Why we love Google and why you should too.

Like many of you, when I was a kid, I was chock full of questions. Sometimes I wanted to know how far away the moon was. Other times, I wanted to know why blue and yellow made green. Whenever I had a question, I'd ask my parents. Since I was the youngest, they had long grown tired of answering questions and, like clockwork, almost always replied, "Look it up".

Irritated at the monotony of it all, I would make my way to their encyclopedias in an effort to "look it up". The problem was that their encyclopedia collection was 40 years old.

It probably goes without saying that I often had to become more inventive with my search for answers.

Many years have passed, and it seems that every day I *still* have to resort to "looking it up". Though now, I have many more resources at my fingertips.

One of my absolute favorite online resources is Google. Google is a simple to use, yet tremendously powerful Search Engine. Whenever I'm faced with a question, my first stop is always Google.

Introduction to Google
When you visit Google for the first time, you may be startled (or soothed) by the sparseness of their home page. Compared to other Search Engines, they seem to take the minimalist approach. Their page has their logo, a text box to type in what you want to find and a few links (which I'll touch on later).

Using Google is very simple; you type in a few words related to what you are looking for and click "Google Search".

For instance, let's say you're looking for the chemical symbol for Chromium. You could type in:

Then you would simply click on "Google Search" and, with any luck, you would see a list of all the pages that Google thinks pertain to your query. In this case, I didn't even have to visit another page. The results had my answer for me in the page descriptions.

But my question isn't that simple! (Quotation marks are a wonderful thing)

I concede that my example above was pretty cut and dry.

Once you've found Google and played around a bit, the time will come where you will need to fine tune your own searching skills. Everyday questions aren't always so simple.

It can be daunting when you type in a couple of words and you get 300,000 results. Inevitably, you look at the first few results and, if they don't pertain to your question, you may be tempted to give up looking.

I've found that the most valuable key on my keyboard is the quotation mark.

When you type in your query, Google will treat each word as separate and provide results as such. For those times when you need to find a series of words, enclose your query in quotation marks.

For example, you're running a program and you get a weird error message. Take that error text, enclose it in quotation marks and place it in Google's search box. When Google receives the text in quotation marks, it will know that you are not just looking for a page that has those words, but those words in the order you specified. Very handy, indeed.

Tips and Tricks

I'm Feeling Lucky:
This is a fun little option. Once you've typed in what you are looking for, clicking on this will skip the results page altogether and bring you directly to the page that best suits the criteria you've specified. I find that using this is great practice for fine tuning your query skills.

Other Google Features:
Images: When you click on the "Images" link, you are transported to a page that looks a lot like Google's home page. The difference is in the results! When you type in a word or phrase, like "Richard Nixon", you will see a list of what Google has that matches. Oftentimes, you will get yourself a whole plethora of pictures matching your search. Which in this case, was a real yawner.

Groups: Who needs a special program to read News Groups when you have this great little feature? Using this, you have instant access to USENET newsgroups and all the information it holds. It's easy to browse around and read the groups, however, you have to sign up to post.

Note: You should make sure you are fully aware of News Group etiquette before you even contemplate posting any responses on any News Groups. Etiquette is taken very seriously in this realm. Try using Google by doing a search on "USENET etiquette".

News: Google's News section is a product of news stories from over 4,000 news sources and is entirely automated using elaborate algorithms. No human intervention whatsoever. What's great about this is that since it pulls from so many sources, you will get many different viewpoints and ideology representations. It also makes for very interesting topic groupings sometimes. :)

Also, Google's News is in its infancy, which means that the algorithms that control the section are being updated constantly. Google encourages your participation in their growth by offering an email address where you can email your ideas and questions.

Advanced Search: Here, you are given the power to refine your search by specifying language preferences, date requirements and filtering out adult content. You can also narrow down your search to one site, like Microsoft.com, or a specific file type, like a PDF.

To keep a long story short...

Google offers many powerful ways to find what you're looking for. After only a few uses, it may very well become a fixture in your online life. We love it, and we hope you will too!

If you'd like to comment or pose a question in regards to this article, you may find out how by visiting our Contact Chilico page.

* The name, Google, logos and likenesses are ©2003 Google.

By Karen Piotrowski
(October, 1 2003)