Google

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Google Directory Google makes it easy to find the information you need in a timely matter, but what happens when you have time to kill online? Searching the Web is like surfing with blinders on. You never know what interesting distractions you might be missing. If you’re looking for a little distraction, Web directories are a fun way to browse the Web. You’ve probably never heard of the ODP (Open Directory Project), but it bills itself as the largest human-edited Web site directory on the Web. The ODP employs an army of volunteers to maintain its Web directory, so listings are accurate and relevant. While you may not have heard of the ODP before, you’ve probably used its directory. The Google Directory (www.google.com/dirhp) is nothing more than a copy of the ODP. Don’t worry though; Google isn’t stealing ODP content (that would be evil, and we all know how Google feels about evil). Rather, Google is one of many Web sites that have an agreement with the ODP. Given that the ODP is edited by humans, it contains a fraction of the sites stored on Google’s servers, but the sites listed in the ODP are likely to be better quality sites. Because of this, you’ll notice a few differences in Google Directory results compared to Google Web Search. The fun of a directory, however, comes from exploring rather than searching. You can find the Google Directory by clicking the More link above the search field and clicking Directory. The Google Directory contains 15 main categories: Arts, Business, Computers, Games, Health, Home, Kids And Teens, News, Recreation, Reference, Regional, Science, Shopping, Society, and Sports. In addition, there’s a World category containing Web sites from other countries around the world. Each main category contains several subcategories. Within each subcategory, you’ll find related Web sites along with additional subcategories. The structure lets you start with a very broad area of interest, such as Computers, and focus in on a narrower topic. From the Computer category, you can drill down through the Software, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows, and Windows XP subcategories to focus on sites relating to WinXP. The Windows XP subcategory includes six additional subcategories and four related categories along with 25 28 www.smartcomputing.com / Guide To Using Google T HE S EARCH The Google Directory includes a search engine, but because sites in the directory come from the Open Directory Project’s Web site directory, you’ll get somewhat different results searching Google Directory than you would using Google’s Web search. WinXP-related Web sites. Each subcategory includes a number in parenthesis next to it. This number indicates the number of Web sites within that category. Google lists sites in the Google Directory according to Google’s Page Rank (a complicated formula to determine a page’s relevance). So the ODP may not list sites in the same order. Furthermore, Google’s Directory is probably a little easier to navigate than the ODP, as the Google Directory lists categories in strict alphabetical order (not always the case with the ODP). In some subcategories you’ll notice a list of related categories. These are categories that have some overlap with the current category. They’re often fun to explore although they’re sometimes a bit off-topic. The Windows XP subcategory lists four related categories that include Windows 2000, Windows ME, and Windows NT. As you start drilling down within a category, you’ll notice a new feature in the search engine (which appears at the top of each page). You can search within a given category for a particular term or terms. Searching for Windows XP in the Computers category, for instance, will display all the articles in the Windows XP subcategory we explored earlier, along with any relevant sites from other subcategories within the Computers category. If you decide you want to search the entire directory, click the Google Directory logo to return to the home page. You can also search the Web from within a category or subcategory by selecting the Search The Web option before clicking the Search button. If you do decide to search the directory, you’ll notice that results are displayed in the same format as Google’s Web search. Links to cached pages and links to similar pages are still available when searching the directory (although they are not available if you’re just browsing the directory). This is another benefit of using the Google Directory, as the ODP doesn’t offer these features when displaying its search results. At press time, the ODP claimed to have 5,104,466 sites indexed. That may seem like a lot, but remember that a search for Indiana Jones 4 returned more than 3.7 million hits on its own. Nonetheless, 5 million pages are more than enough to keep you busily exploring the Web on those rare occasions when you don’t have anything in particular to search for. ❙
