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Search Engines
Smart Computing magazine
"Everyone Is Ga-Ga for Google"
Locating what you need on the Net has become far, far easier thanks to Google. Just type in a couple of keywords on the simple form and Google will usually return at least a few results you can use. But even experienced surfers often exploit only about one tenth of Google's functions. Articles like the one below, which I wrote for SmartComputing.com, can help surfers make better use of the engine's many features.
For full-text web pages, please
download
GOOGLE.htm
EVERYBODY'S GA-GA FOR GOOGLE (2001)
Simple Searches, Great Results
At a meeting of a users group we recently attended, the president began by asking members about what they liked on the Web. When he threw out the question "What's your favorite search engine?" the response rang out like a Greek chorus: "Google!"
These users have a lot of company. According to Business Week, Google (http://www.google.com/) has captured 25% of the search engine market, not to mention more than a dozen awards from the computer press. Not bad for a search engine that's been around only since 1998. What makes this engine so popular?
One key factor in Google's success is its elegant simplicity. As the big search engines turned themselves into feature-laden portals, their home pages became a mish-mash of links, news, stock prices, banner ads, and you name it.
Not Google. The home page has a field into which you enter keywords, a couple of buttons to execute your search, a half-dozen unobtrusive links . . . and that's about it. Even as Google expands its features, the crisp, sleek home page and simple search form remain. That means you'll have to dig a bit to find some of Google's other fine offerings. But keeping the home page tidy is a wise move, well worth the extra second or two it takes to drill to Google's additional features and options.
An interface that's easy on the eyes, however, doesn't mean much if the engine doesn't find what you want. Here again, though, Google continually surprises and delights new users, many of whom have grown accustomed to engines that return lots of false hits, especially for simple searches. Google, in contrast, has the canny ability to come up with sites that have exactly what you need, even when you search using just one or two keywords.
Indeed, unlike most engines, Google seems to know instinctively that when visitors search on a single keyword, such as cats, they're probably not looking for the The Cats Meow cafeteria in Kalamazoo. Rather, they most likely want to know about cat breeds, cat shows, cat care, cat Web sites, and cat clubs. With a simple search for cats at Google, users could find all of this info by clicking a few of the top-listed links on the results page.
Do A Simple Search
Sound inviting? You can start using Google by entering one or more keywords in the search box on the home page. In a Google search, all the words you type in the search box must appear in the Web page, or Google won't retrieve it as a hit. If you're fond of Boolean operators, and few people are, you'll recognize this as AND criteria.
After you enter your keywords, you have a choice of two buttons: Google Search and I'm Feeling Lucky. The Google Search button does just that, and for our money is your only choice.
What's does I'm Feeling Lucky do? That takes you directly to what would have been the No. 1 ranked site on your results page, without showing you any of the hits from your search. It's a nice gimmick, and it may have initially helped to distinguish Google as a superior search engine. But unless you're someone who enjoys random, surprise-me searches, we wouldn't use it. As good as Google is, we still thinks it pays to review at least the first three or four hits on the results page and select the best one, even for the most general searches. The few seconds saved by pressing I'm Feeling Lucky wouldn't seem to offset the still-large possibility that the top-ranked site won't meet your needs.
When you press Search, Google retrieves your results using its PageRank system. With some search engines, it's not always easy to tell whether the list of results was generated completely by the engine's technology or whether a company has paid to include its site among the hits or place its site at or near the top of the results page.
At Google, that isn't a problem. Depending on
your search, there may be some paid-for links
among your results, which are indeed located at
the top of the page. But these entries are always
distinguished by their colored background and
are clearly labeled Sponsored Links. And at Google,
no one can pay for premier placement; the order
in which your hits are listed are always generated
from its PageRank technology.
Opening Web Pages
Once Google retrieves your results, you can begin to explore the entries. Usually you'll find what you're looking for on the first page of results, but you can view additional pages of results by clicking the page numbers (or the Os in Google) at the bottom of the page.
Each of your hits will include at least three links:
- Most obvious and most important, a link to the Web page, indicated by its title. Click it, and the Web page opens in the same window.
- A link to the Cached page. After you have clicked the title link and explored the document, this link may prove extremely useful. Web pages often change after they are first indexed by the search engine. It's not unusual to open a Web page and wonder, "Why in the world did the search engine retrieve this link?" When that happens, you can return to your results page and click the cached link to see just how the page looked when Google indexed it; the keywords in your search are highlighted in yellow. The cached page may be dated, so it pays (as always) to do your usual evaluation of a page's probable accuracy and continuing relevancy before using its content.
- A link to Similar Pages. You'll usually access this link on a return trip to the results page. If you're already familiar with a Web page, you may want to click it right off the bat. As its name indicates, a click will display links to pages with similar content.
For full-text web pages, please download GOOGLE.htm
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