Review of the Google.com Currency Converter

If you like your currency converter to be as simple as possible, you will certainly like the one that Google provides, for reasons that will soon become obvious!

What is the URL to go directly to it?

Google has a dedicated finance section, which can be reached by visiting http://finance.google.com/finance.  But the converter itself is available at http://finance.google.com/finance/converter.  And of course the Google home page is as ever available at http://www.google.com.

What is it like?

What can we say about this particular currency converter?  Well, for starters it is about as minimalist as you can get.  It’s actually surprising that a website as big as Google makes its currency converter so basic.

That isn’t to say that it’s not useful or practical, because it is certainly both of those things.  Having said that, you will be amused by its minimalist background - it is plain white.  The currency converter itself is positioned at the top left hand corner of your screen, and is made up of the usual three boxes.

And that is pretty much it!  As far as currency converters go, you cannot get one that is easier and less complicated to use than this.

Is it easy to use?

It certainly is.  It starts with the word ‘convert’ and you are then prompted to fill in the amount that you want converted.  As usual this should be in whole numbers; if you want to convert, say, pounds and pence into dollars and cents, make sure you put the decimal point in the right place.

You can choose your home currency first - the one that you are starting with.  There are several dozen on offer, including all the most well known and most popular ones, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding the currencies you need.

Once you have entered the amount and selected the first currency, you should select the second one from the next box.  All you need to do then is click the convert button and the conversion takes place on that very page.  It doesn’t refresh or take you anywhere else, so in terms of speed this basic little currency converter does do the job very well.

Are there any particular features worth noting?

You will notice that if you enter an amount that has a decimal point in it, the calculator will take it to four decimal places when you have clicked on convert.  So for example, if you convert 1.50 British pounds into US dollars, the amount will change to 1.5000 after you hit the button.

The actual exchange rate will also appear to the fourth decimal place, so at the time of writing 1.50 British pounds converted into US dollars was stated as 2.2530 US dollars.

When you look at the exchange rate information given to you, you will see that the conversion itself is written in bold.  This makes it easy to see the exact information you are looking for - although with little else on the web page there is no chance of confusing any information!

In conclusion

This might be a basic converter - just about as basic as you can get - but that is not a downside by any means.  And if you look at the main finance section on Google you will see that there is a lot more information here to look at if you have a need to do so.

Google being Google for example, there are a lot of news items that are relevant to currency and financial markets.  This is a good point to remember if you are interested in Forex in any way, shape or form.  You also have the standard Google search bar at the top, so you can always segue into the normal web search if you need any more in depth information about currency or currency converters.

One important point to note is that Google finance is in beta mode at the moment, so it may well be that they develop their currency converter at some later stage.  For example they may choose to add a historical section to the converter, which would give a greater depth to the information available.

In short, if you want something nice and simple that is easy to use and ideal for beginners, then hotfoot it to Google and get started right now.