Learn Google

Learn Google™
Michael Busby
Wordware Publishing, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Busby, Michael.
Learn Google / by Michael Busby.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-55622-038-3 (pbk.)
1. Google. 2. Web search engines. I. Title.
TK5105.885.G66B87 2003
025.04—dc22 2003019756
CIP
© 2004, Wordware Publishing, Inc.

All Rights Reserved
2320 Los Rios Boulevard

Plano, Texas 75074
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means

without permission in writing from Wordware Publishing, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 1-55622-038-3
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
0310
Google is a trademark of Google Inc.

All screen shots used in this book copyright 2003 Google Inc.
All brand names and product names mentioned in this book are trademarks or service marks of their
respective companies. Any omission or misuse (of any kind) of service marks or trademarks should not
be regarded as intent to infringe on the property of others. The publisher recognizes and respects all
marks used by companies, manufacturers, and developers as a means to distinguish their products.
This book is sold as is, without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, respecting the contents
of this book and any disks or programs that may accompany it, including but not limited to implied
warranties for the book’s quality, performance, merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose.
Neither Wordware Publishing, Inc. nor its dealers or distributors shall be liable to the purchaser or any
other person or entity with respect to any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to have been
caused directly or indirectly by this book.
All inquiries for volume purchases of this book should be addressed to Wordware
Publishing, Inc., at the above address. Telephone inquiries may be made by calling:
(972) 423-0090
Dedication
For Shane, Drew, and Stuart Busby.
iii
This page intentionally left blank.
Contents
Preface: Searching for and Finding the Golden Fleece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Chapter 1 All about Search Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
What Do We Search For? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
How Much Do We Search? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Why Search? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
What Is the Web? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
What Is a Web Page? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
What Is a Search Engine? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Search Engine History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Robots, Spiders, and Metacrawlers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Relevancy Ranking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
How Does a Search Engine Work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Issues Searching the Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Search Integrity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The Race to Be Number One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
What Is Google? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
How Google Ranks Its Search Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
How Is Google Getting Better? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
The Next Generation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Chapter 2 Google Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Google Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Froogle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Google Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Google Catalogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Google Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Google Image Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
The Hard (Google) Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
The Wrong (Bright Spark) Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
The Easy (My) Way … That Works! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Google Labs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Google News Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Google Compute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
v
Contents
Google Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Google WebQuotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Google Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Google Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Google Voice Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Google News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Google Special Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Google University Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Google Web Directory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Google Web Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Wireless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Chapter 3 Google Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Interface Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Search Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
SafeSearch Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Number of Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Results Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Save Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Chapter 4 Basic Google Search Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
The Quote (") Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
The Arithmetic (+, –) Operators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Boolean Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Complex Boolean Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Search Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Chapter 5 Advanced Google Search Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Advanced Search Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Find Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
File Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Occurrences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Language Tools and Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
vi
Contents
Google in Your Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Searching for Hilux: A Real-life Search Example . . . . . . . . 169
SafeSearch Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Similar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Topic-Specific Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Chapter 6 Advanced Alternate Query Search Operators. . . . . . . 181
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Advanced Alternate Query Search Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
cache: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
link: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
related: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
info: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
stock: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
site: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
allintitle: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
intitle: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
allinurl: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
inurl: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Chapter 7 Advanced Image Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Advanced Image Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Find Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Related to All of the Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Related to the Exact Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Related to Any of the Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Not Related to the Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Filetypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Coloration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
SafeSearch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Chapter 8 The Google Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Google Toolbar Privacy Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
Toolbar Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Toolbar Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
vii
Contents
Drag-and-Drop Functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Right-click Functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Toolbar Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Google Toolbar Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Google Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Search Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
PageRank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Page Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Highlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Toolbar Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Google Home Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Google Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Google Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Google Web Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Google News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Google Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Advanced Search Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Search Preferences Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Language Tools Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Toolbar Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
General Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Search Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Search Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Advanced Features Are ENABLED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Page Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Finding Words within a Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Google Compute Is ENABLED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Experimental Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Default Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Clear Search History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Privacy Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
About Google Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Contact Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Uninstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Toolbar Version 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
viii
Contents
Chapter 9 Other Google Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Google Help Central . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Google Site Map. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
All About Google . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
General FAQ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Saving Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Accepting Cookies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Accepting Cookies from Specific Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Setting Google as Your Default Home Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Netscape 4.0 to 6.0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Internet Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
America Online. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Setting Google as Your Default Search Engine . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Netscape Communicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Windows Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
Macintosh Operating System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
UNIX Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Internet Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Windows Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Macintosh Operating System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Mozilla/Netscape 6 Search Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
IE QuickSearch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Macintosh OS X Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Additional Google Web Search Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Dictionary Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
I’m Feeling Lucky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
PhoneBook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Spell Checker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Street Maps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Special Tricks and Treats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Double Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Right-Click . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Miscellaneous Google Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Web APIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Webmaster’s Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Submit Your URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Advertising Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Organizing Your Google Bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Your Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
The Search Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
ix
Contents
Chapter 10 Searching Newsgroups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Google Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Posting to Google Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Removing Your Post. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Afterword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
x
Preface: Searching for and Finding the
Golden Fleece
In the mythological account Jason and the Argonauts, Jason and his
heroic pals must sail the seas searching for the Golden Fleece.
Jason must return to his homeland with the fleece in order to
reclaim his rightful position as king of Iolcus. In his quest, he
encounters challenges of every description that he must overcome
by shrewd thinking and more than a little help from the gods.
Finally, he finds the Golden Fleece, guarded by a horrific dragon, in
the kingdom of King Aeetes, king of Colchis. With the help of King
Aeetes’ daughter, Medea, he makes off with the Golden Fleece and
triumphantly returns to Iolcus to claim his birthright.
Sometimes, when I have a particularly difficult time trying to find
some nugget of information on the Internet, I recall the story of
Jason and how he did not yield to seemingly insurmountable obsta-
cles. Always at the right moment, Jason achieved the specific
objective required to pass on to the next step or phase of his quest
because he did not quit. So it seems, too, that I ultimately prevail in
my quest for information by perseverance and determination. Of
course, Jason had help from the gods on occasion in the form of
divine intervention. It is not likely that we will find help in the form
of a (handsome) Greek god or (beautiful) goddess (shucky darn!) in
our search for information on the Internet. But, like Jason, if we
don’t quit and we have a little help from a good book with useful
information, then we will find our golden fleece (of information) too.
This book addresses two perspectives involving a web search. The
first perspective is that of the user. There are an estimated 300 mil-
lion web searches performed each day. While each user may
perform two or three searches per day, that is still a lot of users.
Most users do not know how to use the full array of search tools
available to them. Because the tools are not fully utilized, searching
xi
Preface
becomes a chore often filled with a sense of frustration. When the

proper search tools are used, searching becomes a pleasure.
The second perspective is that of the web page designer. Every
web designer wants the ranking of the web page in the search
results to be as close to the coveted number one position as possi-
ble. How do you design a web page so the page’s position in a
search is in the top 30 or 40 results returned by the web search
engine? You must understand why and how people search and how
search engines rank pages. Simply put, the two perspectives are:
n How do you make your “golden fleece” visible to the world?
n How do you find your “golden fleece”?
Just like the mythical tale of Jason and the Argonauts, searching for
your golden fleece (or nugget, as I refer to a search result through-
out the book) of information on the web can be a long, tedious, and
sometimes hazardous journey, fraught with unknown pitfalls. This
book provides a clearly defined path for your quest that will lead
you to the “golden fleece.” Before we begin that quest, let’s con-
sider where we will be questing and why go on the quest at all. Our
quest will take us through the electronic wilderness known as the
Internet.
In recent years, there have been numerous comparisons of the
Internet and its associated World Wide Web with a library. It
seemed to make sense, as both places are repositories of informa-
tion. But two authors of a recent book about Google make the
astounding claim that the Internet and its associated web are not a
library! They advance the claim based upon their belief that the
Internet lacks:
n A central source for resource information
n A paid staff dutifully indexing new material as it comes in
n A well-understood and rigorously adhered-to ontology
They go on to say, “Thinking of the Internet as a library can be mis-
leading.” For sure, the Internet does not represent a brick and
mortar building located in a downtown metropolitan area where no
one in their right mind would be caught after dark. But the general
xii
Preface
meaning of a library does not necessarily fit within the confines of

someone’s rigid definition. In a broad sense, a library is just a
source of information. While we associated brick and mortar build-
ings with the term “library” in the twentieth century, we will come
more and more to associate the term with the Internet (or at least
certain portions of the Internet) in the twenty-first century. Why?
Why not?
There really is no compelling reason to continue producing paper-
based books other than it is in the vested interest of several indus-
tries to chop down trees, make pulp paper, and have printed matter.
The publishing industry is beginning to recognize the power and
impact of electronic publishing, and they will move, probably slowly,
toward an all-electronic product. Eventually, paper-based books will
become collector’s items of a bygone era. But there is much more
information in the world than what is offered by the (book) publish-
ing industry.
There will probably be brick and mortar libraries around for some
time to come, as the older members of the current generation are
accustomed to visiting a library and checking out books. But, as the
younger generation today moves toward retirement, fewer people
will be comforted with a visit to a library. Instead, they will access
all of their information needs via the computer and Internet. I am a
research-intensive individual, yet I find little need to visit a library
anymore. The Internet will become, if it is not already, the world’s
leading source of information, making it a twenty-first century
library in my book (pun intended).
Information is power. Power is survival in a competitive environ-
ment that is increasingly hostile, as the world’s burgeoning
population struggles for fewer and fewer resources. The easy
access to information that a computer and the Internet provide to a
knowledgeable person in the privacy of his or her own home or
office is awesome. But the access is “easy” only if you know how to
find your golden fleece. This book is essentially a road map that
leads you to your search objectives, making access to information
easy for you in the truest sense of the word.
xiii
Preface
I know that everything you read or see on the Internet is not true.
The same can be said for newspapers (recall the New York Times
scandal of June 2003), books, magazines, television, radio, and, in
general, any source of information. With such a vast source of infor-
mation available at our fingertips, the challenge now for each of us
is to wisely use that information to accomplish our objectives. The
scope of this book is not how and what information you use but how
to find any information you need. You must decide how valuable the
information is to you.
xiv
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Jim Hill of Wordware Publishing for the opportunity to

write this book. I owe him an especially grateful acknowledgment
for his patience and professionalism. Thanks to Judy West of
CyberRecruiters.com for tech-checking the manuscript.
xv
Chapter 1
All about Search

Engines
Introduction
Many people today use the Internet to send and receive e-mail,
shop, pay bills, search for lost relatives and ancestors, chat with
kindred spirits in obscure chat rooms, play games, view movies, lis-
ten to music, find partners, search for jobs, search for employees,
research medical issues, find inexpensive hotels and vacation pack-
ages, hunt for collectibles, and do countless other things. One
estimate places the number of daily Internet users at 425 million
people worldwide.
Adjunct to our use of the Internet is our need to find a particular
nugget of information that we require to fulfill some need we have.
Perhaps we want to find out when the War of 1812 was fought or
the length of the Seven Year’s War. Maybe we are looking for that
special person. Or perhaps we search for a long-lost relative. How
about an inexpensive vacation to Orlando? Whatever the reason,
millions of people each day get on their computer and look for
information.
1
2 Chapter 1 / All about Search Engines
According to SearchEngineWatch.com, the three most popular

Internet activities are sending/receiving e-mail (81 percent of
users), searching the web (57 percent of users), and looking for
product info (46 percent of users). (February 17, 2000, “How People
Use the Internet,” SRI — SearchEngineWatch.com)
People are people, and searching for content on the web is a varied
experience for us. The experience can be very gratifying (“Hey
look, I found this thingy that I wanted for half price!”). Or, the expe-
rience can be very frustrating (“I have looked through 10,000
search results/sites and cannot find the thingy that I am looking
for.”). SearchEngineWatch.com reports that we are more frustrated
than gratified. According to SearchEngineWatch.com, 77 percent of
us find searching the Internet frustrating to some extent.
How long do people search for their thingy? Do they really spend
hours or days looking through 10,000 search results to find their
nugget of information? Again, people are people, and it doesn’t
seem likely that they would spend very long looking for their
“acorn.” According to the WebTop Search Rage Study, Americans
typically experience “search rage” if they don’t find what they are
looking for within 12 minutes. (WebTop Search Rage Study, August
2000 — SearchEngineWatch.com)
But how frustrating does everyone else find web searching? Table
1.1 details the results of a SearchEngineWatch.com study.
Table 1.1: Frustration on the web, from SearchEngineWatch.com
5 — Very frustrated 29%

4 17%
3 — Frustrated 31%
2 11%
1 — Not at all frustrated 9%
An amazing 77 percent (31% + 17% + 29% = 77% from Table 1.1)

of us find searching the web an unpleasant experience. Yet, it
doesn’t have to be that way. I never get frustrated searching the
Chapter 1 / All about Search Engines 3
all about search engines

web, and I always find the information I am looking for within
moments of initiating a search. There is only one instance in ten
years of web use that I could not find what I was looking for — the
names of the three Rockwell International employees assassinated
in Iran in 1976.
Here is a challenge to test your search skills, a kind of before-
and-after test: Can you find the names of the Rockwell employees
with just the scant information I have given? Try searching now and
then search again after you have read this book. Compare your
search results. The comparison will be a good benchmark that will
illustrate how your search skills have improved.
Armed with a little patience and a few tools in your search kit, you
can find anything that you seek within a minute or so and change
your experience from frustrating to exciting and pleasurable. You
must provide the patience, and I will provide the tools. Before we
develop the tools that we need to reduce our search to a pleasant
journey in cyberspace, it is useful to discuss the web and its associ-
ated web pages. Understanding what the web is, how web pages
constitute the web, and what constitutes a web page will lay a foun-
dation upon which we can erect our workshop before stocking it
with the tools necessary to yield that promised pleasant
experience.
What Do We Search For?

Do you want to know what people are searching for? Check out
http://www.wordtracker.com/. Click on the Keyword Report icon
and then fill out the short form for a free weekly trial subscription,
and you will receive the top 500 search words for each week.
Figure 1.1: WordTracker home page
The top ten search topics for December 2002/January 2003 are:
Table 1.2: Top ten search topics
No. Count (#of hits) Keyword

1 180,863 travel
2 167,170 people search
3 159,908 autos
4 134,805 Google
5 123,209 Yahoo
6 118,467 jokes
7 118,129 eBay
8 113,537 hotels
9 109,661 health
10 87,108 Red Cardinal
. Note:

Check out “Red Cardinal.” No, it is not a bird or a priest! Red
Cardinal is present in the top ten because of the season. In July
2003, it did not even make the top 500 search terms.
The list in Table 1.2 does not agree with the top ten items identi-
fied in a survey conducted by SearchEngineWatch.com, the results
of which are shown in Table 1.3:
Table 1.3
What kind of information do you look for on the Internet?

News 54%
Entertainment 53%
Health 50%
Business 49%
Academic 47%
Shopping 46%
Financial 44%
Career 37%
Sports 32%
Games 26%
Don’t Know/None/No Answer 3%
News, listed as number one in the SearchEngineWatch.com survey,

does not even figure in the top ten in the actual keyword searches,
as reported by WordTracker. The difference in the two lists can be
explained by the nature of people. Surveys tend to be static (people
only remember what they last searched on) and misleading,
whereas keyword search reports tend to be dynamic (recording all
keyword searches) and accurate.
How Much Do We Search?

“On average Americans spend 1.5 hours per week searching for
information.” — WebTop Search Rage Study, August 2000
(SearchEngineWatch.com)
“Americans search the web practically every other day. Nearly 1/3
search once or more per day.” — WebTop Search Rage Study, August
2000 (SearchEngineWatch.com)
In my professions as author, engineer, and businessman, my col-
leagues and I spend much more time searching the web than the
above WebTop Search study suggests. I spend at least one hour per
day searching, and many of my colleagues spend even more time.
On weekends, people spend enormous amounts of time searching
the web, far exceeding any other form of recreation. Cruising the
web has become the nation’s favorite pastime. My apologies to
baseball and sex, but you were both superceded in this category
around 1991 (baseball) and 1995 (sex).
Why Search?
A revolution of global proportions and of great importance occurred
in the past ten years. Perhaps few people noticed at first because
the casualties were at a minimum and the body count was not pro-
jected every night on network TV. Only in the last couple of years
did people start to take notice; by then it was too late. The world
was wired and routed, and we, the consumers, were primed for the
Internet. The consumer battle cry in this revolution was multime-
dia, all of those graphics-rich features available today at the click of
a mouse button. But businesses and governments were also quick
to jump on the Internet bandwagon. The Internet (or rather, access
to the Internet) became in an amazingly short time the most
sought-after commodity in the commercial marketplace.

Consumers wanted to overdose on all that graphics-rich multime-
dia, businesses wanted to capitalize on new markets and new
revenue streams, and governments wanted to spy on their citizens.
The varied interests of these three groups converged at the inter-
section of “global” and “unification.”
Global unification is the standard under which the current economic
and, to some extent, political revolution is being fought. Prior to
2000, global unification was a practical impossibility. For global uni-
fication to be a realistic possibility, certain things are required: a
global language, a global communications system, and a global
library. English is the global language, modern telecommunications
fulfills the need for a global communications system, and the
Internet/World Wide Web is the global library. The most significant
issue with the global library is that there are no web librarians to
help us locate our nugget of information reposing among the bil-
lions of web pages. While you may walk into a public library and
receive every consideration from the helpful staff, there are few, if
any, helpful staff members in the web library.
Successful people know the usefulness of a public library and how
important it is to be able to find information when they need it.
Now the web has opened up a whole new library “frontier.”
Knowing how to successfully manage (that is, find and retrieve)
information in the web library is important for several reasons. It is
important to the success of careers, it is important to the success of
self-fulfillment, it is important to the success of economies (espe-
cially the global economy), and that makes it important to the
survival of governments.
There is a metaphor that states “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut,
occasionally.” The metaphor’s obvious meaning is that a squirrel
without sight will stumble upon a nut if given sufficient time to
search, assuming it does not give up searching. So it is with users
who search the web. Given sufficient time and determination, we
will eventually stumble upon our “nut” of information.
But few, if any, of us are determined enough to search through mil-
lions, or billions, of pages of information to find our “nut.” So, to
reduce the problem to a, more or less, manageable solution, web

“search engines” were introduced a few years ago. The search
engines use search terms called query words, or keywords, entered
by the user to find all the existing web pages containing the search
terms. Voilà — instead of looking through millions of pages for our
nut, we only had to look through, say, 100,000 or so. But humans,
being the intelligent creatures that we are, soon realized that if we
did not find what we were looking for in the first 100 or so search
results, then maybe we really didn’t need to know the answer. But,
be honest. After looking through the first 100 search results,
haven’t you ever wondered what that 100,000th web page really
was and if it contained something pertinent to your search?
To understand search engines and web searching, perhaps we first
need to explain the “web,” the “Internet,” and “web pages.” The
web and the Internet are terms loosely used to describe the vast
interconnecting “web” of computers sitting in numerous offices,
classrooms, homes, closets, etc., in every corner of the globe. Web
pages are the electronic manifestations of books, magazines, cata-
logs, newspapers, commercial enterprises, government entities,
educational institutions, home pages, and any other topic, subject,
or creation that human invention can devise to electronically repre-
sent the interests of some entity. Enough of the bull, already! So,
what, specifically, is the “web”?
What Is the Web?

A company that warehouses or hosts web pages, usually for profit,
on one or more computers is called an Internet service provider
(ISP). Companies and individuals pay service providers to “host”
their web pages. Two or more Internet service providers connected
electronically form a “web.” Today, we often speak of the World
Wide Web (WWW, or www, or just web). Figure 1.2 illustrates a
simple “web.” To visualize the real World Wide Web, just imagine
thousands of cities and hundreds of millions of users connected via,
primarily, the worldwide telephone system.

Figure 1.2: A World Wide Web
“Host” means the electronic representation of a particular web

page residing upon the hard disk that constitutes the Internet ser-
vice provider’s Internet/web computer assets. In the diagram, XYZ
in Dallas is our ISP. Company XYZ owns and maintains one or more
computers that contain the web pages of other companies and indi-
viduals who have paid XYZ to host the pages. The ISP can be a
small, medium, or large company. One well-known ISP is America
Online. Besides warehousing third-party web pages, ISPs may also
host their own web site where they offer a variety of services.
A key element that is required for XYZ to be a successful business
is XYZ’s ability to transfer huge amounts of digital data between its
computer(s) and the people who want access to the web pages
stored on XYZ’s computers. This high-speed data connection is
shown as a dark line going from XYZ to the LO (local office) in Dal-
las. “Local office” is the term used by the telephone industry to
describe the equipment sites scattered around communities where
small bundles of telephone lines are grouped into larger bundles. A
local office generally handles about 5,000 subscribers (telephone
users). This connection between XYZ and the local office is typi-
cally one or more fiber optic cables. The number of fibers depends
upon the amount of data, or traffic, passing between XYZ and the
outside world. The telephone company connects XYZ’s computers
to the outside world via the local office physically located near the
service provider. The telephone company also connects your
computer to XYZ’s computers through the local office nearest you

in your community.
“But how does one distinguish between the millions/billions of web
pages and where they are physically located?” an inquiring mind
may ask. The http://www.yourname.com/gov/org/etc., called a web
address, or Uniform Resource Locator (URL), is the information
the telephone company uses to identify and locate the particular
computer hosting the web page that you are seeking. Fast elec-
tronic circuitry encased in boxes called routers convert the URL
into addressing values that are used by electronic switches to con-
nect the user (you) to the service provider (them).
The web pages hosted by the service provider are grouped by indi-
vidual ownership into web sites. The topic or focus of a web site
can be virtually anything imaginable. A few examples are Yahoo
(http://www.yahoo.com), Google (http://www.google.com), the
White House (http://www.whitehouse.gov), the FBI (http://
www.fbi.gov), the Marine Corps (http://www.usmc.mil), Plano Inde-
pendent School District (http://www.pisd.edu), Boy Scouts of
America (http://www.scouting.org), and your home page (http://
www.yourhomepage.com). Each of these web sites are composed of
web pages describing the products, services, or interests of their
owners. A web site may be composed of any number of individual
“pages.” The content of these individual pages may vary, such as an
individual’s “home” page, detailing the life and interests of the indi-
vidual, or they may be logically related, such as a mail-order
catalog’s offerings. If a human can imagine it, it is in a web page,
somewhere.
Today, the web spans the globe. In an effort to logically divide the
web into manageable pieces, the early Internet pioneers assigned
two-letter country codes to countries. Table 1.4 lists a few country
codes. Note that the United States’ country code is “us,” but in this
country you rarely see it appended to a web address. That is
because in this country, it is the default country code; therefore,
there is no need to append it to the address.

Table 1.4: Top-level domains
Country Code Country Example

(Top-level Domain)
uk United Kingdom tvr.co.uk
us United States city.plano.tx.us
my Malaysia parlmin.gov.my
de Germany sgi.de
jp Japan hitachi.co.jp
to Tonga netsurf.co.to
tv Tuvalu internet.tv
You can view the complete list of top-level domain (TLD) country
codes at http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm. In addition to
the TLD country codes, three-letter domain codes are assigned to
various entities. See Table 1.5 for a sample.
Table 1.5: Internet domain names
Top-level Domain Meaning Examples

.com Commercial, personal eds.com, ibm.com
.net Internet service provider sbcglobal.net
.gov U.S. government agency whitehouse.gov
.edu U.S. educational institution stanford.edu
.org Not-for-profit institution redcross.org
.mil U.S. military usmc.mil
.int International itu.int
When you consider that the web is a “World Wide Web” (WWW),
also called just the “web,” it is not difficult to imagine billions, if not
trillions, of web pages with content as varied as the individuals
inhabiting the planet, existing as magnetic media (little ones and
zeros imprinted into the magnetic coating of hard drives) in the
innards of thousands of service providers’ computers. That is what
the web is — tens of thousands of physically interconnected (via
the telephone company and its local offices (LO)) service providers
hosting web pages. And the Internet? Just add Usenet, Gopher-
space, and private “webs,” also called networks, owned, operated,
and maintained by businesses, institutions, and governments, and
you have the much ballyhooed Internet.
You can think of the web as an “electronic curtain” that hides the
stage before the actors are prepared to begin the show. You may be
certain that the producers and directors are working feverishly
behind the scenes to set the stage before the curtain opens. When
you load the web page on your desktop, laptop, palmtop, thumbtop,
etc., computer, you are opening the curtain upon the World Wide
Web stage.
Generally, a web site will contain a home page that may have links to
one or more subsidiary pages. The home page is identified as the
www.yoururl.com/index.html page. The “index.html,” sometimes
just “index.htm,” in the URL is the default identifier for the initial,
or doorway, page to a web site. When you download a web page
from an ISP, you are “accessing” the page for viewing. Okay, we
have managed to get the home page of some web site from XYZ’s
host computers to your desktop. Now, what is a web “page”?
What Is a Web Page?

A web page is a document in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
format that provides some, hopefully useful, information to anyone
accessing the page from his or her computer via a browser, such as
Internet Explorer or Netscape. Whew! Glad we cleared that up.
HTML documents (called web pages from now on) are created
using a special computer program, such as Microsoft’s FrontPage,
and they are viewed on the computer using a web browser, such as
Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc. A web page is much like any other
type of “page,” such as the ubiquitous Microsoft Word document.
The difference between a document created with a word processor
and a web page is that the web page is organized in a manner that is
designed to best present commodity data to the viewer, whereas

the word processor document is designed to best present textual
information. Figure 1.3 illustrates the HTML text for Google’s
home page. Figure 1.4 shows what the HTML text looks like when
a browser, such as Internet Explorer, opens the document.
Figure 1.3: HTML document

Figure 1.4: HTML document as seen in a browser
A well-designed web page entices you to purchase something,

whereas the word processor document is designed to inform.
Another difference between the two types of pages is the use of
hyperlinks in web pages to move the viewer to another web page,
to another location within the same page, or to another web site.
But what is a hyperlink, you ask?
A hyperlink is a group of characters that include the URL of another
web page or site. The purpose of a hyperlink is to move the user
from the current web page to the web page designated by the
hyperlink. The hyperlink (from now on called a link) is interpreted
by browsers as a path to the specified URL. A left-click on a link
whisks the user to the new page.
The web page has many hidden features that operate behind the
scenes to achieve the objectives of the page designer. Meta tags,
particularly meta description and meta keyword, are probably the
most important behind-the-scenes web page features with respect

to finding a web page. Search engines typically use the contents of
these two tags to identify the particular information contained
within the web page. We examine meta tags in more detail in a later
chapter.
Other document formats may be downloaded and viewed from a
web page. One common format is Adobe’s PDF document files.
Other material of interest to us is accessed via web pages. Audio,
video, and images are brought into our homes via the humble web
page. It is the starting point from which our journey into cyber (or,
more appropriately, with 77 percent of us frustrated when searching
the web, hyper) space is launched.
The web contains millions of documents placed there by busi-
nesses, educational institutions, governments, and individuals. All
of these documents comprise a “virtual library” of information
accessible to everyone with a computer and an Internet connection.
But how do we find the particular piece of information that we are
searching for in the virtual library? Let us assume for a moment
that we live in a world without Internet search engines. In this
world without search engines, we only have access to web pages
through the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address. A sample
URL looks like this: www.myhomepage.com. There are no printed
“yellow pages” of URL addresses. If there were “yellow pages” of
URLs, the URL list would be practically useless, unless we knew
what service or commodity was provided by the URL owner.
Unless we have acquired a URL of interest through some means,
such as an exchange between co-workers, we have no idea how to
access pages of interest to us. Well, we could guess (like a blind
squirrel?), but that approach is very time consuming and most
likely fruitless. I have just described the Internet in its infancy,
circa 1993.
The issue for you and me becomes how do we find, as expediently
as possible, the particular piece of information, residing within the
body of a particular web page, we seek in the vast repository of the
World Wide Web? Just when the web was about to outgrow its
diaper and start its run to the millennium, search engines were
created.
What Is a Search Engine?

Search engine is a loose term for several types of software, typically
owned and operated by companies other than ISPs, that “crawl” or
“spider” the web space, identify the web pages’ URL and the web
page content via the meta tag and actual page content, and store the
information on the search engine owner’s computer(s). When a
user enters the words of interest into the search engine’s search
text box, the search engine searches its own database for web
pages with content matching the search words and returns the
URLs for those pages.
Today, some search engines also include “yellow page”-like directo-
ries that a user can browse to find web pages offering content of
interest. Google is a search engine combined with a directory
(Open Directory Project). Yahoo is a directory combined with a
search engine (Google).
A search engine is sometimes called a portal. A portal is a web site
that is considered an entry point to other web sites, each identified
with a unique URL. Without portals, cruising the Internet quickly
slows to a crawl. Portals maintain huge lists of URLs with instruc-
tions, embedded in the innards of the servers, routers, and
gateways, on how to find those URLs.
Search Engine History

The Internet is composed of the original FTP, Gopherspace, e-mail,
Usenet, and Telenet services in addition to the World Wide Web.
What distinguishes the WWW from, say, Gopherspace is primarily
the format of the documentation. FTP sites include any digital data
that can be stored on a hard drive. FTP sites store such things as
computer programs, images, documents, audio, support files, utili-
ties, FAQs, games, more technical stuff than any ten people can

read in a lifetime, plus other kinds of binary files. FTP sites were
the original inhabitants of planet Internet. Then along came
Gopherspace. Gopherspace is limited to text-based documentation,
including technical and scientific treatises, publications, documents,
and ancillary nerdy stuff. Most of the software is shareware/free-
ware. If you have an adventurous spirit and a thirst for knowledge,
check out some of these sites. Go to Google Search (www.goo-
gle.com), enter “FTP,” and then click on Google Search. Enjoy the
adventure of exploration.
The first search engine was Archie, released in 1990. There was no
World Wide Web at the time. Data resided on defense contractor,
university, and government computers, and techies were the only
people accessing the data. The computers were interconnected by
Telenet, a precursor to the web connection of today. File Transfer
Protocol (FTP) was the methodology used for transferring files
from computer to computer. There was no such thing as a browser.
Files were transferred in their native format and viewed using the
associated file type software. Archie searched FTP servers and
indexed their files into a searchable directory. The Internet was
small in comparison to today’s web, requiring a very unsophisti-
cated Archie. Gopherspace came into existence with the advent of
Gopher in 1991. Gopher cataloged FTP sites, and the resulting cat-
alog became known as Gopherspace.
In March 1994, the burgeoning World Wide Web was beginning its
geometrical growth toward today’s entity. Two watershed events
occurred during that month. The amount of information passing
among Internet computers via Telenet/FTP was exceeded by the
information passed among the new web browsers accessing not
FTP sites but WWW sites. Also in that month, WebCrawler, a new
type of search engine that indexed the entire content of a web page,
was introduced.
Table 1.6: Search appliances
Search Date Designer Profession Accomplishments

Appliance Started
Archie 1990 Alan Emtage McGill University Archived anonymous
student FTP sites/searchable
directory
Gopher 1991 Mark McCahill University of Alternative to Archie
Minnesota student
Veronica 1992 University of Archived
Nevada students Gopherspace
Jughead 1993 Added keyword and
Boolean operator
search features to
Gopherspace search
JumpStation 1993 Spider
RBSE 1993 First keyword/spider
Architext February Stanford University First concept-based
(Excite) 1993 students spider
WWW June 1993 Matthew Gray MIT student First fully automated
Wanderer robot
Aliweb October Martin Koster First web directory
1993
WWW Worm 1994 Oliver McBryan Spider
Galaxy January MCC Research, First browsable web
(Tradewave 1994 University of directory
Galaxy) Texas
WebCrawler March 1994 Brian Pinkerton University of Indexed entire text of
Washington web pages in
student increasing relevancy
Yahoo! April 1994 David Filo and Stanford University Directory
Jerry Yang students
Lycos August 1994 Michael Maldin Carnegie Mellon Directory
student
Infoseek February
1995
MetaCrawler June 1995 Eric Selburg and University of First metacrawler
Oren Etizioni Washington
students

Search Date Designer Profession Accomplishments
Appliance Started
AltaVista December Digital First natural language
1995 Equipment and Boolean search
Corp. techniques/first
searchable, full-text
database on the World
Wide Web
Excite December Mark Van Haren, Stanford University
1995 Ryan McIntyre, students
Ben Lutch, Joe
Kraus, Graham
Spencer, and
Martin Reinfried
HotBot May 1996 Paul Gauthier UC Berkeley Powered by Inktomi
(Inktomi) and Eric Brewer students search engine
LookSmart October Directory
(Go2net.com) 1996
Argos October First limited topic
1996 (ancient and medieval)
search engine
Direct Hit 1998 Gary Culliss Analyzes past Internet
searches
MSN Search September Microsoft Search and directory
1998
Google September Larry Page and Stanford University Directory/link
1998 Sergey Brin students relevancy
FAST Search 1999 Norwegian First to index 200
owned million web pages
Snap November NBC Search and directory
1999
In 1994, webmasters and web site owners begin submitting sites

for inclusion in the growing number of web directories. In 1995,
automatic web directory search submission software was intro-
duced. This type of software allowed webmasters and web site
owners to automatically submit their web site to the major web
directories with a click of a mouse. Also, meta tags in the web page
were first utilized by some search engines to determine relevancy.
In 1997, search engine rank-checking software was introduced.
This valuable software feature provided web site owners and web-
masters with an automated tool to determine their web site’s
position and ranking within the major search engines. In 1998,
search engine algorithms begin incorporating esoterical information
in their ranking algorithms. One such ranking approach was the
inclusion of the number of links to a web site to determine its “link
popularity.” Another ranking approach was to determine the num-
ber of clicks (visitors) to a web site based upon keyword and phrase
relevancy. By the year 2000, marketers determined that pay-per-
click campaigns were an easy yet expensive approach to gaining top
search rankings. Today, web site owners and webmasters under-
stand that the best approach to elevate their sites in the search
engine rankings is to build web sites that have useful and relevant
content while optimizing their web pages for each specific search
engine.
Robots, Spiders, and Metacrawlers

Robots, spiders, and crawlers are the search engine machines that
visit web pages and catalog the content of the pages. Collectively,
they reside on their search engine owner’s computer(s). Based
upon a routine called Query, they search the Internet for servers
and then collect the appropriate information when they find a
server. Most search engines will use the links that they find on a
web page to find other servers/sites. The information that the
search engine collects is organized into a database. This database
also contains those web sites submitted for inclusion by the web
site owners/webmasters as part of the search engine’s directory
submittal process. The information viewed by the user as a result
of a web search is actually data residing in that search engine’s
database. So, if the web site is not in the search engine’s database,
the user will never know about it (at least from the search results).
Now let’s discuss the difference between robots, spiders, and
crawlers. Robots only read a web site’s URL and any embedded
links in the web page. Since robots read the links, they (actually a
separate software routine residing on the search engine’s com-
puter) can decipher every link to another site on the web page,

thereby forming “link trees.” A spider reads the URL/links, reading
the title and the keyword section of a web page. Besides URLs,
links, and title, a spider also reads the complete document, includ-
ing meta tags. Therefore, spiders are indispensable for search
engines incorporating “link popularity” and “relevance ranking” in
their search rank algorithms. Metacrawlers, on the other hand, visit
the various search engines’ servers and compile their search
results from the sites cataloged on the engine’s server. They then
list the results according to the collective relevancy of the individ-
ual search engine results. While this may seem “unfair,” it certainly
speeds up the search process.
Relevancy Ranking
Search engines are not all the same. Of course, each search engine
uses some method to find its results. The search method that a
search engine uses determines the quality and quantity of results
that a user will get for any particular search. Generally, search
engines can be categorized as author-controlled (keyword
relevancy), editor-controlled (directories), user-controlled, or pecu-
niary-controlled. Each of these different methods that search
engines use to find the user’s topic of interest skews the relevancy
ranking differently.
Author-controlled search engines such as Google and AltaVista
operate on keywords that the user supplies to the search engine
interface. The search engine then searches its cache of web docu-
ments for matches to the keywords, returning those web page links
in some predefined order as the search results.
Keywords, also called query words and search words, are those words
describing the subject of interest. For example, a person searching
for information on a Florida vacation might enter the words
“Florida” and “hotel.” Of course, the search engine cannot distin-
guish between the hotels in Miami and Orlando, so the results will
include all web pages containing those two words without regard to
any specific Florida city. To narrow the search focus to the city of
interest (say, Orlando), the searcher must include “Orlando” as
another keyword in addition to “Florida” and “hotel.” So, the more
specific the keywords utilized, the fewer but more targeted search
results the user will receive. Then he or she is on the path to
search nirvana.
An important consideration of author-controlled search engines is
the methods used to determine the relevancy of web pages to the
search criteria or the keywords. Author-controlled searching rele-
vancy ranking will depend upon the search algorithm that the
search engine uses. Some may skew the results based upon size of
company, link popularity, quality of web page, and/or whether the
page is commercial (.com), government (.gov), or educational
(.edu).
Editor-controlled search engines, such as Yahoo in its original form
and LookSmart, place web page links into structured directories
based upon subject matter. This type of search engine may be
totally software driven or may involve some human intervention.
The user may travel the top-down directory structure until arriving
at the topic of interest, or he or she may search the directory for
the topic of interest. The web pages are usually placed in alphabeti-
cal order within the directories.
User-controlled search engines depend upon not link popularity but
rather visitor popularity. That is, the more visitors a web page
receives, the higher it will rank in a search result. An example of a
user-controlled search engine is Direct Hit. Direct Hit rankings are
dependent upon the number of visitors to each site. The greater
the number of visitors, the greater the relevancy ranking. Rele-
vancy ranking in this case seems to be democratic in a way.
However, behind every search engine is a group of individuals who
can manipulate the results as they deem appropriate. Additionally,
an enterprising web site operator can easily design a software pro-
gram that can automatically visit the site repeatedly, garnering a top
position in a very short period of time.
Pecuniary-controlled relevancy ranking is simply paid placement. It
is also controversial, as it ensures a certain spot in the search
results. Of course, the highest spot in the search results costs the
most money. It’s not very democratic, as one usually will not find a

small, enterprising company trying to establish a market on the
Internet using this method of gaining web traffic to its site.
Relevancy ranking is an important concept for search engine tech-
nology. Relevancy ranking means how relevant a web site is to the
search words entered by the user. When we search for web sites,
we enter certain keywords in the search engine’s search box. We
expect the search engine to return the URLs of web sites that con-
tain relevant information. If we search on “flowers,” we do not care
to discover that the search engine returns web sites whose content
is “furniture.” So, when the search engine’s database is searched,
an algorithm that ranks each site containing one or more of the
keywords is employed. What are the mechanics of the ranking algo-
rithms? Well, knowing that is a substantial part of the cat and
mouse game that search engine owners and web site developers
have played since about 1993. Suffice it to say that useful and rele-
vant web site content is very important.
Relevancy ranking is a very important issue for both the user and
the web page developer. For the user, relevancy ranking deter-
mines whether or not you find the particular piece of information
that you are looking for in a reasonable amount of time. Studies
indicate that most users do not scroll beyond the first 100 search
results, while the top 30 results are considered the crème de la
crème by the industry. So, relevancy ranking should place the most
likely web sites of interest in the top 30, with the next 70 sites
listed in order of relevancy to the topic. For web developers, their
objective is to achieve a top 30 relevancy ranking for obvious rea-
sons — more site traffic. So, the magical top 30 is everyone’s goal.
But should it be?
A statistic from one study says that 77 percent of Americans are
frustrated with web searching. This statistic reveals that either rel-
evancy ranking is not working or we do not know how to search the
web. My own experience suggests that it is some combination of
both. However, I believe the greater fault for our frustration lies
with us, the users, due to our inexperience.
When a user only utilizes the basic services of a search engine, the
search results identify every web site that contains the search
keywords without regard to textual relationships and meanings dis-
played for the user’s viewing in a rank ordering that realistically
may not represent the user’s interests. With three billion web
pages categorized, it should be no surprise when a search based
upon a couple of keywords returns 3,400,000 results. After review-
ing the first 100 or 200 search results, we give up in frustration.
Been there, done that! However, by utilizing a search engine’s
advanced search capabilities, a user can easily narrow the engine’s
focus to the most relevant sites. Then the power of relevancy rank-
ing is projected from the screen. The next nine chapters investigate
the basic and advanced search capabilities of the Google search
engine.
How Does a Search Engine Work?

