Google - Simply the Best, and Here's Why...
Written: Jan 06 '03 (Updated Jan 17 '03)
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The World Wide Web is a very wonderful thing, full of oodles of useful (and useless) information. But what good is all of that information if you can't get to it? That's where Google comes in. It simply blows away any other search engine out there.
I'm a computer programmer and techno geek. I need to use search engines a lot to research technology and whatnot for my job. Prior to Google I had quite a few search engines bookmarked (AltaVista, Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, HotBot, etc). I had to use each of them, because they each tended to return completely different lists of results. Then Google came along. Not only was it super-fast, but Google found everything -- there was nothing one of those other search engines returned that Google didn't return as well, plus Google found more. Lots more!
Web Searching:
From the moment you go to http://www.google.com, you can see that it is different from the rest. You basically get one big textbox and two big buttons. There are no advertisements, no pop-ups, no massive amounts of other content. After you type in your search criteria, you either press "Google Search", which searches the web, or you press "I'm Feeling Lucky", which takes you directly to one of the sites that meets your search criteria. You just cannot get any simpler than that!
Of course there are other ways to search. Their "Advanced Search" helps users to search exact phrases or exclude certain words. It allows you to search particular domains and languages. These "advanced" searches can also be typed into the initial page, if you know how (you can learn about the "advanced operators" if you follow this link: http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html).
You can also set preferences for your searches (your browser must accept cookies for this to work). In preferences you can choose which languages you wish to see in your results, how strictly any sexual content should be filtered out (the default is "moderate"), and how many results you want to see per page.
At the top of your search results you can see approximately how many pages were returned and how long the search took to complete. At the bottom of the page you can navigate amongst the Google pages of your results (if your search was too large to fit on a single results page). Each web link is followed a small bit of that page's content, usually exactly where the words you were searching for were found. This is extremely helpful -- allowing you to determine whether or not you think that page will meet your needs before you even go there.
For such a simple looking site, Google packs all kinds of features into their searches, for example:
More than just web pages:
Most search engines only search html content. Google goes a few steps beyond, searching PDF's, Word Docs, Excel Docs, and Power Point docs, among others. Not only does it search them, but if you want to view them Google can translate the page into html for you (just in case you don't have Adobe or Power Point loaded on your computer).
Site no longer there?
Sure enough, sometimes sites go away, or servers go down temporarily. If you find what looks to be the perfect site, but you follow the link only to find nothing there, go back to Google. They maintain a cached copy of each site -- a snapshot. It may not have all of the most recent updates that the site has made, but it can really save the day when a particular site is temporarily unavailable.
Spell checking:
Don't know how to type the word you are searching for? Give it a try anyway -- Google will attempt to figure it out for you. For example, I tried searching on "cateracts", and even though some sites were found with the misspelled term, the first line of my search results asks "Did you mean: Cataracts", complete with a link to the search with the correct spelling.
Translations:
Sometimes non-English sites come back in your search (if you don't have a language filter set). For many non-English sites Google offers a "Translate this page" link next to the direct site link. Most of this language translation is still in Beta, and doesn't always work beautifully, but it has saved me in a pinch a time or two.
Downloadable toolbar
How could web searching possibly be made any easier? By offering a free downloadable toolbar, of course. For Netscape or Explorer you can add buttons to your navigation toolbar. The buttons allow you to search by highlighting a word on the page you are currently viewing, or search for pages similar to the page you are on. Available for IE only is the Google Toolbar, which includes many, many Google search buttons and a text box for kicking off searches no matter where you are currently browsing. When you use Google as much as I do, this is a really nice option to have.
Didja know...
Type your telephone number (including area code) into the search field. At the top of the resulting page you should see your name and address.
Type in your street address to get links to maps (from Yahoo and MapQuest).
Type in ticker symbols to get stock and mutual fund listings.
Have your own web page? Type in the word link: followed by your web page's URL, and Google will return a list of sites that link to your web site! I used this feature a few months ago when I had to move one of my personal web pages. I searched on my old address and was able to e-mail the site owners who had not updated their links to my new address. Very handy!
So how do they make money?
Well, dot coms have to survive somehow. Google is firmly against big advertisements and pop-ups, but one way they are able to stay afloat it to allow sponsors to buy "Premium Sponsorships" and "AdWords" -- two programs that cause the sponsor's links to appear on applicable searches. The sponsored links show up apart from the rest, highlighted in a different color, or over on the right of the page (where normal results are displayed on the left), so they are unobtrusive and very easy to ignore if you are not interested - something I appreciate.
Newsgroup Searching:
Google keeps an archive of Usenet discussions dating back to 1981. For the uninitiated, Usenet is a distributed computerized bulletin board system that was started in 1979. These Usenet Newsgroups are places where people with a common interest can get together and discuss the newsgroup topic via posts which can be read by anyone who accesses the group. These days there are thousands of newsgroups hosted all over the world and covering nearly every topic imaginable. You usually need special software to read Usenet posts, although these days it is built into most browsers.
Originally held by www.deja.com (formally www.dejanews.com), the ability to search all of the Usenet newsgroup discussions is an invaluable asset when it comes to research. As a computer programmer, I used the Usenet groups long before Google acquired the deja archive, and I simply couldn't do my job as effectively without it. If you are having a particular problem, you can perform a search and see where other people have had that problem before you, and see what advice was given to them by others.
