Google shakes things up with "earthquakes" search

Yesterday, Google announced a slick new feature that is sure to rattle your mind. When searching for the keyword "earthquakes" (plural), users will be given relevant information about recent earthquakes. The search can be refined using "earthquakes California", for example, to show only those earthquakes in/near that geographical region, and there are additional features for distance, time and magnitude.

The resulting search lists recent earthquakes with the most recent shown first (click this link to
launch the California earthquake search shown below with the most recent updates):

After the Google-enhanced Earthquake feature listing, which appears at the top of the page, the normal web-search results are shown below in order of Google ranking.

Google has created additional drill-down keywords that can help users find pertinent information in their daily searches:

"If you'd like to know the local time where an earthquake occurred, search for "time" followed by the location (for example, "time Japan"). Let's say the epicenter was 50km from the coast and you want to know how far that is in miles. Type "50km in miles" into the search box. You can find out about these special features and many more on the Search Features page."

Google's Search Features page shows input boxes for many of these common net-enhancing search experiences. Google has provided a large set of tools which, throughout normal browsing, could greatly enhance a user's experience.

See Google's Earthquakes press release.