Are You a Good Googler?

June 2002
Yahoo News; Jeremy Caplan & Don Willmott

It's become the search engine of choice (Yahoo! uses it, too), so it pays to know its secrets. Sharpen your searches with these tricks

You know a site has the right stuff when its name becomes a verb. In just three years, Google has evolved from a nascent Net presence into a daily destination for millions who use it for fast answers from the Net. Even Yahoo! uses it, providing Google results to augment its own directory. We Google our own names to see what the world can find out about us; we Google potential second dates to see if they told the truth on the first one; we even enjoy "Googlewhacking," the game of trying to come up with two-word Google queries that return only one result. (It's harder than it sounds.)

But Google is much more than just a tool for finding sites, and most Web surfers barely scratch the surface of its capabilities. If you know what you're doing, Google can help you accomplish everything from looking up phone numbers to tracking down images. Here's how to Google as you've never Googled before.

Use Quotation Marks
This is our nominee for all-time most useful hint. Search for Tiger Woods, and Google will give you about 450,000 results. Yikes. Search for "Tiger Woods" in quotation marks, you'll get 342,000 results. That's still too many (keep reading!), but at least none will relate to animals or forests. When you know the exact name or phrase you're looking for, quotation marks can only help.

Learn the Three Fundamentals
Google doesn't drag you down with complicated search strings and dreaded Boolean operators. Just remember these three things. Use a plus sign in your search request only when an everyday word is crucial to the search (Godfather +I). And use a minus sign if you want to exclude certain terms from a search. A search for bass -fish will steer you away from the water and toward the world of music. (Be sure to leave a space before those plus or minus signs, but not after them.) Focused results are the goal.

Search by Category
Many Googlers don't realize that in addition to its search box, Google has its own simple Web directory. Click the Directory tab on Google's home page to bring it up, and then start drilling down through the categories that interest you. It's basic—not comprehensive, the way Yahoo!'s is—and useful when you're just starting your research.

Search Related Sites
You've finally found the exact kind of site you were looking for. Congratulations, but don't stop now. Use the "related" command, coupled with the URL, to find more sites like it (related:www.tigerwoods.com returns 23 excellent sites about golf).

Search From the Inside Out
If you've found a site you need, chances are that some of the sites that link to it will also be useful to you. Enter link:www.tigerwoods.com, for example, and you'll get back 954 sites. (You can also use this technique to find out who, if anyone, is linking to your own personal site.)

Indulge Your Obsessive Streak
If you can't bear to miss out on a single Tiger Woods site, enter allinurl:tigerwoods to get a list of all the sites with "tigerwoods" in their URL. Instead of getting thousands of pages that mention Tiger somewhere in them, you'll get only those sites that actually feature the word in their Web address. The result: a more targeted search—in this case, a relatively manageable 1,460 results to look through.

Search Within a Particular Site
For fine-tuned research, you can limit your search to a single Web site. Want all the information about Tiger Woods featured at the site of his alma mater, Stanford? Enter tiger woods site:www.stanford.edu and get just 63 results—a nice, tight search. Another example: valve site:www.americanheart.org, for 101 entries about heart valve problems from the American Heart Association.

Bring Sites Back From the Dead
It's a fact of Net life: Sites die. But if your dream page turns up a 404 (i.e., dead-link notice), hit the Back button and play mad scientist. Look for the Cached link at the end of the Google description. That's a link to the backup version Google keeps of all the pages it indexes. A simple click displays its stored version. Bear in mind, though, that the page will only be current as of the day Google indexed it.

Search for Images
Want to find photos of Tiger Woods but don't want to sift through thousands of sites to find the ones with pics? Click the Images tab on Google's home page and type in "Tiger Woods" (with the quotes) to get hundreds of swingin' shots. Click on any one to find out more about it, to see a larger version, or to visit the site on which it was found.

Scour the Newsgroups
Long before the World Wide Web emerged, the Internet was crowded with Usenet newsgroups, in which discussions on every imaginable topic took place. They're still out there today, and Google will search a 20-year archive of 700 million newsgroup messages for you. Just click on the Groups tab on Google's home page. Be warned: Newsgroups can be huge and weird, so searching them can be a real time-waster unless you're passionately interested in your search topic. For basic, top-level searches, don't bother.

Google Last Night's Date (Or Prepare for Tonight's)
If you went on a first date with "John Smith" or "Mary Jones" last night, Google won't be much help in digging up the dirt unless you give it more to go on. Put the name in quotation marks and follow it with as many specifics relating to the person that you can think of. His company. Her hometown. His college. Her profession. Keep at it, and eventually you'll get some details about your specific John or Mary. Was your date Tiger Woods? If so, just skip the research and accept that second date.

