Using The Power Of Search Engines And Queries
By now, we’ve all heard the word “Google” used both as a noun and a verb, immediately bringing to mind the huge and incredibly effective search company online. Yes, Google is somewhat of a holy oracle when it comes to finding information, not just because it is the most inclusive search engine (it is, but there are others that tend to find different things on the web) or because it offers the most cool applications of any site on the web (it does, although many of those applications are either not ready for prime time, and some are a major distraction for someone looking to run a small business), but because of the power of its queries. And it’s likely that you don’t know much of what you can do from a Google Search query input box.
I have just the page to get your started: Google Help : Basics of Search. Once you’ve mastered the search basics, you can also look into Advanced Search. Then save the Google Cheatsheet to use as a handy reference. (Did you see how you can use Google as a calculator? That’s quite handy!) Things that you can look up directly in Google that could provide handy information: zip codes, area codes, phone numbers, package tracking numbers, street addresses, words for definitions, product make and model numbers, domain names (for when you want to see which sites link to a particular site), stock ticker abbreviations, and much more.
You can become even handier at finding information through Google by knowing which sites have information about certain topics, and including them in the search. While it’s true that you can restrict a search to a given site by typing site:www.website.com (with the correct website info plugged in), it’s quick shorthand to just type the title of a directory site (or the domain name) or useful service as the first word in a query. Examples: for the weather in Bryant Park, type weather 10036 or weather Bryant Park. Get a recipe for BBQ pork by querying recipe BBQ pork. Use Wikipedia for encyclopedic information (and sidestep their own website search, which is slower than Google) where it’s useful, like looking up biography information about the author Michael Crichton - that would be a query for wikipedia michael crichton. (note that capitalization/case is irrelevant for simple searches) If you’re looking up information about a movie (like, say, The Godfather) and want to use the Internet Movie Database to find it, query for imdb The Godfather. This is especially useful for getting the correct link first because The Godfather is also a book, a video game, a movie entry on Wikipedia, and an item for sale on Amazon.com. Looking for a profile of a baseball player? Query espn Albert Pujols. Looking for a review for a digital camera? Query cnet Canon SD700. You can try that with virtually any online resource and get relevant results quickly.
One more thing you should know about Google: there are quite a few applications that Google (the company) has released for end users, and they include Google (the search engine) inside the product. Although not all the same query fields are available across each application (some support more queries than Google Search, and some leave out certain Google Search capabilities), it may be worth looking into adding or replacing certain tools on your computer with Google products. Gmail, in particular, has very powerful search and filtering capabilities based on queries and tagging. Google Desktop Search is another amazing application, as it has the capability to index everything on your computer and make it all available for search through your own web browser! Google Desktop Search also offers the capability to store your local search index in your Google Account online, viewable only by yourself, for use anywhere in the world, but you can disable this function if you don’t want Google to have your local data in any form. Also, Google Desktop Search never publishes your local search index on the web for other people to see; your computer is the only one who has access to the data.
Finally, although this post has so far been The Google Show, it’s a good idea to remember that there are other search engines out there. While no resource could provide a complete list, you can start with the most frequently used search engines other than Google - Yahoo!, MSN Search (now called Windows Live Search), Dogpile, and Ask.com. Those sites also have a rich set of query command options, and it is possible to find web pages indexed by those sites that may have been skipped by Google. The most complete search effort involves using as many search engines as possible to look up the data you seek, so always remember to look in more than one place - even if that one place is an incredible place to look for things.