

Google search's new basic calculator - gnyman
http://www.google.com/search?q=calculator

======
danabramov
Interesting how Microsoft and Google have different ideas of how percentage
key (%) should work.

Relevant post by Raymond Chen:

“How does the [Windows] calculator percent key work?”

[http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2008/01/10/70474...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2008/01/10/7047497.aspx)

Implementing % button, Google chose an approach which is more mathematically
sensible but arguably less obvious to users. For Google, 10% _just an alias_
for 0.1. This means that if you want to calculate how much a dress with a
price of $299 costs with a 20% discount, type in

    
    
      299 + 299 × 20%
    

Perhaps, this is exactly how _you_ think % should work.

Microsoft, however, chose to make “%” key more user-friendly, perhaps
sacrificing some consistency. Windows calculator tries to use the last
computed value as “the whole”. Therefore,

    
    
      299 - 20%
    

will give you how much a $299 dress costs with 20% discount, and

    
    
      299 + 5% - 20%
    

will help you calculate 5% tax before applying the discount.

Sadly, Google thinks

    
    
      500 + 1% = 500.01
    

which is really not that helpful.

~~~
Spittie
I don't get it, if i try 500 + 1% on Google i get 505
<http://sadpanda.us/images/1112074-RA9OURZ.png>

~~~
bricestacey
You get a different result if you click the buttons versus performing a google
search.

~~~
bookwormAT
which I think it is exactly how I would expect it to work: If I ask a
question, I expect the system to guess what I really want to know and give me
an answer.

But a calculator should work like a calculator.

~~~
elisee
Still a pretty big inconsistency.

500 + 1% typed right in calculator displays "500 + 1% = 500.01" in the
calculator.

500 + 1% typed in the search box displays "500 + 1% = 505" _in the calculator
too_.

It's probably due to the search result being returned by some server at Google
while the other one is computed locally through some client-side JS logic. I
think they'll notice and unify the behavior at some point.

------
aristidb
Link that works for people with non-English Google:

[https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=calculator](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=calculator)

(The link is setting the language to English for just that search.)

~~~
jacobr
Thanks, I wonder why they would only enable this for English searches?

~~~
Semaphor
They always test new stuff on their English sites first.

------
scottfr
Shameless plug:

I would like you to check out the calculator I built:

<http://herocalc.com>

It's pure Javascript, has a full parser/tree-builder to process equations,
allows you to define functions and variables, and is very fast.

It also installs a search handler so you can do calculations from your search
bar.

~~~
AstroJetson
So 299+5% and/or 299+(5%) to figure the sales tax does not work at all, it
just says "Your equation has an error. Please correct it." and no hint to what
the error is.

Sorry, not ready for prime time

------
jwilliams
I noticed there is also a new visual interface for unit conversions. e.g.
<https://www.google.com/search?q=1kg%20in%20lbs>

~~~
Achshar
That is to say there was one earlier. It used to be just result, no interface.

~~~
benjoffe
That's still an interface (perhaps I'm being a bit too technical).

------
MattBearman
What a complete load of shit. You have to actually click the numbers, you
can't use your computer's keyboard. Google, I am disappoint.

~~~
elisee
You can type your calculation as a google query and you'll get the result.
This calculator is designed for people looking for a mouse- / touch-based UI.

~~~
MattBearman
I'll admit that as I'm using my laptop touch devices didn't occur to me, just
tried it on my phone and actually it works really well with touch.

But when on a non-touch device, even if you click on the calculator, focus
remains on the search input, that seems like a massive UX failure to me.

~~~
djtriptych
So given this new information, what percentage of a load of shit would you now
say it is?

~~~
MattBearman
I'd say it's now a 70% load of shit. Also, thanks for the epic comment, it's
not often I actually laugh out loud on HN :D

------
gaving
Interesting, works for:-

<http://www.google.com/search?q=9/10>

But not:-

<http://www.google.com/search?q=9/11>

Also seems like it could be much smaller, since it's following this increasing
trend to devote less and less screen real-estate to search results.

~~~
TeMPOraL
My guess is 9/11 was if-ed out; if someone types that into a query, one most
likely wants to see results related to WTC attack.

~~~
rabidsnail
They could have generalized that based on result CTR.

~~~
pokoleo
Not sure what a result CTR is - can you explain (click through rate?)

~~~
rabidsnail
Yes, click-through rate. If an unusually large percentage of users click on a
result instead of engaging with the calculator then the calculator probably
shouldn't be there.

------
madrona
I bet they are doing this to collect _data_ on my favorite _numbers_! Don't
bubble my calculations, Google!

------
georgemcbay
Pretty cool, but why doesn't pressing equal again repeat the last step? Eg. on
any decent calculator if you press:

2, x, 2, =

You get 4.

Press = again, you get 8, and so on.

As insignificant as this may seem, lack of this in a calculator is a complete
showstopper problem for me.

------
kappaloris
would be nice if you could use the keyboard

------
bakhlawa
I couldn't help but wonder how much traffic is lost by online-calculator.com,
the first search result...

------
ck2
Unfortunately if you use google without javascript this is a pain as it does
not fall back to the inline calculator.

If anyone knows or figures out a url option to make it do the old inline math,
please let me know ?

------
webmonkeyuk
Your submission seems to be doing better than mine from earlier in the week
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4295093>

------
imrehg
There's also graphical calculator, or is that not a new thing? I don't
remember seeing it before. For example: <http://goo.gl/uSSWW>

------
lvh
% is percentage, not mod (with our without signs). Damn normals!

------
herrturtur
That's pretty cool. The only thing I'd change is to make it clearer that the
top left button switches between rad and deg.

------
acomjean
the often forgotten unix, linux command line calculators I use all the time.

bc -l

or for those who like rpn

dc

~~~
cynusx
I just fire up irb these days

------
JosephHatfield
Bah, humbug! If it's not RPN, it's crap! :)

------
damoncali
Also cool: In Chrome, type "0xff in decimal" in the address bar.

"=255" appears as one of the suggested searches.

~~~
shrikant
This happens for basic calculation really, for which Google spits out an
answer. And since it's a feature of Google Suggest, it also works in Firefox.

------
mitakas
And then, there are _units_ and _bc_.

------
yumraj
9^9^9 = Infinity and 9^9^9^9 gives Error :)

------
ubershmekel
I'm holding my breath for "stopwatch".

------
gojomo
Meanwhile, Bing still doesn't do rate calculations that have worked at Google
for years, like:

    
    
      1GB / 1 hour
      500km / 1.5 hours in mph

------
peterwiese
where?

~~~
DeepDuh
I don't get it either. Maybe only US IPs?

~~~
rwmj
It's working for me from the UK. I can't imagine why Google would want to
geolocate this. Perhaps they've only partially rolled it out to some of their
datacenters?

~~~
grumblepeet
As you say was probably a rollout lag. Working here in UK now.

------
sodelate
google is not just a search engine