First, let’s make sure we know what a search engine is and then we
can explain how it works. The use of the word “engine” to describe
the Internet search function is usually misleading. We typically
think of any type of engine as an internal combustion machine use-
ful for providing the motive power of innumerable automobiles,
airplanes, ships, etc. Internal combustion machines are certainly
one form of “engine.” In the modern, general sense, “engine” is
“any machine that converts forms of energy into mechanical force
and motion.” This does not describe a “search engine”!
Another definition of engine exists that is archaic, but the meaning
is closer to what a web “search engine” is. This definition describes
an “engine” as “something used to effect a purpose.” In our case,
the “something” is software code running on a computer and the
“purpose” is finding and indexing documents residing on other
computers.
Search engines attempt to locate and index as many web sites
(URLs) as possible. Search engine features vary greatly, as does the

actual scope, size, and accuracy of the databases from engine to
engine. Okay. But what the heck is a search engine? A search
engine is a loose term for several types of software, typically
owned and operated by companies other than Internet service pro-
viders, that “crawl” or “spider” the web space, identify web page
content via the meta tag and actual web page content, and store the
information on the search engine owner’s computer(s). Then, when
a user enters the words of interest into the search engine’s search
text box, the search engine searches its own database for web
pages with content matching the search words and returns the
URLs for those pages.
When we search the web, we are looking for content embedded
within HTML-formatted documents. HTML is the default web page
format, and search engines look specifically for these types of docu-
ments residing on the service providers’ computers. Other data
formats can only be found through a reference in an HTML
document.
Let’s say that we want to find a certain MP3 file (a music file for-
mat) and download (move from the Internet service provider’s
computer to ours) it so we can enjoy listening to our favorite music
CD. We must first find a web page formatted as an HTML file that
includes a reference/link to this music file. From this web page, we
can download the music file. We cannot go directly to the music file
and download it from the search engine results.
Search engines attempt to locate and index as many web pages as
possible, given the search engine’s physical resource limitations.
Search features vary greatly from engine to engine, as do the scope,
size, and accuracy of their databases.
Search engines find the information that the user is looking for by
comparing the keywords the user enters in the search text box to
the search engine’s indices and returning the URL when a match is
found. Search engines operate on:
n Unique keywords
n Combinations of unique keywords
n Special search characters

n Boolean operators
n Field searching and limiting parameters
n Advanced search commands (i.e., advanced modifiers)
While search engines may include millions, even billions, of pages
in their databases, none of them index the entire web, much less
the entire Internet. The following lists some of the content not
found by search engines. Note that I said content. Search engines
will find references in HTML documents to these items:
n Content of Adobe PDF and other non-HTML formatted files:
CGI (i.e., form data)
MP3 (music files)
MPG/MPEG/AVI (movie files)
JPG/JPEG (image files)
TXT (text files)
DOC (document files)
Any number of other less familiar file types
n Content protected from external access, usually requiring a
login (intranets):
Corporate
Government
Educational
Institutional
Private (i.e., my home LAN)
n Web sites/pages not associated with an InterNIC domain name
n Commercial resources with InterNIC domain name limitations
n Web pages utilizing a robots.txt file (keeps files out of search
engines’ reach)

n Limited access sites (private domains)
n Other non-web resources
Google has the capability, which is unique among search engines, to
search the content of certain file types listed above. We discuss the
file types that Google can search in a later chapter.
Issues Searching the Web

You probably have some experience searching the web for informa-
tion. You enter your keywords into the search box and breathlessly
hit Enter and, voilà, there are your 3,467,972 search results. Some
search engines display search results in a sequential manner. That
is, you must view these items 10, 20, 30, 50, or 100 at a time, start-
ing from the first and going sequentially to the last. When you are
at the last item, you must sequentially go back through the previ-
ous items if you decide the page of interest is somewhere in the
previously displayed results. Such an approach is very time
consuming.
Let’s say I have the patience to view 250 results, 20 at a time:
Now, I want to go back to the 60th result. I must return to the first
page by clicking on the choice (if available — not all
search engines provide this option) and then select until I
get to the 60th result. Or I must select from the spot
where I decided my best choice was the 60th page. Neither
approach is very efficient for moving around search results. Ideally,
the search engine interface would allow me to jump to any search
result I wanted. When searching for a nugget of information, who
really didn’t wonder what was on the last page of those 1,237,401
search results?
In any case, why do Google and other search engines tell me there
are 1,237,401 search results? Am I ever going to see more than
about the first 250 results? Not likely. So, if they do not provide a
means for me to easily see those results, why don’t they just limit
the results to the first 1,000 results? Then our curiosity would not
be aroused. Which search engine would you use — one that said it
found 1,000 matches or one that said it found 1,000,000? Me too!
But there is a ray of hope shining at the end of our search tunnel.
Before we are finished with this book, we are going to demystify
the net and find our nugget of information in just a few moments of
searching without worrying about that last page.
Search Integrity
Google claims its automated search method using PageRank does
not easily allow for human tampering. Other search engines make
similar claims. But who knows for sure?
Most search engine user interfaces do include paid ads in their
search results. However, only the pecuniary-controlled search
engines accept money (above the table) for paid placement. Who
knows what goes on under the table? After all, humans will be
humans, most of the time, and every search engine has at least one
human operating behind the scenes.
The Race to Be Number One

The race to be number one in the search engine industry has been
a closely watched race for a number of years. Marketing dollars are
precious, and companies want to invest them where they think they
will get the greatest return on their investment. The search engine
race has been quite an interesting affair to watch. Longtime front-
runners can be overtaken by upstart new companies in a matter of
months. The search engine industry is still a very dynamic

environment, with new and untried approaches to web searching
being introduced quite frequently.
The current search engine leader is Google. Its rise to the premier
industry position has been amazing. In five years, despite spending
little or nothing on marketing itself, Google’s home page has
become the 15th-most-visited web site in the U.S., according to
Jupiter Media Metrix, Inc. With the company handling 114 million
web searches every day (Search Engine Watch, April 2003), Google
traffic leaped over 75 percent last year, making it the top search site
on the web. Google itself claims to receive 150 million hits per day
and index over three billion web pages. These pages must be vis-
ited periodically by Google’s search application in order to keep its
database up to date.
Last summer, a survey by market researcher NPD Group ranked
Google the most effective search engine. Of the users surveyed, 97
percent reported locating what they were looking for “every time”
or “most of the time.” That number is amazing considering the
number of searches performed in the vast ocean of web content.
The following table shows Google leads its nearest contender by a
nearly 2:1 margin.
Table 1.7: The most effective search engines
Google Approximately 150 million searches per day ( per

Google’s web site)
Inktomi Approximately 80 million searches per day (per
SearchEngineWatch.com)
AltaVista Approximately 50 million searches per day (per
Direct Hit Aapproximately 20 million searches per day (per
FAST Approximately 12 million searches per day (per
Galaxy Approximately 100,000 visitors per day (per
Galaxy’s web site)
Google claims to run its search application on a unique combination

of advanced hardware and software. The speed that a user experi-
ences is attributed, by Google, partly to the efficiency of its search
algorithm and partly to the thousands of low-cost PCs it has net-
worked together to create a super-fast search engine.
What Is Google?
Google is primarily a web search engine combined with a commer-
cial catalog. Many Internet pundits claim that Google dominates the
Internet search engines. At 114 million hits per day (Search Engine
Watch, April 2003), it exceeds Yahoo’s 42 million daily hits (Search
Engine Watch, April 2003) easily. Web sites are seeing a tremen-
dous growth in the use of Google. One web site claims that it has
seen a 185 percent growth in Google search referrals in the past 12
months. By another pundit’s estimate, Google now accounts for 66
percent of all search referrals on the Internet. According to Google,
its web search catalogs over three billion web pages.
Google is a feature-rich search engine that incorporates numerous
tools and options, giving web searchers many different approaches
to solving their search issues. Google is not a solution to searching
the web; it is an instrument, a method, or a tool itself, and it is a
very good instrument. You are the solution to your search issues. It
is up to you to learn Google and apply what you learn, using Google
as a craftsman would use an expensive and well-built device, to
solve your search issues.

How Google Ranks Its Search Results
Google believes the web is a democracy. That is, Google believes
every URL link embedded in a web page is a “vote” for another
web page. Operating on this belief, the founders developed a search
algorithm called PageRank. PageRank monitors how many web
pages/sites link to a page. Factored into the algorithm is site impor-
tance. A higher search result occurs for sites that are linked by
other important sites than for sites that are linked by “unimpor-
tant” sites. That is, New York University’s Department of
Computer Science’s “Apple Pie Parser” web site will be weighted
heavier (in importance) than Mom’s “Apple Pie Recipe Home
Page,” regardless of the search criteria. The more important the
sites linked to the page, the higher the ranking. It is rumored that
Google gives a slight advantage to .gov and .edu sites.
Google claims it does not allow anyone to purchase a higher rank-
ing in its search results. Google does, however, include what it
labels “Sponsored Links” on some results pages that may be con-
fused with actual search results. For example, if you search on the
keyword “hotel,” you will see PageRank’s search results on the left
side of the results page and sponsored links relating to hotels at the
top of and to the right side of the results page. The items labeled
“Sponsored Links” are actually ads.
By analyzing links using “sophisticated text-matching techniques”
and showing favoritism to non-commercial sites, Google assigns a
PageRank to sites that it deems “important.” According to Google,
this “democratic” way of reaching your search goal will assure you
of “high-quality” results. What you really see in the top rankings is
what Google deems important. Not really very democratic, is it?
Probably the greatest fallacy to this approach of ranking search
results is the obvious — anyone can pay other sites to link to their
site.
Why is this a problem? Well, early in its development, the web was
seen as the Great Leveler. The web was going to level the playing
field for all who were interested in competing in the commercial
markets of the world. The lone guy hawking pencils, the solitary
woman selling bagels, and the big corporations had an equal oppor-
tunity to ply their products on the Internet. You did not need a big
marketing budget to sell your products, and your market was
essentially worldwide. In short order, Google managed to reduce
this small merchant advantage by raising the bar for everyone but
Fortune 500-type corporations.
How Is Google Getting Better?

Google plans to capture more of the web’s ever-expanding sea of
content. The company’s software currently searches more than
3.308 billion web pages. According to Google, that is an increase of
60 percent from more than a year ago. There are an estimated five
billion searchable web pages, including foreign language pages,
according to Internet search company Cyveillance. At present,
Google searches and indexes about three-fifths of the available web
content.
To extend its ability to search and index those additional pages,
Google has increased the number of foreign languages that it will
index. Currently, Google indexes web pages in more than 60 lan-
guages. For a comparison of Google’s reach, consider rival AltaVista
Co. AltaVista performs searches in only 25 languages. Also, Google
is developing technology to search a wider variety of documents,
including images.
The Google search technology is now powering the search areas of
Yahoo, AOL, CompuServe, AOL.com, and Netscape. Google also
provides WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) to AT&T Digital
PocketNet Service Premium Plan customers. Google’s WAP appli-
cation automatically converts HTML documents on demand to the
WAP format.

The Next Generation
Search engines have become the gateway to the World Wide Web.
Virtually every user enters the web via a search engine. A search
engine’s profitability is directly related to the number of people who
access the web via its portal. Search engines, therefore, have a
great interest in keeping their following satisfied. We can expect
the competition among the search engines to produce better search
results than currently produced. Also, we can expect niche search
engines to flourish as people discover the higher quality results
they provide. Some of these will be fee-based, such as Northern
Light. Others will be free. We can expect to see improved searching
techniques and a much better user interface. Improved relevancy
should be a natural consequence of improved spiders and larger
databases. But until the Internet bosses decide to include more
domain types, splitting the domain space into finer groupings such
as separate divisions between commercial and personal web pages
currently grouped together in the .com domain, advances in search
engine technology will be incremental.
Summary
God created the heavens with its bountiful stars and earth in six
days. The United States Department of Defense, in association
with universities and commercial companies, created the Internet
and its associated bountiful web in 20 years. One seems to me
about as complicated as the other. Just as the firmament with its
innumerable galaxies and stars was unmapped upon its creation, so
too was the Internet. Only by more or less stumbling around blindly
could a user find what he or she was looking for on the web. Then,
creative university graduate students gave us search engines to
help us find our nuggets of information. Now we can navigate the
Internet firmament with greater ease than ever before.
Clearly, Google provides the clearest and most preferential map

into the Internet firmament. The remainder of this book examines
the inner workings of Google to provide insight for users of the
application searching for their nugget and for web developers who
desire a higher relevancy ranking from the Google search engine.
Chapter 2
Google Services
Introduction
Most people, when confronted with a need to search on the
Internet, jump right into a search engine, enter their keywords in
the search (or query) box, hit the Enter key, and then wonder why
they are presented with millions of search results that may or may
not have anything to do with their particular search need. Each of
the millions of search results represents a choice that must be
made. Is my nugget of information in this web page or in another?
Do I click on this link or another? Do I have time to review 200 web
pages to find the particular piece of information I need?
Time is all we are born with that is a negotiable commodity. In sim-
ple terms, time is money and money does make a difference in our
lives. It makes no difference if the search need is one at work or
one at home. The choices we make determine the physical and
emotional environment that we live in and our destiny. If we are
presented with a baffling array of choices, we will flounder around
while experiencing an uncomfortable sense of bewilderment,
not-so-strangely wondering why we must utilize such incompre-
hensible products and services as computers and web searching in
our daily lives. That is why 77 percent of us experience search
frustration.
35
36 Chapter 2 / Google Services
Figure 2.1: Google’s home page
Thirty years ago computers were touted as the machines that

would relieve us of the daily grinding, boring tasks that ground us
into senseless robots after 25 years of working. Yet, it seems like
the use of computers in the workplace has just added to that bur-
den, not relieved it. There are many reasons for this, and you have
no control over most of them. But one thing you do have control
over is how you manage searching the Internet, and by taking
control of that portion of your daily work routine, you empower
yourself. Empowerment equals satisfaction, and satisfaction equals
happiness. Voilà! No more search rage.
Google, by using PageRank technology to rank search results,
attempts to minimize your need to sift through hundreds or thou-
sands of search results to find your information nugget. However,
PageRank does not understand your search need in the context of
your life. Google displays search results according to the PageRank
assigned to them. Keep in mind that clever web developers are
constantly seeking to spoof PageRank into placing their web
Chapter 2 / Google Services 37
page(s) into the magical top 30 search results. I have played around
with web pages and moved pages from the 400th spot to the top
100. I know PageRank results can be manipulated, in a fashion. The
point is, you may or may not find what you seek in the top 30
search results. If the top 30 is all you view, then you may be miss-
ing a real nugget in result 250.
But we do not have time to review 250 web pages to find that nug-
get. So we are right back where we started from, right? Well, we
will be if we do not study this chapter (and the remainder of the
Google services
book). In this chapter, we discover that Google offers more than
just a basic search of the Internet. Google offers many services and
tools that allow us to frame our search in the context particular to
our search needs. That is, we can use Google services and tools to
eliminate choices that do not add value to our search process. That
makes us better managers of our search time, and empowers us.
Before we examine Google’s search tools and techniques, we need
to study the search services offered by Google. By reviewing the
search services that Google offers, we will be able to make wiser
choices about our approach to searching. Do we search Google’s
directory? Do we search the web? Or do we search a specific
domain to find our nugget of information? After studying this chap-
ter, we should understand that the service or method we choose to
search the Internet is as important to our search results as the
keywords we select to search on.
. Note:
We discuss keyword selection in Chapter 4.
The Google search application (from this point forward referred to

as Google) is service and feature rich, including a wide array of
tools to help you find exactly what you’re looking for. Some of these
services and features are mature and offer excellent results, while
others are still being developed. We examine each of the services
and features in detail in the remaining sections of this chapter.
Google Services, shown in Figure 2.2, is found at http://www.goo-
gle.com/options/index.html. (Bookmark it!) The web page link
given is titled Google Services & Tools. Google Tools are discussed
in Chapter 8.
Figure 2.2: Google Services page
Google offers these specialized services:

n Froogle
n Google Answers
n Google Catalogs
n Google Groups
n Google Image Search
n Google Labs
n Google News
n Google Special Searches

n Google University Search
n Google Web Directory
n Google Web Search
n Google Wireless
Froogle is a service that lists commercial and retail web sites.
Google Answers is a fee-based service offering answers to your
questions. It is similar to Ask Jeeves, but real people answer your
Google services
questions. Google Catalogs is a free directory of mail-order cata-
logs. Google Groups is the Usenet discussion forums. Google
Image Search is an image search engine. Google Labs is a mixed
bag of experimental features. Google News is a browsable and
searchable database of over 4,000 news sources. Google Special
Searches allows the user to narrow the search field and focus on a
specific topic. Google University Search focuses the search topic on
specific school web sites. Google Web Directory is Google’s
indexed web sites organized by categories. Google Web Search is
Google’s search engine. Google Wireless is Google’s WAP portal
for wireless and handheld devices.
We examine each of these services in greater detail in the remain-
der of this chapter. Before we do, let’s look briefly at the features
that we find in Google Labs, shown in Figure 2.3. Google Labs is a
mixed bag of experimental features that includes:
n Google News Alerts
n Google Compute
n Google Viewer
n Google WebQuotes
n Google Glossary
n Google Sets
n Voice Search
n Keyboard Shortcuts
Figure 2.3: Google Labs page
Google News Alerts are e-mail messages Google sends you to

inform you of breaking news stories. You select the criteria for
news topics of interest, and when a story appears with your crite-
ria, Google sends you an e-mail informing you of the story.
Google Compute enables your computer to participate in worth-
while collaborative scientific computing projects. This is the easiest
way for you to be a hero or heroine. Simply by loaning your com-
puter for academic use when you are not using it, you have
contributed to an important scientific project benefiting all of
humankind.
Google Viewer allows the user to continuously scroll through
search results, as opposed to viewing 20 search results per page.
Want to know what other sites are saying about your site? Google
WebQuotes is a unique service that displays other web site com-
ments about the web sites returned as search results. Google
Glossary is a dictionary of words, phrases, and acronyms. Google
Sets is an interesting approach to searching the web that returns
results based on sets of related keywords. Voice Search enables
web searching using a telephone connection and the user’s voice.
Keyboard Shortcuts provides a means of using keyboard keys to

navigate through search results.
Google Services
Now we examine Google Services in detail. To reiterate, Google
Services are Froogle, Google Answers, Google Catalogs, Google
Google services
Groups, Google Image Search, Google Labs, Google News, Google
Special Searches, Google University Search, Google Web Directory,
Google Web Search, and Google Wireless.
Each of these services offers a unique way of searching and discov-
ering information on the web. You will find them entertaining and
useful to use. We begin our examination of Google Services with a
look at Froogle.
Froogle
Froogle itself is not a store. There is no shopping cart, and you can-
not purchase anything in Froogle. Froogle is merely a “yellow
page”-style site that links the consumer to a retail store’s web page
where the item of interest may then be purchased. In Froogle’s list
of stores, shops, and catalogs, only retail establishments are listed.
You will not find cousin Lizzie’s home page describing her summer
vacation with her parents in Froogle. Froogle comes from a play on
the words “frugal” and “Google.”
Froogle home page:
http://froogle.google.com/ (Bookmark it.)
Froogle FAQ:
http://froogle.google.com/froogle/about.html
Figure 2.4: Froogle home page
Froogle is a new Google Service, so it may be excused for not

working quite as planned on occasion. In the fall of 2002, a search
for “computers” yielded results other than actual computers. The
top 100 results were almost exclusively computer accessories, such
as innumerable automobile cigarette lighter power cables for
laptops. I did not have the patience to view more than the first 100
results. I searched on other subjects, and again the search results
were equally disappointing. Finally, I decided to search on some-
thing simple, so I chose “socks.” I was amazed at the number of
valid returns the application returned, and I was equally impressed
with the (countless) number of variations on what I thought was a
simple clothing item. I will not tell you how many I looked at, but I
never found an invalid search result in the approximately 1,000 web
pages Google displayed of the 1,000,000+ links found. So for retail
shoppers, Froogle will ultimately be a shopping nirvana, but it
appears that Google still has a few issues to address regarding
search result relevancy.
I repeated this experiment in the spring of 2003. The search topic

(“computers” this time) yielded results with actual computers in
the first 14 search results, but the next five were:
n (#15) A service plan that provides printer installation, training,
and driver installation for a maximum of two Phasor computers
n (#16) nFORCE-2 Special System Builder (a real computer
result)
n (#17) A laptop light
Google services
n (#18) A computer switchbox kit
n (#19) A web page describing how to troubleshoot wired Ether-
net problems
From this point forward, the quality of the remaining search results
dropped below the threshold of acceptability. Almost all of the next
200 results were computer accessories and books.
Google states that its “spidering software” crawls the Internet
identifying web pages that offer merchandise for sale. When a web
page is so identified, the spidering software associates images
found on the page with the search keywords. In this manner,
Froogle builds its database seemingly apart and in a differing man-
ner than the Google search engine that uses PageRank. Since the
approach is totally software driven, mistakes, such as associating
the wrong image with a particular keyword, may result. I can only
imagine the possible combinations and resultant humorous associa-
tions. Besides utilizing Google’s spidering software, Froogle builds
its database using product information submitted electronically by
the seller.
Google does not specify how Froogle determines keyword rele-
vancy. It makes sense if Google uses the pages’ meta tags to
identify keywords, as this is the purpose that the meta tags were
originally intended to serve. However, Google’s spidering software
does not use the meta tags but instead operates upon the words
found in the body of the web page. The results of my experiments
indicate the approach used to match keywords to products is not
very accurate in terms of matching the principal products to the

keywords.
Froogle is a great concept, but Google’s primary implementation
seems to be a software-driven engine that cannot discern search
term meanings and product nuances. That is, the engine cannot dis-
tinguish between a noun and an adjective, ergo the difference in
search results quality between “computers” and “socks.” Socks do
not seem to have many accessorized items that Froogle can mix
with the desired search results, whereas computers may have thou-
sands of accessorized items intermingling with actual computers.
As an example of the disconnect, I think every Amazon.com com-
puter and software book was included in my “computer” search
results.
Searching for product-specific retail establishments seems at the
outset to be a simple and straightforward endeavor. But the way to
search results nirvana is always mined with the unexpected and
unforgiving. Google wants to project the power of its search tech-
nology into the retail marketplace. But its link popularity algorithm
ignores meta tags. Interestingly enough, the original purpose of
meta tags was to allow web page developers to specify keywords
that pinpointed the exact purpose of the web page’s content.
Froogle will not be a useful feature of Google’s stable of services
until its software includes reading and understanding meta tags and
the difference between a noun and an adjective. Conversely, retail
establishments with a web presence must include valid and useful
meta tags in their web pages to help identify the specific products
that they are selling without resorting to games to spoof search
engines into placing the page in places that it does not belong.
Froogle is easy to use. Just go to http://froogle.google.com/. Key in
the keywords of interest, and the Froogle search will return nothing
but businesses selling the item(s) and all of its accessories that you
are seeking. Of course, you may still get more search results than
any one person can view in a lifetime. Online shopping really does
enable you to “shop until you drop.” By focusing on product search,
Froogle does weed out the inappropriate sites (at least that is the
ultimate goal). Until Google fine-tunes the word association portion

of its ranking software, we will continue to get inappropriate search
results. But, hey, it can be fun. A search on “pipe,” while I expected
to receive thousands of bong results, yielded Native American
peace pipes, books, golf visors (What does a cap have to do with a
pipe? Do people really smoke them?), and two bona fide tobacco
pipes in the first ten results. The next 100 results yielded a great
variety of products that had at least a remote association with the
word “pipe.” Alternatively, you may browse Froogle’s directory of
Google services
merchandise categories.
Froogle’s search results are not the result of paid placement nor
does the seller pay to be included in the Froogle directory. Froogle
search results are automatically generated by Google’s “ranking
software,” according to Google. Google does not state that Froogle
uses PageRank — only its “ranking software.” It does not seem
plausible for Froogle to use PageRank, as link popularity is not a
useful concept in a directory model, and my limited experiments do
not reveal that link popularity is the approach used. Google claims,
“As with all other Google search results, Froogle ranks store sites
based only on their relevance to the search terms you’ve entered.”
That is a general statement that can mean just about anything.
It is not clear to me how Froogle associates a .jpg file with the key-
word(s). Google says that it scans each web page and associates
the .jpg files found embedded in the web page with the page’s
keywords. Web page developers for retail product web sites would
be well advised to determine through experimentation how Froogle
associates .jpg files with page keywords. In the limited experimen-
tation I have done, I have seen a few blunders in Froogle’s results.
Froogle does include paid “sponsored” advertising with Froogle’s
search results. You will find the sponsored links on the right side in
vertically stacked rectangular boxes. Placement of these paid ads is
based upon the amount of money that the advertiser is willing to
pay per click (cost per click, or CPC) and the click-through rate
(CTR). The higher the CPC and CTR, the higher the placement.
There is an inverse mathematical relationship between CPC and
CTR. As the CTR increases, the CPC may decrease and the adver-
tisement will maintain its position. In other words, as the volume to
a web site increases, Google will charge less to maintain the adver-
tisement’s current position in the sponsored links.
What is especially appealing about shopping with Froogle is the
inclusion in the search results of a product image in about 90 per-
cent of the search results. Clicking on the image generally takes
you to the seller’s web site, where a larger image of the product is
displayed. Item purchase and checkout is generally just a click
away. Shopping in this manner sure beats getting jostled and
bumped in those awful Christmas crowds, and you cannot beat the
parking space — your favorite easy chair.
Figure 2.5: Froogle search box
Google has recently added a great feature to Froogle’s search box

that is displayed on the search results page. Now you can refine
your search by placing the minimum and maximum price that you
are interested in paying into the search box. See Figure 2.5. Note
that the Price range text boxes are not present on the Froogle
home page. You must search on some item before you can refine
your search with a price range.
Google could greatly enhance Froogle by displaying some type of
seal identifying those sellers with a record of honesty and integrity.
Too many unscrupulous people use the Internet to bilk unsuspect-
ing shoppers out of their money. Google could render invaluable
assistance to countless consumers by establishing a seller ranking
system based on consumer feedback. eBay has such a seller/buyer
ranking system that appears to offer some protection to both buyer

and seller.
Google Answers
Google Answers is an open forum where your questions are
answered for a fee.
Google Answers URL:
Google services
http://answers.google.com/answers/main (Bookmark it? Don’t
bother.)
Google Answers FAQ:
http://answers.google.com/answers/faq.html (Bookmark it?
No.)
Figure 2.6: Google Answers

Google Answers provides the user an alternative to online search-

ing. Suppose you have searched repeatedly without success for the
answer to a particular question. At some point, you may just give
up. But for a question of some importance, many people will con-
tinue the search, perhaps asking colleagues at work, family, or
friends or visiting the nearest public library. At some point, if they
still do not find the answer they seek, they may decide that the
amount of time spent searching is not worth the effort. Google
Answers provides an alternative to just giving up. Remember my
challenge in Chapter 1? What were the names of the three
Rockwell employees assassinated in Iran in 1976? This question
fits the criteria for giving up.
Google Answers is fee based. When you ask the question, you are
given the opportunity to specify how much money you are willing
to spend for the answer. Seventy-five percent of the fee is paid to
the researcher, while the remaining twenty-five percent goes to
Google.
Your question can be edited until a researcher “locks” the question.
A locked question indicates a Google researcher has undertaken to
research and answer the question, thereby preventing you from
changing the question and preventing other Google researchers
from attempting to answer it.
Google researchers scan questions and select those that pay the
most for the least amount of effort expended. There do not seem to
be any controls in place that guarantee you an answer. If you have
not indicated that you will pay enough to warrant the amount of
time the researcher must expend to get you the answer, then no
one will bother to help you out. Your question will “expire” without
resolution.
The time limit for Google “researchers” to answer your question is
one month. One month seems unreasonably long, as most people’s
questions have some sense of immediacy. Google researchers do
not necessarily have any expertise in the subject matter, and
Google does not provide resumes of the individuals that it contracts
with to answer your questions. When a researcher decides to
undertake your question, he or she will look for the answer and
then post it to you. Only when the researcher posts the answer are
you charged for the service. Google provides a mechanism for feed-
back if you are dissatisfied with your answer. The researcher gets
the chance to clarify the answer, and if you are still dissatisfied, you
can then request a refund up to 30 days after receiving the original
answer. All communications between you and the researcher/
Google are posted on the Google Answers web site. Finally, you are
given the opportunity to rate the researcher.
Google services
To ask a question, you must first establish an account. You establish
an account by entering your e-mail address into a form. Then
Google sends a confirmation e-mail to your e-mail address. You
click on a confirmation link that verifies your e-mail address, and
the sign-up continues with you entering a username. Then you are
taken to a page where you can enter your question. After entering
your question and the amount of money that you are willing to
spend, you are taken to a form to complete your financial informa-
tion. Google charges a nonrefundable administration fee of $0.50 for
each question.
Google posts every question and answer on its web site. The pur-
pose is to allow other registered users, not researchers, to add
their perspective/opinion and “share the research.” The individual
asking the question is identified by a nickname that he selects
when he registers to use the service. Folks who comment on these
posts do not get paid (sorry). If a registered user posts a comment
that “answers” your question prior to your question being locked or
answered by a Google researcher, you may cancel your question
and only pay the nonrefundable $0.50 fee.
Google discourages questions that:
n Seek private information about individuals
n Seek assistance in conducting illegal activities
n Are designed to sell or advertise products
n Include material related to adult content
n Involve homework or exam questions (darn!)
n Seek specific information about Google or Google Answers

Basically, Google Answers serves the needs of people who do not
know how to do fundamental research, either in a library or on the
Internet. So much information is moving from the brick and mortar
library to the web that individuals are well advised to learn how to
quickly and effectively mine the web for their nugget of informa-
tion. Every individual can realize fantastic gains in productivity just
by learning how to effectively search the web. As an example, while
researching the material for another book, Solving the 1897 Airship
Mystery, I spent hundreds of hours at the National Archives
researching census records. After the census records were placed
on the web by several different organizations, I could find the same
information in a couple of hours. After studying the material in this
book, you will be as well trained to find information, without undue
frustration, as any Google researcher.
Google Catalogs
Avid catalog shoppers will find Google Catalogs a boon. No more
catalog clutter around the house. You can toss out your old catalogs
and spend lazy afternoons shopping until your vision blurs and your
head hits the monitor. Google Catalogs has something for every-
one, including the person who has it all. There are enough catalogs
in the Google Catalogs database to keep any well-respected shop-
per busy for the foreseeable future.
Google services
Figure 2.7: Google Catalogs
Google Catalogs is a directory of over 5,000 catalogs selling just

about everything conceivable that is legal to sell. Most well-known
catalog vendors are part of the database, including Neiman Marcus,
L.L. Bean, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Frederick’s of Hollywood.
Google Catalogs home page:
http://catalogs.google.com (Bookmark it!)
User FAQ:
http://catalogs.google.com/googlecatalogs/help.html
Google Catalogs vendor FAQ:
http://catalogs.google.com/googlecatalogs/catalog_vendors.html
Left-clicking on any category displayed on the Google Catalogs

home page will display a list of 28 catalogs in that category.
Figure 2.8: Sports & Outdoors catalogs
Let’s check out a catalog. How about L.L. Bean? Under Apparel &
Accessories (see left side of Figure 2.7), left-click on L.L. Bean.
Figure 2.9: L.L. Bean catalog

When perusing the catalogs, notice the tools and vendor contact
information at the top and bottom of the page. Figure 2.10 illus-
trates the information Google provides at the top of a vendor’s
page. You are provided both the telephone number and the web site
of the catalog vendor. From either contact, you can place your order.
From the vendor’s catalog page, you can view a larger image by
left-clicking on the page of interest.
Google services
Figure 2.10: Vendor contact info
The toolbar at the top and bottom of the catalog’s

page has several items of interest. You can go to the previous page
or the next page . You can magnify or reduce the
image size. You can also modify how the catalog’s pages are format-
ted and displayed. A left-click on any of the page formatting buttons
will change the number of pages displayed per browser window. A
left-click on will display a single page, while left-clicking on
will display two pages, and left-clicking on will display four
pages.
In addition to the toolbar tools, you can jump directly to any page of
interest by left-clicking on the Jump to page box and
entering a page number. Enter only a numeric value
(1, 2, 3, 4…), then left-click on the Go button.
If you want to search the catalog you are currently viewing,
left-click in the This Catalog search box, and key in your search
word(s). Left-click on the Search button
and you are taken to a search results page,
if the item you searched on exists within
that catalog. If it does not, you are presented with a “did not match
any pages” message. Return to the previous catalog page by left-
clicking on the browser’s Back button. Here is a keyboard shortcut
that works wherever you are, in any Internet Explorer window —
press the Backspace key to return to the previous browser window.
Google scans the actual catalogs from catalog vendors, and then
uses word recognition technology to return search results from the
catalog database. The Google Catalogs search technology seems to
have the same shortcoming that Froogle has — namely that it can-
not distinguish between the primary item and accessories. Using
the same term (“computer”) used to illustrate Froogle’s search
technology returns both computers and computer accessories
mixed in the results. This can be especially frustrating if you are
looking for computers and have to shift through innumerable ancil-
lary and/or accessorized items without finding the specific items
that you are looking for. But do not give up yet! Google Catalogs
has an advanced search page (see Figure 2.11), where you can mod-
ify your search query and narrow the field. However, the advanced
features did not seem to be working at the time of publication. Let’s
illustrate with an example.
Figure 2.11: Google Catalogs Advanced Search

A search on the word “computer” returns page 1369 from Tessco

Technologies’ catalog as the first search result, as shown in Figure
2.12. Left-click on the image shown at the right in the figure.
Tessco Technologies offers for sale on page 1369 a Notepad IV
Universal Computer Mount. (See Figure 2.13.)
Google services

A Notepad IV Universal Computer Mount is a computer accessory.

I want to find real Dell, Compaq, and HP computers — you know,
the things with circuit boards, microprocessors, power supplies,
etc., not notepad mounts. If I wanted to find notepad mounts, I
would have searched on “notepad mounts.” I want to search again
and see if I can eliminate this page from the search results.
Note that page 1369 includes the word “Universal Computer
Mount.” So, being the clever individual I am, I go back to the
Google Catalogs Advanced Search page and I enter the phrase
“Universal Computer Mount” in the Without the words text field
and hit Search again. See Figure 2.14.
My new search results should not include Tessco Technologies’

page 1369 at all.
If the Google Catalogs search technology is mature and doing what
search technology should be doing — namely what the owner says
it should be doing — I will get back as the first search result a cata-
log page other than Tessco Technologies’ page 1369.
Guess what? I get back a page that says “Your search — computer
–Universal –Computer –Mount — did not match any documents!”
Amazing!
Google services
Well, one example does not a search engine make, so I tried five
other examples and achieved varied results. But none of the results
I achieved were the results expected.
You give it a go. Search on a favorite item, such as auto, travel,
hotel, health, Red Cardinal, etc., from the Top 10 list (see Chapter
1). Try to narrow the field of search returns by selecting keywords
that would eliminate a specific page. For example, if you search on
“auto” in Google Catalogs you will get a lot of auto parts stores in
the search returns. So, key in “parts” in the Without the words
box on the Advanced Search page and see what you get. Interest-
ing, eh? I did this and I got the Tessco Technologies page again.
Google does state Google Catalogs is a beta version at this time. I
imagine these types of issues will be addressed. When Google Cat-
alogs search works the way it should, it will be a boon to shoppers.
Vendors can add their catalog (free!) to the database by adding
Google to their subscriber list. If you are interested in this opportu-
nity, view the Google Catalogs vendor FAQ (given earlier in this
section) for the address.
Google Groups
Google Groups is the Google incarnation of the Usenet discussion
forums, also called newsgroups. You can post and read comments in
the various discussion newsgroups. Discussion groups exist that
cover virtually every conceivable topic. If you cannot find a discus-
sion group that is already immersed in a subject of interest to you,
you may easily start a new discussion group.
Google Groups provides a means for searching the Usenet groups
that include both current and past postings. Google bought Usenet
from Deja News in 2002 and has archived all posts, except binaries,
back to 1981. That is over 700 million messages. Many researchers
will find the ability of Google Groups to search the newsgroups a
bonus in their research efforts.
Searching newsgroups is an interesting and entertaining affair. To
give the subject the treatment it deserves, I have written an entire
chapter on the topic; please see Chapter 10.
Google Image Search

Google claims that its Google Image Search feature is the most
comprehensive on the web with 425 million images currently
indexed. You can access Google Image Search by left-clicking on
the Images tab on Google’s home page or going to http://
images.google.com. You initiate an image search by entering a key-
word in the search box. Then, left-click on the Search button.
Google will display the thumbnails of images that it found, along
with the associated web page link. To view the image, just left-click
the thumbnail of interest displayed on the results page, and you will
see a larger version of the image. Additionally, you will see the web
page where the image is located.
Google services
Figure 2.16: Google Image Search
Photos and artwork are copyrighted, regardless of your personal

perspective of the function of the Internet and web. Although you
may gain the ability to view and save images found in your search,
Google cannot grant you the right to use the images in any manner.
If you desire to use the image in some manner, you should contact
the owner of the web site where the image was found and ask for
permission to use the image.
Google Image Search displays five rows containing four thumbnails
per web page. Setting the number of results to display per page on
the Preferences page does not affect the number of thumbnails.
Setting the results per page is discussed in the Preferences section
of Chapter 3.
The Google search engine dutifully displays as thumbnails all
images it finds associated with the keywords that you used for the
search, regardless of your sensibilities. You can turn SafeSearch on
and have a modicum of filtering to remove potentially offensive
material. For the obvious four-letter type words, SafeSearch works
pretty well. However, be aware that you can have some unexpected
results when searching seemingly innocent keywords. SafeSearch
is discussed in more detail in Chapter 3. Note that SafeSearch is
available only from an English interface. It is worth repeating the
Google warning about the possible results of your image search:
Warning: The results you see with this feature may contain
mature content. Google considers a number of factors when
determining whether an image is relevant to your search
request. Because these methods are not entirely foolproof, it’s
possible some inappropriate pictures may be included among
the images you see. (The mature content filter is only avail-
able from an English interface.)
At this point, you should know that you must go to the Preferences
page at http://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en and set the level
of filtering that you prefer.
6 Caution:
If you are thinking about searching for images with a 56K
dial-up modem, I would suggest that you forget the idea, unless
you have some amount of patience. DSL/cable modems are
sometimes slow to download the graphics-intense search results
web pages. Although the thumbnail images are not large, there
are 20 of them per search results page. In the following example
search for “travel” images, my 1.5MB DSL modem took five sec-
onds to load the search results web page. Your 56KB modem
would take approximately one minute, depending, of course,
upon your server traffic.
To explore Google Image Search, let’s search on the word “travel.”

