Google rocks my virtual world every day. If it doesn’t do the same for you, it should. I’ve written about this before in the context of knowing how to leverage Google’s advanced search capabilities, but many don’t know that there is much more to Google than searching.

There are so many cool things you can do at Google. Things that will capture your attention and hold it hostage for hours and days at a time. Some of those things are fun, some are serious. All are pretty darn cool. Things like this:

Google Search for Klingons (sorry I could not resist):

Dave has links to a few other “languages,” too.

And then there’s all the cool Google Labs stuff, the latest of which is Google Suggests.

What else can you do at Google? Well – here’s their own list:

Google Services: Use one of our many services to find what you're looking for.

Alerts	Answers	Catalogs	Directory
Froogle	GroupsNew!	Images	Google Labs (tons of cool new stuff here!)
Google Local	Google Scholar	News Search	Special Searches (see more below)
University Search	Web Search	Wireless

Google Tools: We offer various tools to help you get more done.

Blogger	Browser Buttons	Google Desktop Search	Google in your Language
Keyhole	Picasa Photo Organizer	Google Toolbar	Translate Tool
Web APIs

Additionally, you can Add Google to your Browser by making Google your default search engine.

Google Special Searches: Often better than you’ll find at the web sites that are home to the technologies themselves…

	U.S. Government		Linux		BSD
	Apple Macintosh		Microsoft

Nice to see the docs rolling out the door on the black-box stuff in SharePoint Portal Server. Here’s another, covering the syntax used in SharePoint Portal Server’s full-text search – Apparently it’s a preview of the what is to come in the next SDK release…

This download includes a preview of the reference documentation for Microsoft SharePointPSSearch, the SQL Syntax used for Microsoft SharePointPSSearch Full Text Search with Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003. Look for updates to this documentation in the Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK).

If you’ve worked on rebranding (to any significant extent) SharePoint Portal Server 2003, you know how difficult it can be to feel confident in what you’re actually doing, due mostly to the lack of documentation on the subject.

Well, Microsoft has released two papers on the Office Developer Center to help:

• Branding a SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Site:
  
• Part 1, Understanding the Use of a Corporate Brand
  Learn what it means to "brand" a SharePoint Portal Server site, and about the different types of branding you can apply to a portal site to reflect an organization's identity.
• Part 2, How to Apply Your Own Corporate Brand
  Through step-by-step examples of the typical tasks involved in branding a Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server site, learn to change the standard banner, introduce a custom style sheet, and enhance the user experience of your portal site through interface, navigation, and page layout changes.

Coming Soon - Oregon’s commemorative state quarter:

Reverse Image: "Crater Lake"
Description: Features a portion of Crater Lake, viewed from the south-southwest rim to include Wizard Island and Watchman and Hillman Peaks on the lake’s rim.

Engraver: Donna Weaver

• Proofs: [Macintosh: 591 KB] [PC TIFF: 591 KB]

Circulation plans, per the Statesman Journal:

General Circulation: June 2005
Five-State Proof Set: January 6
Silver Proofs: TBA

“2004 would be remembered as they year that everything began.”

And the rest will be history…

You need to watch this. Seriously. Thought-provoking.

(thanks to Brandon for pointing this out)

Just when you thought Google was perfect, they've up'ed themselves once again.

On Google Suggest, as you type your search term, Google suggests completions and lets you know how many results there are for each suggestion it presents:

I always wanted to know how to dismantle an atomic bomb, and apparently there are 167,000 ways to do just that. Cool.

UPDATES: Phillip shows off Google Suggest’s top suggestions (and his singing voice) in a video, and davenetics.com looks at top suggestions, too, and points out that Google often gets paid for stuff you click on. Makes me wonder how that fits into what’s suggested by the app. Google’s FAQ about Google Suggest is here.

Nice job, Google people.

[via Slashdot and my friend Mike]