Tuesday 2 October 2007

Cool New Feature in Google Spreadsheets

This morning I was perusing and updating one of my Google Spreadsheets when I discovered two new functions that make Google Spreadsheets Internet smart!
The description on Google reads:
Two new functions bring the power of Google directly into your spreadsheet. The GoogleFinance function retrieves current price and volume for stocks, indices and ETF's. For example, GoogleFinance("GOOG") returns the latest Google stock price.

The GoogleLookup function attempts to answer your question using the web, with information about people, places and things, like the population of Japan, the mass of Jupiter, or the place of birth of Abraham Lincoln. It doesn't know everything, but it knows quite a bit. For example, GoogleLookup("T Rex","length") returns "40 feet".
And this was actually quite helpful as I have a spreadsheet tracking some of my stock options and I was able to use the GoogleFinance function to have it automatically insert the current stock price!
The only thing missing now is an extension to the function to allow it to read Currency exchange rate then it will be perfect (or almost)

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