See Figure 2.17. Key the word in the query box and then left-click
on the button just below the query box. Make sure you
have spelled the keyword correctly! Note that we did not append
the typical image suffix “.jpg” on the end of “travel.” If we did, we
would get a different search result. Leaving .jpg off the keyword
gives us a search result that includes the image formats jpg, gif, and
png.
Google services
Figure 2.17: Google Image Search for travel
The search results for “travel” are displayed in Figure 2.18.
Figure 2.18: Google Image Search results for travel

Notice that underneath the search box there is a link (the under-
lined text) that allows you to set the level for filtering adult content.
If you left-click on SafeSearch is off, the Preferences web page is
displayed. From this page, you can set the filter level that you pre-
fer. You do not have to click on the browser’s Return/Back button to
get back to the results page. As soon as you left-click on the Save
Preferences button, the Google Image Search results will again be
displayed.
To view the web page where an image is located, left-click on the
travel image of your choice. Let’s click the second image from the
left in Figure 2.18 and see what we get.
The web page that includes the image we selected is shown in Fig-
ure 2.19.
There are several noteworthy items to point out while we are view-
ing this page. Note that the image we clicked on is shown at the top
of the page surrounded by a frame. You can remove the frame by
left-clicking on Remove Frame at the top right-hand side of the
page. This image is shown in actual size. Sometimes the image is
shown in a reduced size that you can enlarge by left-clicking on the
image. The address of the web page where the image is found is
shown below the image. It is noteworthy that this is not the actual
web site of the page. You are still inside a Google web page. Google
provides a link from its page to the web site. Below the image there
is a blue bar with the link www.alumni.rutgers.edu/ travel/. A left-
click on that link will take you to the web site containing the image.
There is a Back to Results link below the Remove Frame link at
the top right-hand side of the page. Most people are probably famil-
iar with their browser’s Back button and will navigate their way
back using it. Having a Back link on a web page is a holdover from
the early 1990s when web browsers were simple and had no Back
Google services
or Return button.
If you want to see the image by itself and in its original size, left-
click on it and the image will be displayed in its original size in a
new window. See Figure 2.20.
Finally, you have found an image that is to die for, or at least one
that you would like to keep for some purpose. How do you save that
scrumptious image? Just right-click on the image and select Save
Picture As in the drop-down menu that “magically” appears. See
Figure 2.21.
Figure 2.21: Saving an image from Google Image Search
This drop-down menu is an Internet Explorer service. This is not a

book on Internet Explorer, but I point out that there are other neat,
perhaps illegal, things you can do with the images. The drop-down
menu includes choices that let you print the image, e-mail the
image, or set it as the background on your computer. One option
not shown on the menu in Figure 2.21 is available if you have pur-
chased and installed a McAfee product called Visual Trace. Visual
Trace is a program that allows the owner (me in this case) to deter-
mine who the hackers are (hopefully not you) trying to get inside
my/his/her computer.
Did you perform an image search on the keyword “travel”? Note

that the search did not yield any images of travel destinations in the
first 20 images returned. To see images of a place we might con-
template for our next vacation, we must include a little more
information in the search. Let’s pick Orlando, Florida, for our next
vacation destination. Now let’s see what images we can find. Search
on “travel Orlando.” See Figure 2.22. We received numerous
images of Orlando, including two city maps (very useful).
Google services
Figure 2.22: Google Image Search results for travel Orlando
Suppose that we want to see images of hotels in Orlando so that we

can select one for our vacation. To do that, we search on “Orlando
hotel.” The search results are shown in Figure 2.23.
Figure 2.23: Google Image Search results for Orlando hotel
If we want to zero in on a specific hotel, we can search again and

include the name of the hotel in the keyword set. Let’s say that we
are interested in the Disney World hotels. Then our search
keywords would be “Orlando hotel Disney World.” I have left this
search for your own practice.
Google has an Image Search FAQ page available by selecting the
Image Search Help link at the top of the page.
Google says it analyzes the text on the web page adjacent to the
image, the image caption, and “dozens of other factors” to assess
the image subject or content. Google also claims to utilize “sophis-
ticated algorithms to remove duplicates and ensure that the highest
quality images are presented first in your results.”
Sometimes, you may inadvertently (or on purpose in some

cases) wind up at a web site that will not let you close the win-
dow. Every time you click to close the window, it just opens
another. Also, this type of web site tends to overwrite the moni-
tor screen with its web page, removing your task bar from view
and any other windows you may have open. This type of heavy-
handed control of a computer by a third party is extremely
annoying.
If you find yourself in a web site that will not let you close the
Google services
window, do not despair. Just hold down the Ctrl, Alt, and Delete
keys simultaneously. Then release the keys. Wait until you see a
Close Program dialog box. Click on the line that includes
Internet Explorer. See Figure 2.24. Next, click on the End Task
button. That should close all IE windows that are open. If not,
repeat the process until all of the annoying pages are closed.
Figure 2.24: Close Program dialog
If you want to restrict your image search to specific file types, you
can do it the hard (Google) way, the wrong (bright spark) way, or
the easy (my) way.
The Hard (Google) Way

Google, in its Image Search FAQ, specifies the following procedure
for restricting an image search to a specific file type. Note that
searching specific file types is an Advanced Image Search feature.
The Advanced Image Search features are discussed at length in
Chapter 7. Continuing with our search, to view images of a specific
file type, such as jpg, gif, or png, use the Google Advanced Image
Search web page located at http://www.google.com/advanced_
image_search?hl=en. (Bookmark it? Yes.) Or you can navigate to
the page by left-clicking on the Advanced Image Search link on the
Google Image Search page. The link is located on the right side of
the page. (Refer back to Figure 2.17.) To begin our search, enter
“flower filtetype:png” in the search box. Then left-click on Search.
Alternately, you can just enter “flower” in the search box and then
select PNG files from the Filetypes drop-down menu. See Figure
2.25.
Figure 2.25: Advanced Image Search for file type png
The search results are shown in Figure 2.26. All images are
restricted to the png file type.
Google services
Figure 2.26: Advanced Image Search results for file type png
The Wrong (Bright Spark) Way

I am including this procedure here because I know some bright
spark is going to try it and then write either me or Google (or both)
and complain that he did not get the correct results. How do I know
this? Because I am one of those bright sparks who has tried it!
Someone is going to try to restrict an image search using the
Google Advanced Search web page as opposed to the Advanced
Image Search page. So, let’s go ahead and try it here to see what
we get.
I entered the information as a file type search in the Advanced
Search query box. See Figure 2.27. The results I achieved are
shown in Figure 2.28. I did not get any images nor did I get any
links to images. I have links to web pages that have the word
“flower” and the suffix “png” somewhere in the page but no links
to images. So, if you are searching for image types, do not try to
search using the file type in the Advanced Search page.
Figure 2.27: Search for file type png in Advanced Search
Figure 2.28: Search results for file type png

The Easy (My) Way … That Works!

While still in the Google Image Search web page, just enter “flower
filetype:png” in the search box. Then left-click on Google Search.
The following two figures illustrate how easy it is, and the results
you get searching for “png”-type image files are identical to using
the Advanced Image Search page. Compare Figures 2.26 and 2.30.
Google services
Figure 2.29: Search for file type png in Google Image Search
Figure 2.30: Search results for file type png
The common image file types are jpg, gif, tif, png, and bmp. Google
only indexes images of file type jpg, gif, and png. A search on file
type tif or bmp will return zero (that is, nada) search results. See
Figures 2.31 and 2.32 to see what nada search results looks like.
Google services
Figure 2.31: Search results for file type bmp
Figure 2.32: Search results for file type tif

Note that the suggestions to find a search match do not match the
search circumstances. The suggestions refer to the keyword(s) and
not the unsupported file type. The keyword, “flower,” is not the
issue; it is the search for a file type, tif, that Google does not sup-
port. Google would be more informative by telling the user to
search for a supported file type.
Additional image search issues are discussed in Chapter 7,
“Advanced Image Search.”
Google Labs
Google Labs is a showcase for ideas whose implementation is still
being developed. Google Labs is located at http://labs.google.com/.
(Bookmark it? Yes!) Google warns that these features are in the
development stage and may perform erratically. Google also warns
us that these features may disappear without warning. Everyone is
encouraged to report any issues regarding any feature to the spe-
cific Google developer responsible for the feature. A developer’s lab
is a fun place to visit. Come on, let’s have some fun!
. Note:
My experiments indicate that the features discussed in the follow-
ing sections do not use SafeSearch. You may, especially if you
search using the usual four-letter terms, see material intended for
“mature, adult audiences.”
Google News Alerts

News Alerts are useful for monitoring breaking news stories about
international, national, regional, or local hot topics including indus-
try or trade events, business and stock market issues, sporting
events, weather issues, celebrity and/or entertainment info, gov-
ernmental processes (new laws, regulations, elections, etc.),
defense/military issues, religious events, and any other category of
news you can imagine.
To begin receiving your News Alerts you must create a Google
News Alert. To do this, go to http://www.google.com/newsalerts.
(Bookmark it if you want to use it.) See Figure 2.33. Enter the topic
of interest in the News Search text box, then select the frequency
— either Once a day or As it happens — by left-clicking on the
down arrow of the How Often box and left-clicking on your choice.
Next, enter the e-mail address where you wish to receive the News
Alerts. Then, left-click on the Create News Alert button.
Google services
Figure 2.33: Google News Alerts
Next, you will receive a notification that a confirmation e-mail has

been sent to the e-mail address you specified when you created the
News Alert. See Figure 2.34. At this point, you can return to the
News Alerts page and add another topic or continue doing some-
thing else.
Figure 2.34: News Alert created
The confirmation e-mail you receive from Google will give you
three choices. You can verify the News Alert, cancel it, or return to
the Google News Alerts page. See Figure 2.35.
Figure 2.35: News Alerts verification e-mail

If you decide to cancel, left-click on the Cancel this News Alert

request link. You will see Figure 2.36. Either left-click on the
Return to the Google News Alerts home page link or go do some-
thing else.
Google services
Figure 2.36: News Alert canceled/discontinued
If you decide to verify the alert request, left-click on the Verify this
News Alert request link. You will see Figure 2.37.
Figure 2.37: News Alert verified
Left-click on the Return to the Google News Alerts home page…

link to set another News Alert, or go do something else.
Notice in Figure 2.37 that there is no means for canceling a news
alert after you have verified one. However, when you are notified
by Google of a news story, the e-mail will contain not only a link to
the story but also a link allowing you to discontinue the alert, if you
so desire.
Try it!
You can use advanced search features with the keywords/topics for
which you want to receive alerts. The Google News advanced
search page provides various ways to fine-tune a search to elimi-
nate unwanted results. You can incorporate the search criteria of
interest into your Google News Alerts settings. Select the criteria
you want on the Google News advanced search page, then left-click
the Google Search button. When the search results page appears,
copy the resulting text that appears in the query box on that page.
Paste it into the News Search text box on the Google News Alerts
home page.
Currently, there’s a limit of ten unverified News Alerts per e-mail

address. If you’ve reached your limit, you will receive an error mes-
sage, so check your e-mail and verify your pending News Alerts by
clicking on the verification link.
Google Compute
Google Compute enables your computer to share the computing
needs of some endeavor that Google has identified as worthwhile.
That is, Google Compute enables your computer to participate in
Google services
selected collaborative computing opportunities. Google reviews and
approves the collaborative computing opportunities. Such opportu-
nities include many scientific research projects that require huge
computing resources. Currently, Google has only approved one
opportunity, a nonprofit academic research project at Stanford Uni-
versity that is trying to understand the structure of proteins so that
better treatments for a number of illnesses can be developed. You
can find Google Compute at http://toolbar.google.com/dc/
offerdc.html. (Did you bookmark it?)
Figure 2.38: Google Compute installation

This is such a worthwhile endeavor that will benefit all of mankind,

and you can be a part of it simply by “loaning” a part of your com-
puter’s idle time to the project. Google Compute will install a
button on the Google Toolbar. By clicking the button, you can
enable or disable the collaborative computing program. To install
this button on the toolbar, left-click on the Install Google Compute
button at the bottom of the Google Compute page. The next four
figures show the installation process.
Figure 2.39: Google Toolbar installation
Over my DSL connection, it took about two minutes to download

the Google Toolbar.
In the dialog box
shown in Figure
2.40, click on Yes
to install the
toolbar.

Be patient. Even though the little green speed bars stop moving as
they approach the right side of their box, the download is still
progressing.
Google services
My firewall wanted to know if I would let the toolbar install pro-

gram access the Internet. I selected Yes, allow this time, as shown
in Figure 2.42.

firewall
Finally, the download is complete. Notice the new Google Toolbar at

the top of the page under the Address line. See Figures 2.43 and
2.44.
Figure 2.44: Google Toolbar
If you use your computer in an intense computing environment

(that is, if you have a lot of windows open and you are working your
processor to death or you are playing the latest whiz-bang game),
do not start Goggle Compute. Leave it off. Turn on Google Com-
pute only when you are not using the computer to do your work or
have fun. A good time to use it is after your work for the day is fin-
ished. Let the company pay for the little electricity that will be used
overnight. In that manner, the miserly curmudgeon of a boss you
work for will benefit mankind even against his or her wishes. Just
turn off your monitor so that you do not burn it out. For those
individuals with managed resources (boo-hoo!), ask your network

administrators to add the Google Toolbar, without necessarily spec-
ifying why you want or need the toolbar — other than it will
increase your productivity. You can outfox the foxes guarding the
henhouse!
Turn Google Compute on by clicking the double helix icon in the
Google Toolbar and selecting Start Computing from the drop-down
menu. See Figure 2.45. Turn it off by clicking on the double helix
icon and selecting Stop Computing. Easy, eh? Just a click before
Google services
you leave work (or go to bed if at home) and a click in the morning
before you start the day. Google Compute has just enabled every-
one in the country to be a hero or heroine.
. Note:
When you install Google Compute, it defaults to on.
Figure 2.45: Google Compute drop-down menu
Note the Switch to Conservative Mode option on the drop-down

menu. Google Compute includes two modes of operation. One is
standard mode, and the other is conservative mode. You may tend
to forget to turn Google Compute on or off at the end of the day. If
so, click on the conservative menu choice. Standard mode allows
the collaborative computing software to run in the background,
using computer cycles even while you are working at the computer.
Conservative mode, on the other hand, keeps the software from
running until it detects that you are not using the computer. The
detection mode that the software uses is the time passed since you
last hit a key on the keyboard or moved the mouse. The best choice
is to use conservative mode with Google Compute turned off when
you are working at the computer.
Google specifies the following requirements for running Google

Compute:
n Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
n Internet Explorer 5 or greater
n 64MB or higher amount of RAM
n The English version of the Google Toolbar
If you decide collaborative computing is not for you and you must
remove the Google Toolbar, enable Add/Remove Programs for your
machine. The steps to do this are operating system dependent. If
you need help, left-click on Start in the Windows toolbar. Select
Help and search on “Add/Remove Programs.” Once you have the
dialog box open (see Figure 2.46), select Google Toolbar for
Internet Explorer. Left-click on Add/Remove. Then follow the
remaining instructions that appear in the dialog boxes.
Figure 2.46: Removing the Google

Toolbar
There is an excellent Google Compute FAQ page at http://tool-

bar.google.com/dc/faq_dc.html#using1. (Did you bookmark it?)
Install Google Compute and help the world!
Google Viewer
Google Viewer is a Google experiment to show you the search
results in a scrolling slide show. Google Viewer is located at
http://labs.google.com/gviewer.html. (Bookmark it now!) Google
Viewer displays the web pages found in a search as an image in the
slide show. Each image, or “slide,” is accompanied by a short text
description. Figure 2.47 shows the Google Viewer page. Note that
this Google Labs feature is not integrated into the general suite of
Google Services.
Google services
Figure 2.47: Google Viewer
To check out Google Viewer, I searched on “flower.” The search

results seem to be the same as the results I get using Google’s
basic search tool (http://www.google.com/). The slide show uses
standard audio/video icons for the start, stop, rewind, and fast-
forward controls. See Figure 2.48. The control icons are placed just
above the web page text in a sleek toolbar. You can speed up the
slide show by left-clicking on the rabbit icon on the right side of the
toolbar or slow it down by left-clicking on the turtle.
Figure 2.48: Google Viewer search results
There are a couple of requirements for Google Viewer:

n JavaScript enabled
n PC and Mac: Internet Explorer 5 and above or Netscape 6 and
above
n Unix: Mozilla
Go ahead — experiment and have some fun!
Google WebQuotes
When I first saw Google WebQuotes, I jumped to the conclusion
that it was just another stock market quoting service. Boy, was I
wrong! Google WebQuotes adds links to pages that comment on the
web pages in your search results. This is a really neat way to find
out what other people are saying about web sites. Google Web-
Quotes is found at http://labs.google.com/cgi-bin/webquotes.
(Bookmark it? If you like to read what other people say about your
favorite web pages, including your own, then yes; otherwise, no.)
You can view all WebQuotes for a given or particular site by search-
ing on that web site’s keywords. To find out what people say about
eBay, just search on “eBay.”
To check out Google WebQuotes, I entered “travel hawaii” in the
query box and left-clicked on Google WebQuotes Search. The
result is shown in Figure 2.49. The first search result is “Hawaii
Vacations Vacation Packages.” To the right of the first search result
is a link to two WebQuotes. Since I had selected 10 in the Find up
to text box, the two WebQuotes are displayed directly under the
Google services
search result (not visible in the figure).
Figure 2.49: Google WebQuotes
In another example, not shown, I searched on “civil war.” The first

result, “The American Civil War Homepage,” had 41 WebQuotes.
When I clicked on the 41 WebQuotes link, all 41 quotes were dis-
played underneath the search result. I am not sure why the Find up
to box is limited to 10, yet 41 WebQuotes were displayed for this
example.
Is there a web site that you love? Go ahead and search for it and
find out if others love it as much as you do. Hate a site? Search for
it and see if you are not alone. Do you own a site? Search for your
site and see what people are saying about it. Are you interested in
making a purchase from a web site but reluctant because the site’s
reputation is unknown to you? You can quickly determine a site’s
credibility by using Google WebQuotes.
I wanted to find out what people were saying about me on the web,
so I keyed in my name in the query box and hit the WebQuotes
search button. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), there were no
search results. However, if I search on my name in the basic Google
query box, I get 58,100 hits. So Google filters the search results in
some manner. To discover what Google uses as search criteria, I
next searched on the name of a favorite actor: Mel Gibson. I
received a few hits, and from looking at them, it appears Google
WebQuotes only returns search results when the keywords are in
the web page’s title.
This is another one of those “it’s fun to experiment with” features
of Google. Try your hand at it by searching on various company
names. Find out what friends and foes are saying about the com-
pany you or your competition works for. Search on such companies
as IBM, EDS, Microsoft, Ford, GM, and Martha Stewart. Enjoy.
Google Glossary
Google Glossary returns definitions and related words and phrases
of the keyword searched on.
Google Glossary is found at http://labs.google.com/glossary. (Book-
mark!) Figure 2.50 shows the Google Glossary page. Enter the
keyword in the query box, and left-click on Google Glossary
Search.
Google services
Figure 2.50: Google Glossary
I tested the word “travel” and received the result shown in Figure
2.51. Note that the definition is from a web site’s glossary. The
other definitions not shown were from various web sites also. In
other words, the definitions are not from a Google-owned or -main-
tained web site.
Figure 2.51: Google Glossary search results
This is a useful site that should be in your bookmarks!

Be aware that SafeSearch does not work on this Google site.
Google Sets
Google Sets will use the keywords that you enter to “predict” a set
of related items. This feature seems to be a primitive thesaurus.
Google Sets is found at http://labs.google.com/sets. (Don’t bother to
bookmark.) The Google Sets page is shown in Figure 2.52.
Google services
Figure 2.52: Google Sets
To see how it works, place a few keywords in the text boxes, one
keyword per box. Then left-click either the Large Set button or the
Small Set (15 items or fewer) button. The results are displayed in a
new window. I tested the two keywords “cup” and “saucer.” The
result was a list of eating appliances, such as spoon, fork, knife,
plate, etc. I tested several other related keywords, and the results
were not impressive. To be honest, I much prefer my Roget’s
Thesaurus.
Google Voice Search

Google Voice Search permits you to call a Google phone number
and enter your keyword(s) verbally. The search result is displayed
on your computer. The Voice Search page is located at http://
labs1.google.com/gvs.html. (Bookmark? Definitely not.) Note that a
toll call must be placed to utilize this feature. The Voice Search
page is shown in Figure 2.53.
Figure 2.53: Google Voice Search
Instructions to use this feature are displayed on the Voice Search

page. They are self-explanatory and easy to follow.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard Shortcuts is a page detailing the Google shortcut keys
that you can use when searching using the Keyboard Shortcuts
query box. Keyboard shortcuts do not work in a search from the
Google basic and advanced search pages. If you try to use them
from another search site, you may experience the immediate termi-
nation of your browser. Keyboard Shortcuts is located at http://
labs.google.com/keys/index.html. (Bookmark? Maybe.) Keyboard
shortcuts allow you to scroll through search results without taking

your hands off the keyboard.
Table 2.1: Keyboard shortcut keys
Shortcut Key Function

A Search again
C View Google’s cached page
I Scroll up
J Move to the left
Google services
K Scroll down
L Move to the right
N Next page
P Previous page
S Similar pages
Enter Follow link
Backspace Return to search results page
Alt + left arrow Return to search results page (Netscape 6 only)
0-9 View corresponding result (0 = tenth result)
? or / Displays a help page detailing the shortcut keys
When you press any key for the first time, an icon is displayed
( ). Press K to begin scrolling down. Have fun.
. Note:
Press L to move the icon over to the paid advertising on the right
side of the browser window. Press J to move back to the search
results.
. Note:
Java scripts must be enabled. If you have a pop-up killer active,
including Google’s own toolbar pop-up killer, Keyboard Short-
cuts will not work.
To search from the Keyboard Shortcuts page, the system require-

ments are:
n Internet Explorer 5+, Netscape 6, or Mozilla

n JavaScript enabled
n Cookies enabled (optional)
n For Macintosh, Google recommends Netscape 6 or Mozilla.
Google Keyboard Shortcuts is not fully functional on Mac
Internet Explorer.
Shortcuts are fun to play with but not very useful to a mouse-
dependent computer user like me. However, if you like keyboard
shortcuts, this is just the thing. Power users who can remember
shortcut keys find them much quicker to use than the mouse.
Google News
Google News is located at http://news.google.com/. (Bookmark it
for sure!) Instead of one source for a story, Google News provides
news stories from many different sources (as many as 4,500), so
you get different perspectives of an event. Google News is much
better than a single-viewpoint newspaper. The sources include
newspapers, news services such as CNN, and wire services such as
UPI. Google News organizes the news by categories. See Figure
2.54.
Figure 2.54: Google News

A nice feature of Google News is the ability to search within the

news stories or the entire web. A search query box with search
buttons are positioned at the top of the Google News web page.
Simply enter your keyword(s) into the query box and choose your
search preference.
I suggest that you try Google News as your home page. Then,
every time you open your browser, you are presented with the cur-
rent top stories of the moment. To make Google News your home
page, left-click on the Make Google News Your Homepage link on
Google services
the left side of the Google News page.
Finally, if you have dial-up Internet access, you may want to speed
things up a bit by selecting a text version of Google News. Google
provides a link on the left side of the Google News page to view the
text version.
Google Special Searches

Google Special Searches confines a search to a particular topic.
Google Special Searches is located at http://www.google.com/
options/specialsearches.html. (Yes, bookmark it!) The topics of
Google Special Searches are:
n U.S. government
n Colleges and universities
n Linux
n BSD
n Apple Macintosh
n Microsoft
Figure 2.55: Google Special Searches
To search any of these special topics, just left-click on the link iden-
tifying the topic. I found the U.S. Government Special Searches to
be very informative and entertaining. Find out what the govern-
ment is talking about and doing by searching on keywords such as
“legislation,” “vote,” “Clinton,” “revolution,” “war,” “White
House,” “Army,” “Navy,” “Marine Corps,” “Air Force,” and “Iraq.”
Are you tired of foul language in the media? Want to find out what
the government is saying about obscene words used in the media?
Just key in the word of interest and left-click on Google Search. See
Figure 2.56.
Google services
Figure 2.56: Google Special Searches
Google University Search

Google University Search is an alphabetical listing of colleges and
universities where you can select one to search. See Figure 2.57.
Google University Search is located at http://www.google.com/
options/universities.html. (Bookmark it — even if you have no col-
lege-age or -bound children. Your niece, nephew, or neighbor might
need the help.) This is a powerful tool for recruiters and salespeo-
ple. They can use the search feature to mine e-mail addresses and
other contact information, such as telephone numbers. Then, using
whatever piece of information they have acquired (e-mail addresses
or telephone numbers), they can do a reverse lookup to determine
other contact information. It also lets you impress the prospective
candidate by feeding back information that you have found in your
research. Everyone likes to boast about the university that they
graduated from.
Figure 2.57: Google University Search
After you select a college/university to search for from the list,

click on the college/university name, and you will be taken to the
search page containing the search query box. See Figure 2.58. Key
in your search word(s) and then left-click on Google Search.
Figure 2.58: Google University Search
Google University Search is useful for zeroing in on your search

objectives if you are looking for college/university information. A
search restricted to the specific college/university domain (if you
know the college/university domain name) will accomplish the
same task as Google University Search. Performing a domain-
restricted search is discussed in Chapter 5, “Advanced Google
Search Techniques.”
Google Web Directory

Google Web Directory is a yellow pages-style directory of web
sites. Listings are segregated by category and subcategory. The
directory indexes virtually every conceivable type of web page,
including personal, business, commercial, government, academic,
institutions, and not-for-profit organizations. Web Directory Search
is located at http://directory.google.com/. (Bookmark it!)
Google services
Figure 2.59: Google Directory
The content of Google’s directory comes from the Open Directory

Project (http://dmoz.org/). The Open Directory Project is a direc-
tory service staffed by volunteer editors from around the world.
Open Directory differs from Yahoo in that Open Directory charges
no fee to list a URL or site (yahoo!). Open Directory accepts any
web site listing that meets its modest criteria (nothing illegal, slan-
derous, etc.).
You navigate through the directory by clicking on the colored links

to go down the tree and using your browser button to go back up
the tree. It is simple and easy to use.
Google Web Search

Google Web Search is the Google home page located at http://
www.google.com. (Yes, bookmark it!) See Figure 2.60.
Figure 2.60: Google’s web search page
Google Web Search is Google’s graphical user interface that is pow-

ered by the Google web search technology behind the scenes.
Google Web Search searches 3 billion web pages that Google spi-
ders have indexed for your search word(s) and returns the number
of matches it finds with links to the first 1,000 or so pages ranked in
order of “link popularity” by PageRank. Recall from Chapter 1 that
Google’s search technology ranks pages according to “link popular-
ity,” and Google calls the software that performs that task
PageRank.
To use Google Web Search to mine your nugget of information, you
key your query words into the query box. Then left-click Google
Search.
Google Search will return a list of web pages found by Google’s

search engine in a results page. The number of links that Google
finds for any given search is dependent, of course, upon the number
of web pages containing the search words and the number of those
pages that the Google spiders have indexed. However, if you left-
click on the I’m Feeling Lucky button, your browser is taken to the
web site that Google has ranked as number 1. You bypass the
results page and go directly to the numero uno web site. I hope you
do not click this button too often, as this approach to finding infor-
Google services
mation empowers Google with the opportunity to play games with
everyone’s searches.
To illustrate Google Web Search, I keyed in the word “Iraq” (with-
out the quotes) and left-clicked on the Google Search button. The
results of this search query are shown in Figure 2.61.
Figure 2.61: Search results (top) page
This is about as simple as web searching can get. Just plug in the
words, and select Google Search! The search results page, how-
ever, is not so simple. A lot of information is packed onto the page,
and a searcher with low blood pressure knows what that informa-
tion means to him or her. If you have search-induced blood pressure
issues, then read the following information carefully and make sure
that you understand what is being discussed. Your path to search
nirvana is here.
The top of the results page displays links to other Google features,
as shown in Figure 2.61. Below the Google links is another search
box that you can use to search the web again for other keywords;
there is no need to return to the previous page to begin a new
search. Below the search box there are a couple of framed lines of
messages and tips. You are told what range of search results you
are viewing. In this case, we are looking at results 1-100 of “about
21,300,000.”
We are told that the search performed with SafeSearch turned on
took 0.69 seconds.
We can go to the Preferences page and set the number of pages to
view and also turn SafeSearch off/on. We discuss setting Prefer-
ences in the next chapter. Below the message and tips bar, we are
advised in what category we can find the search topic in Google’s
directory. Below the category listing, we find links to recent news
stories regarding the search topic “Iraq.” Below the News tag, we
have the web pages identified by the search.
. Note:
The search results include the titles, Google Web Directory cate-
gories, and domain names of the found web pages that have a
match somewhere within the page to the keywords.
When we scroll to the bottom of the search results page, we find

several interesting and useful things. There is a Result Page line
that allows you to move to another set of search results. Since we
are looking at 100 search results per Google results page, each
number in the Result Page line represents 100 more pages in our
search results. Just click on any number (2 through 10 in this case)
to see the additional results. Keep in mind that PageRank has cho-
sen these links to web pages out of the 21,300,000 total pages
found and sorted them into the ranking shown. Left-clicking on
Next will select the next page displaying another rank-ordered 100
search result links.
Below the Result Page line is another search box. This search box
does not initiate a new search of the entire web. Instead, it allows
you to search within the results already found. This is a good way to
narrow your search focus and quickly zero in on a web page con-
taining the specific information that you are seeking. However, I
find that it is not necessary to go this extra step after you gain a
modicum of web searching savvy.
Google services
Figure 2.62: Search results (bottom) page
Below the search box are Google messages and links. If you have
not previously installed the Google Toolbar, you will see a link (not
shown in Figure 2.62) to the toolbar at the bottom of the page. The
Google Toolbar is useful, and I suggest that you try it. Just click on
the Get the Google Toolbar link and follow the instructions.
Unemployed? Or looking for another job? Click on the Jobs link in
the bottom right-hand side of the window. This link is a Google
resource and might land you your dream job at Google.
Wireless
Wireless is a web page instructing people who connect to the
Internet via their cell phones, Palm hand-helds and organizers, and
the Handspring Organizer how to connect to Google. Wireless is
found at http://www.google.com/options/wireless.html. (If your cell
phone company charges as much as mine for wireless access, then
don’t bookmark it.)
Figure 2.63: Wireless page
If you desire to connect to Google via any of the methods men-

tioned above, visit the Wireless site for instructions on how to
connect.
Summary
Google is feature rich, offering numerous products and services to
the user. Many of these features, such as Froogle, Google Answers,
Google Catalogs, and Google Labs, are not offered by competitors.
While some of the elements of these products and services are
incomplete, Google is sure to get the bugs worked out in the near
future. In just a short period of time, Google has become the leader
Google services
in offering web-based information services in addition to its search
engine and directory services. Considering the web’s youth, it is
exciting to think what Google may bring to the information market-
place in the future.
Chapter 3
Google
Preferences
Introduction
In the previous chapter, we discussed Google features in some
depth. Most Google features are not closely coupled to Google’s
search engine, but rather they are stand-alone products. On the
other hand, Google Preferences is closely coupled to the search
engine. Preferences is very useful for organizing and displaying the
search results. Preferences provides a means for us to enhance our
search experience by customizing certain search features. So on to
Preferences!
Preferences
Google provides a Preferences web page where you can customize
your search choices. Google’s Preferences web page is found at
http://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en or by left-clicking the
Preferences link to the right of the search box on the Google home
page. The choices on the Preferences page are:
107
108 Chapter 3 / Google Preferences
n Interface Language
n Search Language
n SafeSearch Filtering
n Number of Results
n Results Window
Figure 3.1: Preferences page
Interface Language gives you the choice of the language in which

you prefer to view Google messages, tips, and text. This choice
does not translate web pages.
Search Language lets you choose the language in which web pages
are written. Note that this is not a domain-restricted search. In
Chapter 3 / Google Preferences 109
other words, selecting German will result in a search of all web

pages written in the German language, regardless of the physical
location of the web page. So, a web page written in German that is
located on a server in the United States will be a part of the search
results, as will web pages written in German located on a server in
Germany. A web page written in English and located on a German
server will not be a part of the search results.
SafeSearch Filtering allows you to control the level of sexual con-
tent to which you are exposed in your search results. The three
levels are no filtering, moderate filtering, and strict filtering.
Number of Results allows you to set the number of search results
displayed per web page. The choices are 10, 20, 30, 50, and 100.
The greater the number of search results per page, the less clicking
you must do to see all of the results. I prefer to view 100 at a time.
In that manner, I can quickly scroll through the approximately 1,000
Google preferences
search results that Google provides.
. Note:
I do not like the 1,000-result limitation. Before Google, several
search engines that I used allowed me to view every single
search result. I liked that, as I sometimes found a very useful
piece of information far beyond the 1,000 limit. That is, I did not
look at thousands of search results (say every result from 1,000
to 10,000); I just hopped around in the hinterlands to see what I
could find. I found interesting and entertaining information far
beyond the 1,000-result limit.
The goal of search engines and this book is, of course, to reduce the
search issue to a time-efficient solution so we do not spend hours
(or even minutes) finding the answer to a question. But there is
another popular aspect of searching that does not reduce to a quick
fix for a problem (answers to questions). The popular aspect I am
talking about is recreational searching.
We have many interests in life, such as hobbies and other forms of
recreation. Many of us enjoy searching the web and reading about
those interests. Individuals and small companies with home pages
containing information of special interest can get blown over the
1,000-result wall, and you will never get the opportunity to read
what they have to say. This 1,000-result wall is the same as a
library telling you that you can only have five books about a subject.
That’s it. That’s all you will ever get to read, even though there are
hundreds of books written on the subject. So, your total exposure
to the subject is confined to those five books, and the library
chooses those five, not you. Does that sound kind of intimidating?
It is exactly the same situation with search engines limiting what
search results we can view. Search engines have become the portal
to the information library, and they are now, in effect, telling us
what we can and cannot see. They are also saying, in a manner,
“Trust me.” Scary, isn’t it? Our search mantra should be: No limits!
Results Window selects a new browser window to display search
results. This option can be useful if you perform multiple searches
and do not want to lose the search result from one or more previous
searches. However, there is a trade-off. Every time you open a new
window, you are consuming machine resources. If you open too
many windows, your computer is going to respond slowly to com-
mands. How many is too many? Only you can judge that, as the
number is based upon the configuration of your specific machine. If
you have a fairly new machine and a whopping amount of physical
memory, you may never notice any change in performance, regard-
less of the number of windows open. But if you are still utilizing an
older machine, you may find that just a few windows bog down per-
formance. Experiment and find out what your machine’s limitations
are.
When you change your preferences and left-click on Save Prefer-
ences, you naturally expect your browser to recall those exact
preferences when you go back to the Preferences web page. How-
ever, some browsers may not. I use IE 6.0, and it does not actually
save my preferences until I close the browser. When I return to the
Preferences page, the old settings are displayed, not the new set-
tings I chose in the last visit.
These Preferences options are discussed in great detail in the fol-
lowing subsections.
Interface Language
Google can display its own tips and messages in any one of 89 dif-
ferent languages. To select a language other than whatever default
is selected (English in most cases), go to http://www.google.com/
preferences?hl=en. Left-click on the Interface Language drop-
down menu and select the language you prefer. Be sure to select
Save Preferences, or the next time you open Google the default
language will be used.
Google preferences
Figure 3.2: Selecting the interface language

Search Language
You can search Google for web pages written in any one of 35 dif-
ferent languages.
This is not a search restricted to any domain. In other words, if you
selected Portuguese and then performed a basic search, Google
would search every web page that it has indexed written in Portu-
guese, regardless of the physical location of the web page. To
perform a search for web pages in a language other than English, go
to the Preferences page at http://www.google.com/preferences?hl=
en or select the Preferences link on the Google home page. See
Figure 3.3. Note the default Search Language setting is Search for
pages written in any language. Now select the language of interest.
If you want to search more than once, select Save Preferences.
Figure 3.3: Selecting the search language
For an example, I chose to select German and search for the word
“Berlin.” My search results are shown in Figure 3.4. Notice the
search results are pages written in German, but Google tips and
messages are still displayed in English. While viewing the Prefer-
ences page, we forgot to select German in the Interface Language
section. So, let’s go back and select German as the interface lan-
guage and perform the search again. See Figure 3.5. Again, select
Save Preferences if this is a choice you want to use more than once.
We perform the search again, and now we have Google tips, mes-
sages, and web pages all in the same language, German. See Figure
3.6.
Google preferences
Figure 3.4: Google search of German pages only
Figure 3.5: Changing the interface language to German

Figure 3.6: Google search of German pages only with Google page in
German
SafeSearch Filtering
When searching the Internet, you are at risk of exposure to porno-
graphic material, including web sites, images, and other explicit
sexual content. Perhaps your sensibilities are such that you would
prefer not to see such material. SafeSearch is a software filter
intended to keep pornographic web sites, images, and explicit sex-
ual content from appearing in your search results.
There are three levels of SafeSearch filtering:
n Do not filter — This is self-explanatory; what you see is what
you get!
n Moderate filtering — Excludes most explicit images from
Image Search results.
n Strict filtering — Applies SafeSearch filtering to all search
results (web pages and images).
Depending upon the level of filtering you have selected, all, some,
or none of the filtered sites will appear in your search results.
Google makes the disclaimer that “while no filter is 100% accurate