Groups.google.com (which can also be reached via www.deja.com) allows you to search in a manner just like the regular Google search, however it searches newsgroups rather than the world wide web. In addition to many of the features offered in the normal Google searches, you can also choose to restrict your search to particular newsgroups, particular authors, and particular date ranges.
Search results can be viewed sorted by relevance or sorted by date. Along with the typical Google information, Usenet searches also return the newsgroup the item was found in, the date it was posted, who posted it, and how many posts are in the thread. When viewing your search results, you can choose to either view the single posting that met your criteria, or you can choose to read the entire "thread" (a thread is the full list of posts that responded to an original topic).
You can even use Google to post your own replies in the threads, or even start discussions.
Google has compiled a really cool listing of some famous Usenet "firsts" (such as the first mention of Microsoft, first mention of MTV, first mention of Bill Clinton, the 1993 first mention of Osama Bin Laden, even the first mention of "The Simpsons"!) Check it out here:
http://www.google.com/googlegroups/archive_announce_20.html
Image Searching:
Have you ever wanted to find an image online? Then Google Image Search is for you. Google can search over 390 million images to find what you are looking for. The images are indexed based not only on their title but also on the content of the text around the image itself (so the image doesn't have to be named "Bear.jpg" for you to find it when you search on the word "Bear").
Your search results are displayed in a series of thumbnail images. You then click on the image to go to the page that hosts it.
Although I don't use the Image Search as much as the other searches, my co-workers and I still use it quite a bit. The guys I work with are all fun-loving practical jokers, and we grab images off the web to manipulate and tease each other with. We've searched for odd things like crashed helicopters, wrecked bicycles, and men in tights -- Google Image Search has come through for us every time.
News Searching:
Now that I am the mother of a toddler, the television is either off or turned to a children's program, so I don't get to keep up with the news like I used to. That's where Google News comes in. It searches 4,000 continuously updated news sources worldwide, so it is always current. It groups like stories together, so you can read about a specific news event from a wide variety of sources (CNN, USA Today, ABC News, BBC, Reuters, etc). The selection and placement of the stories on the page were automatically determined by a computer, so you get a completely unbiased view of current events. Of course you can search through all the articles as well.
Going to the site (news.google.com) with no criteria displays an attractive page with the top stories in a variety of categories. The "Top Stories" are at the top of the page, the news stories are further broken down by the following categories:
World, U.S., Business, Sci Tech, Sports, Entertainment, Health, and More Top Stories.
Google News is still in Beta (meaning it is still being tested by the developers), so they appreciate any comments on how to improve the site or on more news sources to add. News comments & suggestions can be sent to news-feedback@google.com.
But that's not all...
This review would be unbearably long if I went into all of Google's search capabilities. Here is a quick list of some others (many of which are still in Beta):
* Froogle - Search products that are for sale from across the web -- http://froogle.google.com/
* Google Answers - an open forum where experienced researchers and experts answer your questions for a fee, then the questions and answers are available for the world to see (we had some fun at work browsing through the questions asked -- it certainly kept us entertained for a while) -- http://answers.google.com/answers/main
* Google Catalogs - search and browse mail-order catalogs online -- http://catalogs.google.com/
* Google Web Directory - search the web by topic categories (similar to a Yahoo-type look & feel) -- http://directory.google.com/
* Google Translate Tool - Use Google to translate text or entire web pages (similar to AltaVista's Babel Fish) -- http://www.google.com/language_tools
* Google Web APIs - Purely for techies, Google offers APIs that allow your programs to search Google automatically -- http://www.google.com/apis/
* Google Wireless - run Google from a large number of handheld devices -- http://www.google.com/options/wireless.html
* Free Search - add Google to your web site for free! Your web visitors can use Google on your site to search your site! -- http://www.google.com/services/free.html
History:
Google was named after the word "googol", which is the name of the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros (in other words, an extremely large number). The term reflects Google's vision, which is to organize and make available the seemingly infinite number of sites on the world wide web.
The founders met in 1995 when they were graduate students at Stanford University. They wrote the search engine, which serves as Google's backbone, as a research project and started its first datacenter out of one of their dorm rooms.
Google Inc. officially came to life on September 7, 1998. It made an immediate impact, even though it was still in Beta. In 2001 it also acquired a very popular Usenet archive (www.deja.com), and the users continued to grow.
In 2001 it was announced that Google's search capability includes over 3 BILLION web documents, and they currently perform more than 150 MILLION searches every day in over 40 different languages!
Final Thoughts:
In case I haven't stated the case strongly enough, I LOVE Google! It has been a real life-saver. It has made me more effective at my job, and made my personal internet-browsing experiences much more satisfying. It is fast and accurate, and packs a ton of features into a very simple design. I really can't say enough wonderful things about Google!!
Fun Google Links:
Google Holiday Image Archive: http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html
Usenet Firsts List: http://www.google.com/googlegroups/archive_announce_20.html
List of Awards Won by Google: http://www.google.com/press/awards.html
Google Store: https://www.googlestore.com/
Recommended:
Yes
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mizgnomer
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Location: Tennessee
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Don't meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you're crunchy and taste good with ketchup
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