Using Google

Thanks to a unique algorithm that produces most relevant results
to any given query, Google has become, indisputably, the best
search engine on the Internet. On the last count, Google has
indexed over 4 billion pages and tackles around 200 million
searches a day! A cluster of 100 thousand servers are used to
store, crunch and spew out the query results with lightning
speed that you are so accustomed to see.

This phenomenal growth has made Google from a garage startup to
an Internet behemoth faster than any company has done before.
The prodigies behind this unique search engine, Larry Page and
Sergey Brin in the process already got enlisted themselves in
billionaire club.

Google is no longer a mere search engine! It is increasingly
broadening its offerings to include great new services and
excellent tools. Among these services, most notables are
News - a news aggregation and searching service,
Blogger - an online journal-keeping solution,
Froogle - a marketplace for comparison shopping,
Groups - online discussion groups, Answers - a place to get
hard-to-find information for a price, etc.

Google also recently unveiled two more programs.
Orkut - a social networking service and Gmail - a free web
mail service. Orkut is an online community, where a person
can participate in it by invitation from a member only.

If you constantly frown over limited space of your hotmail
or Yahoo accounts because they get filled up with junk mails
and force you to delete old messages frequently, you will
love Gmail with its 1 GB of storage capacity. There are
several great features available in Gmail system too.
One of them, dubbed as Conversations, allow you to view
all exchange mails with somebody, once you select one of
the mails. Sorting and searching emails also become much
easier with Gmail. The only catch is Gmail displays
relevant ads - based on the keywords found in your
email - on the right side of the screen when you view an
email, much like Google displays ads when you view search
results.

Although, Google is constantly adding new and extremely
useful features, most of us unfortunately do not use all the
capacities of the search engine itself. The following tips
will make your Internet browsing more effective if even
you are an avid net user.


Choose most specific search words

Google returns web pages that contain all the words in your
query. If you would like to see the most relevant pages on
the first page of your search result, be very specific with
your choice of words. For example: if you would like to
research on former NHL hockey player Makarov, you should
start your search with Makarov not hockey player. Even better
if you search for the words: hockey player Makarov. Because
just the word Makarov will show web pages on "Makarov" a
Russian-made handgun and numerous other people and products
with the name Makarov. Refining your query in Google means
adding more specific words to your initial search. In this
example you will hit the right web pages if your search
contains: NHL hockey player Makarov.

Sets - a new feature

What if you are looking for a pair of Valentino designer
jeans but can't recall the name of the designer? Query on
Italian designer jeans may bring you the right result; however,
there is a better tool that Google is planning to implement
soon, called "Sets".

Fill up the names of some designers that you remember in the
given form such as Levis, Wrangler, Versace and click either
of the two buttons and voila! You will get a list of
designers name and probably, Valentino will be there. But
bear in mind that this feature is still at Beta stage.

Calculator

The other day, I was sitting in a colleague's office. She
needed to calculate some basic stuffs and looking for her
calculator on her desk. Much to her dismay, she could not
find the calculator and started to fumble through her
computer programs in her attempt to find Microsoft calculator.
I noticed that she was online and the browser was open.
I, politely, asked her whether she knew that Google could
actually calculate most common mathematical expressions.
It came out to be, she did not! She was just amazed after
trying it herself. Google is even capable of unit conversion!
Give it a try!

Definition

If you are looking for a definition of a particular word or
a phrase, Google is the best place to get it. In Google search
box, write "define: the word or phrase" without the quotation
marks and click search button. If there is a definition
available for your search term you will, most certainly,
get it. It's a very useful feature for students and people,
those who write research papers.

Synonyms

You may think that search engines are too dumb to show
query results of the synonyms of your search term. It's
not so! At least, in the case of Google! If you use tilde
"~" in front of a keyword in your search term, Google will
bring results on the synonyms of that word as well.

Searching within a website

Another great feature of Google search engine allows you
to make your query within a specific website. First you
write your search term in the Google search box and then
write "site: the website or domain name". For example:
if you are looking for word "Microsoft" within the website
www.micromedia.com you will write: Microsoft site:
micromedia.com.

Check backward links to your website

If you have a website, Google search engine also has a nice
feature to show you which web pages are linking to yours.
In the search box, write: Link: you website address.

Other important tips to remember are:

There is no need to use "AND". Google always relate all the
words in a search term with Boolean "and".

However, if you would like to make your query for two
words - one or another - you can use "OR". You have to write
"or" in capital letters to give it Boolean value.

Google is not case sensitive. You can write your search terms
either in capital or in small letters. You can even mix them
up.

Google omits most of the very common words, such as the,
in, etc. If you, indeed, need to add a specific word
forcefully, use plus (+) sign in front of that particular word.
Same way, you can exclude a word from your search expression
by putting minus (-) sign in front it.

If you would like to make a search on an exact phrase or
expression, put the words within quotation marks. That way,
your search result will show only those pages where the exact
expression was found. In order to search the phrase: For whom
the bell tolls, write "For whom the bell tolls" in the search
box.
I'll also suggest you to download the Google Toolbar. Apart
from the search box and its ability to block pop-ups, Google
Toolbar also shows the pagerank of the website you are
visiting now. Pagerank is a system of evaluating web
pages - developed by Google founders and used as the core of
Google's search engine algorithm. The Toolbar also includes
feature with the ability to fill up online forms from stored
information automatically. You can also keep your daily journal
or blog right from the toolbar.

Much to net users delight, Google, in accordance with its
ambitious mission statement to organize world's information
and make it universally useful and accessible, so far doing
a great job by providing us the best search engine and
extremely handy features and services. We can only hope that
the flow of innovative ideas from Google will not slow down
in future, when it becomes a public company.