Google’s filter uses advanced proprietary technology that checks
keywords and phrases, URLs and Open Directory categories.”
Google’s warning concerning what you may see when viewing
images is also applicable to the results you may get when searching
for any material on the web.
This disclaimer is necessary for several reasons. You should be
aware that there is an ongoing struggle between search engine
Google preferences
designers and web-based pornographers, one trying to keep adult
material from appearing in search results and the other trying to
place their material in every search possible. So, regardless of
Google’s best intentions, you will (if you do any amount of search-
ing) come across such material from time to time. Please be
sympathetic to the Herculean task of keeping such objectionable
material out of search results.
The three levels of filtering are strict, moderate, and none. Strict
filtering will filter both images and text-based material. Moderate
filtering only filters images, while none does not filter text or
images. You can adjust SafeSearch settings from the Preferences
page, the Advanced Search page, and the Advanced Image Search
page. You can only save your choices on the Preferences page. You
set your choices on the other two pages on a search-by-search
basis. The default is no filtering.
I found that with the particular version of Internet Explorer I use, I
had to close all Internet Explorer windows and then open a new
browser window for my preferences to be activated and SafeSearch
to work.
Let’s try a search using the word “sex” as the test word. We enter
the test word in the search query box with SafeSearch off and hit
the Search button. The search returns “about 8,780,000” results.
See Figure 3.7. Now, let’s do it again with SafeSearch on. The
results are totally unexpected — 8,500,000 hits. See Figure 3.8.
Hmm…one would think a filtering program with “sex” as the test
word would return very few search results.
Figure 3.7: Search results without SafeSearch
Figure 3.8: Search results with SafeSearch
Okay, every good search engine can have a “bad hair day.” I per-
formed the same experiment the following day using “sex” as the
test word, and the results stunned even me. See Figure 3.9.
Figure 3.9: Search results without SafeSearch
I received an incredible 203,000,000 hits! Sex must be a popular

topic on the Internet, eh? It’s not just us men talking about it,
either! I checked a random sample of sites in the first 1,000 results
and discovered many sites were pornographic, but many sites were
also directed toward women’s sex-related issues.
Okay, back to the issue at hand. We received an amazing 195 million
more hits by waiting a day between searches. What is going on
here? Did 195 million web pages get added to the Internet in one
day? I don’t think so! Then what is the explanation for the 250 per-
cent increase in web sites? The first search that I performed
yielded 8,780,000 results and was allotted 0.23 seconds, while the
second search was allotted 0.27 seconds. The first set of searches
(with and without SafeSearch on) was performed on a Friday morn-

ing. The second set of searches was performed on a Saturday
morning. This means the low-level software search routines work-
ing without benefit of union representation or compensation for
your exclusive benefit can identify more web pages on weekends
than weekdays. The point is, Google traffic is lighter on a Saturday
morning than it is on a Friday morning, allowing the low-level rou-
tines more machine cycles per search to find keyword matches.
Figure 3.10: Search results with SafeSearch and strict filtering
Notice that even with strict filtering set in the Preferences page, a
search on the word “sex” still returns “about” 197 million results.
Want to guess how many of those sites contain sexually explicit
material? Me neither.
Google preferences
If we have 197,000,000 web pages as a result of searching on “sex,”
what material will SafeSearch filter? SafeSearch does block the
obvious four-letter-type word searches. I will not list the words
here, but I imagine you know which ones I mean. When you key in
a filtered four-letter (or five or six, etc.) word, you will receive the
message, “No standard web pages containing all your search terms
were found.”
Unless we have children around, it is not this type of filtering that
we are really interested in. After all, most of us control our own
behavior, and if we want, we can avoid keying in four-letter words.
We are more interested in blocking web pages containing offensive
material when we search using what we believe are innocent
terms. SafeSearch attempts to filter web pages in this type of
search, but Google emphasizes on its web site that SafeSearch fil-
tering is not 100 percent foolproof.
Number of Results
The Number of Results drop-down menu allows you to select the
number of results that you want displayed on each search results
page. As shown in Figure 3.11 you can choose 10, 20, 30, 50, or
100. I cannot think of any good reason to choose a number less than
100.
Figure 3.11: Number of Results option
When you choose less than 100, you just have to click more often
to get the remainder of the results. Save yourself some clicking and
go for the max!
Results Window
The Results Window option, shown in Figure 3.12, lets you choose
whether the search results will open in a new browser window.
This is convenient if you are doing multiple searches or if you just
like to open everything in a new window so you do not have to use
the browser’s Back button.
Figure 3.12: Results Window option
If you want to open a new browser window every time you search,
left-click in the box adjacent to Open search results in a new
browser window. Left-click on the box again to clear your choice.
Save Preferences
Be sure to left-click on the Save Preferences button before you exit
the Preferences window. See Figure 3.13.
Figure 3.13: Save Preferences button
. Note:
Cookies must be enabled in your browser in order to save your
preferences. When you click on Save Preferences, you will get a
message that says your preferences have been saved. See Figure
3.14. Left-click on OK to move on to your search. After you click
on OK, Google will display its home page where you can begin
your search.
Google preferences
Figure 3.14: Confirming that preferences have been saved
On my computer and my version of Internet Explorer (IE), I had to

close IE and then reopen it to get all of the preferences to change to
the new choices.
Summary
Google Preferences includes several search options that allow you
to customize your search experience. Visit Preferences early in
your search and set the options to suit your sensibilities and search
needs. Be sure to save your selections.
Chapter 4
Basic Google
Search
Techniques
Introduction
Before we could really begin our discussion on searching, we
needed to understand what search services Google provides. Now
that we have reviewed Google Services in Chapter 2 and we know
how to set our preferences, we are ready to do a little serious
searching. Recall from Chapter 1 that 29 percent of us are “very
frustrated” when we search the web for our nugget of information.
Also, 77 percent of us experience some degree of frustration. The
reason so many of us are frustrated is that we do not use the wide
variety of tools available to assist us in our searches. We just per-
form a very basic search and then sit there staring at the hundreds
of thousands of search results we get and ponder which one of
those innumerable URLs has the information we seek. We are now
going to study the tools that will remove searching the Internet
from the realm of Colchis (frustration) to the land of Iolcus
(nirvana).
121
122 Chapter 4 / Basic Google Search Techniques
Let’s examine the Google home page for a moment so that we are
on the same page (literally speaking). The Google home page is
shown in Figure 4.1.
Figure 4.1: Google home page
The query box, also called the search box, is shown in Figure 4.2.
This is the box where you enter the keywords. You may enter as
many words as you like, up to a maximum of 256 characters.
Figure 4.2: Google query box
After you key in the search words, you left-click on the

button. After a moment, the search results page will
be displayed. The search results page contains hyperlinks to web
pages containing the search criteria that you specified.
Alternately, if you want to view only the first search result, you can
left-click on to go to that web page.
When you are buried in the midst of search results and decide that
you want to go back to the Google home page,
just left-click on the Google icon:
Chapter 4 / Basic Google Search Techniques 123
and you will find yourself back home! Now on to the good stuff.
There are three fundamental types of searches that one may per-
form when searching the Internet or the web, or some portion of
either. For simplicity’s sake, from now on I refer to searching the
Internet, the web, or some portion of either simply as “searching
the web,” unless a specific reference is required to understand the
context of the reference. There is the simple search, the basic
search, and the advanced search. When searching the web, we typi-
cally key the text that we are searching for in the search box and
then hit the Google Search button. This type of search is referred
to as a simple keyword search, regardless of how much text is
keyed into the query box. A simple keyword search (from now on
called a simple search) typically yields thousands, if not millions, of
search results. Few people have time to review the first 200 search
results, so it is not likely that anyone is going to take on 10,000
search results. However, note that Google provides access to the
first 1,000 search results only.
The next type of search is called the basic search. A basic search
employs a few basic operators within the text string with the objec-
tive of including wanted, or excluding unwanted, material. The
advanced search has the same objectives as the basic search,
namely to include or exclude specific material, but it differs from
the basic search in the quantity, range, and complexity of its opera-
tors. We discuss advanced searches in the next chapter. basic Google search
None of the search operators, tools, and services used in a Google

search are complicated in terms of your ability to understand how
to employ them. In fact, they are very comprehensible. They are
only complex in terms of how Google’s search engine uses them to
identify the results that you are searching for. Fortunately for us,
we do not have to have a software developer’s understanding of
search engines to effectively use the operators and tools available
to us. We begin delving into the search operators and tools by
examining a simple search.
Figure 4.3 illustrates a simple search on the keywords “cheap air

fare.” This search will return around 246,000 results. See Figure
4.4.
Figure 4.3: A simple search
Figure 4.4: Results of a simple search
Obviously, simple searching is not the way to information nirvana.

In fact, simple searching is the cause of most web search
frustration.
From this point forward, we are going to work on developing addi-
tional search skills that will reduce or even totally eliminate your
search frustration by increasing the accuracy of your searches. We
accomplish this by employing basic search operators, also called
search modifiers, in the search criteria. You can think of basic search
operators as filters that prevent unwanted URLs from appearing in
your search results, giving you better quality search results than
ever before. If you employ even a few of the basic search operators
in your everyday searches, you will soon find that you seldom, if
ever, experience search rage again.
There are several classes of basic search operators. Boolean and
arithmetic search operators are similar, while text operators are in
a unique class of their own. Boolean and arithmetic operators
employ Boolean or their equivalent mathematical expressions in
the search criteria. Depending upon the application (Google or
some other search engine), Boolean or arithmetic operators may be
employed but not both.
When I mention quality from this point forward, I am not talking
about the graphical presentation of the material but rather the qual-
ity of the information related to the search query. In other words,
the quality of the search results has nothing to do with how pleas-
ing the material may be presented to you in its graphical format but
how well the information contained in the web page relates to the
text you searched on. A high-quality page will contain more than
one reference to the search text, and the search text will be the
subject matter of the page. The query words you searched are the
reason the web page exists. Google does play around with its rank
listings some in order to favor certain organizations or types of
organizations, so search results are not set in concrete.
Keywords
We need to discuss searching the web for a moment before we
examine search operators. One simple act can reduce the frustra-
tion that most people feel when searching the web to a fairly
manageable level. It is so simple that you may wonder why some-
one must write a book to advise people about it. However, the vast
majority of people have little or no experience searching for infor-
mation, especially searching for information on the web. That is
why 77 percent of us are frustrated when we search! But the sim-
ple act of stopping for a moment and thinking about what it is you
are trying to find when you have a search need will save you con-
basic Google search
siderable time and frustration.
An example of a search need would be to assist a child with a his-
tory homework assignment. I will use an example from my own
experience. I receive numerous questions from moms, dads, and
schoolchildren regarding the American Civil War, as a result of own-
ing an American Civil War web site. A typical question is, “Where
and when was the first Civil War battle fought?”
This question when posed to a human being is understandable, and
a knowledgeable individual could easily answer the question. How-
ever, such a question posed to a search engine would result in many
thousands of erroneous search results. This is because of the way
search engines parse (connect) text strings. When a search engine
sees the text string “When was the first American Civil War battle
fought” with the quotes, it will return only those pages, not with
the answer but with a list of pages that posed the same question!
Repeat the search without the quotes, and every web page that
included the terms “first,” “American,” “civil,” “war,” “battle,” and
“fought” anywhere within the contents of the page, including the
title and page body, would be identified as a valid search result.
When we examine the question, we find several terms that are
extremely important to the nature of the question. The terms
“American,” “civil,” “war,” “first,” “battle,” and “fought” are known
as keywords. The verb (“was”), adverb (“when”), article (“the”),
and conjunction (“and”) in the question are superfluous. By remov-
ing verbs, adverbs, articles, conjunctions, gerunds, and pronouns,
you focus on your true search objectives with a resulting increase
in the quality of your search results. From this discussion, you may
determine that keywords tend to be nouns and adjectives. The abil-
ity to zero in on important keywords is critical to successfully
reaching search nirvana.
Google ignores some common words, single characters, and single
digits. Obviously, ignoring adverbs, articles, and conjunctions is
almost a necessity. If Google has ignored an entry in the search
text, it indicates so by displaying the appropriate details on the
results page below the search box as in Figure 4.5. The informative
message, “‘where’ is a very common word and was not included in
your search,” is a typical message whenever a word is ignored.
Figure 4.5: Ignoring a common word
Leaving out common words in your search text results in a faster

search but not necessarily a higher-quality search result. In any
case, common words are not keywords, and keywords are the key
to successful searching. Now we are armed with enough
information about simple and basic searches to move on to our first

and simplest basic operator.
The Quote (") Operator

Perhaps the simplest basic search operator is the quote ("). It is a
text operator. By placing quotes around your text, you “combine”
the words into a phrase. Searches on phrases return only those
URLs that contain that exact phrase either in the title, the URL, or
the body of the page.
In the following basic search example, the words “civil war” with-
out the quotes will return over three million search results.
Figure 4.6: A search on Civil War
Figure 4.7: Results of a search on Civil War
There are too many results because every web page in the world
basic Google search
with the word “civil” or “war” is returned in the results. But, we
are really interested in the American Civil War. So, let’s search
again using the quotes around the search text. See Figure 4.8.
Figure 4.8: A “civil war” search
The number of search results that we get with “civil war” (with the
quotes) is 1,950,000. I think that number of search results is still
too many for me to review in a day or two. But we have eliminated
about 1.5 million search results by applying a simple “basic” search
operator. We are making progress.
Figure 4.9: “Civil war” search results
Google may find a large number of web sites, but you can only
access approximately the first 685 pages found unless you click on
Repeat the search with the omitted results included. This link is
only available when you go to the last result page — page 9 in this
instance. See Figure 4.10. After you click on the link shown in Fig-
ure 4.10, you will have access to the first 985 or so results. My
experiments show that the number of pages you can view varies
from search to search, ranging anywhere from 750 to 1,000
maximum.
Figure 4.10: “Civil war” search results
Note that a search of “civil war” on Yahoo returns only 571 view-
able results. If Yahoo is “powered” by Google, then why the
differing search results? I cannot answer that question at the
moment.
Now, let’s think about our search for a moment. What Civil War are
we interested in? The French Civil War (revolution)? The Russian
Civil War? How about the American Civil War? The search results
that we have obtained so far will include every web page that con-
tains the phrase “civil war.” But we are only interested in the
American Civil War, so let’s search on that phrase. See Figure 4.11.
Figure 4.11: An “American Civil War” search
The results that we get when we search on “American Civil War”

are shown in Figure 4.12. The 243,000 results represent only those
URLs that contain the phrase “American Civil War” somewhere
within the web page. The use of capital letters in this search query
is for instructional purposes only. The same results are obtained
regardless of capitalization since Google is not sensitive to
capitalization.
The results we obtain for an “American Civil War” search is much
more manageable than just a search on “civil war.” But 243,000
search results are still too many to view.
Figure 4.12: “American Civil War” search results
If 243,000 search results are still too many for you to peruse, other
advanced search operators may be combined with the quote opera-
tor to further reduce the number of search results.
Perhaps this is a good place to interject a side note about searching basic Google search
the web. To reduce the number of search results as much as possi-
ble, it is advisable for you to consider what it is that you are trying
to find. “American civil war” is a very broad topic. We can expect to
get many thousands of web pages containing that phrase, as it is a
very popular subject. But what is it about the American Civil War
that we really want to know? The first battle? The last battle?
When it began? The questions are innumerable, but the point is
made. When you search, try to determine as specifically as possible
what it is you are trying to find. The narrower the search topic, the
fewer results you will obtain, and the quality of the search results
will increase proportionally.
Remember, the quotes combine everything inside into a single

phrase, and that is the text string, or phrase, searched for. Using
quotes is the simplest basic operator that you can use to eliminate
unwanted URLs from your search results. Try it. Search on my
name, Michael Busby, first without quotes and then again using the
quotes. Now, perform the same exercise on your name. You may be
surprised to discover that you are mentioned in a web page
somewhere.
The Arithmetic (+, –) Operators

A little more advanced than the quote operator, arithmetic opera-
tors include or exclude text and phrases in the search results. The
arithmetic operators are the familiar “plus” symbol (+) and the
“minus” symbol (–). The plus symbol instructs the search engine to
include in the results all web pages that include the text to the right
of the plus symbol in addition to the text on the left side of the
symbol.
The minus symbol instructs the search engine to return in the
results all web pages that exclude the text to the right of the minus
symbol and include the text on the left side of the symbol. Some
search engines require there be no space between arithmetic oper-
ators and their operands (search words). Google does not care if
you place a space between the plus operators and the operands. For
example, “flower + pot” and “flower+pot” will be viewed by
Google as the same search. However, the minus operator works a
little differently. To exclude a query word from a search, you must
put a space between the wanted query word and the minus opera-
tor, then have no space between the minus operator and the
excluded query word. So, to exclude “Lincoln” from all “Abraham”
searches, we would search on “Abraham –Lincoln” — without the
quotes.
Let’s search using the plus symbol and see how it operates on the
results. Let’s search on “American Civil War” + “Abraham
Lincoln.” First we search without any operators (the quotes and the
plus symbol) and then compare that result with the search results
using the operators. See Figure 4.13.
. Note:
It does not make any difference if the characters in the search
string/text are uppercase or lowercase. The search engine con-
verts all characters to the same case. So “American Civil War”
will yield the same search results as “american civil war.”
Figure 4.13: A search on American Civil

War Abraham Lincoln
Searching on the text “American Civil War Abraham Lincoln” (with-

out the quotes) returns 161,000 search results. See Figure 4.14.
Figure 4.14: Results of a search on American Civil War Abraham Lincoln
Now, we repeat the same search and use the two operators that we
have discussed so far, the quotes operator and the plus operator.
See Figure 4.15.
basic Google search

Figure 4.15: “American Civil War” +
“Abraham Lincoln” search text
The search on “American Civil War” + “Abraham Lincoln” yielded

16,200 results. Now, you may wonder what real difference it makes
to have nearly 3,500,000 results and 16,200 results when all you
have the patience to review is about 200 (if that many)! Well, the
fact is, the quality of the first 200 web pages of the 16,200 search
results will be much better than the quality of the first 200 web
pages of the 3,500,000 results.
Figure 4.16: “American Civil War” + “Abraham Lincoln” search results
Google makes searching a little simpler by automatically assuming

a “+” when search text is keyed into the search box. That is,
Google will automatically put the “+” between the words for you.
Google interprets “American Civil War” + “Abraham Lincoln” as
“American + Civil + War” + “Abraham + Lincoln.” So, “American
Civil War” + “Abraham Lincoln” will give you exactly the same
results as “American Civil War” “Abraham Lincoln” and “American
+ Civil + War” + “Abraham + Lincoln.”
Other search engines may or may not operate on the “+” symbol in
exactly the same way. If you use another search engine, play around
with and without the “+” and see whether or not you get the same
results.
While the plus symbol (+) is inclusive, the minus symbol (–) is
exclusive. That is, you can use the minus symbol to exclude
unwanted web pages from your search results. The Google search
engine also implements the Boolean operator NOT to exclude
unwanted terms. We cover the NOT operator in the next section.
The “–” symbol is included here for your information. Other search
engines may or may not implement this. If you search using
another engine, try the minus symbol to see if it works.
Let’s repeat the same search and use the quotes operator with the
minus operator. See Figure 4.17. Note the minus operator has a
space between itself and the left keyword/phrase but has no space
between itself and the right keyword/phrase.
Figure 4.17: “American Civil War” –

The search on “American Civil War” – “Abraham Lincoln” yielded

385,000 results. Contrast that to the search on just “Civil War” that
returned nearly 3,500,000 results.
Figure 4.18: “American Civil War” –“Abraham Lincoln” search results
The search results using the minus operator include all of the web
pages containing the text “American Civil War” and exclude any
web page that contain the text “Abraham Lincoln.” Obviously, a
search using this helpful operator will reduce the number of search
results tremendously.
The number of results you get when you duplicate the search
examples in this book are dependent upon many factors. You may
or may not get the same number of results shown in these figures.
Notice the “Search took 0.xx seconds” text in the results page
information bar. The time allotted per search is dependent upon the
amount of traffic Google is experiencing moment to moment. Dur-
ing slower periods of the day or night, more time is allotted per
search. Usually, the longer the time allowed to search, the greater
the number of search results.
Google ignores some common words, characters, and single digits.
If you want to include such text in your search, use either the dou-
ble quotes for exact phrase matches or the plus operator. A (silly)
example is “where are you” or “+ where + are + you.” Note the
leading “+” before “where.” Do not confuse adding the plus (+)
symbol to search on common words with Google’s default search
that assumes a plus symbol between words. Without the physical basic Google search
presence of the plus symbol, the common words will be ignored. If you
have any doubt, include the plus symbol.
From the above examples, you can clearly ascertain the benefits of
incorporating the three basic operators in your search queries. If
you have not used them in the past, I strongly encourage you to
employ them at every opportunity. I can see that your blood pres-
sure is going down now.
Boolean Operators
The Boolean operators are the three words AND, OR, and NOT.
These three words are called Boolean operators because they have
a very specific meaning in a field of math called Boolean algebra.
No, we will not discuss any algebra in this section — thank God!
However, a little web history is in order to have an appreciation for
the origins of these three words. Behind the web, underpinning the
foundation of both the hardware and software comprising the web,
is the Boolean field of math. So, what does that have to do with
searching for our piece of information? AND, OR, and NOT are
three basic Boolean operations, so it is relatively easy to incorpo-
rate these three operators into the search engine’s bag of tricks.
Note that the Boolean operators are capitalized.
The OR operator operates to find web pages containing any of the
search terms that are OR’ed together. That is, “American OR Civil
OR War” (without the quotes) will return every web page with
either “American” or “Civil” or “War” anywhere within the web
page. Google recognizes the “|” symbol when substituted for the
term “OR.” That is, “American|Civil|War” is the same as “Ameri-
can OR Civil OR War.” While this book was in production, Google
introduced the tilde (~) symbol to be used instead of “OR” or “|”.
Try all three and see what you get. My quick check does indicate
there are some differences. The tilde operator seems to be more of
a wildcard than the “|” symbol.
The AND operator works very similarly to the plus symbol. It is
inclusive. Using the AND operator includes the search text on both
sides of the operator. The NOT operator is exclusive, as it excludes
the text listed on the right side of the operator. Therefore, the NOT
operator is similar to the minus operator. But the two Boolean
operators are not the same as the two mathematical operators. The
following examples illustrate that there are differences between the
two types of operators. I use the same search text as used to illus-
trate the mathematical operators, except the Boolean operators are
used in lieu of the mathematical operators.
. Note:
Google automatically assumes the AND operator between
keywords. That is, a search on “cheap travel London” will return
the same search results as “cheap AND travel AND London.” I
include the AND operator in these examples for instructional pur-
poses. Also, note that Boolean operators are applicable to all
search engines and search situations, including searches con-
ducted within a site. In that case, the AND may or may not be
assumed.
In Figures 4.19 and 4.20, the Boolean operator AND is used in lieu
of the mathematical plus operator. Note that the search using the
Boolean operator returns 16,300 search results, whereas the same
search using the mathematical plus operator returns 16,200 results.
Figure 4.19: “American Civil War” AND “Abraham

Lincoln” search text
Figure 4.20: “American Civil War” AND “Abraham Lincoln” search results
In Figure 4.21 and 4.22, the Boolean operator NOT is used. Note
that the search using the NOT operator returns 10,900 search basic Google search
results.
Figure 4.21: “American Civil War” NOT

Figure 4.22: “American Civil War” NOT “Abraham Lincoln” search results
Table 4.1: Comparison of Boolean and arithmetic operators
Operator Search Results

AND 16,300
+ 16,200
NOT 10,900
– 385,000
One would expect the difference in the search results to be the

same for both Boolean operators. That is, if one Boolean operator
yielded fewer results than its mathematical counterpart, then you
might expect the other to yield fewer results also. That seems a
reasonable conclusion given the nature of mathematics. However,
due to nuances of search engine algorithms, you cannot expect
such results. So, what is the real difference between mathematical
and Boolean operators in terms of search results quality? Try both
counterparts (AND and +, NOT and – ) and compare the results.
To demonstrate the power of Boolean operator searching, I used a
history-based search example. The number of us who search the
web looking for answers to our children’s homework assignments
is unknown, but given the number of children in this country and
the propensity of teachers to assign homework, we must be numer-
ous. You can employ the power of Boolean searches in virtually any
web search that you perform. Travel is the number one search
query. Using Boolean operators to include or exclude travel
keywords will help eliminate unwanted results. Of course, you can
apply the same technique to any of your search needs.
Complex Boolean Operations

You can use the basic Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) to
form more complicated search expressions. By combining the
Boolean operators, you can exercise more control over the search
algorithm, thereby reducing the number of hits while receiving
better quality results. The use of complex Boolean operations may

appear daunting, but a little practice will yield terrific results.
To get the best possible results, think about your search goals and
plan your search around those goals. To illustrate the approach to
complex Boolean searching, let’s use an example. Suppose we are
interested in purchasing a Hewlett-Packard (HP) desktop or laptop
computer. At this point, we do not care if the computer is new or
used, a laptop or desktop. So, we have several keywords that we
can search on: desktop, laptop, computer, and HP. The arrangement
of the keywords in the Boolean operations is important. Some
arrangements of keywords might be nonsensical, so make sure you
arrange them in sensible patterns. The complex operations are
shown in the leftmost column of the following table. The second
column illustrates the Boolean operation performed by the Google
search algorithm, the third column illustrates how you enter the
text in the Google search box, and the rightmost column illustrates
the possible combinations of keywords that will be present in the
search results.
In Table 4.2, we use the characters a, b, c, and d to represent the
following keywords:
a = desktop
b = laptop
c = computer
basic Google search
d = HP
Table 4.2: Complex Boolean operations
Boolean Equivalent Key This in Search Results

Operation Expression Search Text Box
a AND b ab desktop laptop Every web page that contains both
“desktop” and “laptop.” The
possible combinations are:
desktop laptop
a OR b a OR b desktop OR laptop Every web page that contains
either “laptop” or “desktop.” The
desktop
laptop
Boolean Equivalent Key This in Search Results

Operation Expression Search Text Box
c AND (a OR b) a c OR b c (computer desktop) Every web page that contains
OR (computer either “computer” and “desktop”
laptop) or “computer” and “laptop.” The
computer desktop
computer laptop
(a AND b) OR a b OR c d (desktop laptop) OR Every web page that contains
(c AND d) (computer HP) either “desktop “ and “laptop” or
“computer” and “HP.” The
desktop laptop
computer HP
(a OR b) AND a OR b c OR d (desktop OR laptop) Every web page that contains
(c OR d) AND (computer OR “desktop” or “laptop” and either
HP) “computer” or “HP.” The possible
combinations are:
desktop computer
desktop HP
desktop computer HP
laptop computer
laptop HP
laptop computer HP
c AND (a OR b a b OR c OR d (computer desktop) Every web page that contains
OR d ) OR (computer “computer” and “desktop” or
laptop) OR “laptop” or “HP.” The possible
(computer HP) combinations are:
computer desktop
computer laptop
computer HP
c AND (a OR b) a c d OR b c d (desktop computer Every web page that contains
AND d HP) OR (laptop “desktop” and “computer” and
computer HP) “HP” or every web page that
contains “laptop” and “computer”
and “HP.” The possible
combinations are:
computer desktop HP
computer laptop HP
. Note:
Parentheses are used in the table and in the following discussion
to show the order in which Google operates on the search words
and operators. The parentheses are not part of the operation.
At this point, I should mention that there is a discrepancy between

how Google says it interprets the Boolean expression “c AND (a
OR b) AND d” and how the expression is interpreted in Boolean
algebra:
a c OR b d: Google interpretation
a c d or b c d: Boolean algebra interpretation
Examples of the two different interpretations are:
c = shirt
a = white
b = blue
d = polo
shirt AND (white OR blue) AND polo
shirt white polo OR shirt blue polo: Boolean algebra interpretation
shirt white OR blue polo: Google’s interpretation
Recall the admonition above to arrange your text into search pat-
terns that made sense. Note that the Google interpretation is
nonsensical on the right side of the OR. Yes, this implementation of
the Boolean expression will contain all web pages that pertain to
blue polo shirts, but the results will also contain every web page basic Google search
with the words “blue” and “polo,” which will include every web
page about the sport polo if the word “blue” is anywhere on the
page.
As of publication, Google has not implemented the NOT operator.
On the Google web site, Google claims that the NOT operator is
functional, but my experiments show that it is not a functioning
operator at this time. Perhaps by the time you read this material, it
will be functioning.
Search Issues
An annoying Google tactic is the manipulation of search results.
When we searched on the word “cat” in the Double Words section
(see Chapter 9), the first search result was “Caterpillar — Heavy
Equipment & Engine Manufacturer.” See Figure 4.23.
Figure 4.23: Results of a search on cat
It is apparent that Google massaged the search results to include

Caterpillar Equipment as the first result. The search results
appeared under the category Recreation > Pets > Cats > You and
Your Cat. I understand that the word “cat” is an abbreviated term
for Caterpillar, but Caterpillar has nothing whatever to do with
Recreation > Pets > Cats > You and Your Cat.
A search engine based upon inviolate machine-dependent rules,
such as those found in software programming, cannot arbitrarily
decide to include a web page result just because it “thinks” the
result should be there. No sir. The only way “Caterpillar — Heavy

Equipment & Engine Manufacturer” could appear in the category
Recreation > Pets > Cats > You and Your Cat is if a human placed
it there, either on purpose or by mistake. I do not like anyone
manipulating my search results. Such activity can easily lead to a
Big Brother approach to sharing information.
Summary
In this chapter we examined the use of basic search operators to
reduce the number of search results with the intention of increas-
ing the quality of the remaining results. The basic operators are the
quotes ("), the arithmetic operators, and the Boolean operators.
Use of these search operators will enhance your search experience
considerably and reduce your search frustration to virtually nil.
With a little practice, you can become proficient searching the web
and witness a tremendous increase in your productivity.
Are there other operators that we can use to reduce our search
results even further? Of course. Google is chock full of operators
that we can use, and we explore the advanced operators in the next
chapter. However, you must keep in mind that the quality of your
search results is always dependent upon how you define your basic Google search
search criteria and identify your keywords. All of the operators in
the world will do little to help a search based on ill-defined search
criteria and poorly chosen keywords. Think about what you want to
find and then apply these operators to help narrow the search. As
you search, use the operators to refine and narrow your search
even more. Now on to the next chapter, where the advanced opera-
tors are examined.
Chapter 5
Advanced Google
Search
Techniques
Introduction
In the previous chapter, we discussed basic search operators and
search queries employing those operators. Building upon what we
have learned, let’s now examine advanced search capabilities and
their associated search queries. Google employs two advanced
search capabilities called advanced search operators and advanced
search features. Both capabilities bring to the search issue unique
and interesting ways of finding the nugget of information you seek.
Although they are called “advanced,” these capabilities are easy to
use. They are called “advanced” simply because they have limited
scope and because most people do not use them every day.
Advanced search features and operators fine-tune your search, nar-
rowing the possible choices and focusing in on the substance of
your search. Most of the operators can be entered into the basic
search query box, or you can select them from the Advanced
Search page.
143
144 Chapter 5 / Advanced Google Search Techniques
Advanced search features differ from search operators in that the

features can be utilized in conjunction with the basic and advanced
search operators. The features limit searches to some particular
characteristic or aspect of web pages. If you have thought about
your search and you know the results that you are seeking, then
employing advanced search capabilities can dramatically reduce the
time spent searching.
The advanced search features are:
n Find Results: Four query boxes that allow you to tailor the
search criteria
n Language: Specify the language the search results are dis-
played in
n File Format: Returns results only in the specified file format
n Date: Restrict the search results to the past three, six, or 12
months
n Occurrences: Specify where the search terms occur on the
page — in the title, in the URL, or anywhere on the page
n Domain: Search only a specific web site or exclude that site
completely from the search
n SafeSearch: Screens for sites that contain sexually
explicit-type information and eliminates them from search
results. Advanced Search allows you to turn on or off the
SafeSearch feature.
n Similar: Returns search results “similar” to a specified web
page
n Links: Searches for pages that link to the specified web page
n Topic-Specific Searches: Allows you to select specific topics
to search
Chapter 5 / Advanced Google Search Techniques 145
The availability of these advanced features is not limited to the

Advanced Search page located at http://www.google.com/advanced_
search?hl=en and available by clicking on the Advanced Search link
on the Google home page. See Figure 5.1. Many of these operators
can be used in the basic search query box. The specific section that
discusses each in detail identifies those operators that can be used
in the basic query box.
Okay, let’s face it. How often are you going to search for something
that is restricted to a specific URL? Well, probably never…
unless you read the remainder of this chapter and discover that all
of the above search features have great utility (if you know how and
when to use them). Each of these advanced search capabilities
brings to the search issue the ability to focus your search in specific
relief, thereby reducing the amount of low-quality search results
and increasing your search efficiency. Yippee! That is just what we
need to accomplish in order to reduce our search frustration to a
manageable (that is, nonexistent) level.
Achieving a better position in search results is an objective that
most web page designers set when they begin to design a web
page/site. Knowing that these search capabilities exist and under-
standing how they work can help designers achieve a better
position in a search result, perhaps landing the page/site in the cov-
eted top 30. If you design web pages, careful consideration of the
usage of advanced search capabilities will help you in achieving that
top 30 spot.
advanced Google search
Figure 5.1: The Advanced Search window
Advanced Search Features

Advanced search features differ from advanced search operators in
that advanced search operators “operate” within the search engine
to include or exclude web pages (that is, they are “query words that
have special meaning to Google,” whereas advanced search fea-
tures are boundaries placed upon the search field). To illustrate the
difference, I give an example of each. The quotes operator used to
search for a phrase is an operator. A feature is being able to specify
that only web pages in a specific language will be searched. Strictly
speaking, there is some overlap between operators and features. To
make a greater distinction, operators are words or symbols used
within the query box to include or exclude web pages, whereas fea-
tures are implemented outside the query box via special mouse
clicks, option selections, or special text boxes.
Find Results
Find Results is a set of four text boxes in the Advanced Search web
page that allow you to include and/or exclude keywords in your
search. See Figure 5.2.
The uppermost text box, With all of the words, allows you to spec-
ify one or more keywords that must be somewhere within the web
page. The keywords do not have to appear in the order in which you
placed them in the query box and neither do they have to appear in
any sequence. As long as each word is somewhere in the web page,
it will be identified as a search result. This approach to searching,
as in other things in life, is called the “shotgun” search approach.
Figure 5.2: The Find Results text boxes
The With the exact phrase text box is used to specify a sequence
of keywords that form a phrase you want to search for. This is the
same as placing double quotes around a phrase in a general query
box or the With all of the words text box in the Advanced Search
page (see the above comments about this text box). An example of
this type of search is “civil war.” You may recall that we illustrated
the use of quotes as an operator in a previous chapter. Placing the
words “civil war,” without the quotes, in the With the exact
phrase text box and searching is the same as placing the text with
quotes in the With all of the words query box above or in a general
query box such as the one on Google’s home page.
A query using the With at least one of the words query box
requires that at least one of the keywords entered in the query box
appear on the web page. Such a search on “civil war” would return
every web page containing the word “civil” and every page contain-
ing the word “war.” Using this query box is the same as using a
general query box with the OR operator between each of the
keywords.
Using the Without the words query allows you to exclude web
pages that do not pertain to the specific search goals that you have.
To illustrate the usefulness of this box, let’s say I searched on “civil
war” and received thousands of search results for web pages about
Abraham Lincoln. But I am not interested in Abraham Lincoln;
rather, I am searching for information about battles. In this case, I
could key in “Lincoln” and those pages containing “Lincoln” would
be excluded from the search results. Neat, eh? Using this query box
is the same as using a general query box with the NOT operator
between each of the keywords.
File Format
Recall from Chapter 1 that a list of file types was identified for
which search engines could not access the content. At the bottom
of the list, I mentioned there were certain types for which Google
has developed the expertise to search the content. This section dis-
cusses those file types.
File Format allows you to select a specific file format that will
exclude all search results without the specified format. Google is
currently the only search engine with a user interface specifically
designed to search for file formats. To select a particular file format,
click on the drop-down menu (see Figure 5.3) and highlight the file
format of your choice. As you can see, there are currently six differ-
ent formats you can choose from. The default format is Any format.
When you left-click on a format to choose it, the choice is high-
lighted, signifying that it is selected. Then the menu will close.
Figure 5.3: The File Format menu
On the same line as File Format, the Only drop-down menu allows
you to select “only” that file format, or you can exclude that file for-
mat by selecting Don’t. See Figure 5.4.
Figure 5.4: The

File Format choice
When you have some experience searching the web, you may begin
to find that there are certain document types that you can exclude
because experience has taught you that search results of a particu-
lar document type are useless for your search goals. However, I
think the only time that I would exclude a document type is if I was
searching for the technical specifications of a semiconductor com-
ponent. Technical specs are typically written using Word, whereas
technical information (user guides, applications, service informa-
tion, etc.) is written in Acrobat. Since I am seeking specs only in a
.doc format, I would exclude the numerous .pdf files from my
search objectives. In pursuit of your profession, hobbies, or inter-
ests, you may also benefit from such an approach to customizing
your search criteria.
Date
Date restricts your results to web pages that have been updated
recently. The choices you can make are:
n Anytime
n Past 3 months
n Past 6 months
n Past year
Date is particularly useful when searching for news reports and
other timely matter. To use Date, just click on the Date drop-down
menu on the Advanced Search page and select the range you are
interested in.
Figure 5.5: Date search
Occurrences
Occurrences specifies where your search terms occur on the page.
You can select these choices:
n Anywhere in the page
n In the title of the page
n In the text of the page
n In the URL of the page
n In links to the page
Anywhere in the page is self-explanatory. The search will be con-
ducted by examining the complete contents of every web page.
Actually, the contents are already “examined” and indexed by the
search engine before you search. The search engine examines its
index of words to locate those web pages containing your search
words.
Figure 5.6: Occurrences search
The In the title of the page option means the search will be con-
fined to web page titles only. This is useful for zeroing in on the
subject matter, but it leaves out web pages with ancillary informa-
tion that may or may not be useful in your search. If you seek
specific information about concrete subjects, this may be the most
useful method of performing a general search and keeping your
blood pressure to a manageable level. Setting this preference is
probably the wisest decision that you can make concerning your
approach to searching the Internet. If you experience “search
rage,” I recommend selecting this choice and saving it as a personal
preference. The relationship between your search terms and your
search objective, assuming you have chosen your search terms
properly, will be a one-to-one correspondence, meaning you should
hit the bull’s-eye in your search quest. However, if you are an
adventuresome soul and enjoy finding the unusual or odd thing now
and then, I suggest that you leave this preference set to Anywhere
in the page.
In the text of the page means the search is confined to the body of
web pages. If you are searching for a phrase or clause contained

within the body of a page, this search option will help you zero in on
your search objective. I am not sure how it can otherwise help in
eliminating unwanted web pages from your search.
In the URL of the page means the search will be confined to web
page URLs only. This limits the scope of your search to just a few
web pages that contain the keyword(s) in the URL only. This option
should help you zero in on companies, businesses, organizations,
schools, government entities, and individuals with alacrity.
The In links to the page option searches only web pages that
contain the keyword(s) in a URL link. A URL link is a string of
characters that define a path to another web site. Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML) documents place these URL links
within the body of a web page so users can “jump” to another web
page, either within the same domain (web site) or in another new
domain.
The text “<A HREF="http://www.adobe.com/products/ebook-
reader/register.html">” in a web page is an example of a link to
Adobe’s eBookReader web site where a user can register and
download a copy of eBookReader. A keyword search for “Adobe”
confined to the In links to the page option would only return web
pages with links such as this example buried within the page.
. Note:
I tested each of the Occurrences options using well-known com-
pany names. I did not discern any significant differences in the
number of search results. The results I achieved using “Google”
as the keyword are shown in Figures 5.7 through 5.11. Note that
each test returned essentially the same number of results,
“about” 20,000,000. There is an insignificant variation
(+/–400,000 ) in the results due to the time of search (0.13 sec-
onds vs. 0.27 seconds). I am not sure what is going on here. The
first few search results in every test case shown are the same web
pages. It appears from this limited test that this feature of Google
does not work, at least as advertised. Perhaps there is a signifi-
cant difference in the search results if the later search results are
examined.
Figure 5.7: Anywhere in the page
Figure 5.8: In the title of the page

Figure 5.9: In the text of the page
Figure 5.10: In the URL of the page
Figure 5.11: In links to the page
For some reason, Google places the tag “allinanchor” instead of

“allinlink” in the message bar displayed with the search results
when you search with the In links to the page option. See Figure
5.11.
When this feature works as it should, searching with Occurrences
will be balm to all of us suffering from search rage.
Domain
Sometimes, we may only want to search a specific web site, called a
domain, or we may want to exclude a specific web site from our
search results. We might want to perform this site-specific search
at our place of employment, especially if the company is a large one
and has many web pages and/or web sites. Or, we might want to
restrict our search to a specific geographical region. On occasion,
searching a domain is easier than trying to navigate through numer-
ous web pages that do not apply to the circumstances. I have found
restricting my search to a domain useful when looking for informa-
tion about a particular person, place, or thing. As an example, I
have found limiting my search to a domain is very useful when try-
ing to find technical information about a product or service in the
performance of my engineering profession.

