3 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do Using Google

My friend Mario is a great mixologist. Whenever I have dinner at his place there are tasty and imaginative cocktails to enjoy. Unfortunately, when he and his wife come to my house, they have to settle for boring glasses of whiskey or wine, because I simply don’t know much about being a bartender.

That’s all about to change, though, thanks to Google, which just added a feature that social drinkers are sure to love — a new search tool that tells you how to make popular cocktails via step-by-step instructions, lists of ingredients, and serving suggestions.

That handy little feature is just one of the new tools Google recently added to search. The new Google Compare helps you compare auto insurance policies and credit card terms. When you search for movies, videos or images, Google now makes the results much easier to see and explore on a mobile device.

Trolling around for auto insurance can be tough. Every company has its own website, and comparing one with the other isn’t easy. Thankfully, Google Compare makes it easier.

After filling out a form that asks for some basic information, including address, vehicle stats, and the amount of coverage you want, Google compares all of the available policies so you can pick the one that best suits you. Don’t like a specific quote? Just increase the deductible and a new deal is calculated for you.

Google has deals with a number of major insurers, and if the service gets some traction, I’d expect more to sign on. For now, the feature is limited to California residents, but other states will follow soon, according to Google. Anyone can use the credit card search feature, and you have more than 50 cards to choose from.

There’s also a cool new feature designed for smartphones that makes it much easier to find movies, videos and images. Say you search for “Humphrey Bogart movies” using your phone. You’ll see a series of movie posters on your screen, and you can click them to get more info. You can also arrange by most popular (“Casablanca”), by newest (“The Harder They Fall”) or oldest (“The Petrified Forest”).