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Comment by Victerius | Hacker News Reader

Tbh I wouldn't be mad if Google went back to being only a search engine, an email client, and a web browser.

I quite like it that some simple unit conversions (Celsius <-> Farenheit is the one I use most often), rough currency conversions and the likes are displayed right on the search results page.

FWIW, some of these can be done in your OS search bar. Cmd Space on the Mac, and Win key on the pc. Not sure about the various flavors of Linux though.

Can also do them on iOS by swiping down the home screen

Consider using the "units" program. It's excellent and can handle almost any conversion and unit-full math expression.

KDE will do it in Krunner. All units and currency

Krunner is super finicky about it though, especially since it won't handle even the simplest of mixed units (eg. neither 6ft 2in or 6'2" works, where 6ft, 6', 2", and 2in all give conversions on their own).

...and then after it fails, if you hit enter or click at the top of the results like you would to copy the value, it launches whatever random program burbled to the top when it gave up.

GNOME supports unit conversion too, by pressing Super and typing in the queries. And iOS too. Not sure about Android though, because IIRC the search bar just directs you to Google search.

Just be careful with unit conversions and cooking/baking measurements. They are often wildly wrong. Search for "1 cup flour in grams" and you'll find suggested answers ranging from 100g to 300g -- while it _does_ vary by brand and type of flour, it certainly doesn't vary that much!

I've seen variations in published cookbooks too! Maybe not this much, but easily in the 150-250 range. It's a real problem, not just a Google one.

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