Also, searching a consumer catalog for a particular product can be
trying, but when the search is restricted to the domain, finding your
gadget becomes elementary. So, there are times when you can ben-
efit from a domain search. The difficulty lies not in using the tool
but knowing when to use it, and that comes with a little thinking
and even less practice. Of course, if you do not know the domain
name of the site you wish to search, you cannot use the domain fea-
ture until you search for and discover the domain name. Also, you
must include the word “site,” as shown in the search query box.
We illustrate the power of domain searching with two different
examples and illustrate the power of domain searching combined
with Google’s language translation service with a third real-life
example later in this chapter. Catalog shopping is a national pastime
that probably outranks baseball. There is no telling how many
hours are spent across the nation and world thumbing through cata-
logs on a Sunday afternoon. No doubt, such activity is chicken soup
for the soul. But what if you are at work and all of a sudden you
remember that a nephew or niece has an upcoming birthday or spe-
cial event? Do you want to spend a couple of hours on company
time searching for his or her gift? (Okay, so maybe you do, but does
your boss want you to?) Using domain-restricted searches will nar-
row the field and help you zero in on your search objectives very
quickly.
The first example we use is from the L.L. Bean catalog. Currently,
the L.L. Bean catalog is 64 pages. Let’s say that we have a nephew
who likes to camp, and he needs a new tent. We know L.L. Bean
sells good-quality camping equipment that we can afford to pur-
chase; we know this from spending Sunday afternoons thumbing
through the L.L. Bean catalog! Or maybe we are just guessing that
L.L. Bean can meet our needs. In either case, this approach to solv-
ing the search objective is faster than just entering “tent” in a basic
search and getting a couple of million returns to muddle through.
We enter the information in the search query box exactly as shown
in Figure 5.12. Do not place a space between the colon and the
domain name. After entering the search criteria, left-click on
Google Search.
6 Caution:
Do not place any characters, such as the forward slash (/), after
the “.com.” If you do, you will not have a successful search.
Figure 5.12: Site search for tent
The search results will be displayed momentarily. See Figure 5.13.
Figure 5.13: Site search results for tent
In the search results shown in Figure 5.13, notice that the web site
at the top of the page is not the web site that we listed in the search
query box, an L.L. Bean site, but rather a Sears site. This is a paid
advertisement — what Google calls “Sponsored Links” — as indi-
cated by the text at the right side of the page. To keep you from
confusing search results and sponsored links, Google labels those
links and places them in colored boxes. In this example, all of the
actual search results below the sponsored links are from L.L. Bean.
For the next example, let’s try a little genealogy research. A popu-
lar web site for genealogy researchers is www.rootsweb.com. Let’s

say that I am interested in finding every web page with my sur-
name at rootsweb.com. To achieve this search objective without
having to wade through thousands and thousands of web pages, I
enter the domain-restricted site search criteria, as shown in Figure
5.14.
Figure 5.14: Site search for Busby
Figure 5.15: Site search results for Busby
The results of my rootsweb.com site search are displayed in Figure

5.15. I could narrow the search results further by searching on a
specific name, such as “Michael Busby.” When I performed such a
search, 1,350 results were returned. The results included all web
pages that contained both “Michael” and Busby” but not necessar-
ily together. Let’s say that I am interested in only those web pages
that contain “Michael Busby” as a matched pair of words. I can
combine the restricted site domain search with the basic quotes
search operator to further restrict my search to only those web
pages at rootsweb.com containing “Michael Busby.” See Figure
5.16.
Figure 5.16: Using the basic quote search operator

The results of searching for web pages containing only “Michael

Busby” on rootsweb.com are shown in Figure 5.17. The results
demonstrate the power of restricted domain searching combined
with other search operators. Go ahead and search on your first and
last name. Interesting, eh?
Figure 5.17: Results of a restricted domain search
For technical people, such as engineers, a restricted domain search

can help you quickly find a manufacturer’s or vendor’s product. I
cannot recall the untold hours I spent searching such sites as
Motorola and National Semiconductor web page by web page, try-
ing to find the technical details of a particular semiconductor that I
wanted to use in a design. Using a restricted domain search to find
such information reduces the effort from a Herculean task to a
miniscule issue.
Here is an example of the need to do a restricted domain search
that I came across while cruising the Internet. The individual was
looking for Harry Potter information, and he did not want to spend
time examining pages in the .com domain. Apparently, he was not
aware of the power of restricted domain searching because he
examined the .com web pages and “checked them out quickly.” If
the search was [“Harry Potter” –.com], the search results would
not include any commercial web sites. The text of his search expe-
rience follows:
“I was looking for Harry Potter web sites [a famous fictional book
character] and noted I was avoiding links that looked like corpora-
tions in the search results page (I did a search on Google).”
Using restricted domain searching increases your productivity
immensely. This is a work tool that undoubtedly will help you
“work smarter, not harder.” That is the name of the game. When
you can increase your productivity, you have a corresponding
increase in efficiency, and that is the best time to go into the boss’s
office and ask for a pay raise. If you don’t get it, go find another job
that pays better! You deserve it.
Language Tools and Services

Google’s language feature is multifaceted. You can search pages
written in any of 35 languages regardless of the web page’s physical
location. You can search for pages physically located in any one of
36 countries regardless of the language the web page is written in.
Within the body of Google’s Translate page, you can translate
words, text, documents, or web pages. You can set Google’s inter-
face to display messages in any one of more than 80 languages.
Finally, you can search specific country domains and easily view the
web pages in English or the language in which they were written.
Figure 5.18: Language Tools page
You can find Language Tools at http://www.google.com/language_

tools or by left-clicking on the Language Tools link on the Google
home page. Be sure to bookmark this page, as you will use it often
if you do any searching outside the usual English domains. One of
the neatest features of Google’s Language Tools is translation. The
Translate drop-down menu offers the following translation choices:
n English to German
n English to Spanish
n English to French
n English to Italian
n English to Portuguese
n German to English
n German to French
n Spanish to English
n French to English
n French to German
n Italian to English
You can translate words, phrases, sentences, documents, or whole
web pages. The translation service is pretty good. If you want to
translate a document, just copy the text to the clipboard and then
paste the text into the Translate text box. See Figure 5.19. The
translate service works on plain text only.
Figure 5.19: Translate box
I experimented by translating the text of a Word document from

English to French back to English. The service faithfully translated
the document word for word, resulting in some error in meaning by
the time the document was translated back into English. But for
words, phrases, and short text, the service works quite well. It is
certainly much better than nothing!
As an example, I selected the short sentence “I love you” and

translated it from English to French back to English. The results
were:
I love you — Je t’aime — I love you
See Figure 5.20. Now left-click on Google Search and find “Je
t’aime” on the web.
Figure 5.20: Translating “I love you”
Now, I decided to really put the service to the test. I selected the
same sentence (“I love you”) and translated it into French, then
German, and then back to English. Was anything lost in the multi-
ple translation? Well, you decide:
English to French:
I love you — Je t’aime
French to German:
Je t’aime — Ich mag dich

German to English:
Ich mag dich — I like you
See Figures 5.21 and 5.22.
From my French and German classes taken many years ago, I

believe the translation should be “Je t’aime — Ich liebe die.” As we
would say in computer programming, there is an interface issue
here. For the record, “I like you” translates differently from English
to French:
I like you — Je vous aime vs. Je t’aime — I love you
Next, I decided to test Translate’s ability to translate a more com-

plicated sentence. I selected “The quick brown fox jumped over the
lazy dog’s back” as a test case, and the results are shown below.
Original English text:
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog’s back
English to French:
Le renard brun rapide a sauté par-dessus le chien paresseux en
arrière
French to German:
Der schnelle braune Fuchs ist über dem faulen Hund rückwärts
gesprungen
German to English:
The fast brown fox jumped over the lazy dog backwards
English to French to English:
The fast brown fox jumped over the lazy dog behind
English to German to English:
The fast brown fox jumped back over the lazy dog
Somehow we lost the information about the dog’s back but other-
wise, the translation is reasonably accurate.
An adventurous soul can have fun with just a little creativity. One
would think that if you put an English language sentence in the
Translate box and click on Translate with English to English
selected that you would get back exactly what you requested trans-
lated. After all, English is English, right? Unfortunately, we do not
have an option to translate English to English, but we can perform

a similar, although not exact, translation by pretending the German
translation of “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog’s
back” is really an English sentence. We place the German transla-
tion of the sentence back in the Translate box, select English to
German, and click on Translate. We copy that seemingly
unintelligible German text back into the Translate box, select Ger-
man to English, and click on Translate again. We now have a
nonsensical sentence that does contain a couple of interesting or
entertaining phrases. See below. What an excellent way to create
new dialogue for a best-selling book! Okay, the point here is that
you need to exercise some caution when using Translate. Do not
use this tool for legal purposes, unless you like to live dangerously.
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog’s back
English to German:
Der schnelle braune Fuchs sprang zurück über den faulen Hund
zurück
German to German:
Schnellebraune Fuchs Der entsprang zurücküberden faulen
zurück Hund
German to English:
Fast-brown fox rose practice-grounds putrefies back to dog
When you use Translate, ensure that the words are spelled cor-
rectly. When I use Translate, I key any text into a Word document,
use Word’s spell checker, and then copy/paste the text into the
Translate text box. The difference can be significant. I intentionally
misspelled “quick” in the next example to illustrate how the Trans-
late tool manages misspelled words.
The qucik brown fox jumped over the lazy dog’s back
English to French:
Le renard de brun de qucik a sauté par-dessus le chien
paresseux en arrière
The English to French translation without the misspelled word is:
Le renard brun rapide a sauté par-dessus le chien paresseux en
arrière
French to English:
The fox of brown of qucik jumped over the lazy dog behind
Always ensure that the text you are translating is spelled correctly,
regardless of the language that you are translating. I checked to see
if using punctuation, such as apostrophes, made any difference in
the translation. I could not isolate any case where punctuation,
whether present or missing, made any difference in the translation.
Google in Your Language

Google in Your Language is a collaborative effort to translate the
Google home page, messages, and tips into the various languages of
the world. Google is recruiting volunteer translators. The lan-
guages that Google currently supports are shown below. I do not
know if Google is still accepting volunteers for the languages
shown. If you are interested, visit the Google in Your Language
program at http://www.google.com/intl/en/language.html. (Book-
mark it! You cannot find it again if you don’t bookmark it.)
Afrikaans Albanian Amharic Arabic

Azerbaijani Basque Belorussian Bengali
Bihari Bork bork bork Bosnian Bulgarian
Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese Croatian

(Traditional)
Czech Danish Dutch Elmer Fudd
English Esperanto Estonian Faroese
Finnish French Frisian Galician
Georgian German Greek Gujarati

Hacker Hebrew Hindi Hungarian
Icelandic Indonesian Interlingua Irish
Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada
Klingon Korean Latin Latvian
Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Malayalam
Maltese Marathi Nepali Norwegian
Norwegian Occitan Persian Pig Latin
(Nynorsk)
Polish Portuguese (Portugal) Punjabi Romanian
Russian Scots Gaelic Serbian Sinhalese
Slovak Slovenian Spanish Sudanese
Swahili Swedish Tagalog Tamil
Telugu Thai Tigrinya Turkish
Ukrainian Urdu Uzbek Vietnamese
Welsh
Google includes several uncommon languages and dialects of the

English language in its suite of languages in which you can choose
to display Google messages, tips, and text. Check out Bork bork
bork, Interlingua, Elmer Fudd, Hacker, Klingon, and Pig Latin. I
did, and two of the results are shown below. Bookmark Google’s
Preferences page so you can easily navigate back to it. Go ahead; it
is fun, and you cannot mess it up. Go to Google’s Preferences page
at http://www.google.com/preferences?hl=en and select the lan-
guage of your choice. See Figure 5.23. Then left-click on Save
Preferences.
Figure 5.23: Global Preferences page
After you save your preferences, a pop-up box will tell you that
they have been saved. See Figure 5.24. Left-click on OK, and you
will be returned to the Google home page.
Figure 5.24: Saving preferences
If the resulting page is disconcerting, just click on the Google.com

in English link at the bottom of the page. Voilà — now the page is
displayed in English. Or return to the Preferences page via the
bookmark that you saved above, and select another language. Save
that choice and enjoy the Google home page in that language. Be
adventurous and do a search or two in the language of your choice.
Figure 5.25 shows a Google search page using the Elmer Fudd dia-
lect! Notice the peculiar spelling (and pronunciation) of some of the
words. All Google messages and text are translated into Fudd, but
web pages themselves are not translated.
Figure 5.25: Google search page displayed in Elmer Fudd
The results of an Elmer Fudd “dialect” search are shown in Figure

5.26. Since the web page information is still in English, I did not
show any search results. But, as you can see, Google text messages
are in Elmer Fudd.
Figure 5.26: “Elmer Fudd” search results

Figure 5.27 shows a Google search page displayed in Hacker. Note

the unintelligible text (even to hackers!). Google demonstrates a
great sense of humor by including these “dialects” and odd “lan-
guages” in its suite of languages.
Figure 5.27: Google search page displayed in Hacker
Searching for Hilux: A Real-life Search

Example
Here is an excellent real-life example for restricting a search to a
domain utilizing Google’s language translation tool and services.
My niece and her husband, Brian and Laura Kelly, with their three
sons, have been missionaries in Guyana, South America, for four
years. This summer they were visiting in the States with a goal of
registering their oldest son, B.J. (a spring high school graduate), in
college and raising funds for their missionary work. Due to Guy-
ana’s visa restrictions and work laws, they could not return to
Guyana on a work permit, having stayed as long as Guyana permits.
Instead, they are going to Brazil and will establish a base of opera-
tions in Boa Vista, visiting Guyana on six-week tourist visas. To get
to Boa Vista, they will fly into Rio de Janeiro, purchase a vehicle,
and drive to Boa Vista, a long and hazardous journey. To minimize

the length and cost of their stay in Rio de Janeiro, they asked me to
see if I could find a four-wheel drive vehicle for sale in Rio de
Janeiro. Using Google’s Translate and Advanced Search pages in
combination with a restricted domain search, I was able to locate
several suitable vehicles for sale. I was able to manage this chal-
lenge and succeed by restricting my searches to the domain “.br,”
which is the country-wide domain for Brazil.
When the Internet was first organized, it was the exclusive domain
of the United States government, defense contractors, and college
campuses. There was no need for country domains in those early
days, as the U.S. was the only domain. At some point in the evolu-
tion of the Internet, it was determined that the division of the
Internet into country-wide domains would facilitate the ability to
locate information in a more orderly fashion. So, the Internet-
governing body at the time, InterNIC, assigned two-letter country-
wide domain “names.” Simple, eh?
How do you determine a country’s domain? Well, the topic of this
book is using Google to search the Internet, so why don’t we just
plug “country domain name” into the Google search box and hit
Search? The first result I received when I performed the search
was “UNINETT:name registries around the world” at
www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/domreg.html. Note that the
domain names are in alphabetical order, which do not necessarily
correspond with alphabetical country names. See Figure 5.28.
Figure 5.28: Top-level domains
In our example, we are interested in Brazil, so we select the coun-

try domain name .br. Before we go to the Advanced Search page to
initiate our search, there is another task that we need to accom-
plish. Assuming people in Brazil advertise their products with the
word “sale” (as in “for sale”), we need to translate the word “sale”
into the official language of Brazil, which is Portuguese. We go to
Google’s Translate page (hopefully by now you have started book-
marking all of these pages for easy access later). After entering
“sale” in the Translate text box, we left-click on the Translate but-
ton, and magically the word “venda” appears in the This text has
been automatically translated from English text box. See Figure
5.29.
Figure 5.29: Translate page
We could translate “for sale” (the translation would then be “para a

venda”), but the “for” (para a) is a common word that does not add
any depth or quality to our search results. Next, we journey to the
Advanced Search page and key the query words “Toyota Hilux
venda Rio de Janeiro” into the search box. Then we go to the
Domain line, select Only from the drop-down menu, and key in
“.br” in the domain text box. Notice in Figure 5.30 that I selected
50 results per page. We are ready to search. Left-click on Google
Search.
Figure 5.30: Searching for Hilux
We receive several search results. I have cropped all but one in Fig-
ure 5.31. The important point here is that all you need to do is
left-click on the Translate this page link, and that web page will
soon appear in your browser translated from Portuguese into Eng-
lish, of a sort. The translation is a word-for-word translation, and
language nuances are ignored. So the web page will not measure up
to Ms. Stern’s high school English teacher standards, but it is suffi-
ciently understandable to achieve our objective — identify and
price a Toyota Hilux for sale in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Figure 5.32 is
a shot of the page after translation.
Figure 5.31: Search results
Note that you can view the web page in its original language by
left-clicking on View Original Web Page at the top of the page. See
Figure 5.32.
Figure 5.32: Translated web page from Portuguese to English
How long did it take for me to find a particular vehicle for sale that
was thousands of miles from my home? The actual time I spent
searching was just a few minutes. The contact information gleaned
from the web page was sufficient for my niece and nephew to con-
tact the seller and arrange the purchase a week before their arrival
in the country.
Reading this book and practicing the examples herein does not (by
itself) magically make anyone a search guru. Utilizing your skills to
work more effectively, whether working for corporate America or
yourself in your leisure time, is a conscious personal decision-
making process. You must approach searching with a positive
attitude.
Exercising what you learn in the spirit of adventure and discovery,
you can become much more efficient, ergo productive, and much
less stressed out.
SafeSearch Filtering
The SafeSearch filtering option was examined in depth in Chapter
3.
Similar
The Similar feature allows you to find web pages “similar” to a web
page that you specify by entering the web page domain name in the
Similar query box. See Figure 5.33. To test the utility of this fea-
ture, I keyed in the domain name of Advanced Search (http://
www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en). Next I left-clicked on
the Search button.
Figure 5.33: Searching for similar pages
Almost immediately, the results page was displayed with seven

links to “similar” pages. Note that I performed this search with

SafeSearch filtering off. The seven results were links to the follow-
ing web pages:
1. Google Services & Tools (www.google.com/options/)
2. A poor imitation of Google’s Advanced Search web page (which

I am sure Google does not approve of) (http://www.allthe-
web.com/advanced)
3. Google Toolbar (toolbar.google.com/)
4. Something called “Porn Banner Showcase” (I went there to see
what in the world porn banners could have in common with
Google’s Advanced Search web page! I found nothing but a porn
site.) (www.noapologiespress.com/pbs/)
5. A web page for a Virginia college professor who says he is
“unavailable for immediate contact” (http://www.cs.odu.edu/
~bayle_j/)
6. AltaVista’s Advanced Search web page (AltaVista is a service
similar to Google) (http://www.altavista.com/web/adv)
7. Google’s Help Central page (www.google.com/help/)
Search results 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 are understandable, as they relate in
some manner to advanced searching, but results 4 and 5 are totally
out in left field. Even though I had to look out of the corner of my
eye, I could not see any reason that result number 4 was included
in this search result as I slowly navigated the porn site. Result
number 5 was just a single web page with a photo and a couple of
words about being unavailable. What that has to do with advanced
web searching escapes me.
In another test of SafeSearch’s ability to filter pornography, I per-
formed the same Similar search as above but this time with the
Filter using SafeSearch option on. I received exactly the same
results, including the link to the web page that didn’t just promote
porn banners but was a porn site itself. The home page included the
slang word “porn,” the word “pornographic,” and one “four-letter”
word. Looks like SafeSearch missed one that it should have caught.
Your results may vary.
Links
The Links feature allows you to find web pages that link to the web
page you specify in the query box. This feature is extremely useful
for web page developers who need to discover how many pages on
the web link to their web page. Since Google uses this information
(called link popularity) as the primary criteria for assigning the rank
to a page in its search results, knowing who and how many web
sites link to a page that you are responsible for is crucial to getting
a higher rank in search results. Business people might use Links to
determine who the competition is linking to. In this manner, you
might uncover previously unknown business relationships. Using
Links to discover information about a site is called “flipping” the
site.
If you have a home page, it is also a fun endeavor to enter your
domain and search Links to see if anyone found your web page
interesting enough to link to it. Otherwise, I do not know what
other use it might have, but it’s there if you figure out a need for it.
We will look a little closer at links in the next chapter.
Topic-Specific Searches
Figure 5.34: Topic-Specific Searches
Topic-Specific Searches allow you to exclusively search the follow-

ing companies or entities:
n Froogle
n Catalogs
n Apple Macintosh*
n BSD Unix*
n Linux*
n Microsoft
n U.S. Government*
n Universities*
Searching a specific domain has the benefit of excluding all other
domains from the search results. How can this help you? Let’s say
you need help with some Microsoft software update issue. By
searching Microsoft’s domain (www.microsoft.com) and excluding
all others, you can very quickly zero in on your objectives.
The five entities marked with asterisks are also found in Google
Special Searches (http://www.google.com/options/
specialsearches.html). Bookmark it.
Google Special Searches performs exactly the same service as
Topic-Specific Searches (http://www.google.com/advanced_
search?hl=en). Why the duplication? We might as well ask why
light is light — it just is!
Summary
We have examined Google’s advanced search techniques and deter-
mined how we can use various ways and means of reducing the
scope of our searches to a mild roar (that is, a manageable level).
We discovered that some Google tools and features work very well,
while others are, shall we say, wounded? As you use these tools,
services, features, and operators, bear in mind that Google has
only had a few years to work on perfection, and perfection is
unattainable anyway. Deficiencies were pointed out where applica-

ble in the interests of accurate reporting of the facts. I will hazard a
guess that Google will work to improve all of its products as time
passes. In the meantime, the Internet will continue to grow, and so
will your search frustration, unless you use the knowledge that you
have gained so far.

Chapter 6
Advanced
Alternate Query
Search Operators
Introduction
Google supports several advanced alternate query search opera-
tors. These are special query words that the Google search engine
recognizes and then responds to accordingly. A discussion of
advanced search operators is found at http://www.google.com/help/
operators.html. (Bookmark it.)
The advanced alternate query search operators are:
n cache: Shows the version of the web page residing in Google’s
cache
n link: Lists the web pages that include links to the specified web
page
n related: Lists web pages that are similar to the specified web
page
n info: Displays certain information Google has about that web
page
181
182 Chapter 6 / Advanced Alternate Query Search Operators
n stock: The query terms are interpreted as stock ticker sym-

bols, and the search engine returns a web page displaying stock
information.
n site: The search is restricted to sites within the specified
domain.
n allintitle: The search is restricted to those web pages contain-
ing all of the query words in the title.
n intitle: The search is restricted to those web pages containing
one or more of the query words in the title.
n allinurl: The search is restricted to those web pages containing
all of the query words in the URL.
n inurl: The search is restricted to those web pages containing
one or more of the query words in the URL.
Advanced Alternate Query Search

Operators
When using these operators, keep in mind that the syntax, or form,
is xxx:URL, where xxx is the operator and URL is the domain
name, also known as the web page’s URL. For example, a search
for links to one of my favorite web pages is link:www.family-
search.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp. Note that you do not
need and should not include the “http://” portion of a web address.
cache:
A search result using the cache: operator will show the web page
version in the Google cache. But what is a cache? Originally, cache
was a French word meaning “to hide.” Canadian and western fron-
tier explorers and fur trappers adopted the word to mean “a hiding
place,” especially “for concealing and preserving provisions or
implements.” Today, cache, in the computer industry, refers to “a
secure, temporary storage place.” So, Google’s cache is the
Chapter 6 / Advanced Alternate Query Search Operators 183
temporary storage of web pages on secure Google computers.
advanced query search

Storing web pages on Google’s computers has several major advan-
tages from our perspective (not Google’s) and one great
disadvantage. The advantages are:
n Faster access time to web pages. Since you are accessing a
web page stored on a Google computer, you do not need to
bounce around the Internet in multiple hops and electronic
switches, gateways, and routers to get to the web page source
that might be an overworked, slow computer or server.
n Availability of web pages. Google has a 99.9 percent uptime.
Most web servers are single-machine enterprises that must go
down occasionally for maintenance, either on schedule or as the
result of an unplanned event (like a lightning strike). When a
server is offline and unavailable, you can still see the last ver-
sion of any of the server’s web pages by viewing Google’s
cached version.
n Longevity of web page. When a web site is removed from the
host server, Google’s cached version remains available for
about another four to six weeks.
n Security. Web pages can be infected with Internet flotsam and
jetsam (i.e., viruses, trojan horses, worms, and other malicious
program code). Google does provide a code-checking function
on web pages before they are cached, so you are reasonably
assured that the cached web page is free of malicious code.
I discuss the great disadvantage in a moment. But first, here is a
note about malicious code: I have spent many, many days searching
for and removing malicious code from my computers. These were
days that I could have spent playing baseball or fishing with my
three sons. I doubt anyone writing such code is reading this mate-
rial at the moment, but if you are, know this: One day, in computer
heaven, I will get the opportunity to torment you as much as you
have tormented me in this life. The torment you inflicted lasted
days; the torment I inflict will last an eternity. I eagerly look for-
ward to our meeting in the great computer heaven in the sky!
My sincere apologies for the soapbox, but this is a good time to

point out that you can get nasty stuff from web pages. In fact, that is
where almost all of mine comes from nowadays. I have firewalls
that keep out the e-mail-based malicious code (and keep me from
sending such viruses onward), but I still get an occasional bug,
either from a web page or a newsgroup. Be sure that your virus
protection is up to date and turned on before you cruise the net. I
like to disable mine for certain activities so that the processes run
faster. Sometimes I forget to enable it again. Oh, well.
Here is a fact that is little known because universities do not want
to take the heat for allowing irresponsible adults access to incredi-
ble computing resources on their campuses: Almost all hackers and
virus originators are university graduate students. Don’t believe
me? Don’t think anyone is hacking your computer? Buy an inex-
pensive copy of McAfee’s Visual Trace program. You will have a
tool to identify who is hacking your computer and the information
you need to bust them.
Here is a little (hacking) story. I share it with you in the interest of
education. An old man once told me as a young boy that everyone
must pay for their education. He said some people pay money for
their education in the public schools and colleges of the country,
while others pay with blood and sweat in the “school of hard
knocks.” This is an education I received in the school of hard
knocks.
I acquired DSL access several years ago. Almost immediately after
I installed the modem, my phone began to ring in the morning.
When I picked it up to answer, there was no one on the other end of
the line. Assuming a wrong number or crank call, I hung up. Then I
began to notice that my computer (at the time not a real fast one
anyway) began to run much slower after such phone calls. It took
me a couple of weeks to figure out that someone was calling my
home and when I hung up, they seized my telephone line and
accessed my computer via a software spoof.
To discover who was hacking my computer via the telephone ruse,
I bought and installed McAfee’s Visual Trace. Imagine my surprise
to discover 23 hackers from 23 different universities in the U.S.,

Canada, and Australia, all using my computer as a portal to go on to
other sites and do who knows what to who knows who at the same
time on the same day! With Visual Trace, I was able to identify the
domain addresses of the offending hackers and the phone numbers,
physical addresses, mail addresses, and names of network/system
administrators, whom I contacted. This lesson taught me the wis-
dom of having an impenetrable firewall.
ZoneAlarm is a free firewall that works extremely well (as long as
your kids do not defeat it to play computer games on the Internet
or disable it to use file sharing programs such as Kazaa). If you do
not have a firewall, I strongly urge you to try a free copy of
ZoneAlarm, found at http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/
company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp. Click on Download
FREE ZoneAlarm. Follow the directions to save and install. So
maybe you don’t have to learn via the “school of hard knocks.”
Why all the discussion about hacking and computer security? What
does that have to do with Google? Well, it really has nothing to do
with Google, but it has everything to do with searching the web. To
search the web, you must be connected to the Internet. When you
are connected to the Internet, you are vulnerable to hacking and
malicious code. Most people think that they only receive viruses
via contaminated disks or e-mail. However, a lot of malicious code,
not just viruses, trojan horses, and worms, comes from clicking on
a link to a web site. What do we do when we search? We click on
links to web sites. Keep the firewall up and the virus software up to
date!
I mentioned (somewhere way back there!) that caching web pages
has a singular disadvantage from a user perspective. The single
most significant disadvantage is:
n The information may be out of date. Since a Google cached
web page is updated only periodically, any changes to the origi-
nal web page will not appear in the cached version until a
Google spider updates the cached version. Since this happens
only about once every four to six weeks, as my experience
indicates, the cached web page that you are viewing may not
contain the latest information. If the information that you are
perusing is not time sensitive, then cached pages can be useful
in your searches.
The cached web page has an information and disclaimer box at the
top of the page. See Figure 6.1. Unfortunately, the information box
does not tell us when the web page was cached. It would be useful
to know this information. A page cached just a day or two ago might
be acceptable, whereas a page cached eight weeks ago might not be
acceptable.
Note that the search term “travel” is highlighted in Figure 6.1.
Figure 6.1: Google cached page information box
The information box includes two links to the actual web page; both
the domain name and Current page links will take you to the genu-
ine web page. I don’t understand the duplicated effort. The
information box also includes a link that you can bookmark. If you
select this URL to bookmark, know that you are bookmarking the
cached page — not the original web page.
Note that a cached page is also accessible by clicking on the Cached
link on Google’s main results page. See Figure 6.2. The link is
highlighted, as are all links, at the bottom of the web page informa-
tion block.

Figure 6.2: Google search results showing cached page link
If other words are included in the query, Google will highlight those
words within the body of the cached document. As an example,
[cache:www.google.com/help/index.html search] will show Google’s
cached version of the Google Help Central page with the word
“search” highlighted. See Figure 6.3.
Figure 6.3: Google cached page with “search” highlighted
Note that the information box at the top of the cached page includes
a message that the term “search” is highlighted within the body of
the cached page. See Figure 6.4.
Figure 6.4: Google cached page information box with “search” highlighted
You can combine multiple words (up to ten), and Google will high-
light each in the cached web page in a different color. See Figure
6.5. It illustrates highlighting more than one word. The query I
used for the figure was [cache:www.google.com/help/index.htm
links definitions types lucky headlines pages search checker quotes
maps Translation Spell]. Notice that the last two words, Translation

and Spell, do not show up in the list of highlighted words in the
information box, and they are not highlighted in the body of the
cached document.
Figure 6.5: Google cached page with multiple search terms highlighted
When placing one or more terms after the domain name in the
cache: query, keep these points in mind:
n The results are case sensitive.
n There must be a space between each word.
n Do not place more than ten words in the query after the domain
name.
n It does no good to place a term before the word “cache” or any-
where within the domain name.
Points to remember about the cache: query:
n You can perform a cache query from any Google query/search
box.
n cache: queries return potentially out-of-date web pages.

n If a web page is unavailable from its web server, try the Google
cache.
n You can view a cached page from the regular search result links.
link:
We briefly mentioned links in the previous chapter. You may recall
that the Links advanced search feature allows you to find web pages
that link to the web page you specify in the query box. The format
for a link: query is just like that for cache:, [link:www.yahoo.com].
Let’s see what we get if we perform a link: query on
www.yahoo.com (Yahoo’s home page).
Figure 6.6: link: search results
The search results page of a link search appears exactly as any

other search result page. See Figure 6.6. Note the links to a cached
page and similar pages. We discussed cached pages above and simi-
lar pages in the previous chapter.
Here is a (big?) secret. Google does not say anything about placing
words after the link: query, but I tried it to see what would happen.
For the record, I tested [link:www.yahoo.com campus]. Two things
(both good) happened. The search engine excluded any web pages
without the word, and it highlighted the word in the search results
page but not in the web page. If you try this, note that the words
placed after the domain name must be separated by a space. The
search results that I observed after a few trials showed that the

Google search engine treats all words after the domain name as if
they are connected via the + (plus) symbol. That is, only links to
web pages containing all of the words were returned in the search
results page.
I imagine that you can use other operators as part of a link: query
and modify your search accordingly. I will leave it up to you to try a
few and see what you get.
Things to remember about a link: query:
n A link: query works in any Google query/search box.
n You can use search words in a link: query if you place them
after the domain name, separated by spaces.
n A link: query tells you how many web pages (not necessarily
web sites) are linked to the domain name used in the query.
The number of “hits,” or search results, provides this
information.
n If you have a business arrangement with web sites to link to
your site, you can easily verify those links.
related:
related: is similar to the Similar feature. It returns links to web
pages similar to the domain name of the domain in the related:
query. Recall that we discussed similar pages in the previous chap-
ter. The difference is that the Similar feature is a link on a search
results web page, whereas related: is a query. The format of a
related: query is the same as a cache: or link: query. Let’s see what
we get when we do a related: search for Yahoo’s home page,
[related:www.yahoo.com]. See Figure 6.7. Looks like a familiar
search result page with all of the usual information there. However,
there is a new link to the Yahoo site that we have not seen in
results before — a link to a web page where you can get a Yahoo
stock quote.
Figure 6.7: related: search results
What good is a related: query? Well, if you are looking for compa-
nies that manufacture and/or sell similar products, a related: query
works amazing well. Let’s see what we get when we search
related:schwinn.com. Schwinn manufactures and sells bicycles. We
received 31 web site links to companies that make bicycles. See
Figure 6.8.
Try a related: query on other company domain names, including the
company you work for.
Figure 6.8: related:schwinn search results
Things to remember about a related: query:

n A related: query works in any Google query/search box.
n You cannot use any keywords after the domain name in a
related: query.

info:
An info: query returns links to the domain name included in the
query along with the first 24 or so words in the web page’s title or
upper page information. See Figure 6.9. The format for an info:
query is the same as a related: query, [info:www.yahoo.com].
Figure 6.9: info: query
Just like a related: query, you can place keywords after the domain
name in an info: query, and the Google search engine will exclude
any links of web pages that do not include those keywords. Try an
info: query on big corporations like Ford, GM, Lockheed, and your
company.
Things to remember about an info: query:
n An info: query works in any Google query/search box.
n You can use up to ten keywords in an info: query if you place
them after the domain name, separated by spaces.
stock:
stock: treats all text after [stock:] as stock ticker symbols. The
format for a stock: query is the same as a related: query,
[info:www.yahoo.com]. For example, [stock:yhoo] will return a link
where you can retrieve Yahoo’s stock price. See Figure 6.10. Note
that stock: also returns search results with links to pages that
include both “stock” and “yhoo.”
Figure 6.10: stock: query
You can include up to ten stock symbols in the query. The query
will also work from any Google query box. You can query without
the [stock:] and then click on the stock quote links contained in the
search results page.
Things to remember about a stock: query:
n A stock: query works in any Google query/search box.
n You can use up to ten stock symbols in a stock: query if you
place them after the query [stock:], separated by spaces.

site:
The site: query will restrict search results to the specified web
pages in the domain specified. The form of the site: query is [xxx
site:TLD/domain name] or [site:TLD/domain name xxx], where xxx
is one or more keywords. You can search up to ten keywords. The
keywords after the query can appear anywhere within the docu-
ment. Note that you can search on either a TLD (top-level domain,
such as .com, .edu, .gov, etc.) or a domain name (such as
www.my_domain_name.edu). For example, to search Google’s Help
page, our query would look like [help site:www.google.com]. The
results are shown in Figure 6.11.
Figure 6.11: Google Help site: query
Note that the first search result in the search result page is Google
Help Central. Since we searched Google’s site for [help
site:www.google.com] “help,” it seems reasonable that we would
acquire Google’s Help Central as a search result. If we test this one
more time by performing the same search on Yahoo’s site, we
should receive the same results. Let’s search on [help site:
www.yahoo.com].
Figure 6.12: Searching for Yahoo Help site
Yahoo has a web page titled Help Central just like Google does. It
stands the test of logic that if the site: query worked in a certain
way for one web site, it would work exactly the same way for
another. In this case, the site: query obviously does not return the
same result for both Google and Yahoo. Methinks there is some-
thing fishy going on here.
Figure 6.13: Yahoo Help site

Whatever is going on here, this example serves to illustrate that

some Google products do not work consistently. Just keep that in
the back of your mind as you ponder from time to time the seem-
ingly odd results that you will see.
Remember in Chapter 1 that I said people search the Internet for
career information? You can easily zero in on the best career web
sites with a site: search. A site: search for engineering jobs would
look like this: site:.com job engineer. It gives all sites pertaining to
jobs for engineers. See Figure 6.14 for the search results.
Figure 6.14: site: query for .com job engineer
Try site:.com job programmer java -coffee. This site: search will list
links to web pages pertaining to Java programming jobs and will
exclude any site with the word coffee (coffee = java). Try other
professions, including your own. You can be more specific by adding
additional keywords describing the profession. A search for a Unix
software engineering position would look like site:.com job “Unix
software engineer” (with the quotes).
. Note:
It does not seem to make any difference if the keywords come
before “site” or after the domain. That is, “job engineer
site:.com” works exactly the same as “site:.com job engineer”.
Things to remember about a site: query:

n A site: query works in any Google query/search box.
n You can use up to ten keywords in a site: query if you place
them after the domain name, separated by spaces.
n The site: query functionality is also present in the Advanced
Search page. See Figure 6.15.
Figure 6.15: Site: query functionality in Advanced Search page
n Note that you can use site: to search any TLD. TLDs are .edu,
.com, .gov, .org, etc., or any web site.
allintitle:
The allintitle: query will restrict search results to links to those
web pages containing all of the keywords in the title of the page.
The form of the allintitle: query is [allintitle:keyword xxx], where
xxx is one or more keywords, up to a maximum of ten. All of the
keywords appear in the title since the operator is “all in the title.”
For example, to search for resumes of engineers other than civil
engineers, our query would look like [allintitle:resume engineer
-civil -post]. We exclude civil (-civil) in the query since we are not
interested in civil engineers, at least in this example. Also, we want
to exclude those commercial sites seeking resumes to post, so we
use “-post”. The search results are shown in Figure 6.16. You can
include up to ten words in the query. All words in the query must
appear in the title for links to those pages to appear in the search
results.
Figure 6.16: allintitle:resume engineer -civil -post search results

Note the number of web pages (1,460) containing the keywords

“resume” and “engineer” and excluding “civil” and “post” shown in
Figure 6.16. If you are seeking employees, isn’t this a wonderful
way to find prospective candidates?
Things to remember about an allintitle: query:
n An allintitle: query works in any Google query/search box.
n You can include up to ten keywords in an allintitle: query.
n The allintitle: query functionality is also present in the
Advanced Search page. See Figure 6.17.
Figure 6.17: allintitle: query functionality in Advanced Search page
intitle:
The intitle: query restricts search results to links of those web
pages containing the first word after the intitle: query in the title of
the page. The form of the intitle: query is [intitle:keyword xxx],
where xxx is one or more keywords. You can search up to nine
additional keywords for a maximum of ten. The second and addi-
tional words after the query are keywords that can appear any-
where within the document, including the title. For example, let’s
look for the latest research on liver cancer. The form of the search
is [intitle:cancer “latest research” liver]. The results are shown in
Figure 6.18.
Figure 6.18: intitle:cancer “latest research” liver search results
The power of an intitle: search is graphically demonstrated in Fig-

ure 6.18. We just captured the links to 2,810 web pages describing
the latest research material for liver cancer.
Another interesting intitle: search is [intitle:linux “user groups”
member members membership]. See Figure 6.19 for the search
results.
Figure 6.19: intitle:linux “user groups” member members membership

search results
Things to remember about an intitle: query:

n The intitle: query works in any Google query/search box.
n You can include up to ten keywords in an intitle: query. Only
the first keyword after the query must appear in the title,
unless you include the first word with others surrounded by
quotes, while the others may appear anywhere within the web

page.
n Placing intitle: in front of every keyword is the same as search-
ing with allintitle:.
n The intitle: query functionality is also present in the Advanced
allinurl:
The allinurl: query will restrict search results to links of those web
pages containing all of the keywords in the URL of the page. The
form of the allinurl: query is [allinurl:keyword]. For example, to
search for Google help in the URL of web pages, our query would
look like [allinurl:google help]. The results are shown in Figure
6.20. You can include up to ten words in the query. All words in the
query must appear in the URL for links to those pages to appear in
the search results. Note that in Figure 6.20 the search results
shown each include “Google” and “help” in their URL (domain
name).
Figure 6.20: allinurl:Google Help search results

An allinurl: query does not operate on any punctuation, so charac-

ters usually found with URLs, such as the slash (/), will not
contribute to the search results.
Things to remember about an allinurl: query:
n An allinurl: query works in any Google query/search box.
n You can include up to ten keywords in an allinurl: query.
n The allinurl: query functionality is also present in the Advanced
Figure 6.21: allinurl: query functionality in Advanced Search

page
inurl:
The inurl: query will restrict search results to links to those web
pages containing the first word after the inurl: query in the URL of
the page. The form of the inurl: query is [inurl:keyword]. You can
search up to nine additional keywords in the inurl: query. The sec-
ond and additional words after the query are keywords that can
appear anywhere within the document, including the URL. For
example, to search for Google help (again) in the URL of web
pages, our query would look like [inurl:google help]. The results
are shown in Figure 6.22.

