other fun animal info, discover interesting facts you may not know about cats.)
Google Mars
While polymath and astronomer Percival Lowell spent years studying the planet before publishing the first primitive map of Mars in 1895, now you can do it instantly. Thanks to Google Mars, users can treat themselves to an interactive map of the red planet, right on their computer or tablet screen.
Created by Google in conjunction with NASA researchers at Arizona State University, Google Mars provides a Google Earth-like interface for exploring the known parts of the mysterious planet next door. Furthermore, the detailed, dynamic map features scales of elevation, a mosaic of real images shot by the Mars Orbiter Camera, and an infrared view system.
Google Shopping
Another one of the Google products you never knew existed is Google Shopping. While finding the right outfit can take hours of searching across increasingly obscure websites, Google Shopping consolidates the process into a simple, easy-to-use interface within Google Search. Using its unparalleled search technology, Google Shopping finds products you’re looking for from across the web and points you in the right direction. It’s free to use, and furthermore, free to list your very own products for sale. Once called Google Express, which restricted its searches to big names like Walmart and Target, Google Shopping combines the features of Express with all new perks that help facilitate the discovery of both big-name and more hidden products.
GBoard
Though it spent a few years at the top of the app store, another one of the Google products you probably never knew existed is GBoard. As a virtual keyboard app, GBoard seems to have it all. It features Google Search, predictive answers, a predictive typing engine, and easy summoning of contextual GIF and emoji content. While the original GBoard only allowed for the English language, it has since been updated to include support for more than 100 languages. While you may ask yourself why you would need GBoard, notice how many phone and computer keyboards now attempt the same features that GBoard offered years ago. It can make the simplest typing explode with possibilities.
Google Input Tools
Another one of the Google products you never knew existed is Google Input Tools. Also known as Google IME, this product allows users from across the world the ability to easily type in their own language without having to rely on a language or character-specific keyboard. For non-Latin-based languages like Sanskrit or Russian, Input Tools allows you to communicate in the language you need in real time. Furthermore, its dynamic interface remembers every correction you make, logging them in a custom dictionary. Plus, as simply as you can type a sentence, Input tools can instantly switch the language to over 80 options. While this may mean little to English-speaking users, it is a boon for any user attempting to cross-communicate using a different script.
Gmailify
Another one of the Google products you never knew existed is Gmailify. Though Gmail remains one of the most popular emailing services out there, plenty of people still have accounts with other services like Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail. Gmailify lets you access other email providers while remaining in the beloved Gmail interface. This way, you get the seamless organization and spam protection of Gmail while answering emails from your email account in a different provider. For those who love Gmail but still need to answer emails on other client’s platforms, use Gmailify to get the best of both worlds. Furthermore, Gmailify can easily be toggled on within your Gmail.
Google Sites
Looking to make your own website or web database but lack the programming knowledge to make it come to fruition? Look no further than Google Sites, another Google product you never knew existed. It features easy-to-use interfaces for making websites or simply collaborating on files with other Google users. While it features limited website crafting possibilities compared to paid website builders like Wix or Weebly, for no cost Google Sites gives you all you need to get a basic website up and running. It’s the perfect tool for hosting portfolios, blogs, or even classroom learning materials.
Project Sunroof
Created by Google engineer Carl Eklin, Project Sunroof encourages users to upgrade to solar power technology by providing a set of tools that make the process easier. These include using 3D imagery data from Google Maps to show the best possible spot for your potential solar panels using weather patterns, tree shading proximity, and more. Plus, Project Sunroof’s website features a list of local solar power service providers as well as a calculator for how much a solar system might cost you.
Google Clips
A final Google product you never knew existed, and the only piece of hardware on this list, is Google Clips. As a clip-on security camera, Google Clips allows users to capture video clips at any moment the company’s machine learning algorithm deems relevant. Plus, its built-in AI technology allows it to remember faces, and adjust pictures to include people you know. Furthermore, Google Clips automatically toggles lighting and camera options for the best possible picture. While the product was discontinued in late 2019, Google still provides customer support for this small, discerning mobile camera device. (For products best served offline, discover 10 products to never buy online.)