Nov 16, 2001 10:57 AM
2067 Views
(Updated Feb 04, 2002 10:07 AM)
I have used Google for a few years now and I wouldn't know how to search for anything without it. I use Google for everything that I need to find (yes some people will point out to you that it is also good for making sure that people are not stealing your reviews - I have never tried this but I have heard from other people that it is effective. My caution with this is that it does take about a month for a new listing to show up so you shouldn't check right away).
There are so many features that I like about Google that it's hard to know where to begin so let's start at the main page.
<B>Great Layout</B> - The layout for the site is very simple to follow and easy to understand. When your on the main page you will search a text box and under that two buttons:
<I>Google Search</I> - Normal Search
<I>I'm Feeling Lucky</I> - This will take you randomly to any page that matches your search. This can be fun if you just want to look at pages that are close to your search.
<B>Accuracy</B>
I have found that Google's accuracy for finding the right page for you can't be beat. I ran a search to test this for ''Riverside, California'' and the first result was for a museum in Riverside, and the next was for U.C. Riverside, the third was for the City Offices. These are all very relevent results for what I put in because I was so vague in that search.
<B>Speed</B>
They are so fast with returning your results that they do in fact time their search time and display that for you. the search that I listed above was 0.11 seconds. Although the speed will differ based on your connection so if you do have a slow connection your results might take a few seconds more to appear on the screen for you.
<B>Advanced Searches</B>
Now this is what I usually will use. I usually run very specific searches so that I get exactly what I want from them, which Google I can get very exact and there are no problems at all with the results. Here are the features that I love about Google:
<I>Find with all words
with the exact phrase
with any of the words
without the words</I>
These can make your search very exact and get you just the page that you are looking for. They also have:
<I>Language
File Format
Date
Occurrences
Domains
SafeSearch</I>
These are great features if your searching for something very specific and don't want to see a lot of pages that are close but not exactly what you are looking for.
<B>Google Toolbar</B>
I also have the Google Toolbar downloaded and this makes it even easier to find what your looking for. You can view the page rank of the page that you are on, search the site, and also see any pages that are linked to the page that you are on. This can be helpful if you want pages that are similar to the page that you are on.
<B>Page Ranking</B>
Now Google ranks pages differently than some searches and actually makes it so that the most popular pages are always first. They rank by using a system using links from other sites to your site. This can get a little complicated but they explain it very well at https://google.com/technology/index.html so if your interested about it then you can read about it here.
<B>New Features</B>
They have recently added new features of:
<I>Image Directory
Groups Directory</I>
These work the same way as the normal search and also include advanced options.
<B>Conclusion</B>
This search is the best that I have found for finding everything that I am looking for. If you need to find something fast than this is one to try.