i have recently been exploring the various functions of google and i must say that i'm amazed at what it offers. Google has really been expanding its services offering and it's fascinating the amount of stuff you can do with google now.
For example...
Scholar google (http://scholar.google.com)allows you to search for papers and journal articles. Very useful when doing research since a normal search usually gives you more advertisments than useful articles.
Personalised homepageHere you can edit the elements of the homepage and include multiple components. You can have feeds of your favorite sites displayed here. the calender and time, gmail, games (bejewelled, pac man), jokes of the day and the list just goes on. Very good as a one stop homepage.
Google toolbarinstalling this toolbar allows you to search for information without having to go to the google homepage. you can also save bookmarks which can be accessed from any computer where you're signed in with the same account and the toolbar is installed. No more having to save bookmarks in your home and work computer.
Google calender and goggle spreadsheets(http://www.google.com/calendar/, http://spreadsheets.google.com)
these two functions allow you to place online your calender and spreadsheets. So that you can access and edit your calender anywhere and you can directly save spreadsheets to be used anywhere. I have yet to use these two features yet but they do offer much convienence for people always on the move.
The features i've listed above are just a few out of the numerous list (http://www.google.com.sg/intl/en/options/) of features that google has but i must commend the ingenuity of the team behind google.