are not highlighted in the search results. If a discarded word is important to your search, place a plus (+) immediately before it. In some instances, Google will suggest alternative search terms. This is most often used to correct spelling. If you search for Micosoft, for instance, Google will ask “Did you mean: Microsoft.” Click the link to search using Google’s suggestion. In some instances, Google may suggest an alternative even if all the words are spelled correctly. For instance, if you search using our John York example above, Google will ask if you meant John York Gained 49ers rather than John York Ruined 49ers. Set Your Preferences T HE S EARCH Finally, Google’s stemming technology automatically includes results that contain a different form of a search term. For instance, singular forms of a word aren’t omitted if you search using a word’s plural form. Better Searching When you visit Google, you have the option of setting personal preferences. Because these preferences can help you find more relevant information, we recommend taking a few minutes to set these options. Start by clicking the Preferences link that always appears to the right of the search field. Here you can select a language from the Interface Language drop-down list box. This option affects the Google interface only and doesn’t affect search results. The next section, Search Language, does affects your results. If you select the Search Only For Pages Written In These Language(s) option, Google will not display Web pages written in a language you haven’t selected. In the SafeSearch Filtering section, you can set restrictions on the types of results Google returns. By default, this option is set to Use Moderate Filtering. At this setting, Google removes explicit images from Google Images searches, but it will not block explicit contents from other types of searches. If you want to block all explicit content, set the filter to Use Strict Clicking Similar Pages lists Web sites similar to a particular result. This is a handy way to find other Web sites you may be interested in. Now that we know a little about how Google’s Web search operates, we can focus on finding the best possible search terms. Obviously, given the amount of information on the Web, the more precise you can be the better. Use multiple terms to narrow your search and try to pick unique terms relevant to your search string. If you’re looking for information about a truck, don’t just search for Dodge. Include the make, model, year, and even the color, if that’s important to you. There are a number of basic tricks you can use to narrow a search if you need to. Placing multiple words in quotes tells Google to search for an exact phrase. This can be especially handy when looking for information about a specific error message. You can also use the minus sign (-) immediately proceeding a term to remove any results containing the term. For instance, if you’re using the search string Dodge but aren’t interested in trucks, search for Dodge -Trucks. We’ll cover more advanced search strategies in “One In A Billion” on page 31. Know-It-All As we said earlier, the most important thing Google offers is its search feature. As you become more comfortable using Google, you’ll realize just how much knowledge it puts within a few quick clicks. So the next time you find yourself wondering what string theory is all about, forget about hitting the local library. The answers are just a search away. RS BY CHAD DENTON Filtering. Of course, if you prefer, you can turn filtering off completely by selecting Do Not Filter My Search Results. As Google points out, no filter is 100% effective, but its SafeSearch Filter can help dramatically reduce explicit content. To adjust the number of results displayed per page, select 10, 20, 30, 50, or 100 from the drop-down list. Increasing the number of results per page, however, may slow down the time it takes the page to download if you have a dial-up connection. By default, Google displays 10 results per page. Finally, by checking the Open Search Results In A New Browser Window checkbox, Web pages will open in a new browser window any time you click a result. When you’re done setting your preferences, click the Save Preferences button. Google should confirm that it’s saved your preferences. Remember that your preferences are stored on a cookie. That means if you clean out your cookies or visit Google from another computer, your stored preferences will be gone. ❙ Reference Series / Guide To Using Google 29
Page 3 and 4: Guide To Using TABLE OF CONTENTS RE
Page 5 and 6: 145 Google Hacking How Hackers Use
Page 7 and 8: Google not to waste their time with
Page 9 and 10: Google Searches Per Day 2,400 2,000
Page 11 and 12: A LL A BOUT G OOGLE Find The Digita
Page 13 and 14: 7| Catalogs Many retailers let cust
Page 15 and 16: A LL A BOUT G OOGLE The Way Of Goog
Page 17 and 18: more than a Google user’s misgivi
Page 19 and 20: A LL A BOUT G OOGLE Test Drive Thes
Page 21 and 22: Phone, you just highlight the text
Page 23 and 24: processing power to Folding@home (f
Page 25 and 26: A LL A BOUT G OOGLE How’d They Do
Page 27 and 28: it easily. Click the Toolbar’s Go
Page 29: Placement in Google’s search resu
Page 33 and 34: T HE S EARCH One In A Billion Advan
Page 35 and 36: specific results. You can, for inst
Page 37 and 38: T HE S EARCH Image Search Elements
Page 39 and 40: Google will omit most explicit imag
Page 41 and 42: evolved over time. To read coverage
Page 43 and 44: Greyhounds, and Environmental Engin
Page 45 and 46: any part of the product description
Page 47 and 48: price between which to search, we h
Page 49 and 50: est combination of usefulness and p
Page 51 and 52: You remember Mr. Know-It- All. Mayb
Page 53 and 54: account profile for this informatio
Page 55 and 56: afford to promote all of their titl
Page 57 and 58: T HE S EARCH Are We There Yet? Goog
Page 59 and 60: plenty of detail for planning trips
Page 61 and 62: As a scholarly research tool, Googl
Page 63 and 64: T HE S EARCH Boutique Searches Spec
Page 65 and 66: to result in plenty of information
Page 67 and 68: the upper-right corner of the page.