And While You're at It, Google Yourself
Here's a great way to do a quick security check on your online identity. Search for your own name, of course, but also search for various permutations of your address. And try Googling your credit card numbers. If any of these things are popping up in weird places, take action.

Use Google as a Phone Book and Atlas
Enter a first and last name and a city and state to get the address and phone number of anyone listed in the phone book (for the record, we couldn't find Tiger). You can also enter a phone number to find the related address and generate a map from Yahoo! Maps or MapQuest. Another feature: Enter a street address, city, and state to get a map of the area. Or enter the name of a business and its ZIP code to get its phone number, address, and Web site, as well as a neighborhood map.

Toss Your Dictionary in the Trash
Whenever your search includes a word that's listed in a dictionary, Google underlines the word in its results page above the list of links offered. Click on that word and you'll get not only definitions but also spelling corrections as necessary.

Don't Sweat Your Near Misses
Speaking of corrections, if you misspell your search term, Google will dutifully perform a search on your cracked lexicography, but if possible it will also suggest a more popular version. Thus, the first link for your search on Tigger Woods will be Did you mean: Tiger Woods? And you'll click on that, unless, of course, you're a closet Winnie-the-Pooh fan.

Visit the Preferences Page
Google: Preferences lets you set languages, the number of results you'd like to see per page, the level of family-friendly filtering you'd like to set, and more. They're great tools for turning Google into Your Personal Google.

Googlize Your Browser
Want to make Google searching a regular habit? If you use Internet Explorer 5.0 or later, download the free Google Toolbar to put Google and some of its most important features right on your browser screen at all times. If you search several times a day, it'll save you lots of clicks.

Giggle With Google
Go to [google.com/language_tools], and you'll see a menu of 73 languages into which you can translate the Google interface. Wunderbar! But look at that list again. See anything unusual? Among your language choices are "Bork, bork, bork!" "Elmer Fudd," and "Hacker." As Elmer might say, "I'm Feewing Wucky," or as a Klingon would growl, "jlDo'." And by the way, if you've ever wondered where Google's entertaining holiday logos come from, stop by the gallery and have a look at the handiwork of 23-year-old programmer Dennis Hwang. Who knows what he'll come up with for Monet's birthday this year?






The Mossberg Report

November 2002

Google-Eyed

By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

By now, nearly every Internet user knows that Google is the best search site on the Web, an essential part of every surfer's arsenal. Not only is it uncannily accurate and blazingly fast, but Google is one of the few truly honest search sites, one of a handful that don't mix in paid search results with the real results. Its sponsored links are clearly identified and carefully designed so they look nothing like real search results.

But even many frequent Google users aren't aware that the search site is bristling with special features-ways to make searching quicker and more accurate, to find special or specific information, and to call up different sorts of results.

So here's a quick guide to things you may not know about Google. Even if you're a regular visitor, some of this might surprise you.

First of all, Google is really five different search sites in one. The vast majority of people use the Google Web search engine, which is the one that presents itself first when you go to www.google.com. But if you click on the tabs at the top of the screen, you can reach the Other Googles.

One of these is a truly excellent image-search service, which finds only photos and other graphics. Another searches for terms within postings made in discussion groups on the Web. A third searches within a structured directory of Web topics, looking only within sites related to a subject you select. And the fourth alternate search system within Google is a new one, still in beta, that searches only news sites on the Web. With this last one, if you don't enter any search term, you get a computer-generated news front page.

Any term you type into one of the five Google modules is automatically used by the others. For instance, if you type "Volkswagen" into the main Google Web search page, you get a list of Web sites about the car company and its cars. If you then click on the Images tab, you see a bunch of pictures of Volkswagens that Google has fetched. Click on the Groups tab to see discussions about the cars, and on the Directory tab to see a different list of Web sites. The News tab will yield headlines about the company.

But wait, there's more. Google has a number of "special" search engines that just drill down into selected subject areas. These can be reached by going to www.google.com/ options/specialsearches.html. They include search engines focusing on Apple and the Macintosh; Microsoft; Linux and BSD operating systems; and the U.S. government. There's also a search engine devoted to the Web sites of colleges and universities. You click on one of hundreds of schools, then search away.

How about a Google search engine dedicated to shoppers? There's one that combs through only online catalogs. You can find it at catalogs.google.com.

