Advanced Google
Presented: September 28, 2004
by John Maxwell
by John Maxwell
This presentation will show you how to easily access lots of "extras" that Google provides. The presentation consists of several sections; click on any of the following links to go directly to that section, or just scroll down to see all of them:
| Google Local | helps find local businesses |
| Google Groups | interest groups |
| Google News | world and local news |
| Google Directory | browse topics of interest |
| Google Images | look for photographs, graphics |
| Google Answers | pay for research |
| Calculator | does calculations for you |
| File Type | search by document type |
| Catalogs | mail-order catalogs on-line |
| Google other countries | search in a specific country |
| Translate | does free translations |
| Define command | provides definitions |
| Similar pages | looks for similar webpages |
| Links to a Web page | looks for links to a site |
| InURL advanced search | looks for keyword in web address |
Google Local
What is it? Sometimes the information you're looking for is
related to a particular place - like the all-night doughnut store
that's nearest to your house. Google Local locates neighbourhood stores
and services by searching billions of pages across the Web, then
cross-checking those results with Yellow Pages data to pinpoint the
local resources you want to find. This innovative approach gives you
access to the most - and most relevant - results for your search.
How do I do this? Go to Google's home page, www.google.ca and click on more >> (it is just underneath the large le in the word Google). You will see a number of icons for Google Services. Click on Google Local (icon of a compass).
This will take you to a window with spaces labelled "What" and "Where". For "Where" type in a postal code, or the name of a town or city. For "What" use any of your regular search terms (such as doughnuts, locksmiths, etc.) and click on "Google Search". Your local results will appear at the top of the results page.
You can also use the Google Local home page to
view only local results for any other type of search, to see results on
an area map, or to limit your results to listings within a set distance
from your starting point.
Google Groups
What are they? Google Groups are on-line interest groups.
Say you are interested in Star Trek, growing old-fashioned roses, or
Harley Davidson motorcycles. There is probably an interest group for
each of these topics. (If there isn't, you can start one!)
Groups are really forums that consist of public emails you can subscribe to and read, or post to. When you send an email to one of these groups, everyone that is subscribed to the group can read it, and post their responses for others to read.
Just as an example, if you search for "macintosh" groups, there are currently 165 Macintosh interest groups. Here are just a few:
How do I do this? There are
two ways to do this.
First way: Go to Google's home page, www.google.ca, and click on Groups
(it is just underneath the second o in the word Google). This
takes you to the Google Groups webpage (as shown below). You can either
search for a subject of interest, or try browsing through the
categories shown on the bottom part of the page.
This is the the original way to look for a newsgroup. Google also has another way to get to them, which is easier to read and respond to, but is experimental. This is how you access it:
Second way: you start off the same way: go to Google's home page, www.google.ca, and click on Groups (it is just underneath the second o in the word Google). This takes you to the Google Groups webpage. Now, this is where it gets different: underneath the blank rectangle (where you normally type keywords) you will see: New! Preview the next version of Google Groups. Click on next version of Google Groups. This takes you to their new version (as shown below). Try it out!
One last word: anyone can see the
stuff posted for a particular interest group. However, to post a new
e-mail, or to reply to one, you must first become a Google Groups
member. It is free, and it isn't hard to do. Just follow the directions
where it says: New users: Join.
Google News
What is it? Google News displays news headlines with
sections on World News, Canadian News, Business News, Sci/Tech, Sports,
Entertainment, and Health.
How do I do this? Go to
Google's home page, www.google.ca,
and click on News (it is just
underneath the g in the word Google). When you read through the
News Headlines and click on a link, you will be taken to a newspaper's
web site where you can read the headlines, but if you want more
in-depth information you may have to pay to see it.
Google Directory
What is it? This is the web organized by topic into
categories (such as: Arts, Business, Computers, Games, Health,
Home, Kids & Teens, News, Recreation, Reference, Regional, Science,
Shopping, Society, Sports, World).
This can make it a little difficult to search through all the categories and sub-categories to the information you want. However, it can sometimes provide more relevant information than doing a search through the regular Google.
Also, it is particularly useful if you are not sure what you are looking for, but have an area of interest in mind.
(The difference between the normal Google index and the Directory is that the index is done by a computer automatically scanning the Internet and creating an index of all it finds. The Directory is a list of Web sites found by a group of people working with various categories and finding pages with lots of info in the category, or having links to pages in the category.)
How do I do this? Go to Google's home page, www.google.ca and click on more >> (it is just underneath the large le in the word Google). You will see a number of icons for Google Services. Click on Directory (icon of an open book). This takes you to the webpage that lists all of the categories mentioned above, along with many subcategories. Just start browsing!
