Well, they got consolidated into something called the “app launcher”: a pop-up panel of popular Google features, everything from Google Drive and Maps to News and Wallet.

Want to rearrange the icons in the Google app launcher? Just drag and drop.

You can open the launcher by clicking the grid of nine little dots in the top-right corner of most Google pages.

When you do, you’ll see the default set of “apps” displayed by the launcher, including Google+, Search, Drive, YouTube, Maps, and Gmail. Click an icon, and off you go.

Scroll down to see more Google apps, such as Translate, Books, Wallet, and Shopping.

Don’t like the order of apps in the launcher? Just click, hold, and drag an icon, then go ahead and start rearranging.

Last but not least, you can add a missing Google feature—like, say, Google Helpouts or Groups—to the launcher by navigating to its page, clicking the app launcher icon, and then clicking the “Add a shortcut” button.

Note: Unfortunately, the “Add a shortcut” button won’t appear for some Google sites. Go to Google Scholar, for example, and the app launcher icon doesn’t appear at all.

Click here for more Google tips!

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I checked my own Google account and found that Google has saved nearly 30,000 of my prior searches, plus a record of the links I clicked based on those search results, stretching as far back as 2006.

Your Web History contains a comprehensive list or all your Google searches, potentially stretching back years—and yes, you can delete some or all of your searches.

Believe it or not, I can tell you that on December 29, 2007 at exactly 4:51 p.m., I did a Google search on “new years smith street brooklyn”—probably because I was hunting for a good place to spend New Year’s Eve.

In addition to the enormous list of searches, your Web History also boasts a color-coded calendar that shows which days of the week you’re doing the most searching.

And since your Google Web History is (of course) itself searchable, it makes for a handy (if, perhaps, a bit unsettling) way to find an interesting web page that’s since slipped your mind.

Now, don’t like the idea of Google saving your searches? Well, good news and bad news.

Good news first: not only can you stop Google from saving your searches in your Web History, you can also delete your Web History selectively or entirely.

The bad news? Zapping your Google web history doesn’t wipe out every last trace of your past Google searches.

Indeed, Google (like many other search engines) may share the search and usage data stored on its servers with various “partners,” advertisers, or even law enforcement. Food for thought, particularly in light of the recent PRISM controversy.

You can stop Google from saving searches in your Web History, but that doesn’t mean Google isn’t still keeping records of your search activity.

So, ready to check out your Web History? Let’s get started…

• Sign in to your Google account, click your user icon in the top-right corner of the page, click Account, then scroll all the way down and click the “Manage your web history” link. You can also just click this link: history.google.com.
• You should now be looking at your personal Web History as Google sees it—interesting stuff, actually. You can browse your history using the navigation links to the left (anything from “Web” and “Images” to “Shopping” and “Maps), or by clicking the calendar on the right. The days on the calendar are color-coded based on your search activity, with the darker-blue dates representing the days you searched the most often.
• See anything in your Web History that you’d like to delete? If so, click the checkbox next to the item and click the “Remove items” button.
• Want to delete everything in your Web History? Click the gear icon in the top-right corner of the page, select Settings, then click the “delete all” link.
• Want Google to stop tracking your searches in your Web History? Go back to the Settings page, then click the “Turn off” button. (Yes, you can always come back later and turn your web history back on.)

Looking for more Google tips? Click here!

Note: This article was first published in February 2012, and it’s been revised to reflect changes to Google’s Web History interface and settings.

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Believe it or not, you can do all that and more straight from the Google search box—and in most cases, you’ll get the details you need the instant you tap the Search button.

Read on for 10 clever, time-saving Google searches, from converting currency and units of measurement to looking up definitions and—no kidding—tracking the latest earthquakes.

1. Track a package

Expecting a package? If it’s being shipped by FedEx, UPS, or the U.S. Postal Service, you can just plug the tracking number into the Google Search box.

When you click the Search button, you’ll get a link that’ll take directly to tracking results on the shipper’s web site.

Need to know the current value of the Japanese yen? Just ask Google.

2. Convert currency

So, how many Japanese yen to a U.S. dollar today? Easy.