Google also provides a way to learn which search terms are most popular, and a host of other information about the aggregate behavior of all the people that patronize its site. The company posts a special page called "Zeitgeist," buried deep within its site, that contains this data (www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html).

If you go to Google's Preferences page, you can enable or disable a filter that blocks out pornographic results. On this page, you can also limit Google to searches in particular languages.

Speaking of languages, when Google finds a Web page in Italian, French, Spanish, German or Portuguese, it can provide a rough translation in English if you click on the phrase "Translate this page," which is included in the search result. And if you click on "Language Tools," at the top of Google's home page, you can type any text into a blank box and get a rough translation, or ask Google to translate a Web page of your choice.

And there's much, much more hidden in those search results. For instance, each result typically includes the phrases "Cached" and "Similar pages" in gray type at the end of the listing. If you click on "Cached," you will see the Web page as it appeared when Google's automated Web indexing system last captured it. This is very helpful if a page has become inaccessible or has changed in a way that obliterates the information you wanted. If you click on "Similar pages," you get a list of pages relevant to that result that the main search may have missed.

Google can also find your search term inside documents posted on the Web in various formats, such as Microsoft Word or other Office documents, or Adobe Acrobat PDF files. These documents are indicated by a term in brackets at the beginning of the result, such as "[PDF]" or "[DOC]". If you click on the link, the document will open, provided you own the application required to open it. If you don't have that program, Google will let you view the document in HTML, the universal language of Web pages.

And you can use all sorts of tricks when typing search terms into Google's regular box. For instance:

  • If you type in a business name and its city and state, or zip code, Google finds its street address and phone number and provides a link to a map of its location.

  • If you type in a person's first and last name, followed by a city, state, area code or zip code, in most cases you get a street address and phone number and a link to a map.

  • If you type in a listed phone number, Google gives you the name and address that goes with it, plus a link to a map.

  • If you type in a street address, Google provides a link to a map.

  • If you type in one or more stock symbols, Google provides a link to a current quote.

  • You can get a dictionary definition of any search term by clicking on the underlined version of the term that appears in the dark blue header under the search box.

  • If you press the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button after typing a search term, Google takes you directly to the first listing in its search results, without showing you the list itself.

  • And Google can search in only a certain site; just type in your term, then the word "site:" followed by a Web address.

    Finally, I must mention one of the best features of Google: the Google Toolbar. This is a free piece of software that alters your Web browser so a Google search box appears at the top of the browser window, no matter what page you're on. It spares you the need to navigate to the Google site when you want to do a search. You just type your search term into the ever-present box and a Google search results page appears. It even allows you to conduct a search within a single site.

    The Google Toolbar is available at toolbar.google.com. com. But it works only with Internet Explorer for Windows, so Mac users and users of alternative browsers are out of luck.

    So the next time you visit Google, remember: As great as you thought it was, there's even more to like than you knew. 

    • 


    



Tricks of the Trade: Web Searching With a Pro

 
Wall Street Journal
Jun 5, 2002
Mylene Mangalindan


You want to know how fast an F-16 flies, but your search engine spits back details on 
camera shutter speeds. To save yourself these detours, take a page from Sergey Brin, 
co-founder of the search-engine Google: Think more like a programmer and, instead of 
describing the information you want, think about the specific words you want back.

When Mr. Brin, who watches his waistline, wants to know how much protein is in a serving 
of chicken breast, he doesn't just type in "chicken breast" and "protein." He adds the 
word "grams."

Another of his winnowing tricks is to use the minus sign. To ensure that a search 
for "dolphins" doesn't bring up a slew of references to the Miami Dolphins football team, 
for instance, type dolphin -miami. (A space must be added before the minus sign, and the 
minus sign must go directly before the word to be removed).

Mr. Brin has another secret. For local addresses and phone numbers, he uses Yahoo.





    GOOGLE GUIDE

    Tips and tricks to using the search site

    It’s a search engine, a news aggregator, an e-mail provider and even a verb. Google has become an essential part of our culture, but are you googling to your full potential? Features and tricks are added to the search engine at a blistering pace. Even the most Net-savvy user can miss a few. Here’s an updated user’s guide to help you get the most from Google.