Google Images
What are they? If you are specifically looking for
photographs, pictures, paintings, or any other kind of image, this is
where to go. (However, keep in mind that many pictures on the Internet
are copywrited, so be careful how you use them, and give credit where
credit is due.) Also note: filtering is turned on by default for this
category, so it automatically DOES NOT display porn images.
How do I do this? Go to Google's home page, www.google.ca, and click on Images (it is just underneath the first o in the word Google). This takes you to the Google Image Search page. Just type in search terms as you normally would. For example, to see pictures of bald eagles, just type in "bald eagle".
This will take you to the first page of results (as shown below), which shows you thumbnail pictures of bald eagles. To copy one of these images to your computer, just drag it off the browser window onto your desktop. The picture will be on your desktop labelled something like "images.jpg". Just double-click to open it, or drag it to any folder or location on your computer to store it.
To get a bigger, better version of one of these pictures: click on the thumbnail of the picture you want. This will take you to a page split into two windows (as shown below); the bottom two-thirds of the page is a window showing the original webpage that the picture appeared in.
The top third of the page is a window showing the thumbnail picture and the words "Image has been scaled down. See full-size image", Click where it says: See full-size image. This will take you to a page that shows just the image alone, in its full size. You can then drag it off the browser window onto the desktop (as already described above) in order to open or save it in your computer. It will be saved onto the desktop with its original file name (e.g. something like "bald_eagle.jpg").
Google Answers
What is it? A paid service: Google Answers is a way to get
help from Researchers with expertise in online searching. When you post
a question to Google Answers, you specify how much you're willing to
pay for an answer. A Researcher will search for the information you
want. More than 500 carefully screened Researchers are ready to answer
your question for as little as $2.50 -- usually within 24 hours. When
they find it, they will post it to Google Answers, and you will be
notified via email. You will only be charged for your question if and
when an answer is posted to it.
How do I do this? Go to Google's home page, www.google.ca and click on more >> (it is just underneath the large le in the word Google). You will see a number of icons for Google Services. Click on Answers (icon of an owl wearing a mortarboard).
This takes you to the Google Answers page. You must create a Google Account (which allows you to pay them) before you can use this service. To get more information about how to use Google Answers, go to the Google Answers' Frequently Asked Questions page.
Calculator
What is it? Google's has a built-in calculator! It's
incredibly easy to use, once you know a few of the special symbols you
need. For example, while you can use + and - for adding
and subtracting, you can't use the normal multiply and divide symbols
(because they aren't on the keyboard!). Instead you use:
* (the regular asterisk
symbol) for multiplication
/ (the forward slash symbol) for division
How do I do this? Simply enter the calculation you'd like done into the search box and hit the Return key, or click on the Google Search button. The calculator can solve math problems involving basic arithmetic, more complicated math, units of measure and conversions, and physical constants.
For example, try this: go to Google's home page, www.google.ca, and in the regular keywords box, type: 34+98 and hit the Return button (or click on Google Search). The Google Calculator correctly answers that the answer is 132!!
Here is another calculation you can try: in the keywords box, type: 24 teaspoons in cups and hit the Return button (or click on Google Search). The Google Calculator tells you that this is equal to O.5 US cups. (If you want British/Canadian measures, you have to use the word "imperial", as in "24 imperial teaspoons in imperial tablespoons").
Finally, try this: type sqrt(25) and hit the Return button (or click on Google Search). The Google Calculator correctly answers that the square root of 25 is 5!
For more help on using the
Calculator feature, go to Calculator
Help.
File Type
What is it? In order to use this Google ability, you need to
know what certain kinds of filetypes are, and what they are used for.
For example, here are few types of files you might want to search for
on the internet:
| jpg | image format; used for photographs with many colours and great detail |
| gif | image format; used for images with few colours, such as logos |
| portable document format; used for forms, manuals, official documents | |
| doc | word processing document; created by Microsoft Word application |
| xls | spreadsheet document; created by Microsoft Excel application |
| ppt | presentation document (like a digital slideshow); created by MS PowerPoint |
How do I do this? Go to Google's home page, www.google.ca. In the rectangle where you normally type your search words, type something like filetype:ppt or filetype:xls along with your regular keywords. For example, to find a model release form for photographing a person you could type model release form photography filetype:pdf into the search field; this will get you several release forms in pdf format to choose from.
Catalogs
What is it? A way to search and browse mail-order catalogues
on line. Note: these are all American catalogues, so all prices are in
US dollars. However, a number of them will ship directly to Canada
(but, of course, you have to pay shipping and duty costs as well).