Figure 6.22: inurl:Google Help search results
Another inurl: search example, using travel as the subject, is shown

in Figure 6.23. We received 39,300 results, which seems extraordi-
nary given we are searching the URL for travel.
Figure 6.23: inurl:travel cheap Russia search results
Let’s exchange the position of “travel” and “Russia” and see if we

can reduce the number of search results.
After exchanging “Russia” and “travel,” our search results are
encouraging. We now have only 3,380 results to choose from (keep-
ing in mind Google only displays the first 1,000). See Figure 6.24.
Figure 6.24: inurl:Russia cheap travel search results
So, let’s try one more time and see if we can get even fewer
results. We will enclose “cheap travel” in quotes. Now we’re
cookin’! We have 112 high-quality search results. See Figure 6.25.
Figure 6.25: inurl:Russia “cheap travel” search results

Still too many? Then add more keywords to narrow the scope of the

search. Maybe we are interested in traveling to a certain part of
Russia. How about a visit to Moscow?
Figure 6.26: inurl:Russia “cheap travel” Moscow search results
Figure 6.26 shows that we received 85 search results when we

narrowed the scope of our search to Moscow. We can handle 85
top-quality search results, can’t we? I think so.
Things to remember about an inurl: query:
n An inurl: query works in any Google query/search box.
n You can include up to ten keywords in an inurl: query. Only the
first keyword after the query must appear in the URL, while
the others may appear anywhere within the web page.
n Placing inurl: in front of every keyword is the same as search-
ing with allinurl:.
In some of the example searches that I used in this chapter, I
excluded certain words to illustrate how you can narrow the search
field and bring the quality of the search results within reasonable
limits. Of course, I just picked these examples because they were
illustrative of the point I was making. In real life, you may or may
not know for any particular search which words to include and
which ones to exclude.
Here is the way to approach the issue. When you search, examine
the first 20 or so search results. If most of them are not what you
are looking for, then look for words common to most or all of the
results in which you are not interested. Select those words as
keywords and exclude them in the next search.
As an example, say we wanted to find the resumes of Java program-
mers. We could do a search on [allintitle:programmer java]. The
results we get back could include links to web pages whose subject
matter concerned coffee, since java is a synonym for coffee. A more
focused search would be [allintitle:programmer java -coffee]. But,
you might not think about coffee until after you have searched on
[allintitle:programmer java]. If you received a lot of search results
with links to pages about coffee, you might wonder how you can
eliminate them from the results. Bingo! Search again with the
“-coffee.” Some experimentation may be necessary, but you can
quickly sort out the path to search nirvana with a little effort and by
thinking about your search goals and examining your search
results. With some experience, you will realize great satisfaction
with your ability to find what you seek.
Summary
In this chapter we examined Google’s advanced search operators.
We discovered that these operators are very useful for confining
our searches to specific domains, domain names, and certain por-
tions of web pages. By clearly defining the search goal, identifying
the proper keywords (both those we want to include and those we
wish to exclude), and then deftly selecting our search operator, we
can mine the web for information and hit the mother lode!
Chapter 7
Advanced Image
Search
Introduction
In Chapter 2, we discussed basic image searching. In this chapter
we delve deeper into the features that Google offers in the
Advanced Image Search page. These features permit you to base
your image search upon various criteria that exclude noncon-
forming images. The ability to exclude images allows you to bring
your search objectives into specific relief, thereby reducing the
amount of time required to find a particular image meeting your
needs. You can access Advanced Image Search at http://www.goo-
gle.com/advanced_image_search?hl=en or by selecting Images on
the Google home page and then left-clicking the Advanced Image
Search link. (Bookmark it!) See Figure 7.1.
Images (and web pages, too) are copyrighted material. While
Google provides a means for us to search the web and find, display,
and save images, Google does not have the legal authority to grant
permission to use an image in any manner. If you want to use an
image, you must contact the owner of the image and receive his or
her written permission.
207
208 Chapter 7 / Advanced Image Search
I must reiterate that if you search the web for images, you will be
exposed to material that is defined as adult or mature material.
Regardless of the precautions you take, if you perform any number
of image searches, you will (sooner or later) come across material
that you may find objectionable. For those of you who take no pre-
cautions, it will be sooner rather than later. In the interest of fair
play, I have included Google’s warning about mature/adult material
here:
A note of caution. If you have a slow computer or a computer that
does not have sufficient memory and/or you are using a 56KB
dial-up modem, I would recommend that you forget about serious
image searching, unless you have plenty of time on your hands and
you are a patient person.
What is sufficient memory? That depends upon the speed of your
computer and the speed of your (cable/DSL?) modem. Here is a
way to test if your equipment is new enough for speeding down the
image interstate highway. Go to the Advanced Image Search web
page and enter the two keywords “flower” and “pot” in the top
query box. Left-click on the Google Search button and see what
happens. If you run out of patience before the results page loads,
then you should press Ctrl+Alt+Delete simultaneously. This key
sequence will bring up the Close Program dialog. In the dialog, you
should see something like “Google Search: “flower pot” – your
browser’s name.” Click on End Task, and in a moment you will
regain control of your computer. (I wish it were that easy with my
teenage boys!) If you must perform this task more than once per
day because you became impatient, then it is time to get a new
computer or a new cable/DSL modem, as appropriate!
Chapter 7 / Advanced Image Search 209
Advanced Image Search results are displayed 20 per results page.

They are arranged four per row, and there are five rows. See Figure
7.3. The maximum number of search results is the usual “about”
1,000. Unlike the Advanced Search page where you can set the
number of results per results page to as many as 100, there is no
ability to change the number of results per page in Advanced Image
Search. Also, the Advanced Image Search query boxes (just like all
other query boxes) are not case sensitive.
Figure 7.1: Google Advanced Image Search page advanced image search
Advanced Image Search has some features similar to Google’s

Advanced Search, while other features are different. The Advanced
Image Search features are:
n Find Results: Find Results includes the image search box and
three additional boxes that allow you to focus your search using
specific criteria.
n Size: Size allows you to choose a particular image size. You
have seven sizes to choose from.
n Filetypes: Filetypes gives you control over the types of image
files to search for.
n Coloration: Coloration permits you to choose four different

image color schemes.
n Domain: Domain lets you choose a specific domain to search.
n SafeSearch: SafeSearch provides some control over the adult
content.
Find Results is similar to Advanced Search Find Results. Find
Results includes four query boxes that allow you to specify
keywords related to your search objectives. All of the operators
that we have discussed in this book can be used in conjunction with
keywords to focus your search.
The maximum number of keywords per query box is the usual ten.
A detailed description of the Advanced Image Search features fol-
lows in the next section.
Advanced Image Search

Here we begin our exploration of the Advanced Image Search appli-
cation. Note that there is a help link in the top-right corner of the
web page. Next to the Images Help link is an All About Google link.
You should left-click on both of these in turn, so you are familiar
with the material in the web pages of the two links. After you have
visited those two web pages, look at the Advanced Image Search
query boxes and options in closer detail.
Find Results
Find Results is the heart of the Advanced Image Search features.
Find Results consists of four query boxes, each with a special func-
tion to govern or control some aspect of the search engine. The
Advanced Image Search Find Results works just like the Advanced
Search Find Results feature, except in the case of the Advanced
Image Search version, the keywords and search results refer to
images and image titles, not documents. Find Results is shown in

Figure 7.2.
Figure 7.2: Advanced Image Search Find Results
advanced image search

. Note:
A word about the use of the word “title”: When I am referring to
the text associated with an image’s label, I will refer to the
image’s name. I use the word “title” to refer to the title of a web
page.
The method utilized to search for images is simple. You enter in the
keywords describing what image you seek in the Related to all of
the words query box, place keywords in the remaining query boxes
as appropriate, select the remaining advanced options of interest,
and then left-click on the Google Search button. See Figure 7.2.
Figure 7.3: Google Advanced Image Search results page for flower pot
Before we actually search for an image, let’s discuss the Find

Results query boxes. Then we use what we have learned to illus-
trate other Advanced Image Search options. There are four query
boxes shown in Figure 7.2.
When an Image Search results page is displayed (such as the one
shown in Figure 7.3), the images you see are called thumbnails. A
true thumbnail is smaller than the original image. You can view the
full-size image by left-clicking on it. Besides displaying a full-size
image, Google also displays the web page where the image is
located below the full-size image. Understand that the web page
you are viewing is “inside” the Google page. If you want to view
the actual web page, Google provides a link to the page below the
full-size image.
Related to All of the Words

The Related to all of the words box applies the plus operator func-
tion between the keywords that you list in the box. It is the primary
query box. If we enter the keywords “flower pot” without the
quotes, we see the results in Figure 7.4. We should not be sur-
prised to see that the first images are of flower pots!
If we examine the search results in closer detail, we discover that

there are some odd ducks (images) included in the results. For the
first 94 or so results, both the keywords “flower” and “pot” appear
in the image name. Then we have an image whose name contains
the word “flower” but not “pot.” In Figure 7.4, observe the image
on the first row, third from the left. It is named flower.gif. All of the
previous 94 images included “flower” and “pot” in their name. Why
not this one? Before I answer this question, let’s see if Google uses

PageRank to rank image search results.
Examining the web page where this image comes from reveals that
the web page itself has the keywords “flower pot” in the body of
the web page. So that explains why this image is included in the
results. The search engine not only looks at image names, but it
also looks at the parts of the web page where an image is found.
Google claims it employs PageRank to rank search results without

any distinction made between image and web page searches. Do we
have a tool to determine if PageRank is involved in image results
ranking? Of course. Recall that we have examined the Links opera-
tor. Let’s use it to see how several of our image search results
measure against each other. To perform the check, I copied the
domain name of search result 95 into the Advanced Search query
box and performed a link search. The results I received were:
http://www.umich.edu/~smile/penpals/packages.html link
results = 2 links
Next, I went back to the first image and performed the same link
search. We would expect (if Google used PageRank to rank image
search results) that the first image would have at least two links.
Right? Well, the result I received this time was unexpected. The
number of links for the first image is:
www.bluebirdmeadows.com/Flower-pot.htm link results = 1
link
The web page where the first image resides has one less link than
the 95th ranked image web page. So, it appears that PageRank is
not used to rank image search results. Maybe keyword occurrence
is the ranking factor. I visited each web page and counted the num-
ber of keyword occurrences. The results are:
First search result:
Number of occurrences of the keywords in the web page:
flower = 4, pot = 4
Ninety-fifth search result:
flower = 5, pot = 5
Well, obviously keyword occurrence is not the criteria used to rank
the results, since the number one result has two total keywords
less than #95. But maybe a test sample of two results is not
enough. With that in mind, I looked at search result #41. Search

result #41 had neither flower nor pot in its name, and the number
of links were:
www.bluemud.com/dept.asp?dept_if=127&toc_id=127 link
results =212 links
flower = 4, pot = 4

If the results were ranked by the number of links, then clearly #41
with its 212 links should be before #1 and #95. If the number of
occurrences was the criteria, then it should be ranked closer to #1.
What gives? I have no clue. Repeated tests did not reveal any rank-
ing scheme that I could fathom. So how does Google determine
image search results ranking? From other limited experiments, it
appears to me there is no scheme. I would hazard a guess that they
are ranked based upon the date and time (a typical computer sort-
ing algorithm) that the Google spider found the image and indexed
it in the Google database.
What does this mean for us, the users of this search service? I
think it means that if we wish to maximize our search results so we
minimize the amount of time we spend searching, we must make
use of the additional search options available to us in the Advanced
Image Search page. The narrower we focus our search, the less
time we will spend searching for the mother lode. Onward to those
additional options!
Points to remember:
n The query box is not case sensitive.
n There can be a maximum of ten words in the query box.
n You can use other operators on keywords, such as quotes, in
this query box.
Related to the Exact Phrase

The search engine operates on keywords in the Related to the
exact phrase query box as if the words had quotes around them.
For example, the keywords “in” and “bloom” would appear to the
search engine as “in bloom.” You can get the same search result if
you placed the keywords in the Related to all of the words query
box in this manner: [flower “in bloom”]. So, why the need for
another query box? It is easier to see the query box and remember
what its purpose is (especially since there is a little explanatory
text to go with it) than it is to remember [flower “in bloom”]. Will
you remember the “short form” six months after you finish this
book?
This query box operates on the words even if the Related to all of
the words query box is empty. To illustrate, I searched on the key-
word “flower” in the top query box (Related to all of the words)
and “in bloom” (without the quotes) in the Related to the exact
phrase box. The search results are shown in Figure 7.6. Notice
how the search words are displayed in the search results query box
(flower “in bloom”). Somewhere, either in the image name or the
web page title or within the body of the web page, you will find the
phrase “in bloom.”
Figure 7.6: Google Advanced Image Search results page for flower “in
bloom”
Let’s see what happens if we search with “in bloom” in the query
box without the associated “flower” in the Related to all of the
words query box. See Figure 7.7. The search results are images of
flowers that are in bloom, but the results are not the same results
that we received when “flower” was included in the search.

Figure 7.7: Google Advanced Image Search results page for “in bloom”
Points to remember:
n Keywords in this query box appear to the search engine as if
they are surrounded by quotes in a normal query box.
n If the other query boxes are empty, the search engine will still
operate upon the words in this query box.
Related to Any of the Words

The search engine treats keywords in the Related to any of the
words box as if there is an “OR” between each one. For example,
the keywords “in” and “bloom” would be treated not as “in bloom”
but rather as “in” OR “bloom.” I searched on “flower” in the top
query box and “in bloom” in the Related to any of the words query
box. See Figure 7.8. The results that I received are shown in
Figure 7.9.
Figure 7.8: Google Advanced Image Search results page for flower in OR
bloom
Observe the search terms in the results page query box in Figure
7.9. Google put the “OR” between “in” and “bloom.” That is about
the sum of this Advanced Image Search feature. As usual, the query
box is not case sensitive and you are limited to ten keywords.
Figure 7.9: Google Advanced Image Search results page for flower in OR
bloom
Points to remember:
n There is a maximum of ten words in the query box.

they are separated by the OR operator.
Not Related to the Words

Keywords in the Not related to the words query box tell the

search engine to ignore images titled or otherwise associated in
some manner with the keyword(s). The search engine views the
keywords in this query box as if they are preceded by a minus (–)
operator. You may recall from Chapter 4 that the minus operator
performs the Boolean function NOT.
To check this feature out, I searched on “flower” with “in bloom” in
the Not related to the words query box. See Figure 7.10.
Figure 7.10: Google Advanced Image Search results page for flower NOT
in bloom
The search results are shown in Figure 7.11. I opened a few of the
web pages and I did not find the words “in” or “bloom” anywhere
within the web page. Observe the search results query box. Google
placed the minus sign (–) in front of the two query words that were
in the Not related to the words query box.
Points to remember:
they are separated by the minus (–) operator.
Figure 7.11: Google Advanced Image Search results page for flower NOT
in bloom
Size
The Size feature allows you to select any of six different image
sizes. Or you can select all of them. Left-click on the Size drop-
down menu and then move the mouse icon over the size of interest
to highlight it. Then left-click to select it. See Figure 7.12.
Figure 7.12: Google Advanced Image Search Size feature
The various sizes of images are:

Icon size
Figure 7.13: Google Advanced Image Search icon size

Small
Figure 7.14: Google Advanced Image Search size small
Medium

Figure 7.15: Google Advanced Image Search size medium
Large
Figure 7.16: Google Advanced Image Search size large
Very large
Figure 7.17: Google Advanced Image Search size

very large
Wallpaper size
Figure 7.18: Google Advanced Image Search

wallpaper size
If you experience slow load times when trying to search images, try
reducing the image size. The difference in time between a wallpa-
per size image and an icon image can be lengthy on a slow
computer and/or slow modem.
Filetypes
Filetypes gives you the option of searching only for specific image
file types or for all file types. The file types are the most common
used today — jpg, gif, and png. To make a selection, left-click on
the Filetypes drop-down menu, place the mouse cursor over the
item of choice, and then left-click.
Figure 7.19: Google Advanced Image Search Filetypes feature
That just about covers it. Simple, eh? If it is so simple, then why
the file type choices? Long ago, when dinosaurs roamed the planet
(circa 1995), image file formats were proprietary formats, and user
programs usually could only deal with one type of image format. So,
if you had this or that software program and it was a single format
program, you would only be interested in the one format supported
by your software. Perhaps there are many people still using old
software today that can process only one format. Image software
today can process all image formats. I am up to date, hardware and
software wise. I can handle any image file format. Whoopee!
Coloration
Coloration gives you the option of selecting any one of three image
color formats (or all of them). The three formats are black and
white, grayscale, and full color. To make a selection, left-click on
the Coloration drop-down menu, place the mouse cursor over the
item of choice, and then left-click.

Figure 7.20: Google Advanced Image Search Coloration feature
The Coloration choices are pretty clear. If you do not know what
any of the three selections are, then select that color choice and
search for images. Why the three choices? Speed and load times. It
takes a lot less time to load a black and white image than a gray-
scale image, and a lot less time to load a grayscale image than a
full-color image. If you experience very slow load times when
searching Any colors or Full color, try changing to Grayscale or
Black and white.
Domain
The Domain box is just like the Domain box for Advanced Search
for web pages. See Chapter 5.
Figure 7.21: Google Advanced Image Search Domain feature
Entering a domain in the box will restrict the search to that domain
only.
SafeSearch
Advanced Image Search SafeSearch is identical to Advanced Search
SafeSearch for web pages. See Chapter 5.
Figure 7.22: Google Advanced Image Search SafeSearch feature
For the adventurous, searching the web can be fun. But you just
never know what you may be exposed to.
Summary
Searching for images is a very enjoyable pastime if you have the
equipment and Internet connection to do it. Search on keywords
used in your favorite sports, hobbies, and work. You will find a great
assortment of beautiful and pleasing images to behold. However, do
not forget that the images are copyrighted and cannot be used in
any manner without the copyright owner’s permission. Also,
remember that the laws of the United States specify that whom-
ever holds the negative (or original artwork in the case of graphics)
holds the copyright.
You can use complex search operators in the Advanced Image
Search query boxes, just as you could use them in Advanced Search
for web pages. You can use all of the operators. For example, the
plus sign (+), the minus sign (–), double quotes (“”), link:, cache:,
etc., work equally well in the Advanced Image Search query boxes.
You are now armed with sufficient search skills to find just about
anything on the Internet that you desire without any undue frustra-
tion. You could say that your (search the web) education is
complete. However, the next chapter has a few tricks and treats
waiting for you. So, let’s go see what there is to offer an expert web
searcher.
Chapter 8
The Google
Toolbar
Introduction
In this chapter, we examine the Google Toolbar and its associated
features and functions. The Google Toolbar is a browser-installable
toolbar convenient for quickly searching the web. When installed,
the toolbar is integrated with the web browser. See Figure 8.1.
Figure 8.1: Google Toolbar
The first publicly available version of the Google Toolbar was

released in late 2000. It has undergone a number of revisions, and
at the time of publication was in version 2.0. We first examine the
1.1.x version of the Google Toolbar and then discuss the newest
features in version 2.0.
225
226 Chapter 8 / The Google Toolbar
System Requirements
Currently, your system must meet the following system require-
ments to install the toolbar. Note that the only browser the toolbar
is compatible with is Internet Explorer. Sorry, Netscape fans! The
minimum system requirements to take advantage of the Google
Toolbar are:
n Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP operating system
n Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5 or later web browser
(the pop-up blocker available in version 2.0 requires IE 5.5)
Google Toolbar Privacy Policy

Before we install the Google Toolbar, we should take the time to
review Google’s privacy policy with respect to the installation and
use of the toolbar. The Toolbar Privacy Policy web page is located at
http://toolbar.google.com/privacy.html. (Bookmark it, as you will
find virtually no reference to it anywhere else.)
There are two important issues to note regarding the privacy policy.
The first is that Google checks the version of your toolbar from
time to time and automatically updates it if there is a newer version
available. If a firewall is installed on your computer, the toolbar
updates may be blocked. Additionally, depending on your security
settings, you may see a dialog box requesting confirmation that you
want to update the toolbar.
Programs that automatically update your computer assume that you
want to get updated, but updates can cause compatibility problems.
Suddenly, bad things start happening with your computer, such as
freeze-ups, and you don’t know why. That can cost money, if you
are not technical. I like control over my computer, so I know what is
going on and who is involved. I decide if I want to get updated or
Chapter 8 / The Google Toolbar 227
not. Then, if there is a compatibility issue, I know it, and I know

which piece of software is causing the problem.
The second important issue is the transfer of information to Google
regarding the web page that you are viewing. This is necessary for
Google to provide you with certain information. This issue is only
of concern if you have advanced toolbar features enabled. We dis-
cuss what advanced toolbar features must be enabled and how to
enable them in the appropriate sections. For now, just be aware that
your search habits can be transmitted to Google if you enable the
advanced features. The default condition of the advanced features
when you install the toolbar is disabled. Now let’s install the
toolbar.
Toolbar Installation
the Google toolbar

The Google Toolbar is free. It costs you nothing but a little time to
install it. The following instructions will help you get the toolbar
installed in your browser.
To use the toolbar, you must install it in your browser. Journey to
the toolbar home page at http://toolbar.google.com/ to install the
toolbar. Left-click on the toolbar button at
the bottom of the page. Next, you are presented with a page where
you are asked if you agree to the terms of use. If you do, left-click
on the button.
Your toolbar will be installed automatically. Now, you are ready to
use the handy toolbar to search the web, unless you want to change
the language that the toolbar is displayed in.
The toolbar is available in 37 languages. Select
the language you prefer from the toolbar page
at http://toolbar.google.com/. Left-click on the
drop-down box down arrow and select the lan-
guage you prefer by left-clicking on it. In the
example shown, I chose Pig Latin. Note that
some languages may have [BETA] beside the language. The

[BETA] sign warns you that the browser interface of that language
may not be thoroughly checked out and may cause problems.
If you do not want to view the toolbar all of the time, you do not
have to uninstall it. You can turn the toolbar on/off as appropriate.
To turn the toolbar on or off, left-click on the browser’s View|
Toolbars menu selection. See Figure 8.2. Google will appear some-
where in the list of toolbars, if it is installed. When you left-click on
Google, you turn the toolbar off, if it is on; if the toolbar is off, you
turn it on. A check mark adjacent to Google signifies that the
toolbar is in the on, or display, mode.
Figure 8.2: Displaying the Google Toolbar
Now that we have the toolbar installed (in a language we under-

stand), let’s check out some of its features.
Toolbar Help
You will find Toolbar Help at http://toolbar.google.com/button_
help.html. (Bookmark it!)
Drag-and-Drop Functionality
A really neat feature of the Google Toolbar is its drag-and-drop
functionality. You can drag and drop any text or URL from the cur-
rent page you are viewing onto the Google Toolbar in order to
perform a search. It is simple. Just highlight the desired text, drag
it to the toolbar, and then drop it anywhere on the toolbar. The
Google Toolbar will then perform a search on the search terms or
the URL.
Right-click Functionality
Another really neat toolbar feature for searching the web is its
the Google toolbar

right-click functionality. Highlight any text on the current page,
right-click the mouse, and then select Google Search from the
pop-up menu.
Toolbar Features
The toolbar includes these features:
n Google Toolbar Menu: Provides selection of additional toolbar
features
n Google Search: Gateway to Google’s search technology from
your browser
n Search Site: Limit the search range to only the pages of the
site that you’re currently visiting
n PageRank: View Google’s ranking of the current page
n Page Info: View additional information about the current page,
including similar pages, pages that link back to the current
page, and a cached snapshot of the page, and translate the page
to English
n Up: Changes the view to the web page next “up” in the site’s
hierarchy
n Highlight: Highlights the search terms wherever they appear
on the current page; individual query word is shown in its own
color
To use any of these toolbar features, just left-click on the one of
interest. Some of the features are disabled until you have met the
appropriate conditions for them to be enabled. As you size the
browser window and/or add or remove toolbar buttons, you may or
may not see the toolbar continuation button on the far-right
side of the toolbar. If you see this button (after installing the toolbar,
I had to close the browser window and reopen it to see the continu-
ation button), you can left-click on it, and more enabled toolbar
buttons will be visible. Of course, if a toolbar button has not been
enabled for use (as opposed to a button that is enabled but is
“grayed out” because the functionality is not enabled at the
moment) on the toolbar, it will not appear on the toolbar. Let’s now
look at each feature in depth.
Google Toolbar Menu

Google provides a menu of additional toolbar features. You can
access the toolbar menu by left-clicking on the down arrow adjacent
to Google on the toolbar itself . See Figure 8.12 later in this
chapter to view the toolbar menu. We examine these menu selec-
tions in some detail in later sections.
Google Search
Google Search is the gateway to Google’s search technology from
the convenience of your browser. It consists of a query box that can
contain more than 700 characters. See Figure 8.3. To key words
into the search box, the blinking cursor must be in the box. If there
is no blinking cursor in the box, place the mouse icon in the box and
left-click once. After you enter your keywords in the search box,
press the Enter key on the keyboard to initiate the search.
Figure 8.3: Toolbar search box
The search box contains a history box that you can view and select
items from by left-clicking on the down arrow located on the right
side of the box.
Figure 8.4: Search box with history
the Google toolbar

After you left-click on the down arrow, move the mouse cursor
over the selection of interest and left-click once. The search is initi-
ated as soon as you click.
Keyboard shortcuts:
n Press Alt+G to move the keyboard focus to the search box.
n Hold the Shift key down to display the search results in a new
window.
Search Site
You can limit the search to only the pages of the site that you’re
currently visiting. You must have a page from a web site open for
this toolbar button to be active; otherwise, it is “grayed out.”
Figure 8.5: Search Site feature

PageRank
If you left-click on PageRank, Google’s ranking of the current web
page will be displayed.
Figure 8.6: PageRank feature
PageRank is disabled until you visit Google’s Privacy web page at

res://c:\windows\googletoolbar.dll/prefetch.html. (Don’t bother to
bookmark it. Copy and paste the hyperlink just as it is — do not
place “http://” at the beginning of the link.) Left-click on the Enable
All Advanced Features button at the bottom of the page. Then
left-click on the OK just below the Enable… button. PageRank
must be enabled because whenever you use this feature, the web
page URL that you are viewing is sent to Google so Google’s serv-
ers can identify the web page and match it with its page rank. Then,
the page rank is returned to your computer for display.
Google provides an explanation regarding the reasons that Page-
Rank must send information regarding your search to Google’s
servers on the Privacy Information page. Google also explains that
no personal information is collected in this process. The privacy
policy is located at http://toolbar.google.com/privacy.html. I strongly
suggest that you read it before you install the toolbar.
The manner used to display the page ranking is shown in Figures
8.7 and 8.8. The ranking bar is solid green for the site ranked high-
est (Figure 8.7). As the site ranking decreases, the bar displays less
green and more white (Figure 8.8).
Figure 8.7: Google PageRank
Figure 8.8: Yahoo PageRank

. Note:
If you select all of the toolbar options, the PageRank button will
not be displayed on the toolbar.
Page Info
Page Info provides a drop-down menu to view additional informa-
tion about the current page including similar pages, pages that link
back to the current page, a cached snapshot of the page, and a link
to translate the page to English. See Figure 8.9. We have discussed
these features in some detail in previous chapters. They are the
same.
Figure 8.9: Page Info feature
the Google toolbar

To view the menu, just left-click on the down arrow adjacent to
Page Info. Move the mouse cursor over the menu selection of
interest and then left-click.
Up
Up changes the current page to the web page that is next “up” in
the hierarchy of the currently viewed web page.
Figure 8.10: Up feature
Highlight
Highlight causes all of the search terms to be highlighted wherever
they appear on the current page. See Figure 8.11. Each individual
search word is shown in a different color. For example, the search
term “flower” is highlighted like this:
Figure 8.11: Highlight feature
We have finished our examination of the toolbar features. Next, we

look at the toolbar menu.
Toolbar Menu
You can customize the toolbar to meet your search needs. Once you
have the toolbar installed, left-click on the down arrow adjacent to
the word Google. A drop-down menu will appear.
Figure 8.12: Toolbar menu
The toolbar menu includes these items:

n Google Home Page: Loads Google’s home page in the
browser (http://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=navclient)
n Google Images: Loads the Google Image Search page in the
browser (http://www.google.com/imghp)
n Google Groups: Loads the Google Groups page in the browser

(http://www.google.com/grphp)
n Google Web Directory: Loads the Google Web Directory page
in the browser (http://www.google.com/dirhp)
n Google News: Loads the Google News page in the browser
(http://news.google.com/)
n Google Answers: Loads the Google Answers page in the
browser (http://answers.google.com/answers/main)
n Advanced Search Page: Loads Google’s Advanced Search
page in the browser (http://www.google.com/advanced_search)
n Search Preferences Page: Loads Google’s Preferences page
in the browser (http://www.google.com/preferences)
n Language Tools Page: Loads Google’s Language Tools page
in the browser (http://www.google.com/language_tools)
n Toolbar Options: Allows you to customize the buttons in your
the Google toolbar

toolbar (res://c:\windows\googletoolbar.dll/opts.html — Copy
and paste link as is. Do not add “http://” to the beginning of the
link.)
n Clear Search History: Clears the toolbar search history
n Help: Loads the Google Toolbar Help page in the browser
(http://toolbar.google.com/help.html)
n Privacy Information: Loads the Google Toolbar Privacy Pol-
icy page in the browser (res://c:\windows\googletoolbar.dll/
prefetch.html — Do not add “http://.”)
n About Google Toolbar: Loads Google’s About Toolbar dialog
n Contact Us: Loads Google’s Toolbar Support page in the
browser (http://toolbar.google.com/feedback.html)
n Uninstall: Loads the Google Toolbar Uninstall page in the
browser (res://c:\windows\googletoolbar.dll/uninstall.html —
Do not add “http://.”)
Google Home Page

A left-click on Google Home Page loads Google’s home page in the
browser. The home page is located at http://www.google.com/
webhp?sourceid=navclient (should already be bookmarked).
Google Images
A left-click on Google Images loads the Google Image Search page
in the browser. The Image Search page is located at http://
www.google.com/imghp (should already be bookmarked).
Google Groups
A left-click on Google Groups loads the Google Groups page in the
browser. Google Groups is located at http://www.google.com/grphp
(should already be bookmarked).
Google Web Directory

A left-click on Google Web Directory loads the Google Web Direc-
tory page in the browser. Google Web Directory is located at
http://www.google.com/dirhp (should already be bookmarked).
Google News
A left-click on Google News loads the Google News page in the
browser. Google News is located at http://news.google.com/ (should
already be bookmarked).
Google Answers
A left-click on Google Answers loads the Google Answers page in
the browser. Google Answers is located at http://answers.goo-
gle.com/answers/main (should already be bookmarked).
Advanced Search Page

A left-click on Advanced Search Page loads the Google Advanced
Search page in the browser. The Google Advanced Search page is
located at http://www.google.com/advanced_search (should already
be bookmarked).
Search Preferences Page

A left-click on Search Preferences Page loads Google’s Preferences
page in the browser (http://www.google.com/preferences).
Language Tools Page

A left-click on Language Tools Page loads the Language Tools page
in the browser. Language Tools is located at http://www.goo-
gle.com/language_tools (should already be bookmarked).
the Google toolbar

Toolbar Options
A left-click on Toolbar Options allows you to customize the buttons
in your toolbar. The Toolbar Options web page is located at
res://c:\windows\googletoolbar.dll/opts.html. (Bookmark it!) It is
worth a trip to this web page to check out and install a few of the
options. Add options by left-clicking in the check box and placing a
check mark there. You can remove options by left-clicking on the
check mark. After you have made your selections, save the options
by left-clicking on OK at the bottom of the page. Notice that at the
bottom of the page, just above OK, there are two buttons that allow
you to choose if you want to install the advanced features. We dis-
cussed the advanced features earlier in the book. Make the
appropriate choice by left-clicking on the appropriate button before
left-clicking on OK. We review the options in the following
sections.
General Options
There are three options to choose from in this category. The first
option selects the Google site from which to base your searches.
The second option allows a new browser window to open with
every search. The third option adds menu items to the browser’s
right-click menu.
Users in the United States will want to select www.google.com
most of the time. Why? Speed! www.google.com is located in the
United States. Those other Google search sites are located around
the world. To select the Google search site of your choice, left-click
on the drop-down menu and then scroll down until you find the site
you prefer. See Figure 8.13.
Figure 8.13: Google search location
You can elect to open a new browser window for each search you
perform. See Figure 8.14. The plus side about this choice is the
ability to keep the original search page and any other pages open
while perusing the current page. The bad thing about it is the
amount of memory that each new page consumes. If you have an
older machine or a machine with less than 512MB of RAM memory,
I would suggest leaving this option off.
Figure 8.14: New browser window and

right-click menu options
You can add Google stuff to the browser’s right-click menu, as

shown in Figure 8.14. I find this option very useful and keep it
enabled at all times. I recommend you do also. See Figure 8.15 for a
view of the Google items in my right-click menu. You may or may
not have the same Google features, depending upon what you have
enabled. The Google menu items that I have are:
n Cached Snapshot of Page
n Similar Pages
n Backward Links
n Translate Page
Each of these features were discussed in previous chapters, so I
will not describe them here.
the Google toolbar
Figure 8.15: Browser right-click menu
The changes to the browser’s menu will not take place until you
close all browser windows and then start the browser again.
Search Box
The search box option includes four choices. The first choice lets
you select various search box sizes. The second choice enables the
search box to keep a history of the query words for which you
searched. The third choice allows you to keep the search history
between browser sessions. The fourth choice turns on automatic

searching when you click on a search word from the history list.
The search box size choice allows you to specify if the search box
will be:
“narrow,”
“normal,” or
“wide.”
When left-clicking on the buttons to select the width that you pre-
fer, notice that the search box in the browser changes after you
make a selection. The change is immediate. Obviously, as you
increase the length of the search box, the amount of space available
on the toolbar to display other buttons decreases.
The search box second choice enables or disables a drop-down
search history list. This list is convenient if you search the same
query words repeatedly and you want to keep the search words
between browser sessions. Otherwise, it can be a nuisance. See the
“Google Search” section above for information regarding the use of
this feature. Enable this option by left-clicking in the check box. A
check mark signifies that it is enabled.
Figure 8.16: Search box with history
The fourth search box option is a fast way to initiate a search and
save a mouse click. As soon as you select a keyword from the list,
Google initiates a search. No additional clicking is required. Enable
this option by left-clicking in the check box. A check mark signifies
that it is enabled.
Buttons
You can choose three options for displaying toolbar button icons
with or without text labels. The choices are All text, Selective text
only, and No text. All text will place a text label beside icons that
have a text descriptor, Selective text only will place a text label
beside some icons, and No text will remove all icon text labels. See
Figure 8.17. These changes are immediate, so you can left-click on
the three different selections, observe the changes in your toolbar,
and decide which choice is best for you.
Figure 8.17: Button text labels
the Google toolbar

Search Buttons
Search buttons enable several Google search features to be present
in the toolbar. We have already discussed these features in previous
chapters.
Figure 8.18: Enabling Search buttons
n Search Web button: Search the web

n Search Site button: Search only the current web page
n I’m Feeling Lucky search button: Let Google decide for you
n Search Images button: Search the web using Google Image
Search
n Search Groups button: Search Google Groups

n Search Directory button: Search Google’s Web Directory
We have already discussed these features in previous chapters. I
recommend adding as many of these search features to your toolbar
as you can stand. It sure makes searching the web a lot easier.
Enable these options by left-clicking in the check box of your
choice. A check mark signifies that it is enabled.
Advanced Features Are ENABLED

