Using Google

By: Nowshade Kabir | Posted: 07th February 2005

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. About the Author
About the author : Nowshade Kabir, Ph.D., is the founder, primary developer and present CEO, of Rusbiz.com, a global business to business e-commerce portal with feature like storefronts, aggregated catalog, e-marketplace, trade leads, internal messaging system supply chain solutions, etc. With a doctorate in Information Technology, Dr. Kabir has worked an advisor to government projects and has over 12 years experience in International Trade.
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Tags: google, relevant ads, hotmail, best search engine, sergey brin, lightning speed, excellent tools, junk mails, orkut, phenomenal growth