How do I do this? Go to Google's home page, www.google.ca and click on more >> (it is just underneath the large le in the word Google). You will see a number of icons for Google Services. Click on Catalogs (icon of several coloured magazines). This takes you to the Google Catalogs page. Then browse through the pages, just like a regular catalog, or use the Search engine to look for something specific.
Google other countries
What is it? If you are going to be visiting another country
and would like to find information within the country only, one way is
to do a search first for Google in the country. Google has lots of
country-specific sites! Here are just a few of them:
| Google Canada |
| Google United Kingdom |
| Google Mexico |
| Google Italy |
| Google Spain |
| Google Latvia |
| Google Brazil |
| Google Poland |
How do I do this? Say you are going to Australia. Go to Google's home page, www.google.ca. In the rectangle where you normally type your search words, type google australia and hit the Return key (or click on the "Google Search" button). Google will show you a list of websites. Click on the first one, and that will be the website for Google Australia. Underneath the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, click in the little round circle next to "pages from Australia". Then type in your search terms as you would normally, and your results will refer only to Australian websites. Neat, eh?
Translate
What is it? A fast and easy way of getting common words and
phrases translated. Say you want to know how to say "Happy Birthday" in
German, or "Merry Christmas" in Portuguese. This site will
automatically translate from English to German, Spanish, French,
Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, or Chinese. It will also
translate from these languages into English, and a few other tricks
(like French to German, and German to French).
How do I do this? Go to Google's home page, www.google.ca. Just to the right of the rectangle where you normally type in your search words, you will see a list of three links. The bottom one says Language Tools. Click on it. This takes you to the Google Language Tools page. The second section on this page is entitled Translate, and has a box into which you type the text you want translated.
Type your word or phrase in the
box. Then choose the direction of translation (i.e. from English to
German, or from Portuguese to English), from the scroll down menu under
the box. Then click the "Translate" button. It's as easy as that!
Define command
What is it? An easy way to get definitions. Google retrieves
definitions that occur on the web and supplies them to you.
How do I do this? Go to Google's home page, www.google.ca. In the rectangle where you normally type your search words, type define: and the word or phrase you want defined, and hit the Return key (or click on the "Google Search" button).
For example: go to Google and type define:encounter group and hit the Return key (or click on the "Google Search" button). You get a page that says:
Definitions of encounter group on the Web:
a meeting of people to develop mutual understanding by freely expressing emotions www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn
Similar pages
What are they? Pages that are similar to some other web
page. Say, for example, you find a website that is very useful, and
you'd like to find others like it. This is one easy way of finding
similar sites.
How do I do this? Go to Google's home page, www.google.ca. Just to the right of the rectangle where you normally type your search words, are the words Advanced Search. Click on Advanced Search. This takes you to the Google Advanced Search page. Scroll down to the middle section (labelled Page-Specific Search ). The first item in this section is Similar; then it says " Find pages similar to the page ", and then there is a box. Type a web address (e.g. www.apple.com) in this box and hit the Return key (or click on the "Search" button). This will take you to a list of all of the websites which are similar to the page whose address you typed in.
Links to a Web page
What is it? You use this to find out what other web
pages have links to the one you are checking out. Why would you want to
do this? Say, for example, one of your friends has a website about
their B&B. You could find out how well-known the website is by
checking on how many other webpages link to it.
How do I do this? Go to Google's home page, www.google.ca. Just to the right of the rectangle where you normally type your search words, are the words Advanced Search. Click on Advanced Search. This takes you to the Google Advanced Search page. Scroll down to the middle section (labelled Page-Specific Search ). The second item in this section is Links; then it says " Find pages that link to the page", and then there is a box. Type a web address (e.g. www.apple.com) in this box and hit the Return key (or click on the "Search" button). This will take you to a list of all of the websites which have links to the page whose address you typed in.
InURL advanced search
What is it? The term URL stands for Uniform Resource
Locator. This is the technical term used to mean the address of
a Web page.
The inurl: command provides a way of looking for web pages whose address contains the word you are searching for. Normally when Google uses your keywords to search with, it will search in any and all parts of a webpage. However, this means that pages could be included that are only incidentally related to your topic of interest. However, if the keyword is in the actual address of the website, then you know that this topic is of major interest at that site.
How do I do this? Go to Google's home page, www.google.ca. In the rectangle where you normally type your search words, type inurl: and then your keyword. For example, you could type in inurl:macintosh. This immediately takes you to the first of 27 million webpages that have the word "macintosh" in their title.