The two advanced features are the PageRank and Category
buttons. We already discussed advanced features in another
section. This is just another place where you can choose to enable
or disable them. Enable these options by left-clicking in the check
box of your choice. A check mark signifies that it is enabled.
Figure 8.19: Enabling Advanced

Features buttons
Page Information
There are two Page Information choices. See Figure 8.20. One
allows you to enable or disable the Page Info menu. The other
enables or disables voting buttons.
Figure 8.20: Page

Information buttons
When you left-click on the Page Info button after it is installed on

the toolbar, the drop-down menu displays four options, as shown in
Figure 8.21. We have previously discussed these options.
Figure 8.21: Page Info options
Voting buttons allow you to vote for or against a site. The

voting buttons are applicable to the web page that you are currently
viewing. If you like a site, left-click on the yellow icon, and if you
dislike a site, left-click on the blue icon. Enable these options by
left-clicking in the check box of your choice. A check mark signifies
that it is enabled.
the Google toolbar

Navigation
You have two button choices in Navigation. The first installs a
Google News button , and the second installs an Up button
. The first takes you to the Google News web page, and the
second ratchets you up the hierarchy of web pages. Both of these
features are discussed elsewhere. Enable these options by left-
clicking in the check box of your choice. A check mark signifies that
it is enabled.
Figure 8.22: Navigation buttons
Finding Words within a Page

You have two button choices in this section. The first, ,
highlights search words, each word with a different color. The sec-
ond, , installs buttons corresponding to the search
words that you use. I searched on “intitle:Hawaii” so I was awarded

an intitle:Hawaii toolbar button for future one-click searching on
“intitle:Hawaii.” This feature could become cumbersome if you
have too many search terms. Enable these options by left-clicking
in the check box of your choice. A check mark signifies that it is
enabled.
Figure 8.23: Finding words within a page buttons
Google Compute Is ENABLED

This choice enables or disables the Google Compute button
. We discussed Google Compute in Chapter 2. Enable
this option by left-clicking in the check box. A check mark signifies
that it is enabled.
Experimental Features
For the adventurous toolbar user, three experimental features are
available. The three features are Combined Search button, Browser
Control, and Navigation. The Combined Search feature allows you
to compact the toolbar somewhat by adding one button with a menu
of Google web sites. We have already discussed these sites and
their functions. Note that the Combined Search button is identical
to the regular search button, except the Combined Search button
has a drop-down arrow adjacent to Search Web.
Figure 8.24 Combined

Search button and menu
After you enable the combined button, you may want to disable or
remove any duplicate buttons. You can also choose to keep the last
search performed with Combined Search as the default.
Figure 8.25: Enabling the Combined Search button
Browser Control is not a button on your menu but rather a line of

software code that tells your browser to ignore pop-up advertise-
ments (a worthwhile and very valuable feature that works!). I have
the Google toolbar

not had a pop-up appear since I added it to my web browser.
The third choice, , enables or disables back and forward but-
tons. I could not get these to work. These buttons do not duplicate
the Back button on your browser. These buttons jump back and
forth in your search results. This is useful, as it keeps you from
going back to the search results page to get the next or a previous
result.
Enable these options by left-clicking in the check box of your
choice. A check mark signifies that it is enabled.
Default Layout
This option allows you to return the toolbar to the default condi-
tion. All changes that you have made are erased, and the toolbar
will appear as it did when you first installed it. You can choose to
reset the toolbar with or without the advanced features (PageRank
and Category) buttons enabled. Enable this option by left-clicking
in the check box of your choice. A check mark signifies that it is
enabled. Then, left-click on one of the Reset Layout bars as
appropriate.
Finally, left-click on OK at the bottom of the page to save the

choices that you have made.
Clear Search History

You may recall that the search history is a list of previously
searched-on keywords that are exposed when you left-click on the
query box down arrow.
Figure 8.26: Toolbar search history
To clear the search history list, left-click on the

Google down arrow in the toolbar to
expose the toolbar menu. A left-click on Clear
Search History clears the toolbar search history.
Help
A left-click on Help loads the Google Toolbar
Help page in the browser. Toolbar help is located
at http://toolbar.google.com/help.html.
(Bookmark it.) Figure 8.27:
Clearing the
search history
Privacy Information
A left-click on Privacy Information loads the Google Toolbar Pri-
vacy Note page in the browser (res://c:\windows\googletoolbar.dll/
prefetch.html).
It is worth a visit to the page to enable or disable the two advanced
features to your liking. See Figure 8.28. If you want the advanced
features enabled, left-click on the box next to each, placing a check
mark in the box. To disable, left-click on the box and remove the
check mark. Next, left-click on the OK button below the advanced
features.
6 Caution:
Google cautions on the Privacy Note page that if you enable the
advanced features, information regarding the sites you visit will
be sent to Google.
the Google toolbar
Figure 8.28: Privacy Note page

About Google Toolbar

This loads Google’s About Toolbar dialog.
Contact Us
Left-clicking on Contact Us loads Google’s Toolbar Support page in
the browser. The Support page is located at http://toolbar.goo-
gle.com/feedback.html. (Bookmark it? Probably not.)
Uninstall
Left-clicking on Uninstall loads the Google Toolbar Uninstall page
in the browser. The Uninstall page is located at res://c:\windows\
googletoolbar.dll/uninstall.html. (Don’t bother to bookmark it.)
Uninstall will uninstall the toolbar.
Toolbar Version 2.0

As of fall 2003, the standard Google Toolbar is version 2.0.102. You
can find it at http://toolbar.google.com. To install the latest version,
left-click on the Download Google Toolbar button, select Run this
program from its current location, and left-click OK. In the next
page that appears, left-click Yes to download the installer. A terms
of use page will appear, to which you must agree to (by left-clicking
Agree) to continue the installation. Follow the remaining instruc-
tions that appear.
If you already have the Google Toolbar installed on your computer,
Google may have automatically updated it to the most current ver-
sion. However, if a firewall is installed on your computer, the
toolbar updates may be blocked. Additionally, depending on your
security settings, you may see a dialog box requesting confirmation
that you want to update the toolbar. To see what version your
toolbar is, select About Google Toolbar.
In addition to the features already discussed in this chapter, the

2.0.x version of the toolbar has the following new options. They
are:
n Pop-up Blocker: Blocks those annoying pop-ups. We dis-
cussed this earlier in the “Experimental Features” section. It is
the same as Browser Control, only in a new version of the
toolbar.
n Word Find: Finds your query words wherever they appear on
the page
n AutoFill: Automatically fills in forms with the click of a mouse
button
n BlogThis: Creates a weblog post pointing to the current page
Go ahead and install version 2.0. Nothing bad will happen.
Perhaps the most significant difference in the 2.0.x version of the
toolbar is the addition of Google Links and an Options menu item.
the Google toolbar

The Google Links menu item is just a rearrangement of the various
web sites found in the previous toolbar menu. See Figure 8.29. The
Options item, however, is much more interesting. See Figure 8.30.
Figure 8.30: Options menu
Figure 8.29: Google Links menu
Left-click on Options, and you can see the Toolbar Options dialog
as shown in Figure 8.31. The Toolbar Options dialog has three tabs:
Options, More, and AutoFill.
Figure 8.31: Toolbar

Options dialog
The Options tab displays the basic toolbar options. You can enable
each option by moving the cursor over to the appropriate check box
and left-clicking in the box. A check mark in the box signifies that
the option is enabled. To disable an option, left-click in the check
box to remove the check mark. Note the Options button check box
at the bottom of the dialog. When you check that box, you place an
icon on the toolbar that gives you direct access to this dialog. To
make your changes, left-click on Apply and then on OK at the bot-
tom of the dialog.
Left-click on the More tab to see the options in this dialog. See Fig-
ure 8.32. Just as in the previous dialog, left-click to place/remove a
check mark in the check boxes to enable/disable any options that
you wish to appear on the toolbar. As before, to make your changes,
left-click on Apply and then on OK at the bottom of the dialog.
the Google toolbar

Figure 8.32: More options
dialog
Now, left-click on the AutoFill tab. As you can see in Figure 8.33,
you are requested to fill out various text boxes with personal infor-
mation. Move the cursor from box to box using either the mouse or
the Tab key. If you love the convenience of AutoFill, then you will
find this feature very useful. However, if you are concerned about
privacy and people gaining access to your personal information,
avoid AutoFill like the plague! Once you fill in the information,
hackers can access the data.
Figure 8.33: AutoFill dialog
If you decide to use AutoFill and want it to store your credit card
info, left-click on the Add/Edit Credit Card button and then com-
plete all the text boxes in the Credit Card Information dialog.
Figure 8.34: AutoFill Credit Card Information dialog

You can set a password that limits access to your credit card infor-
mation via a browser, but it will not prevent a hacker from gaining
access to your credit card information. Until there are better con-
trols preventing any unauthorized access to our machines, I am not
in favor of keeping this kind of information anywhere on a com-
puter. But you may feel differently. In that case, left-click on Set
Password and complete the two text boxes. You can have up to 15
characters and any combination of letters, numerals, and text for-
matting characters, such as the asterisk (*). Use the mouse and
left-click inside each box to move the cursor, or use the Tab key.
Left-click on OK (or Cancel) when finished.
the Google toolbar

Figure 8.35: Set AutoFill Password dialog
Now that you have decided to use AutoFill, you can take advantage
of the Alternate Address feature to add a second address for ship-
ping or billing purposes. Left-click on the An alternate address
option. Then left-click on Add/Edit Alternate Address. Fill in the
required information in the text boxes, moving from box to box
using the mouse or Tab key. See Figure 8.36. Left-click on OK (or
Cancel) when you are finished.
Figure 8.36: Alternate Address dialog

Now, left-click on OK (or Cancel or Apply) and then OK to exit the

Options dialog.
Google is always experimenting with the toolbar features, so who
knows what you will see by the time this book gets in your hands.
Hopefully, there will be enough similarity that you can experiment
and work through any new options or deviations to the current
ones. Be brave and explore. Not much can happen, other than
crashing your machine. So always save your work before going off
on exploration journeys!
Summary
In this chapter we discussed the Google Toolbar with its many fea-
tures, drop-down menus, pop-up menus, options, and tools. The
toolbar is certainly useful to have. The choices given by the toolbar
to customize the search, and especially the pop-up blocker, make
searching the web a much more pleasurable experience. Install the
toolbar today and increase your search capability while reducing
your search frustration immediately.
Chapter 9
Other Google
Features
In this chapter, we examine various features, including Google Help
Central, Google Site Map, All About Google, General FAQ, config-
uring preferences, and setting Google to be your default home page
and default search engine. Additionally, we discuss web APIs,
webmaster information, submitting your URL, advertising with
Google, special tricks and treats, and finally your security.
Google Help Central

Google Help Central is located at http://www.google.com/help/
index.html. (Yes, bookmark it!) See Figure 9.1. Help Central is your
search “fire station.” Go to Help Central and click on the topic of
interest to get advice on how to perform the topic function. Be sure
that you have bookmarked it, as you will find it invaluable.
255
256 Chapter 9 / Other Google Features
Figure 9.1: Google Help Central
Google Site Map

Google’s excellent Site Map is located at http://www.google.com/
sitemap.html. (Bookmark it!) Use the Site Map in conjunction with
Help Central to navigate your way around Google.
Chapter 9 / Other Google Features 257
Figure 9.2: Google Site Map
We have covered the Our Search section of Google in great depth in

this book. The other three sections of Google (Our Company, More other Google features
Google, and For Site Owners) are not covered in this book. Those
sections are, after all, of little or no use to people trying to improve
their search skills, the topic of this book. Do take note of the Con-
tact Us link in the Talk to Us subsection of More Google.
All About Google

All About Google is found at http://www.google.com/about.html.
(Don’t bookmark it unless you are writing a book about Google.)
Note the Search our site search box in the top-right corner.
Figure 9.3: All About Google

General FAQ
Google’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) site is located at
http://www.google.com/help/faq.html. (Bookmark it!) The FAQ web
page is shown in Figure 9.4. Note the section titled International
Questions. There are several questions and answers that many
Americans will find useful. Most of us collide with foreign words,
phrases, and web pages from time to time. So if you find yourself in
a quandary with a foreign language web page, remember that this
section of FAQs may help you.
other Google features
Figure 9.4: Google FAQ
Also, note the links on the left-hand side of the web page. Help
Central is just a left-click away.
Saving Preferences
We covered preferences in a previous chapter. However, we
assumed that your browser was configured properly for saving your
preferences. If you find that your preferences are not being saved,
you may need to perform the following procedure. How can you tell
if your preferences were saved? Simple; after clicking on Save Pref-
erences in the Preferences page, close your browser and then
reopen it. Go to the Preferences page, and see if Google remem-
bered your preferences.
To save your preferences, you must have cookies enabled. A help
page that provides instructions on how to set cookies for Internet
Explorer versions 4.0 and 5.0 is located at www.google.com/
cookies.html. However, there are no instructions for Internet
Explorer 6.0. To fill that void, Internet Explorer 6.0 instructions are
provided here.
To enable cookies, follow the instructions below for the browser
version Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x. You can set your browser
to accept cookies from all sites or you can set the browser to accept
cookies only from sites that you specify. I recommend that you set
your browser to accept cookies from sites that you specify. See the
following sections.
Accepting Cookies
This option sets the browser to accept cookies from anyone who
wants to feed it one. It is not the recommended option, but it is the
only choice that allows you to set it and then forget about it. To
begin:
1. Select Internet Options from the Tools menu.
2. Left-click on the Privacy tab.
3. Left-click the Advanced button. See Figure 9.5.
4. Select Override automatic cookie handling. See Figure 9.6.
5. Select Accept for both First-party Cookies and Third-party

Cookies.
6. Left-click OK to close the Advanced dialog.
7. Left-click OK to close the Internet Options dialog.
Figure 9.5: Setting cookies

Accepting Cookies from Specific Sites

This option lets you specify a web site from which you will accept
cookies. It is the recommended way to accept cookies from trusted
sites.
1. Select Internet Options from the Tools menu.
2. Left-click on the Privacy tab.
3. Left-click the Edit button.
4. Enter http://www.google.com/cookies.html in the Address of
Web site text box. See Figure 9.7.
5. Left-click on the Allow button. You should see the http address
you entered in the text box appear in the Managed Web sites
text box, with Always Allow under Setting.
6. Left-click OK to close the Per Site Privacy Actions dialog.
7. Left-click OK to close the Internet Options dialog.

Setting Google as Your

Default Home Page
This section explains how you can make Google your default home
page. The default home page is the page that is displayed when you
start your browser. The instructions for changing your default
home page to Google can be found at http://www.google.com/
options/defaults.html. (Bookmark it? Nope.) The instructions are
included here and cover the following browsers:
Netscape 4.0 to 6.0

1. Left-click on the Edit|Preferences menu selection.
2. Left-click on Navigator.
3. In the Navigator Starts with section, select Home page.
4. In the Home page section, type http://www.google.com/ in the
text box.
5. Left-click OK.
Internet Explorer
1. Left-click on the Tools|Internet Options menu selection.
2. Left-click on the General tab.
3. In the Home page section, type http://www.google.com/ in the
text box.
4. Left-click OK.
America Online
1. Make sure that you are viewing Google’s home page
(www.google.com).
2. Copy Google’s URL (www.google.com) to the clipboard.
3. Go to the Members drop-down menu and select Preferences.

4. Left-click on the WWW icon.
5. Left-click on the Home Page box at the bottom of the pop-up
window and then press your Ctrl and V keys (at the same time)
to paste in the address. If the address does not appear in the
box, simply type in what you tried to paste from above.
6. Left-click the OK button.
Setting Google as Your

Default Search Engine
Making Google your default search engine can be problematic. It is
recommended that only experienced computer users attempt the
following changes and only then after backing up the system regis-
try. To make Google your default search engine, follow the
instructions given here.
Netscape Communicator
For Netscape 4.0 to 4.7, it is possible to search by entering
? <search terms> in the URL box instead of a URL. You can set the
search engine used in this case by directly editing the prefs file.
This can be dangerous! See the Unofficial Netscape FAQ
(http://www.ufaq.org/commonly/userprefs.html) for more details.
Before you go any further, quit any running copies of Netscape.
Windows Operating System

To edit the prefs file, use Notepad to load ...\Netscape\Users\
{username}\prefs.js. (“...” is probably the Programs folder.)
Macintosh Operating System

To edit the prefs file, use SimpleText or the equivalent to load
...:preferences:netscape f:netscape preferences. (“...” is your sys-
tem folder.)
UNIX Operating System

Edit the file .netscape/preferences.js in the home directory.
Once the preferences file has been loaded, add the following line to
the end of the file:
user_pref("network.search.url",
"http://www.google.com/keyword/");
Press Enter at the end of the line. The end of the line is the semi-
colon! Note that there is no line feed (do not press Enter here!) at
the end of “user_pref("network.search.url",”.
Internet Explorer
Windows Operating System
To make Google the default search engine for Internet Explorer
versions 4.0 to 6.0, make the following registry changes. Reboot
the system after making the registry changes. other Google features
. Note:
You must have Administrator privileges on your computer in
order to edit the registry.
To have the search results displayed in the search channel window:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet
Explorer\Main]
"Use Search Asst"="no"
"Search Page"="http://www.google.com"
"Search Bar"="http://www.google.com/ie"
Explorer\SearchURL]
""="http://www.google.com/keyword/%s"
"provider"="gogl"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\
Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search]
"SearchAssistant"="http://www.google.com/ie"
The Search button will bring up a Google search box on the left
side of the browser.
The Search The Web menu option from the Go menu will take you
to Google’s home page.
For IE4 only, you can type ? <search terms> in the URL box
instead of a URL, and it will perform the search.
To have the search results displayed in the browser’s main window:
Explorer\Main]
"Use Search Asst"="no"
"Search Page"="http://www.google.com"
"Search Bar"="http://www.google.com/ie_rsearch.html"
Explorer\SearchURL]
""="http://www.google.com/keyword/%s"
"provider"="gogl"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Internet Explorer\Search]
"SearchAssistant"="http://www.google.com/ie_rsearch.html"
If you decide that you want to revert to the original defaults, you
can do one of two things: You can enter the following registry keys
or you can restore your registry. To set the search engine back to
the original Internet Explorer default:
Explorer\Main]
"Use Search Asst"="yes"

"Search Page"="http://home.microsoft.com/access/allinone.asp"
"Search Bar"="http://home.microsoft.com/search/lobby/
search.asp"
Explorer\SearchURL]
""="http://home.microsoft.com/access/autosearch.asp?p=%s"
"provider"=""
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\
Internet Explorer\Search]
"SearchAssistant"="http://ie.search.msn.com/{SUB_RFC1766}
/srchasst/srchasst.htm"
Macintosh Operating System
. Note:
This does not work with Mac OS X.
Setting up IE 5 to launch Google in the sidebar is covered at

http://www.visakopu.net/ie5google/. Good luck!
Mozilla/Netscape 6 Search Options

For Mozilla and Netscape 6 search options, visit other Google features
http://www.google.com/mozilla/google-search.html. You can set

Google to be the default search engine, set up search keywords,
and put Google in the sidebar search panel.
IE QuickSearch
You can add Google to the list of search engines by adding a new
entry (select New) and setting up a shortcut gg and a custom URL
http://www.google.com/search?q=%s. Now you can perform a
search by entering “gg keywords” in the address bar. For example,
“gg flower pots” will search Google for “flower pots” (without the
quotes).
. Note:
The QuickSearch utility for Internet Explorer must be installed.
Macintosh OS X Service
You can register Google as a service available to all applications
under the application menu. Go to http://gu.st/proj/SearchGoogle.
service/ (the web site in the Google FAQ http://www.apple.com/
downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/searchgoogleservice.html is
no longer working) and install the Google service. After installa-
tion, you can select text in any application and press Shift+Cmd+G
to launch a Google search for that text.
Additional Google Web

Search Features
Google contains a few additional search features that were not cov-
ered in other chapters. We examine them in the following sections.
The features are:
n Calculator: Calculates mathematical expressions entered in
the search box
n Dictionary Definitions: Dictionary definitions for one or more
of the search words
n I’m Feeling Lucky: Go immediately to the web page Google
ranks number one
n PhoneBook: U.S. street addresses and phone book
n Spell Checker: Checks the spelling of keywords including
alternate spellings
n Street Maps: Find/display street maps of U.S. cities
Calculator
Google has added a math capability to the search box. When mathe-
matical expressions are entered in the search box and either Enter
is pressed or the Search button is clicked, the expression is evalu-
ated and the answer is displayed on a results page. Google’s
calculator solves math problems ranging from basic arithmetic to
more complicated math and can manage units of measure including
conversions while recognizing physical constants. Standard mathe-
matical notation is also recognized. Expressions in parentheses are
evaluated before expressions outside the parentheses. Calculator
recognizes standard mathematical operators. Table 9.1 lists some of
the math operators that are valid in Calculator:
Table 9.1: Math operators
Operator Function Example

+ addition 2+4
– subtraction 8–3
* multiplication 6*9
/ division 24/8
^ exponentiation (raise to a power of) 2^5
% modulo (finds the remainder after 9%8
division)
choose X choose Y determines the number 12 choose 3 other Google features
of ways of choosing a set of Y
elements from a set of X elements
nth root of calculates the nth root of a number 6th root of 64
% of X % of Y computes X percent of Y 25% of 250
sqrt square root sqrt(25)
sin, cos, etc. trigonometric functions (numbers cos(pi/2)
are assumed to be radians) tan(45 degrees)
ln logarithm base e ln(13)
log logarithm base 10 log(100)
! factorial 17!
in unit conversion 10 miles in kilometers
Unit conversions are managed by including the operator “in” —

without the quotes — at the end of the expression followed by the
unit of measure you want the result to be in. So, to convert miles to
kilometers, use “ x miles in kilometers” where x is some whole
number. For example, “10 miles in kilometers” will yield 16.09344
kilometers.
The “in” operator is used to specify what units you want used to
express the answer. Put the word “in” followed by the name of a
unit at the end of your expression. This works well for unit conver-
sions such as: 5 kilometers in miles.
Calculator recognizes units of measure in their long form (kilome-
ters) and their short form (km). Calculator also recognizes physical
constants, such as c for the speed of light (in a vacuum). When
searched upon, pi and c returned these search results:
pi = 3.14159265
c = the speed of light = 299 792 458 m / s
The constants seem to be limited to those you can enter with the
typical keyboard, that is, ASCII characters 0 to 127. When I tried to
use constants identified on the keyboard by ASCII characters 128 to
255, I did not get anything related to the constants. So, Greek sym-
bols did not seem to be working at the time of publication.
Calculator recognizes hexadecimal, octal, and binary numbers. To
use this feature, prefix hexadecimal numbers with 0x, octal num-
bers with 0o, and binary numbers with 0b. For example: 0x8f +
0b10110101.
I tried various mathematical operations using negative numbers
and received the correct answer every time. Next, I wanted to see
if I could spoof Calculator by giving it a tougher assignment. I asked
it to tell me the (sqrt–1). It gave me the correct response, (sqrt–1
= i). I wanted to see how it handled undefined operations, so I
entered (15/0) and received 2,680,000 web page hits that had “15,”
“/,” and “0” somewhere within the page. So, Calculator does not
handle undefined math relationships as a math expression but
treats such as just a plain ordinary search on the terms entered.
Well, at least it did not freeze my machine as such math expres-

sions were prone to do 20 and even five years ago.
I did not take the time to see if Calculator can convert from rectan-
gular coordinates to polar coordinates. If you check this out, please
let me know the results you achieved.
This is another one of those fun things to play around with. Now,
let’s hope Google adds integral and differential calculus to Calcula-
tor’s capability and a graphing function to see what we have. Then
it’s “goodbye” Mathsoft and Mathcad! And to think I paid $600 for
an HP calculator to do the same thing in 1991. What was I thinking?
Dictionary Definitions
Dictionary Definitions is exactly what it sounds like. This feature
provides definitions of words that you supply. I illustrate Dictionary
Definitions with a search example. To view Google’s definition of
your query word(s), perform the usual search. In this example, we
search for “flower pot.” See Figure 9.8. In the blue bar below the
Google search text box, you can see the search words “flower” and
“pot” underlined. If Google has a word definition in its dictionary
for a search word, it will underline the word in that blue bar. To
view the definition, click on the underlined word of interest. If we
click on “flower,” we see Google’s definition. See Figure 9.9. Note
that the definition page also includes a link to a thesaurus. other Google features
Figure 9.8: Dictionary Definitions page

Figure 9.9: Flower definition
The Pronunciation Key link shown in Figure 9.9 pops up a dictio-

nary.com window with a pronunciation key from The American
Heritage Dictionary.
The Get the Top 10 Most Popular Sites for “flower” link will take
you to a web page listing ten web sites.
Google infers in some of its material that the dictionary supplier
may change. In the meantime, this is a feature that can be very use-
ful. If you see a word in a document that is unfamiliar, just copy it
into the search box and search on it. If the blue bar on the search
results page at the top of the page has the word underlined, then
click on the underlined word and read the definition. It sure beats
getting up and walking over to the bookcase and pulling the old dic-
tionary off the shelf.
I’m Feeling Lucky

Let me say that I do not like this feature. I’m Feeling Lucky makes
it too easy to ignore the vast ocean of information waiting at your
fingertips to be navigated. Left-clicking on I’m Feeling Lucky takes
you immediately to the web page that Google ranks number one.
Well, that shuts out a lot of exciting, interesting, and useful web
sites. Just because a web site paid $1,000,000 to get 10,000 other
web sites to link to it, giving it a much higher page rank than Mom
and Pop’s home page, does not make it the web site of choice.
Didn’t know that, eh? Yes, companies will pay other web sites to
link to their web site so they can get a very high search ranking.
Ever wonder why you so see many of those banner ads and pop-up
ads? Each one of those is a link that PageRank will count in its pop-
ularity contest. By now you may realize that I am not a fan of
PageRank. Anyway, if you do not like being manipulated, I suggest
you do not use this feature.
PhoneBook
Want to find a business or a person? Easy. Just key the appropriate
information in the search box, and if they are publicly listed, Google
will provide a phone number and address. As an example, I keyed in
my name, “Michael Busby,” (without the quotes) and the city
“Plano” (again, without the quotes) and pressed Enter. If a publicly
listed telephone number and address are available, PhoneBook will
place the information at the top of the search results page. The
results for “Michael Busby Plano” are shown in Figure 9.10. My
phone number and address have been grayed out, since I don’t want
any irate readers egging my house. Notice that the Google
PhoneBook feature returned two phone numbers and addresses, other Google features
one for a “Michael Busby” and the other for a “Michael G. Busby.”
Ahh, you will never know if they are one and the same, as no one
knows my middle initial. However, the point is, PhoneBook
returned all those named “Michael Busby” that it found in Plano.
If your search words contain certain keywords, PhoneBook is
activated and a check for public listings is performed. No more
directory assistance at $1.00 (or more) per pop! In a year’s time,
you will save in directory assistance charges what you spent on this
book. A one-year return on an investment is awesome! Try it.
Figure 9.10: Google PhoneBook
I mentioned earlier that you need to use certain words in your

search query to activate the PhoneBook. The keywords are:
For a U.S. business:
n Key the business name in the Google search box and the busi-
ness city and state in the Google search box.
Or
n Key the business name in the Google search box and the city
zip code.
Or
n Key in the business phone number (include the area code) to
find the business address.
For a U.S. resident, key in any one of the following options:
n First name (or first initial), last name, city (state is optional)
n First name (or first initial), last name, state
n First name (or first initial), last name, area code
n First name (or first initial), last name, zip code
n Phone number, including area code
n Last name, city, state

n Last name, zip code
If the query results in both a business and a personal or residential
listing, both will be displayed. Also, PhoneBook does not support
the use of wildcard characters, such as the asterisk (*).
Note in Figure 9.10 that I did not place quotes around my name.
You may recall that quotes around query words require the search
engine to return search results with links to web pages containing
exactly the same sequence of words. Without quotes, the search
engine returns search result links to web pages containing those
words anywhere within the web page, not necessarily in the same
sequence or even located within shouting distance of each other.
Yet, PhoneBook acts as if quotes are around my name. That is
because the PhoneBook database is a directory listing, very much
the same as a paper phone book lying near your phone, not a web
page.
Notice that there are two links under “Michael Busby” in Figure
9.10. Both of these, Yahoo Maps and MapQuest, locate and provide
driving directions to my home in Plano. Just left-click on the link to
see the map display.
If you left-click on the telephone icon, you will see an infor-
mational page (Google Web Search Features at http://www.google.
com/help/features.html#wp) about the Google PhoneBook feature.
The page includes a link to a form that you can use to request that
your personal information be removed from PhoneBook. We dis-
cuss removing a listing from PhoneBook later in this section.
In the next three figures, we are going to search on my name again.
I point out an interesting twist to PhoneBook. Figure 9.11 illus-
trates where we start out when performing most Google searches,
the Google home page. After entering my name and the state I live
in (Texas), I left-click on the Google Search button.
Figure 9.11: Searching for M Busby Texas
The resulting search results include not only my address and phone
number, but 14,000 other search results. See Figure 9.12. Does this
mean that there are 14,000 people named “M Busby” in Texas? No.
It means that there are 14,000 total web pages that are part of the
search results.
Figure 9.12: Searching for M Busby Texas search results
There is a mysterious More phonebook listings link below my

name. When we click on it, a page of “M Busby” phone numbers is
displayed, “1 - 30 of about 107.” See Figure 9.13. The names, phone
numbers, and addresses are not shown for obvious reasons. The
really neat thing about searching in this manner is the ability to
locate someone in a particular state if you do not know the
community in which he or she resides. You can search the state and
get addresses and telephone numbers. Armed with this informa-
tion, you can narrow the search by phoning and mailing. What
legitimate purpose could such a search effort have? Well, I found a
long-lost relative searching the Internet in this manner. The power
to search an entire state for someone with just a couple of key-
strokes is awesome.
Figure 9.13: Searching for M Busby Texas search results
Notice in Figure 9.13 the Search PhoneBook option below the

query box. PhoneBook search results pages are the only web pages
where I have been able to locate this feature. We can resolve the
domain name to a PhoneBook “home page” that we can bookmark
and conveniently search future names and addresses without hav-
ing to perform a general search on the web, as we were required to
do to get to this page.
Figure 9.14: Saving Google Search (PhoneBook) bookmark

By lopping off the portion of the domain name that is specific to the
search on my name, I get a PhoneBook “home page.” The domain
name is http://www.google.com/search?sa=X&oi=fwp&pb=f&q=.
Bookmark it and name it PhoneBook! Initially, the Add Favorite dia-
log (IE 6.0) box will prompt you to save the bookmark as “Google
Search.” Well, we already have a bookmark named Google Search.
Besides, this is a search of PhoneBook, so it is wise to rename the
bookmark “Google PhoneBook.” To rename the bookmark, delete
“Search” and then key in “PhoneBook.” Next, left-click on OK.
Figure 9.15: Renaming Google Search to Google PhoneBook
Did you search on your name? Did you discover that you are easily
identifiable on the web? If you are disturbed that your name, phone
number, and address appear when searched upon, you may request
that your information be removed by visiting http://www.google.
com/help/pbremoval.html. The removal form is simple. See Figure
9.16. The Google PhoneBook removal page provides links to six
other reverse phone number lookup services. Of course, removing
it from Google and the six shown services does not get it out of the
other several hundred or so web phone books. Only if you have an
unlisted number can you have some degree of privacy. The people
who make a living gleaning personal information and selling it can
get your data from other sources, such as schools and colleges. So,
even if you opt for an unlisted number, you may still find your
phone number and address present on the web.
Figure 9.16: Removing your PhoneBook listing

Spell Checker
Google’s Spell Checker checks the spelling of all your search words
when you click to begin the search. Google suggests an alternate
spelling if there is any. The software behind the spell checker
returns search results using the alternate spelling if it improves
your chances of getting more hits. Then, it asks you on the results
page if you really meant to use the alternate spelling. So much for
the old spinster aunt correcting my spelling (now a machine has to
do it).
Street Maps
Street Maps returns a web page with a link provided by a third-
party map supplier. To use Street Maps, enter a U.S. street address,
including the city and state or the zip code, in the Google search
box. Simple as that.
Special Tricks and Treats

Google does not recognize the asterisk (*) as a wildcard in lieu of a
character. That is, “aut*” will not return “auto” or “autumn.” How-
ever, Google does recognize the asterisk as a wildcard in lieu of a
word. That is, “* cancer” will return search results listing the links
to web pages describing every type of cancer.
Figure 9.17: * cancer search results

Double Words
An interesting but not necessarily very useful quirk of Google’s
search engine is the differing results that you get when searching
on double words. What is a double word search? Simply, a double
word search is entering the same word twice in the query box. As
an example, if we search on the single keyword “cat,” the first
search result is “Caterpillar-Heavy Equipment & Engine Manufac-
turer.” If we search on the keywords “cat cat,” (without the quotes)
the first search result is “HotAIR – Feline Reactions to Bearded
Men.” Interestingly, regardless of the method of search (one “cat”
or two) the search results appear in the same category, namely
“Recreation > Pets > Cats > You and Your Cat.” Scanning through
the remainder of the results for both single and double word
searches reveals that all of the results pertain to felines. But the
order of each web page differs between the two searches.
Right-Click
If you have the Google Toolbar installed, when you right-click in
your browser, the resulting menu includes several Google search
operators:
n Cached Snapshot of Page

n Similar Pages
n Backward Links
n Translate Page
Figure 9.18: Browser menu
We have discussed each of these Google features in previous chap-

ters. Check this menu out from time to time. Google may add
additional menu items.
Miscellaneous Google Information
Web APIs
Web APIs are software modules or functions used by web develop-
ers to add some Google functionality into their web page/site. You
need to be an experienced web developer to even determine if you
need to use an API, much less determine how they work. Suffice it
to say, they are available and useful if you are a web developer.
Webmaster’s Information
If you are a webmaster, Google has a web page designed to help you
with certain functions, such as “How do I get my site listed on
Google?” Go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/index.html to
determine if you are maximizing your web site’s potential.
Submit Your URL

You are the proud owner of a web page telling the world about your
trip across the deserts of the Najd last summer, and you want to
drive as many people to the web page as possible. First, you need
to submit your URL to Google. To do that, go to http://www.goo-
gle.com/addurl.html. Good luck!
A friend of mine from Hope, Arkansas (Hi, Cindi! Didn’t know I was
going to mention you in a book, eh? Tell your buds at the Hope hos-
pital you really do know a bona fide author.), recently mentioned to
me that there was a vast, unseen ocean of web pages out there in
cyberland that no one could find. Well, since I was writing this book
and I take just a little professional pride in being able to find what-
ever I need on the Internet, I boldly asked her to challenge me, and
I would find whatever was there, seen or unseen. By golly, she
stumped me! I assumed (we know all about assume, don’t we?)
Google had indexed every web page there is on the web. But
Google has not indexed every web page. And if Google has not
indexed the page, we ain’t gonna find it (using Google)! So,
Google’s spider needs to take shorter lunch breaks and work
harder!
Cindi pointed out a person’s home page (a longtime friend of hers)
that has been on the web for two years. Google’s spider has never
visited the page and the web page owner has never submitted the
URL to Open Directory Project. So, even though I eventually knew
(Cindi told me) the URL and title, I still could not find the page
using Google. The important message here is, if you own a web
page, you must submit your URL to Google (Open Directory Pro-
ject) to ensure your page can be found. There is no cost to have
your URL listed. It is free! Cindi said her friend thought he must
pay to have his site listed with Google since he gets (spam) e-mails
saying a service will list his home page with 400 search engines for
$19.95. Most search engine directories do not charge a fee for site
owners to list their sites. You can do it for free. But, if you want me
(or any other “for hire” out-of-work, formerly productive engi-
neers) to list your site with 400 search engines for you (using my
automated software), then I am going to charge something for the
service.
Advertising Programs
To advertise with Google, visit http://www.google.com/ads/
index.html. The page is self-explanatory.
Organizing Your Google Bookmarks

This discussion is applicable to Internet Explorer, version 6. If you
use another browser, the general information is applicable, but the
specific steps to reorganize your bookmarks may be different. If
this is the case, you should reference your browser’s Help menu.
For anyone who does not know what a browser is, I will explain. A
browser is the guy who walks into your kitchen, opens the refriger-
ator door, and then opens the various containers to see what is
inside. Okay, I’m just joking. However, the metaphor is very appli-
cable to computer browsers. A computer browser is the computer
or software program that you open (the fridge door) and use to view
web sites (the food containers).
By now, you should have numerous Google sites bookmarked. If
you are like me, you just click on Favorites without giving any
thought to their organization. Now, you probably have a dozen or
more bookmarks that appear at the bottom of the browser’s Favor-
ites menu. See Figure 9.19. As we add each bookmark, it is placed
at the bottom of the menu, lengthening the menu until it becomes
unwieldy. If we have bookmarks from other sites (I do but did not

show them in the figure), the Favorites menu can easily become
very cumbersome to use. Besides lengthening the menu, the book-
marks do not appear alphabetically, and some are prefixed with
“Google,” while others are not. I like consistency. Either all of the
bookmarks should be prefixed with “Google” or none should be. I
like for my bookmarks to be arranged alphabetically. How do we
place these bookmarks into a folder and change them to be consis-
tent and in alphabetical order? That is the subject of this section.
Figure 9.19: Google bookmarks
We begin by left-clicking on the browser’s Favorites menu item and

then selecting Organize Favorites. See Figure 9.20.
Figure 9.20: Organize Favorites menu option

After selecting Favorites|Organize Favorites, the Organize Favor-

ites dialog box will appear. See Figure 9.21.
Figure 9.21: Organize Favorites dialog
Our objective is to create a folder named Google and then move all
of the Google bookmarks into it. Next we organize the bookmarks
alphabetically. Finally, we rename some of the bookmarks. Let’s get
started!
1. Click on Create Folder. The result is a new folder at the bottom
of the bookmarks menu displayed on the right side of the Orga-
nize Favorites dialog box. See Figure 9.22. The new folder is
highlighted in a text box, and the cursor is blinking. This signi-
fies that the text in the box can be changed. Who wants a folder
named “New Folder”? Not me! Let’s change it.
Figure 9.22: Organize Favorites dialog
2. Press the Backspace key. Notice the “New Folder” text disap-
pears, leaving a blinking cursor in the box. See Figure 9.23.
. Note:
If you pressed a key that did not result in the text disappearing, then
you have fixed the name of the folder as “New Folder.” Now you
will have to left-click on the Rename button and start this step over.
Figure 9.23: Renaming the new folder

3. Key in Google.
Figure 9.24: Renaming the new folder Google
4. Press the Enter key. This will fix the name of the folder. Notice
that you now have a folder named Google at the bottom of your
Favorites menu.
Figure 9.25: The new Google folder

Let’s now add the Google bookmarks to the Google folder.