Just type “1 USD in yen” (or something similar) into the Google Search box to get an instant conversion, including a history of the currency’s relative strength and a form for performing new conversions on the fly.

3. Get local movie showtimes

Want to go to the movies? Find out what’s playing—and when—by typing “movies” and a ZIP code into the Google search box.

Have a specific movie in mind? Type its name into the Google box and (again) add a ZIP code.

Hint: If you skip the ZIP code when looking up local movie times, Google will make a rough guestimate of your location.

4. Look up a definition

Ah, “vagary.” Cool word. What does it mean, again?

Type “define vagary” into the Google search box and you’ll get the full definition, a phonetic spelling, and synonyms. You can even hear the word spoken by clicking the speaker icon.

You can get the status of just about any flight with a simple Google query.

5. Track a flight

Need to know whether your flight’s delayed—or when another flight is slated to land?

Type the airline and flight number into the search box (“united 458”) and you’ll get a status report, a terminal and a gate number.

6. Convert units of measurement

How many kilometers in a mile … didn’t we learn that in high school?

If you’re still not sure, just type “1 mile to km” or “how many kilometers in a mile?” into the search box, and the answer will appear in a measurement converter.

7. Get the weather

Find out how beautiful the weather is in, say, Hawaii by typing “weather maui” or “weather honolulu” into the Google search box.

You’ll get the current temperature, a 7-day forecast, and even hourly details on rain and wind.

Six times seven? Forty-two—or so Google tells me.

8. Do the math

You don’t need a calculator on your desk if you’ve got Google in a browser tab.

Type in “6*7” (or “what’s six times seven?”), “132/3,” or “square root 100” and you’ll get an answer the moment you click the Search button, along with a web calculator for solving more equations.

9. Check the time

Can’t remember whether Chicago is in the Eastern or Central time zone?

Type “time chicago” in the Google Search box to get the current time in the Windy City, along with details on which time zone it’s in (Central, in case you’re wondering).

10. Confirm a quake

Whoa! Did you feel that? If you think you just felt an earthquake—or if you know you felt one—type “earthquake” into the Google search box.

The first listing will be for the US Geological Survey, and just beneath you’ll see a list of most recent temblors on the planet, complete with magnitudes and map links to the various epicenters.

Looking for more Google tips? Click here!

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Also on tap: the ability to search on an image by dragging the image itself into the Google Images search box.

Voice search on Google is nothing new—indeed, it’s been a feature on the Google Mobile app for a few years now—but this marks the first time that users could search by voice on a desktop PC.

You’ll need to have the Chrome web browser installed and a microphone to test drive Google’s new desktop voice search, which should start going live in the next “several days,” according to Google.

To speak and search, you just click a little microphone icon in the Google search box, wait for the “Speak now” pop-up to appear, and then … well, just start talking.

In demonstrations at a Google press event Tuesday, search results began appearing pretty much instantly, with company engineers speaking queries ranging from “bolognese sauce” to “translate to spanish where I can buy a hamburger.”

So, when would you use Google’s new desktop voice search? Perhaps when you’re looking for a word that you can pronounce but not spell, Google execs suggested. Voice search could also be helpful for users who don’t have the use of their hands.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQnZe_Iggx0&w=525]

Another interesting Google announcement Tuesday was image search—and by that, I mean performing a web search by actually dragging and dropping an image from your desktop to the Google search box.

In a demo, a Google staffer dragged and dropped a snapshot of a person posing on an barren island. Within a second or two, Google returned its “best guess” for the image: the Greek island of Nea Kameni (check), complete with relevant web pages and “visually similar” images. Neat.

Privacy fanatics should note that images dragged into the Google search box are uploaded to Google’s servers; that said, search exec Amit Singhai promised that Google will follow the same privacy protocols with images as it does with standard text queries.

In any case, Google says its new “Search by Image” feature will go live over the “next few days”—and again, you’ll need to be using the Chrome web browser to make it work.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t99BfDnBZcI&w=525]

So, what do you think: do you see voice search on the desktop or “search by image” coming in handy? Or are you just as happy to let your fingers to the searching?

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