    • Personalize your Google search page with Fusion, a Google portal of sorts. You can add weather reports, news headlines, stock quotes and more. Expect Google to add even more options to this new feature soon. (www.google.com/ig)

    • Always getting lost? Google Maps integrates turn-by-turn directions with satellite images, allowing you to pick out landmarks and judge distances before you miss your turn. Or use the satellite data to look at your house (or the White House) from overhead. (maps.google.com)

    • Google tricks such as using quotes to search for a specific phrase or the tilde to search for synonyms of a word can be lifesavers. But not if you can’t remember them. The Google Cheat Sheet, a list of commonly used operators, deserves a spot next to your monitor. (www.google.com/ help/cheatsheet.html)

    • What does Google ‘‘think" of you? Find out at Googlism, where the search results for a word or phrase are analyzed and your "who," "what," "when" or "where" query is answered. (www.googlism.com)

    • To define a word, phrase or acronym, just type define: and then your term into Google’s search box. The results include a variety of Web glossaries, dictionaries and encyclopedias.

    • The Google Zeitgeist keeps track of what’s being searched for at that moment. Check out the search terms gaining in popularity or head to the archives to see what was hot a few years ago. (www.google.com/press/ zeitgeist.html)

    • Want to know when people are talking about you? Create a Google Alert for your name and Google will e-mail you whenever a news or search item pops up with you in it. (www.google.com/alerts)

    • Apply the power of Google to your own computer. Google Desktop Search can index your hard drive to make your e-mails, documents and media searchable. The Desktop Search requires Windows XP or 2000. (desktop.google.com)

    • Web developers are just beginning to tap the power of Google Maps. HousingMaps combines Craigslist housing listings with Google Maps to show the locations of houses for sale. Cincinnati properties are on the map, and Columbus is likely to be added soon. (www.paulrademacher.com/housing)

    • Watch Google searches duke it out at Googlefight. Just enter two terms (O.J. Simpson and Homer Simpson, for example) and Googlefight gives an animated bar graph showing which one has more results. (www.googlefight.com)

    • Find fans of a Web site by using Google’s link feature. Type link: and then the URL (without "http://") into the search box to discover all incoming links to that page.

    • Google knows its numbers. Enter a listed telephone number to get the name and address of its owner, a package-tracking number for a direct link to its status, a flight number for a link to its arrival or departure time, or an area code to find its associated city.

    • Instead of letting your fingers do the walking, let Google do the work. Search Google for sushi in Columbus, OH to get a list (and map) of nearby restaurants sorted by proximity. For even more precise results, use your ZIP code instead of city. (local.google.com or just use the normal search bar)

    • Unable to live without Google? Use Google Mobile to search from your cell phone or PDA’s Web browser, or Google SMS to use text messages to find information. Sending a message to 46645 (GOOGL) can give you nearby businesses, driving directions or stock quotes. (mobile.google.com or www.google.com/sms)

    • You might know that Google’s calculator will evaluate math and physics expressions entered into the search box. But did you know that it had a sense of humor? Search for the answer to life the universe and everything and the calculator gives the answer 42, a reference to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams.

    • To share your home movies with the world, use Google Video Uploader. Google is rolling out a service that lets users share (or sell) their original video content. Just don’t expect anyone to shell out big bucks to see Junior’s first steps. (video.google.com)

    • Looking to find Web sites about Janet Jackson from before the Super Bowl or quotes about Iraq from before the war? Use the Google Ultimate Interface to easily search for sites with specific dates. (www.faganfinder.com/google.html)

    • Add Google to your Internet Explorer browser with the Google Toolbar. This handy add-on blocks pop-ups in addition to speeding up surfing. Some privacy advocates warn against its PageRank feature. If you’re using Firefox or Safari, you already have most of the toolbar’s features built-in. (toolbar.google.com)

    Google phenomenon

    • Google Hacks (O’Reilly Press, $24.95) by Tara Calishain and Rael Dornfest goes beyond the typical Google tricks, offering sample code that uses the Google application interface to do all sorts of cool things.

    • The Inside Google blog provides analysis of Google’s latest updates and news on the search engine’s competitors (google.blognewschannel.com).

    • The Google Blog, written by Google employees, gives a behind the scenes look at upcoming features (googleblog.blogspot.com)

    And don’t forget your Gmail

    Still without a gmail.com address? Head to isnoop.net/gmail to have an invitation sent instantly to your current e-mail address. Once you get one of these Google e-mail accounts, download Gmail Notifier (PC) or Gmail Status (Mac) to let you know when you get a new message (from toolbar.google.com/gmail-helper/ and homepage.mac.com/ carsten.guenther/GmailStatus/). Looking to do more with your 2 gigabytes of Gmail storage space? Get Gmail Drive (PC) or GFS (Linux) to use your e-mail account as an extra hard drive. Find out how at www.viksoe.dk/gmail and richard.jones.name/ google-hacks/gmail-filesystem/gmail-filesystem.html.