5. Left-click on the bookmark just above the Google folder. Con-
tinuing to hold down the mouse button, move the bookmark
over the folder icon, as shown in Figure 9.26. Once you have
moved the bookmark over the folder, release the mouse button.
Voilà — the bookmark should now be inside the Google folder.
To verify that it is, double left-click on the Google file icon. The
file will open, and there the bookmark is. See Figure 9.27. Now
left-click on the Google folder icon to close the folder.
Figure 9.26: Moving a bookmark to the Google folder
Figure 9.27: After moving a bookmark to the Google folder

6. Repeat the above procedure for every Google bookmark. Do

not be concerned about the alphabetical arrangement of the
bookmarks right now. We arrange them alphabetically in a
moment.
7. Do you have them all in the Google folder? Okay, let’s move the
Google folder up the folder ladder to a place that suits us. Since
I use Google often throughout the day, I like to have my Google
folder not in alphabetical order as my other folders are but at
the very top of all folders. Then I can access it quickly. So, let’s
move it up. Left-click on the folder itself, not on the folder
name, and while holding the mouse button down, drag the
folder to the top of the bookmarks menu; or if it suits you, drop
it off at its alphabetical place in your menu by releasing the left
mouse button when you have reached the place in the menu
that you prefer. The images in this book show it placed at the
top of the menu. Notice that when you move the folder you see
a black line just above the mouse icon, as shown in Figure 9.28.
The line shows you where the folder will reside when you
release the mouse button.
Figure 9.28: After moving a bookmark to the Google folder

8. If you pause over another folder, it will open, and if you release
the left mouse button while the file icon is inside the folder, can
you guess where your Google folder will disappear to? Right —
inside the folder you paused over. But just grab the Google icon
again, keep moving it up until you get to the position you
desire, then release the mouse button.
Figure 9.29: Alphabetizing Google bookmarks
9. We are now ready to move the bookmarks within the Google

folder and arrange them alphabetically. Left-click on the top-
most bookmark (assuming it is not already in alphabetical
order) and drag it down to the approximate position where it
will be when you are finished. Continue moving the bookmarks
up or down until you have them all in alphabetical order. Next,
let’s rename a couple of bookmarks.
10. You may notice that most of the bookmarks are prefixed with
the word “Google.” I like consistency, so let’s rename the one
or two that do not include “Google” to include it. Left-click on
the bookmark of interest to highlight it. Then left-click on the
Rename button on the left side of the Organize Favorites dialog.
Press the left arrow key to move the cursor over to the far left
side. Then key in the word Google and a space. Left-click on
the bookmark again to fix the name change. We are done! You
are now organized and ready to search the web. I hope you have
as much fun as I do.
Your Security
There has been much written about hackers and Internet security.
The primary focus of such articles and discussions has been the
issue of identity theft. There is much material written on that sub-
ject, so I do not discuss it here. Besides, what does identity theft
have to do with Google anyway? Well… I want to bring up an
Internet security issue that is getting little or no press attention —
your personal physical security. What does that have to do with
Google? Bear with me and you will see.
Since 9/11/2001, the American government has enacted new laws
and regulations regarding its ability to monitor, collect, and use for,
among other things, prosecutorial purposes what many of us would
consider personal and private information. Included in this knee-
jerk reaction to 9/11 is the federal government’s ability to examine
our lives and require libraries to hand over the book-checkout
records of patrons. The government can also order, without judicial
review (i.e., no search warrant), libraries and other organizations,
such as web hosting services, to turn over records, even comput-
ers, for purposes that can only be described as fishing expeditions
for supposed terrorists. Why should this concern law-abiding you?
Ask any law-abiding citizen who has been falsely accused by the
government of a crime.
Most people do not realize it, but everything you do on the Internet
is recorded. Everything. Period. Every web page you visit, every
image you look at, every e-mail you send or receive. Absolutely
everything is recorded. By whom? By every Internet service pro-
vider and every web hosting service. The records of every
transaction conducted by every computer connected to the Internet
is recorded in something called the Management Information Data-
base of the computer. This information about your Internet habits is
used by service providers and web hosting companies for various

reasons, usually associated with keeping their service slim and
trim.
Because the traffic passing through an Internet service pro-
vider/web host can be voluminous, each one has its own rules
regarding how long the data exists and therefore how long it is
recoverable. But the information is there. The government knows
it is there. The government can easily tap into it via the mandatory
software loads now required in electronic switches, gateways, and
routers. In other words, if you are concerned about privacy issues
and specifically your privacy, you better not get on the Internet
from home. If you get on from a third-party site, such as a library or
an Internet café, you better use an alias.
There is another security issue involving searching the Internet.
You can innocently click on a link and suddenly be whisked away to
a child porn site. Or a click can download a child porn image onto
your computer. The government has convicted a person for as little
as one child porn image on a computer. If you should inadvertently
wind up with something on your computer that you do not want on
it, delete the offending file or image. Next, empty the Recycle Bin.
Then run ScanDisk to ensure that your file system is intact and fix
any errors as suggested by ScanDisk. Finally, run Disk Defrag-
menter. ScanDisk and Disk Defragmenter are found in Start|
Programs|Accessories|System Tools on Windows operating other Google features
systems. Performing this process removes any residual evidence of
your inadvertent download of a file or image.
A doctor in Turkey hired some programmers to write a program for
him that he loads up on various newsgroups. This malicious soft-
ware, disguised as an image, searches your computer for images
and sends a report back to the good doctor telling him what images
are on your computer. The good doc performs this public service
ostensibly to catch people engaged in the trafficking of child por-
nography. Unsuspecting people from every corner of the globe fall
under the doc’s watchful eye. What the good doc can do, the gov-
ernment can do and do even better; you will never know until they
place the handcuffs on you. So, to protect yourself, use a firewall
and virus protection software and do not open anything — files or

images — without all of your protective mechanisms in place.
By the way, if the doc can read your images, he can also read any
personal information on your computer, such as passwords and
credit card numbers. We should support legislation in this country
making it illegal for anyone — private, company, or government —
to enter into your computer without your express permission. In the
meantime, go to Zone Lab’s web page (http://www.zonelabs.com/
store/content/home.jsp) and download and install the company’s
Internet firewall, ZoneAlarm (from http://www.zonelabs.com/store/
content/home.jsp). Click on the Download button. It is free (at the
time of publication) and it is very effective.
The Search Challenge

Do you recall my search challenge from Chapter 1? You may
remember that I mentioned that there was only one time I
have failed to achieve search goals when searching the
Internet. I have never been able to determine the names of
the three Rockwell International employees assassinated in
Iran in 1976. If you feel up to a challenge, and you want to flex
those new search skills, see if you can find their names.
In the next edition of this book, I tout the first five people who
e-mail me a link containing the employees’ names. I must be
able to verify their names. If you participate in this challenge
and you are one of the first five to e-mail me the correct infor-
mation, I will ask for a short biography, including your search
interests and how this book helped you with your search
needs. Individuals at Rockwell International are ineligible to
participate, as are the employees of the search engine compa-
nies. We want the challenge to be fair to the majority of
people. I am the sole judge of the contest, and I am the sole
arbiter of any dispute. My decision will be final, and there is
no appeal to anyone else. You may e-mail me at Michael_
[email protected]. Good searching!
Summary
In this chapter we discussed various topics of both general and spe-
cial interest. We covered some neat Google features and some
special tricks and treats. Everything we have learned will not nec-
essarily remain long in our memory, but we will remember where
the information is — in this book. So keep it as a handy reference,
which I am certain you will refer to repeatedly over time. Other-
wise, it makes a good doorstop. I strongly suspect, now that you are
armed with powerful search weapons, you will find searching the
web as entertaining as I do. Good luck information hunting!
We now possess all of the tools we need to find our “golden fleece”
and we have almost completed our quest. But there remains one
more “unexplored land” to visit before we can return to our home-
land victorious with the spoils of questing — our knowledge of
searching the Internet. Onward to Google Groups!

Chapter 10
Searching
Newsgroups
Google Groups
We previously mentioned that Google Groups is Google’s incarna-
tion of the former Deja News Usenet forum, also called
newsgroups. In this chapter we examine Google Groups features
that include not only searching the huge Usenet archive but also
posting to Usenet and removing your posts. The Google Groups
home page is shown in Figure 10.1. The Google Groups site URL is
http://www.google.com/grphp. (Bookmark it.) The Google Groups
FAQ page is http://www.google.com/googlegroups/help.html. (Don’t
bookmark it.)
297
298 Chapter 10 / Searching Newsgroups
Figure 10.1: Google Groups home page
Newsgroups were originally the domain of nerds and techies. In the

early days (circa 1981), the primary purpose of the Usenet was to
share a common technical database, and many of the postings were
related to the solution of problems that ultimately yielded today’s
Internet and World Wide Web. As the technology evolved, Usenet
groups became less focused on technical issues, broadening the
subjects to include political and social commentary. As newsgroups
evolved, the primary users became less technically oriented, such
as engineers and scientists, and more general profession oriented.
Newsgroups still seem to be the domain of the post-university
crowd.
Many discussion groups are set up to discuss industry and job spe-
cific issues and share images, music, multimedia content, and
videos. Self-help groups abound, as do groups promoting specific
political ideologies and social agendas. Regardless of your senti-
ments, if you want to be entertained for a very small investment,
Chapter 10 / Searching Newsgroups 299
you can find a group that can have you rolling on the floor. You can
also find groups that will have your blood boiling. Newsgroups are
the epitome of freedom of information. More music and video files
and other copyrighted material, such as electronic books, have been
exchanged over Usenet than Napster could ever possibly accommo-
date. I cannot determine if Usenet is a well-kept secret or the
entertainment and publishing industry has turned a blind eye to the
wholesale exchange of pirated material.
Google Groups consists of the entire Usenet archive that dates to
1981. Using Google’s search engine, you can search the enormous
discussion groups with great speed and efficiency. The archive con-
tains over 700 million posts. This immense database of viewpoints
and human endeavor will undoubtedly be of great value to histori-
ans, psychologists, sociologists, and cultural anthropologists in the
coming millennium. For now, it is of value to anyone with a ques-
tion in search of an answer.
Google Groups is managed by individual Internet service providers.
When a post is made to a group, the life of the post is determined
not by Usenet or Google, but by the Internet service provider upon
whose machine the post is maintained. One Internet service pro-
vider may keep posts for only a day or so, while other service
providers may keep posts for a week. A query to your service pro-
vider will unveil the length that the service provider will keep
postings.
One aspect of Google Groups and the Google search engine ranking
algorithm is worth mentioning. Recall that PageRank ranks pages
by the number of web pages that it determines a page is linked to.
The thinking goes that the greater the number of pages linked to
the page of interest, the greater the popularity of the page. Here is
a bit of useful information for web page developers: PageRank also
searching news groups
includes in its link popularity algorithm any link mentioned in a dis-

cussion group.
You can access the discussion groups via a “reader.” Most
e-mailers, such as Outlook Express, now have the ability to read
newsgroups, as do some browsers. I have used Forte’s Free Agent
for about ten years. The newsreader is free and can be used as a
POP e-mail client. If Free Agent is used as an e-mail client, you can
get rid of all those nasty viruses written for Microsoft’s products.
You can find Free Agent at http://www.forteinc.com/agent/
index.php. I recommend Free Agent for one primary reason: Free
Agent does not impose any censorship or restrictions on what you
may view or read on Usenet.
If you are accessing the Internet with a newsreader and a slow
modem, you will find that it takes some amount of time to download
the 55,000+ groups. When you download the groups, you are
downloading the “headers” (subjects) of the messages posted to
the groups. To view the actual material, you must download the
header file. These files can be very lengthy. However, with Google
Groups, you do not download all 55,000+ groups. You only access
the specific group of interest. If you are working with a slow
modem, this is the best way to access Usenet.
. Note:
Not all newsgroups are present on all ISP servers. My ISP only
carries about 39,000 newsgroups.
It also takes a lot of time to download images, multimedia, elec-

tronic books, songs, and videos. If you are keen to get the latest
music album free, it would be wise for you to invest in a DSL or
cable modem. I recommend a DSL modem.
I want to make sure that this point is clear: You can access Usenet
groups from numerous e-mailers, browsers, and newsreaders.
However, you can only access Google groups via Google Groups. In
other words, Google Groups is another Usenet newsreader that can
be accessed through a web browser, such as Explorer or Netscape.
As an example of using Google Groups to access a Usenet group,
go to Google Groups and left-click on alt (see Figure 10.1). You will
see the web page illustrated in Figure 10.2. Now left-click on
alt.abuse-recovery. The web page you see will be similar to the one
shown in Figure 10.3.
Figure 10.2: alt group
Google Groups combines posted files to individual groups into

thread subjects. See Figure 10.3. The header you see on the Google
Groups page is the latest posting of a group of related postings,
ergo the use of the term “thread.” Power users will find Google
Groups too regimented for everyday use. However, casual users
will find Google Groups organized in an easy-to-use fashion.
Figure 10.3: alt.abuse-recovery

The mechanics of “exact phrase” searching on Google Groups is

somewhat different from using Google to search the web. Google
Groups does not return results for common words, such as “the”
and “and.” Therefore, to include those words in the search results,
you must include a “+” before the word. As an example, if I wanted
to find an exact match for “The Star Spangled Banner” (without the
quotes) I would need to enter “+The Star Spangled Banner” in the
search text box (without the quotes surrounding the text).
Google Groups gives you one great feature that no other news-
reader or e-mailer has: It allows you to search the entire 55,000+
newsgroups either all together or individually. For someone seek-
ing an answer to a compelling question, this feature is powerful and
very useful.
Figure 10.4: Google Groups advanced search page

Google’s Advanced Groups Search feature, illustrated in Figure

10.4, utilizes a special notation to restrict a search to a particular
newsgroup. To restrict a search, use the * symbol after the name of
the newsgroup to which you want to restrict the search. For exam-
ple, to restrict the search to alt.abuse-recovery and all of its
subgroups, enter “alt.abuse-recovery*” (without the quotes) into
the Newsgroup search text box.
Figure 10.5: Special search notation
Limiting your search scope is just as crucial when searching groups

as it is when searching the web. A Google Groups search can
return thousands of “hits” that are of little or no value to your ulti-
mate search goal.
Posting to Google Groups

You can use Google Groups to post to Usenet groups. There are
two types of Usenet groups. One type is called “unmoderated,” and
the other type is called “moderated.” The postings to unmoderated
groups are uncensored, while “moderators” censor the postings to
moderated groups. That is, a posting to an unmoderated group goes
directly to that Usenet group, while a posting to a moderated group
goes to a human who reads the post and does one of three things:
sends a post on to the Usenet group without modification for imme-
diate posting, edits the post before sending it on to the group, or
sends the post back to the originator with some appropriate com-
ment(s).
You can post to more than one group at a time. Such postings are
called crossposts. Crossposts that include a mix of moderated and
unmoderated groups will go to the groups that are moderated. It is
up to the moderator(s) to determine if the posting will be sent on to
the unmoderated groups. So, the best policy is to not mix moder-
ated and unmoderated postings.
You can usually distinguish moderated groups from unmoderated
groups by the title of the newsgroup. Unmoderated groups usually
do not have any modifier distinguishing them as unmoderated.
There are exceptions, such as alt.dads-rights.unmoderated. How-
ever, moderated newsgroups always have “moderated” as part of
their title. An example of such a newsgroup might be
alt.feminazis.moderated. A note of caution for the unwary and eas-
ily offended: Unmoderated newsgroups are the ultimate in freedom
of speech. Personal attacks on people who post are common.
Let’s use an example to illustrate how to post to a newsgroup via
Google Groups.
To post to a Google group:
1. Go to http://www.google.com/.
2. Left-click on Groups.
3. Left-click on alt.
4. Left-click on alt.activism.
5. Left-click on Post a new message to alt.activism.
See Figure 10.6. Note the existence of numerous subgroups in
alt.activism. You can click on one of the subgroups and either read
or post messages to it.
Figure 10.6: Posting to Google Groups

Next, you will be asked to sign in to Google Groups, if you have not
already done so. You will be directed to an accounts page, as shown
in Figure 10.7. If you already have a Google account, go ahead and
sign in. If you do not have a Google account, left-click the Sign up
for your account now link. Figures 10.8 through 10.12 show the
registration process.
Figure 10.7: Google Accounts page

Figure 10.8: Signing up for a Google account


After left-clicking on Click here to continue, you are returned to

the Google Groups home page. Now we start from the beginning
again.
While we are discussing posts, an absolute inviolate “do not do” is
never, ever post your e-mail address or any other personal informa-
tion. Spammers have software that is constantly scouring the
newsgroups for new e-mail addresses. (No, it does no good to add
“remove” to your address, as the spammers’ software removes
such trite attempts to avoid spam.) Additionally, if someone has
your e-mail address, he or she can find you!
Here is some advice from a pro: Do not use Google Groups. Notice
in Figure 10.13 that my e-mail address is displayed on the page that
is used to post messages. See the top-left side of the figure. While
my e-mail address will not show up in the body of the post (unless I
deliberately place it there), the address will show up in the unseen
(by typical newsreaders anyway) header information that I, or any-
one else who knows how, can easily access with something as
simple as WordPad. The underlying issue is Google Groups verifies
the e-mail address with which you register. Google will send an
e-mail to that address to confirm that it is a valid address so you
cannot opt out with a fake address. But other newsreaders, such as
Free Agent, will let you enter any e-mail address you want. Free
Agent does not verify your e-mail address. So, the choice is either
use Google Groups with your e-mail address and get more spam or
use Free Agent (or another newsreader) and get less spam. That is
a very easy choice for me.
Figure 10.13: Posting a Google Groups message

As a recent test of a person’s ability to find information given only

an e-mail address, a friend gave me the e-mail address of a woman I
did not know. It took me only 20 minutes to acquire her telephone
number, her street address, the name of her boyfriend who lived
with her, her profession, and where she worked. Scary, is it not? We
tend to associate weird and predatory behavior with males, how-

ever females can be predatory also. I strongly recommend that no
one put their e-mail address in a post to a newsgroup.
Don’t believe how easy it is? I just went to a newsgroup that I have
never been to before, alt.cooking-chat, and had the e-mail
addresses of about 2,000 women in less than a minute without a
single one of them needing to post their address! If Google wants
to maximize its investment in Google Groups, Google must allow
users to use an alias in the post header information. Until then, use
Free Agent and use an alias. Alternately, get a “throwaway” e-mail
address from Hotmail or Yahoo.
The archive is updated twice per day. All posts, except those con-
taining binary content, are archived. Perhaps you do not want some
researcher many years from now reading your comments. To pre-
vent your post from being archived, include the “X-No-archive:
yes” (without the quotes) text string in either the header or the
first line of the message body. To be sure that the post is not
archived, include the no-archive string in both places and do not
include any additional text in the first line of the message body.
Removing Your Post

Google will honor remove requests if you have posted a message to
a newsgroup and you want it removed from the archive. If you have
the same e-mail address that you used when you posted your mes-
sage, you can remove the post yourself in an automated process.
Go to Google Groups’ automatic removal tool at http://ser-
vices.google.com:8882/urlconsole/controller.
Figure 10.14: Removing a post
Fill in the appropriate fields. Google will then e-mail you a link.
After you click on the e-mailed link, you will find yourself in the
Remove your URL or Google Groups Post web page. See Figure
10.15. searching news groups
Figure 10.15: Google Groups post removal tool
To remove your post, click on the bottom option, Remove your

usenet posts from Google Groups. When I clicked on the link, I was
taken back to the login page. I logged in (again) and was then taken
to the Removal page (Figure 10.15) again. When I clicked on
Remove your usenet posts from Google Groups (for the second
time), I was finally taken to the actual page where I could enter the
information necessary to identify my post and remove it. See Fig-
ure 10.16.
Figure 10.16: Removing a Google Groups post
At this point, enter the Message ID of the post you wish to remove
from the archive. Then left-click on Delete post. If you entered the
correct Message ID, your post will be deleted, and you will receive
confirmation of the deletion.
If your current e-mail address is not the same one you used when
you posted the message, you need to send an e-mail to groups-
[email protected] requesting the post be removed. In your
e-mail, include the following information:
n Your full name and appropriate contact information, including a
verifiable e-mail address
n The Message ID for each individual message you want deleted
n The required statement “I swear under penalty of civil or crimi-

nal laws that I am the person who posted each of the foregoing
messages or am authorized to request removal by the person
who posted those messages”
n Your electronic signature
Google does not add new group topics to the Usenet. The Usenet
community is responsible for adding new groups. Anyone may
request that a new group be added to Usenet groups. Just practice
what you are learning in this book by searching on “Starting a new
newsgroup.” Include the text surrounded by quotes. You will find
numerous sites offering advice and assistance.
Here is a tip for recruiters and salespeople who want to target their
search to a specific company. You can do an @ symbol search.
Determine the domain name of the company that you want to
search. Then add the @ symbol as a prefix. Let’s say that we want
to search for people at Lockheed. We would search for
“@Lockheed.com” (without the quotation marks). See Figure
10.17. Our search results are shown in Figure 10.18. This is an
excellent way to find new prospects at a targeted company. Impres-
sive, eh? Try different company names and see what you get. Now,
search on your e-mail address domain (the stuff on the right side of
the @ character — be sure to include the @ character). Who says
searching the web is frustrating? It’s becoming fun. But, remember,
Figure 10.17: @lockheed.com search

if I can find you in Google Groups, so can your boss (or a friend,
parent, relative, or significant other) if he or she bought this book.
Maybe we need to rethink that post, eh?
Figure 10.18: @lockheed.com search results sorted by relevance
The names of the individuals in Figure 10.18 have been grayed out
in consideration of their privacy. However, Google Groups is a pub-
lic forum. Some folks may wonder why I included this particular
image of the @ search results. I included it so you can see for your-
self that it is a public forum, and what you post will stay there
forever (notice the date of the “Re: Sex Anyone?” post; it is
November 22, 1995). The 16,900 search results are sorted by rele-
vance. If we want more current e-mail addresses, then we left-click
on the Sort by date link on the right side of the window just above
the first search result. When we do that, we get the most current
posts first. See Figure 10.19.
Figure 10.19: @lockheed.com search results sorted by date
You can see from Figure 10.19 that an @ search in Google Groups
will yield a mine full of e-mail addresses. Unfortunately, Google
does not support a character wildcard, or else a search on
“@*.com” would yield all e-mail addresses ever posted to Google
Groups. But try that search from time to time and see if you get
any useful results. It is reasonable and logical for Google to support
a character wildcard some day.
Summary
Google Groups is Google’s gateway to the Usenet discussion
groups, also called forums. Access Google Groups through Google’s
home page. These forums lie in the public domain, so whatever is
posted there is available to the general public for reading and min-
ing e-mail addresses or any other legal (and probably a few illegal)
purposes. The newsgroup forums cover just about every conceiv-
able topic imaginable, plus a few that are unimaginable. All of
Google’s search tools and operators are available for searching
Google Groups.

Afterword
That is a wrap for Learn Google. I hope you have enjoyed your ram-
ble through the world of Google and you return here often to
discover new ways of improving your search skills. Be adventur-
ous. Try new and odd combinations of Google’s tools and operators
and discover new horizons. It is amazing what you can find with a
little creativity and a small amount of time.
The purpose of this book was to help you zero in on your specific
search goals, enabling you to find your “golden fleece,” and thereby
reducing or eliminating your search frustration. I hope the purpose
of this book was well served and you are now a happy searcher. If
you have any unique or interesting search stories to share with me
(for my next book), please contact me at Michael_Busby@ya-
hoo.com.
I am a curious kind of individual. If I am standing at the beginning of
something, I want to know what is at the end (or what is at the
beginning, if I am standing at the end). Throughout the book, we
have wondered what that last search result link was when our
search resulted in millions of search results. What web page did
that 3,749,561st link point to? Now, I can show you and satisfy your
curiosity.
319
Afterword
The End of the Internet (http://www.shibumi.org/eoti.htm)
Thanks to my lovely cousin, Karen Harwood, of Cottonwood, Ari-

zona, for showing me where to find The End of the Internet. Both
my quest and this book have now ended. Thank you for spending
some time with me.
320
Index
A browser, configuring to accept cookies,

About Google Toolbar menu option, 235, 260-262
248 browser right-click menu, adding
advanced alternate query search options to, 239
operators, 181-182 browser window, opening for each
advanced features, enabling, 242 search, 110, 118, 238
Advanced Image Search page, 209-210 business, searching for, 274
advanced search features, 144-145
Advanced Search page, 146 C
Advanced Search Page menu option, cache: operator, 181, 182-190
235, 237 cached pages, 183, 185-186
advertising with Google, 284 Calculator feature, 268, 269-271
All About Google, 258 catalogs, searching with Google, 50-57
allintitle: operator, 182, 198-199 Category feature, enabling, 242
allinurl: operator, 182, 201-202 Clear Search History menu option, 235,
AND operator, 134-135 246
Archie, 17 Close Program dialog box, 67
arithmetic operators, 130-133 colleges, searching for, 97-98
minus operator, 130, 132-133 color format, specifying for images, 223
plus operator, 130-132 Coloration option, 210, 223
vs. Boolean operators, 136 Combined Search feature, 244-245
author-controlled search engines, 21-22 Contact Us menu option, 235, 248
AutoFill feature, 249 cookies,
using, 251-254 accepting, 260-261
accepting from trusted sites, 262
B country codes, 10-11
basic search, 123 country domain, finding, 170-171
basic search operators, 124, 127-133 credit card information, storing in
minus operator, 130, 132-133 Google, 252-254
plus operator, 130-132 crossposts, 303-304
quote operator, 127-130
BlogThis feature, 249 D
bookmarks, organizing, 284-292 Date option, 144, 150
Boolean operations, complex, 136-139 date, specifying for search results, 144,
Boolean operators, 134-136 150
AND, 134-135 default home page, setting Google as,
NOT, 134-135 263-264
OR, 134 default search engine, setting Google
vs. arithmetic operators, 136 as, 264-268
Browser Control, 245 definitions, searching for, 88-90
321
Index
Dictionary Definitions feature, 268, Google Catalogs, 39, 50-57

271-272 Advanced Search page, 54-57
Direct Hit, 22 Google Compute, 40, 79-84
domain, 153 Google Compute button,
domain names, 11 enabling, 244
Domain option, 144, 153-158, 210, 223 installing on Google Toolbar, 80-83
domain search, 153-158 Google General FAQ, 259
example, 169-175 Google Glossary, 40, 88-90
double word search, 281 Google Groups, 39, 58, 297, 299
drag-and-drop functionality in Google and personal security, 308-310
Toolbar, 229 menu option, 235, 236
removing a post using, 310-314
E targeting specific company in,
editor-controlled search engines, 22 314-316
experimental features, 244-245 using to post to Usenet groups,
F 303-310
File Format option, 144, 148-149 using to search newsgroups, 300-303
file format, specifying, 148-149 Google Help Central, 255-256
File Transfer Protocol, see FTP Google home page, 100, 122
file type, selecting for image, 222 Google Home Page menu option, 234,
Filetypes option, 209, 222 236
filtering options, 109, 114-117 Google Image Search, 39, 58-74
Find Results text boxes, Advanced Image Search Page, 68-69
Advanced Image Search, 209, Google Images menu option, 234, 236
210-220 Google in Your Language, 165-169
Advanced Search, 144, 147-148 Google Labs, 39-41, 74-94
Froogle, 39, 41-47 Google Compute, 40, 79-84
frustration with web searching, 2-3 Google Glossary, 40, 88-90
reasons for, 23-24 Google News Alerts, 40, 74-79
FTP, 17 Google Sets, 40, 90-91
sites, 16-17 Google Viewer, 40, 85-86
Google WebQuotes, 40, 86-88
G Keyboard Shortcuts, 40, 92-94
global unification, 7 Voice Search, 40, 92
Google, 29-30 Google Links menu option, 249
improvements to, 32-33 Google News, 39, 94-95
ranking of search results, 31-32 menu option, 235, 236
setting as default home page, Google News Alerts, 40, 74-79
263-264 Google News button, enabling, 243
setting as default search engine, Google Search feature, 229-231
264-268 Google Services, 37-39, 41
using to search, 37 Froogle, 39, 41-47
Google Accounts, registering for, Google Answers, 39, 47-50
305-308 Google Catalogs, 39, 50-57
Google Answers, 39, 47-50 Google Groups, 39, 58, 297, 299
menu option, 235, 236 Google Image Search, 39, 58-74
322
Index
Google Labs, 39-41, 74-94 home page, 12

Google News, 39, 94-95 setting Google as default, 263-264
Google Special Searches, 39, 95-97 host, 9
Google University Search, 39, 97-98 HTML document, see web page
Google Web Directory, 39, 99-100 hyperlink, 14
Google Web Search, 39, 100-103
Google Wireless, 39, 104 I
Google Sets, 40, 90-91 I’m Feeling Lucky button, 101, 268,
Google Site Map, 256-257 272-273
Google site, selecting, 238 image searching, 58-74
Google Special Searches, 39, 95-97 advanced, 207-224
Google Toolbar, 225 image sizes, selecting, 220-222
customizing, 237-246 images, specifying file type, 67-74, 222
displaying, 228 info: operator, 181, 193
drag-and-drop functionality, 229 Interface Language option, 108, 111
features, 229-230 Internet, 8, 16
help, 235, 246 and personal security, 292-294
installation, 80-83, 227-228 compared to library, 7
installation requirements, 226 end of, 319-320
menu, 229-230, 234-235 popular activities on, 2
privacy policy, 226-227 Internet Explorer, configuring to accept
returning to default condition, cookies, 260-262
245-246 Internet searching, see web searching
right-click functionality, 229 Internet service provider, see ISP
updating, 248 intitle: operator, 182, 199-201
version 2.0 features, 248-254 inurl: operator, 182, 202-206
Google University Search, 39, 97-98 ISP, 8
Google Viewer, 40, 85-86 K
Google Web Directory, 39, 99-100 Keyboard Shortcuts, 40, 92-94
menu option, 235-236 keywords, 8, 21, 126
Google Web Search, 39, 100-103 excluding, 130, 132-135, 148
Google web search features, 268 importance of selecting, 125-127
Google WebQuotes, 40, 86-88
Google Wireless, 39, 104 L
Gopher, 17 language,
Gopherspace, 17 setting for interface, 108, 111
groups, setting for searches, 108-109,
moderated, 303 112-114
unmoderated, 303 Language options, 144, 158-165
Language Tools page, 159
H Language Tools Page menu option, 235,
help, see Google Help Central 237
Help menu option, 235, 246 language translation, 159-165
Highlight feature, 230, 233-234 library, compared to Internet, 7
enabling, 243-244 link popularity, 20
link: operator, 181, 190-191
323
Index
Links option, 144, 177 Pop-up Blocker feature, 249

links, checking, 190-191 portal, 16
preferences,
M saving, 119, 260
meta tags, 14-15 setting, 107-119
metacrawlers, 21 Preferences page, 107-108
minus operator, 130, 132-133 Privacy Information menu option, 235,
N 247
Navigation button, enabling, 245 privacy policy for Google Toolbar,
News Alerts, creating, 74-79 226-227
newsgroups, 297-299 see also Google products, searching for with Google,
Groups 41-47
searching using Google Groups, Q
300-303 quality of results, 124-125
NOT operator, 134-135 query box, see search box
Not related to the words text box,
query words, see keywords
219-220
questions, getting answers to with
Number of Results option, 109, 118
Google, 47-50
O quote operator, 127-130
Occurrences option, 144, 150-153
R
Open Directory Project, 99
rank-checking software, 19-20
operators,
Related to all of the words text box,
arithmetic, 130-133
212-215
Boolean, 134-136
Related to any of the words text box,
comparing Boolean and arithmetic,
218-219
136
Related to the exact phrase text box,
text, 127-130
216-217
Options menu option, 249
related: operator, 181, 191-192
OR operator, 134
relevancy ranking, 23
Organize Favorites dialog, 285-291
restricted domain search, 153-158
P example, 169-175
Page Info feature, 229-230, 233 results, setting number of, 109, 118
Page Info menu, enabling, 242-243 Results Window option, 110, 118
PageRank feature, 31, 229, 232-233 right-click functionality in Google
enabling, 242 Toolbar, 229
paid placement, 22-23 robots, 20-21
pecuniary-controlled search engines,
S
22-23
SafeSearch filtering option, 109,
person, searching for, 274-275
114-117, 144, 210, 224
PhoneBook, 268, 273-279
search box, 122
bookmarking, 277-278
sizing, 239-240
removing information from, 278-279
search buttons, displaying, 241-242
phrases, searching on, 127-130
search challenge, 3, 294
plus operator, 130-132
324
Index
search engine types, slide show, viewing search results as,

author-controlled, 21-22 85-86
editor-controlled, 22 Spell Checker feature, 268, 279
pecuniary-controlled, 22-23 spiders, 21
user-controlled, 22 sponsored links, 31
search engines, 8, 16, 25 stock: operator, 182, 194
content not operated on, 26-27 Street Maps feature, 268, 280
content operated on, 25-26
development of, 18-19 T
effective, 29 Telenet, 17
future of, 33 text operators, 127-130
how they work, 25-26 thumbnails, 212
setting Google as default, 264-268 title, restricting search to, 198-201
search example, 169-175 toolbar, see Google Toolbar
search history list, 231 toolbar button labels, displaying, 241
clearing, 246 Toolbar Help, 228
enabling, 240 Toolbar Options dialog, 250-252
search integrity, 28 Toolbar Options menu option, 235, 237
Search Language option, 108-109, Topic-Specific Searches option, 144,
112-114 177-178
search modifiers, see search operators Translate page, 160
search operators, translation, 159-165
advanced, 181-182 U
basic, 124 Uniform Resource Locator, see URL
Search Preferences Page menu option, Uninstall menu option, 235, 248
235, 237 universities, searching for, 97-98
search results, setting number of, 109, Up button, 230, 233
118 enabling, 243
Search Site feature, 229, 231 URL, 10, 15
search term button, enabling, 243-244 restricting search to, 201-206
search terms, specifying location of in submitting to Google, 283-284
page, 144, 150-153 Usenet, 298-299
search topics, most popular, 4-5 Usenet groups,
search words, see keywords accessing using Google Groups,
searches, types of, 123 300-301
security posting to using Google Groups,
and Google Groups, 308-310 303-310
and the Internet, 292-294 user-controlled search engines, 22
concerns, 183-185
shortcut keys, using in Google, 93 V
Similar option, 144, 175-176 visitor popularity, 22
simple search, 123-124 Voice Search, 40, 92
site map, see Google Site Map voting buttons, enabling, 243
site: operator, 182, 195-198
site-specific search, 153-158
Size option, 209, 220-222
325
Index
W WebCrawler, 17
web, 8-9 webmaster information, 283
address, 10 wildcard character, 280
APIs, 282 wireless services, using to connect to
page, 8, 12-14 Google, 104
web search, using Google for, 100-103 With all of the words text box, 147
web searching, 2 With at least one of the words text box,
frustration with, 2-3 148
reasons for, 6-8 With the exact phrase text box, 147
time spent, 6 Without the words text box, 148
topics, 3-5 Word Find feature, 249
web sites, 10 World Wide Web, 8-10
directory of, 99-100
finding comments about, 86-88
326
Looking for more?
Check out these and other titles from
Wordware’s complete list
ShaderX2: Introductions & ShaderX2: Shader Pro-

Pro DirectX 9 Audio Exposed: Strategy Game Programming
Tutorials w/DirectX 9 gramming Tips & Tricks Interactive Audio Development with DirectX 9.0
1-55622-902-X • $44.95 1-55622-988-7 • $59.95 1-55622-288-2 • $59.95 1-55622-922-4 • $59.95
6 x 9 • 384 pp. 6 x 9 • 728 pp. 6 x 9 • 568 pp. 6 x 9 • 560 pp.
CGI Short Filmmaking:

The Creation of Ghost Warrior
Essential LightWave 3D 7.5 LightWave 3D 8: Cartoon 1-55622-227-0 • $49.95
LightWave 3D 7.5 Lighting
Character Creation 9 x 7 • 300 pp.
1-55622-354-4 • $69.95 1-55622-226-2 • $44.95
6 x 9 • 496 pp. 6 x 9 • 424 pp. 1-55622-083-9 • $49.95
6 x 9 • 550 pp.
Mastering Business Analysis Transact-SQL User-Defined Photoshop 7.0 for Screen Learn FileMaker Pro 6 The Macintosh Projects Book
with Crystal Reports 9 Functions Printers 1-55622-974-7 • $39.95 1-55622-228-9 • $39.95
1-55622-293-9 • $44.95 1-55622-079-0 • $49.95 1-55622-031-6 • $59.95 6 x 9 • 504 pp. 6 x 9 • 400 pp.
6 x 9 • 424 pp. 6 x 9 • 480 pp. 6 x 9 • 584 pp.
Visit us online at www.wordware.com for more

information. Use the following coupon code for online specials: google-0383

Learn Google

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Learn Google

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Learn Google

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Learn Google™

Wordware Publishing, Inc.

© 2004, Wordware Publishing, Inc.

2320 Los Rios Boulevard

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means

Printed in the United States of America

Google is a trademark of Google Inc.

For Shane, Drew, and Stuart Busby.

Preface: Searching for and Finding the Golden Fleece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Google in Your Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Drag-and-Drop Functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Chapter 9 Other Google Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Chapter 10 Searching Newsgroups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

becomes a chore often filled with a sense of frustration. When the

meaning of a library does not necessarily fit within the confines of

Thanks to Jim Hill of Wordware Publishing for the opportunity to

All about Search

According to SearchEngineWatch.com, the three most popular

Table 1.1: Frustration on the web, from SearchEngineWatch.com

5 — Very frustrated 29%

An amazing 77 percent (31% + 17% + 29% = 77% from Table 1.1)

all about search engines

What Do We Search For?

Figure 1.1: WordTracker home page

Table 1.2: Top ten search topics

No. Count (#of hits) Keyword

all about search engines

What kind of information do you look for on the Internet?

News, listed as number one in the SearchEngineWatch.com survey,

How Much Do We Search?

all about search engines

reduce the problem to a, more or less, manageable solution, web

What Is the Web?

all about search engines

“Host” means the electronic representation of a particular web

computer to XYZ’s computers through the local office nearest you

all about search engines

Country Code Country Example

Table 1.5: Internet domain names

Top-level Domain Meaning Examples

What Is a Web Page?

all about search engines

Figure 1.3: HTML document

Figure 1.4: HTML document as seen in a browser

A well-designed web page entices you to purchase something,

all about search engines

What Is a Search Engine?

Search Engine History

all about search engines

Table 1.6: Search appliances

Search Date Designer Profession Accomplishments

all about search engines

In 1994, webmasters and web site owners begin submitting sites

Robots, Spiders, and Metacrawlers

all about search engines

all about search engines

How Does a Search Engine Work?

all about search engines

n Special search characters

all about search engines