Google is more than a search engine. It has become a part of our culture, transforming itself into a verb ("Have you Googled him?"). It has become the search destination of over 62 million users from around the globe each month. It has burrowed its way into our everyday lives.
How has a humble search engine achieved such greatness? Partly through its clean, simple look which delivers results in a beautifully uncluttered format. Partly through its extensive, unmatched index of the Web, a direct result of the company's self-proclaimed "laser-like focus on finding the right answer" for each and every user. Partly through its PageRank technology which continues to turn up truly relevant results, instead of a deluge of semi-relevant rubbish.
More than all these things, Google has won us over by being the one and only search engine never to betray our trust. The other search engines have, to a greater or lesser extent, compromised their original purpose in order to make money. They've become bulky portals; or drowned their pages with ads; or, even worse, allowed paid listings to infiltrate their search results without fully disclosing the process. How can you trust a search engine to find the best, most relevant results when sites can pay to make an appearance in the listings?
While Google, like other search engines, accepts paid placement of listings, it has always clearly identified such ads as Sponsored Links and kept them separate from the actual search results. It has been the only search engine to do so consistently according to Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineWatch, although some other search sites, such as Fast have now fallen into line with US Federal Trade Commission guidelines on this issue.
All these factors have combined to make Google a search site you can depend on. And all these things merely skim the surface of this beguiling behemoth. Underneath that simple, loveable searching exterior is a seething mass of advanced features, specialised services and bleeding-edge technologies waiting to be put to use.
Quick searches
Basic Google searches are about as simple as can be: Type in a series of keywords separated by spaces, and press Enter. Google automatically performs an AND query; that is, one which includes all your search terms. To include a specific phrase in a query, such as "antique roses", use quotation marks.
Around this simple core, Google tucks a surprising number of special features into its standard search page. A click of the I'm Feeling Lucky button will take you to the single site Google feels best matches your search query. The Similar Pages link following each result in the search list activates GoogleScout, which seeks out sites with comparable content.
As Google indexes each page it saves a snapshot of that page into its cache. If you try to access a site in Google's results list and find it temporarily unavailable or if the page no longer exists on the Web, click the Cache link. It'll take you to the page snapshot and probably give you just what you need. Remember, though, that the cached page is not necessarily the latest version.
If you find your search turns up too many results and you can't unearth exactly what you want in the first page or so, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Search Within Results link. This produces a blank search page and search box. Anything you type in the search box will qualify your previous search. Say, for example, you search for "judi dench" and find the 70-odd thousand results a little overwhelming, especially as all you really want to know is the name of the movie she appeared in with Cleo Laine. Click the Search Within Results link, type "cleo laine" and hit Enter. You'll find a much more manageable list. (Note, too, that Google ignores case in all searches.)
Two other features of Google's quick searches are worth checking out: Dictionary definitions and spelling fixes. Whenever you perform a search, Google displays the list of search terms you used in a blue stripe near the top of the page. Click any linked term in that strip to see the dictionary definition. Google will also check your spelling and, if it thinks you got it wrong, offer an alternative spelling. Click the alternative spelling to perform a search based on it.
Google your way
Google's basic searches are so good you may not feel the urge to go much further. Even so, at a minimum it's worth setting up Google so it suits your need. Click the Preferences link on Google's main page to personalise Google.
Probably the most important setting is the Number of Results Google displays. This defaults to 10, which is fine if you have a slow Internet connection. If you have a high-speed link, though, it's worth increasing this number to 30, 50 or 100 so you can quickly peruse as many results as possible.
If you want to filter out porn sites, adjust the SafeSearch setting. Google normally filters out sexually explicit images. You can eliminate sexually explicit text as well by using strict filtering, or turn the filter off altogether.
You can also choose both the language used in Google's interface and the language of pages you wish to search.
Finally, you can tell Google to open search results in a new window. This is particularly handy, as it eliminates having to navigate back and forth between the full results list and individual sites on that list.
Google in Klingon? Why not, if you can manage a little more of the lingo than Kapla! You can also view Google's pages in Pig Latin, Galician, Javanese, Urdu, Welsh and dozens of other languages.
Once you've adjusted the settings, click the Save Preferences button and Google will remember your settings for future sessions, provided you have cookies enabled in your browser.
Advanced Googling
A click of the Advanced Search link takes you to Google's Advanced Search page. Here you can use fill-in boxes and a series of drop-down options to expand or limit your searches. For example, you can use the Domain box to restrict your search to a specific site or to exclude a site from the search results. Using the Page Specific search you can find all pages which link to a particular page.
You don't need to visit the Advanced Search page to use these features. Most of them are accessible by using keywords in the main Google search box coupled with your search terms:
site: Restricts searches to the specified domain. For example:
"windows xp" site:microsoft.com
looks for items about Windows XP on Microsoft's site.
link: Finds sites which link to the specified page. For example:
link:www.myhomepage.com
uncovers all pages which link to myhomepage.com.
filetype: Restricts searches to files of a specific type. As well as Web pages, Google lets you search documents in over a dozen different formats including: Adobe Acrobat (PDF), Excel (xls), PowerPoint (ppt), Word (doc), Works (wks, wps, wdb), Lotus 1-2-3 (wk1, wk2, wk3, wk4, wk5, wki, wks, wku), MacWrite (mw), Microsoft Write (wri), Rich Text Format (rtf) and Text (ans, txt). So, to search for PowerPoint presentations on chemical hazards use:
"chemical hazards" filetype:ppt
You can also use + (plus) to ensure a term in included in the search (useful when small, common words – usually omitted by Google – are essential to the search). Similarly, using - (minus) will tell Google to exclude any results which contain a particular term. For example, if you've ever tried searching for an everyday term on the Web which also happens to be a computing term, you'll know how hard it is to turn up relevant results. Say, for example, you want to know how to fix a window in your house. A search for repairing windows will turn up hundreds of computing sites offering to help you fix your Microsoft Windows installation. Try the following search instead:
"repairing windows" -microsoft -computer -computers -xp
and you'll get a much more useful set of results.
