Unless you're just off the shuttle from Alpha Centauri, you're already aware of the product that made Google famous: its Search box.

But any time you cram some 20,000 of the world's smartest people into one company, you can expect to grow a garden of unrelated ideas. Especially when you give some of those geniuses one workday a week - Google's famous “20 percent time”- to work on whatever projects fan their passions. And especially when you create Google Labs (labs.google.com), a Web site where the public can kick the tires on half-baked Google creations. Some Labs projects go on to become real, and others are quietly snuffed out.

Such innovations have led to hits like Google Earth, Gmail, Picasa, Google Docs, Blogger, YouTube, Google Calendar and others. But they have also cultivated a vast jungle of lesser-known features. Unfortunately, it's so vast and varied, you'd need a professional tour guide to help you find the gems.

Hello, my name is David. Keep hands and feet inside the tram at all times.

iGoogle. Google.com became famous for its white minimalist look. It loaded quickly in the days when dial-up modems ruled the earth.

Today, at iGoogle (google.com/ig), you can dress up all that white space with useful miniboxes containing additional info. Hundreds of useful displays are available: a clock, local weather, movie listings, incoming e-mail, news, daily horoscope, to-do list, Twitter updates and whatever-of-the-day (joke, word, Bible verse and so on).

The best part: this stuff doesn't slow you down. You can type in and execute a quick Google search before all those widgets have appeared.

Google Reader. Why spend your time navigating to sites that interest you? They can all come to you - all congregated on a single page, called Google Reader (reader.google.com).

Technically, Reader is what's called an RSS feed reader, but you don't need to know that. You just type in a topic, inspect the search results, and click the Subscribe buttons that look interesting. After that, Reader displays the first paragraph from each; click to read more. Star the items you want to read later, or pass them along. Fantastic.

Google Maps. It's driving directions on steroids (maps.google.com). Choose the directions you want: by car, by public transit or on foot. Drag the path line with your mouse to reroute around construction or down interesting streets. View traffic conditions. Turn on Street View to see actual photographs of the destination address.

Way, way better than MapQuest.

Gmail Labs. Gmail is already the world's best free Web-based e-mail service, with terrific organization tools and a superb spam blocker. But if you click Settings and then Labs, you find a huge list of cool enhancements.

There's Text Message in Chat (send a text messages to a cell phones, right from within Google Chat or Gmail); Offline Mail (work on Gmail even when you're not online); Canned Responses (build a menu of stock answers); Multiple Inboxes (manages mail by auto-creating multiple folders); and the delightful Send & Archive (one click sends your reply and removes the original).

Here, too, is Mail Goggles, which is intended to avert the kind of personal disaster that can result when you send mail while drunk. During periods that you specify (for example, weekend nights from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.), this feature prevents you from sending mail until you've answered five math problems in 60 seconds.

Quick Search Box. Here's a promising Google Labs project (code.google.com/p/qsb-mac): a sweet, fast little Mac program that opens when you press the Command key twice. Opens programs, searches your Mac, searches the address book, searches the Web, looks up words or weather, and more. And since it's open source, more people will add even more features.

Translator. Translate any text or page to or from 40 languages (translate.google.com). It's not perfect, but you'll get the gist of that Russian spam.

800-GOOG-411. Possibly the best voice-recognition cell phone service in existence. Call the number, say what you're looking for (”comedy clubs, Chicago” or “Domino's Pizza, Cleveland”), and Google's auto-voice reads off the closest eight matches. You can speak the number of the one you want, and he'll connect your call automatically - no charge. You never know or care what the phone number was; it's like having a personal secretary.

Or you can say “text message” at any time to have the address and phone number zapped to your cell phone.

Google SMS. Send a message to GOOGL (46643). In the body of the message, type what you want: weather report (”weather dallas”), stock quotes (”amzn”), movie showtimes (type “slumdog millionaire 44120”), definitions (”define schadenfreude”), directions (”miami fl to 60609”), unit conversions (”liters in 5 gallons”), currency conversions (”25 usd in euros”), and so on. Five seconds later, Google texts you back with the details.

Google Alerts. Keep tabs on what the world is saying about you, your company or your interests. At Google.com/alerts, type the search phrase (like your name), and specify which channels you want to monitor (blogs, Web pages, discussion groups and so on). Whenever someone mentions you online, you hear about it, thanks to an e-mail alert - also no charge.

Google Sets. At labs.google.com/sets, type in several items in a series (like “cleveland browns” and “dallas cowboys”); Google fleshes out the list with others like it (other football teams). Great when something's on the tip of your tongue but can only remember something like it.

Secrets of the search box. Usually, whatever you type into Google's Search box is treated as a quest for Web pages. Certain kinds of information, however, get special treatment.

For example, you can type in an equation (like “23(AST)9/3.4+234”); press Enter to see the answer.

Think of Google, too, when you need conversions. Type “83 yards in inches,” “500 euros in dollars,” or “grams in 3.2 pounds”; press Enter to see the answer.

Google is also a dictionary (type “define:ersatz”), package tracker (type your FedEx or UPS tracking number), Yellow Pages (”phonebook:home depot norwalk ct”), meteorologist (”weather san diego”), flight tracker (”AA 15”), stock ticker (”AAPL” or “MSFT”), and the world's best movie-listings site (type “movies:10024,” or whatever your ZIP code is).

Oh, dear, look at that - the end of the column is approaching, and we haven't even mentioned Sketchup (free 3-D software), Scholar (search all published academic papers), Books (search millions of books - see a snippet of the text), Sync (two-way wireless syncing of your Google calendar/address book with your iPhone, BlackBerry or other); and GrandCentral (unify your phone numbers and voicemail systems).

But that's all right. Already, that's enough good free stuff to last you a lifetime. Or at least 20 percent of one.

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