No Google Calculator on Google Mobile?

You may or may not have found the amazing Google Calculator yet. Sure, it’s a great tool when you’re at your desk, but what about when you’re away from your desk? Maybe you’re even out and about?

I recently found myself at the petrol garage, trying to fill my tyres with air. Trouble is, the pressure gauge on the machine registered PSI, and the booklet for the car recommended pressure in Bar. So given that I’m stood on the forecourt with people waiting behind me and I don’t know how to convert them, what do I do?

As a self-confessed geek, my first idea was to look for a conversion utility on my mobile phone, a Sony Ericsson w810i. Turns out I don’t have one, so my next port of call was the internet.

Except the internet isn’t always formatted well for the tiny tiny screen on my phone. And javascript etc doesn’t work (let’s face it, most of these type of sites do the work locally in javascript). So then I remembered Google Calculator. I logged onto Google Mobile (http://www.google.co.uk/xhtml) on my phone, guessed what the syntax might be and entered the following:

2.6 bar in psi

Unfortunately, I got a load of search results - not what I was expecting, especially as the websites they linked to were hard to read on the mobile. Try it yourself using http://www.google.co.uk/xhtml.

In the end, I had to call my Dad who said it’s approx 15 psi = 1 bar, so I needed about 38 psi.

I had another play once I got home, and found that if you select the “View Google in Classic” link at the bottom of the mobile home page, then enter your calculator query, it works!

So, Google Mobile Team, please please please can you enable Google Calculator for mobile? A “Google Pocket Calculator”, if you will…