Another useful technique is to search for a specific URL (universal resource locator – the actual Web address). For instance, instead of searching for geekgirls do a search for www.geekgirls.com. You'll get a page which provides a direct link to this site, plus links to similar pages, the cached version of the site, sites which link to the site, and sites which contain a reference to the URL.
Google tabs
Head back to Google's main page and take another look at it. Across the top you'll see five tabs labelled Web, Images, Groups, Directory and News. It's surprising how many people completely ignore these tabs when they're one of Google's most useful features.
Clicking the Images tab, for instance, loads Google's Image Search. Type in a search phrase and press Enter and Google will seek out matching photos and drawings.
Google is just as adept at tracking down images as it is locating text. (Click the picture for a larger image.)
The Groups tab provides access to Google Groups – the largest collection of newsgroups on the Internet. Google gobbled up the old Usenet newsgroups some time ago and you can now search the entire archive of messages from Google Groups.
The Directory tab takes you to the Google equivalent of Yahoo!: A collection of one and a half million Web sites reviewed by editors from the Open Directory project and organised using Google's PageRank technology. The Directory is a good place to come if you're in the mood to browse, if you want to eliminate much of the dross from your results, or if you're not quite sure what you're looking for.
Google News, the final of the five tabs, is an amazing resource. The news page is essentially a newspaper created by a computer editor, updated every few minutes. Google's news algorithms search over 4000 news sources throughout the day, pooling together related items and producing a news page from the results. Items which appear more frequently in the news sources end up occupying the premier positions on the Google News page. Each story includes a lead-in paragraph from one of the main sources, direct links to similar stories, the time the story was published, and indirect links to anything from half a dozen to several hundred stories on the same topic from other sources. Google News includes sections for top stories, world news, business, sport (and, yes, cricket often gets the head story above the latest from the NBA), entertainment, health, science and technology, and US news. A search box lets you search within the news stories.
Google Labs
Perhaps the most interesting Google activity takes place in the backrooms of Google Labs. This is where the Google boffins try out new ideas and technologies. Not all of these efforts will necessarily make it onto Google's front page, but they're fascinating none the less.
One of the most interesting items currently in the Labs is the Google Viewer. The Viewer displays the results of your search as a slideshow. The first result is displayed, along with a snippet of information about that page. After a few seconds, the next page is displayed and then the next and the next and so on. A toolbar lets you set the length of time each page is displayed and provides CD-style controls for navigating backwards and forwards or fast forwarding and reversing through the sites.
Another fascinating toy is Google Sets. To use it, type in a small number of related items and then click Large Set or Small Set. Google will present a list of other items which belong to the set, with each item linked to a search page on the topic. For example, if you type:
Albert Einstein
Niels Bohr
Werner Heisenberg
and click Small Set, Google responds with a list including Max Planck, Ernest Rutherford, Paul Dirac, Max Born, Richard Feynman, Erwin Schrödinger, Murray Gell-Mann, Galileo Galilei and JJ Thomson.
More Google goodies
There's still more to Google. The Language Tools provide Web page translations between half a dozen languages, plus language-specific and country-specific searches. Google Australia makes it easy to limit your searches to local sites. Then there's Google Answers (searches performed for a fee), Froogle (search through shopping catalogues), and the Google Toolbar, which lets you add Google search features to your browser.
Then there are Google's hidden treasures...
Google Logos
Just as Sergio Aragones gained a fanatical band of devotees for his comical Drawn Out Dramas scribbled in the margins of Mad magazine, Dennis Hwang has acquired his own flock of admirers, won over by his humourous Google logo transformations. If you love his Google doodles or if you missed any of them, visit the online archive.
Google ZeitGeist
The ZeitGeist provides a quick overview of who's asking what at Google. It lists the top 10 gaining and declining queries and summarises patterns over days, weeks and months. The yearly review provides a fascinating insight into the top news events and fads of the past 12 months.
Google Special Searches
Google provides special searches for five popular topic areas: the United States Government, Linux, BSD Unix, Apple Macintosh and Microsoft. These searches let you rummage through sites which relate directly to the topic. So, for example, the Microsoft search not only includes the whole of microsoft.com but also sites dedicated to tutorials, resources, commentary and news about Microsoft.
In addition, a University Search limits your search to a particular education site. If you're interested in postgraduate scholarships at Monash University, click Monash in the list of universities and then type postgraduate scholarships in the search box. Your search will be restricted to the monash.edu domain.
Google Viewer
Over in Google Labs you'll find, amongst other playthings, the Google Viewer. This new technology gives you a slideshow view of your search results.
When trying to keep up with this cornucopia of searching goodies you may find the Google Sitemap comes in handy.
Google Links
© 2004 Rose Vines
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