If you are looking to avoid that sunshine taunting you through your window here is a reason to clap your eyes
on the screen for a moment…

One of Google’s current experiments regards alternate views for displaying search results. With the correct syntax, results are available in timeline, map, and “additional info” formats.

I haven’t played much with maps and additional info, but Timeline is pretty darn cool. Try the following search, to get
an idea of the ways this could be used (currently I am thinking about some U.S. History assignments that were
just assigned)…

“Portland community college” view:timeline

This yields a pretty decent collection of results displayed by timeline. Of course some of the dates are subjective…
dates of submission instead of date of occurrence, etc. but it is still pretty cool. Clicking on a specific
decade range yields more specific results. This feature does work with other Google limiters (such as site:.edu).

[The timeline command could be replaced with view:maps or view:info--the default "Google" view is called list view.]

I see usefulness in terms of deciding on paper topics, understanding a larger context, etc. Clearly this is not
a good way to do in-depth research or to cheat on a “make a timeline” assignment.

Check it out if you have the time or inclination.