Live.com – Handy, Yet Little Known Features: Currency Conversion, Calculator And Dictionary

We already knew about tracking flight status from Live Search, and yet again Ian Moulster tipped three more handy features many of us will find very useful:

1. Currency Conversion (MSN Money)

 LSmoney1  LSmoney2

You can type it in either full or abbreviation (USD, GBP, EUR etc.) at that!

2. Calculator

You can type in regular calculations (100*2.5) or formulas and Live Search gives you the answer:

LScalculator

3. Dictionary (Encarta)

Ever heard a word and didn’t know what it meant? Live Search to the rescue! Simply type in “define polish” and you will presented with the answer by Microsoft Encarta:

LSdefine

Now what will happen with this one? Microsoft has already announced MSN Encarta is to be discontinued on October 31, 2009 (with the exception of Japan, it’ll be discontinued there on December 31, 2009). Sure would be a shame to see this one go…maybe someone at Microsoft is reading this and can enlighten us?

Comments

  • http://www.liveside.net/members/Khristopher/default.aspx Khristopher

    I would really miss the Encarta definitions. They give the most understandable definitions of words online.

  • http://www.liveside.net/members/Alber1690/default.aspx Alber1690

    Don’t forget the UPS/USPS/FedEX tracking number feature. Use it all the time. Although it doesn’t show the information right on the page, I use the accelerator to search the tracking number and there I click directly to the status page on the associated site.

  • http://blogs.msdn.com/robmar robmargel

    you can also use the encarta for other searches such as ‘what is the population of china’, or ‘who is the president of france’

    but my faourite is the Live search indias cricket score feature http://blogs.msdn.com/robmar/archive/2008/10/13/cricket-and-live-search-in-india.aspx

  • http://www.liveside.net/members/Sunshine/default.aspx Sunshine

    Ah yes, sports. There’s also March Madness, if you are into basketball: http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2009/03/24/answers-about-your-madness-march-madness-that-is.aspx

  • http://www.liveside.net/members/ProfessorAsian/default.aspx ProfessorAsian

    Google owns Live search in all unit conversions.

    Try to figure out what a Pascal Liter per second is….

    Pa*L/(s)

    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Pa*L%2F%28s%29

  • http://liveside.net/members/quikboy/default.aspx Quikboy

    I really hope Microsoft will keep most of it’s Encarta sources free for the web. At least the dictionaries. It’s one of Encarta’s best features.