Page 69 and 70: emails to and from the same person
Page 71 and 72: apply any label you’ve created to
Page 73 and 74: second text box, and click Send Cod
Page 75 and 76: What do an Indonesian acoustic guit
Page 77 and 78: Sign In link, enter your email addr
Page 79 and 80: also called newsgroups, resemble vi
Page 81 and 82:
Search By Numbers a comprehensive m
Page 83 and 84:
Low-tech text messaging? Meet the h
Page 85 and 86:
On a Motorola MPX220, text messagin
Page 87 and 88:
(also free) to organize them. If yo
Page 89 and 90:
and stare at it. To return to Hello
Page 91 and 92:
card, AutoFill completes your addre
Page 93 and 94:
page to perform a Google search. Ty
Page 95 and 96:
Search Engine Jr. Google Brings Its
Page 97 and 98:
(an undocked search box). This page
Page 99 and 100:
G OOGLE T OOLS Meet Blogger Join Th
Page 101 and 102:
sign in at the top of the page to a
Page 103 and 104:
By setting up a Mail-to-Blogger add
Page 105 and 106:
To allow any reader, even someone w
Page 107 and 108:
You can view buildings for dozens o
Page 109 and 110:
available to free version users. Yo
Page 111 and 112:
www.microsoft.com) covers a lot of
Page 113 and 114:
To fix red-eye, click and drag over
Page 115 and 116:
Focus, Glow, and Focal B&W, you can
Page 117 and 118:
Google In Your Language & Domain In
Page 119 and 120:
Könguló. It’s Icelandic for “
Page 122 and 123:
THE B USINESS E ND Most of us think
Page 124 and 125:
esults within your budget. It also
Page 126 and 127:
programs rather than manual labor t
Page 128 and 129:
You may be surprised at who links t
Page 130 and 131:
T HE B USINESS E ND Give Your Web S
Page 132 and 133:
etween the checked> and tags, howe
Page 134 and 135:
T HE B USINESS E ND The Ins & Outs
Page 136 and 137:
Google’s Not The Only Game In Tow
Page 138 and 139:
Aproductive company can no longer b
Page 140 and 141:
information that’s at different l
Page 142 and 143:
Web site asks visitors to supply da
Page 144 and 145:
T HE B USINESS E ND Beyond Classifi
Page 146 and 147:
of service as its largest, but we d
Page 148 and 149:
about known flaws in that particula
Page 150 and 151:
JUST F OR F UN Agog About Googlewha
Page 152 and 153:
dictionary and run your fingers dow
Page 154 and 155:
Looking for popcorn machine on T hi
Page 156 and 157:
Keep in mind that there are a coupl
Page 158 and 159:
Get Fit Sit Anywhere Bean Bag Item
Page 160 and 161:
Millions of Internet users love Goo
show all

Google

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?