Being Frugal with Google
By Jenny Lind Olin, Tampa PC Users Group
jlolin@tampabay.rr.com
Do you know all there is to know about the world’s #1 search engine? Probably not! However, of the people questioned in a recent survey, 92% said they knew and understood the capabilities of all the search engines. Which group are you in?
Did you know you can enter your telephone number, and your name and address will be the result or whatever is in the phone book directory? Try it. Interesting? Cell phone number--not yet!
On Friday, May 5th, I attended a presentation given by Golden Compass, Inc., http://www.Goldencompass.com, titled “Hidden Google Treasurers of the Internet” at the University of South Florida Learning in Retirement (LIR) Lunch and Learn. They listed eight hints of more effective use of Google in the home and/or office. They were:
1. Quotations / Everybody Knows Bartlett was Right!
Use quotation marks around phrases that belong together. For example, to search for Jenny Lind and not get every Jenny and every Lind but only “Jenny Lind” you use quotation marks. Swedish Nightingale or Baby Furniture? You will find this hint important when doing searches other than just search engines. This is not the best example, but I still reduced the number of choices by 80% when I used quotation marks.
Results 1 - 10 of about 751,000 for Jenny Lind [definition]. (0.11 seconds)
Results 1 - 10 of about 149,000 for "Jenny Lind" [definition]. (0.35 seconds)
2. Google Tabs / Everybody knows about Google Tabs
Right above the Google search box you will find the Google Tabs: Web Images Groups News Froogle Local
If you just want a photo of Anna Kournikova, be sure to use the “Images” Tab on Google. If you just want the latest news stories on Anna use the “News” Tab.
Froogle is the shoppers tab: Results 1 - 10 of about 98,600 for Replacement Cover Canvas for Directors Chair. (0.22 seconds) This is what I wanted: Replacement Cover Canvas for Directors Chair (ROUND STICK)
3. Preferences / Have it Your Way – Sit, Speak, Roll Over
Click the Preferences tab to make Google behave – or misbehave! Get your results in English or Chinese, or maybe your “other” language is Pig Latin. If you have children using the computer or you are just prudish, you can use strict filtering to filter both explicit text and explicit images. You can also choose to not filter your search results.
4. Alerts / All the News that’s Fit To Get
Click the “More” tab to go to “Alerts” under “Google Services.” Create a Google Alert. Select HTML or text e-mails. Select the type and how often you want to receive the alerts.
5. New Meaning to Modern Math / It’s A Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a Calculator!
No need for a disguise, Google is Super (number) man. Now you can help your
third grader with math homework.
Try this equation: 8 * 4789 =
Did you get 38312?
These sample queries demonstrate the utility and power of this new feature:
6. Homonymic homonymically Correct / We take Cache, Credit Cards and …
Some people still insist on taking “Cache!” Do you ever get those annoying “Page Not Found” messages? Go back, then click on “Cached” to see the page (and as an added bonus – each of your search terms is selected in a different color!) Google takes a snapshot of each page examined as it crawls the web and caches these as a back-up in case the original page is unavailable. The "Cached" link will be missing for sites that have not been indexed, as well as for sites whose owners have requested we not cache their content.
7. Specifically Searching / Hack your Way to Google Success
Mother always told me the importance of a few choice words! Super Searcher: intitle:”Bilbo Baggins” will target your results to the web sites that specifically deal with your search term. Super-Dooper Searcher: intitle:”Stonewall Jackson”site:edu will not only target you into Stonewall Jackson web pages, but also return only academic results from education sites.
8. Download Free and Easy to Use Software / Google Really is Everywhere!
Digital photo software that is FREE and Easy to Use?
Get the New Picasa 2 enhanced photo editing & organizing features, CD creation and more free at . http://www.picasa.com,!
“Google is my rapid-response research assistant. On the run-up to a deadline, I may use it to check the spelling of a foreign name, to acquire an image of a particular piece of military hardware, to find the exact quote of a public figure, check a stat, translate a phrase, or research the background of a particular corporation. It’s the Swiss Army knife of information retrieval.” – Gary Trudeau
If you found nothing new in this article, click on the more tab selection and check out Google Services. u