The Mythical Internet Library | Google AdWords For Dummies

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The World Wide Web was developed to bring order to the chaotic Internet, which had been lurking in academia and the government since the 1960s. Because the Internet was regarded primarily as an information source — more than an entertainment medium or a community space — it was natural to imagine the quick construction of a universal, all-inclusive online library. Through the years, I often heard people mistakenly speak of the Internet as an information realm in which one could find anything, read any book, and access all knowledge.

But the truth splintered away from that ideal. First, the Web became a distinct and autonomous entity with its own content, disregarding for the most part the academic material that was already online. Second, regular folks who stormed into the new virtual playground were interested in other, more recreational pursuits than learning. So the mecca of unlimited access to knowledge withered away from reality — and even from the imagination.

I am not going to imply that Google single-handedly manifests an Alexandrian library of human knowledge. (Yet.) However, through the astounding accuracy of its search results, Google does ease access to an unprecedented breadth of knowledge. To whatever extent the Internet comprises the communal content of the human mind, Google illuminates the gray matter with clarity and usefulness. Want to know something? Google it. That’s the modern recipe for learning in this information-saturated age.

Finding all sorts of stuff

In Google, basic Web searching couldn’t be simpler. The next chapter covers the basics, plus powerful ways of grabbing the information you want quickly. In addition to offering traditional Web searching, Google blends other types of searching into the basic keyword process:

Google Directory: Yahoo! set the standard of integrated searching (through a keyword engine) and browsing (through a topical directory). In the beginning, Yahoo!’s search engine searched the directory, which was carefully hand-constructed by a staff of editors. Yahoo! still builds its directory manually and also contracts another search engine to generate its nondirectory search results. As of this writing, that other search engine is Google, which won an unprecedented two consecutive Yahoo! contracts. Google also presents a topical directory for browsing, and you can search it separately from the basic Web search. See Chapter 3.
Newsgroup reader: Newsgroups make up the portion of the Internet called Usenet, which is far older (and probably still bigger in some measure) than the Web. It has more than 30,000 groups, organized by topic, covering everything from astrophysics to ER. Usenet is a hangout for academicians, pornographers, armchair pundits, and nearly everyone else. It’s a wild-and-wooly realm that’s normally accessed through a dedicated computer program called a newsgroup reader. Outlook Express and other e-mail programs contain newsgroup-reading features. Google got into the act by purchasing the old Deja News, the groundbreaking company that first put Usenet on the Web. Google presents a deep archive of newsgroup messages, entirely searchable. Furthermore, it lets you establish an identity and post messages to groups, all through your Web browser. See Chapter 4.
Image finder: The Web is a picturesque place. Every photograph and drawing that you see on a Web page is a distinct file residing at a specific Internet location, and Google knows how to search that tremendous store of images. See Chapter 2.
International newsstand: In one of the most dramatic additions to the Google spectrum of features, Google News has replaced Yahoo! News as the default headline engine on countless screens. Almost unbelievable in its depth and range, Google News presents continually updated links to established news sources in dozens of countries, putting a global spin on every story of the day. See Chapter 3.

These features hook into Google’s basic search engine. At the same time, each one stands on its own as an independent search tool. Other features, sketched next, exist more in the background but are no less important than the high-profile search realms.

Hidden strengths

You might be surprised to find what Google can tell you if prompted in certain ways. Active Googlers stumble across some of these features in the course of daily rummaging, because Google spits out information in unrequested configurations when it thinks (yes, Google does seem like a thinking animal sometimes) you need it. Other chapters describe exactly how to coax explicit types of search results from the site. Here, my aim is to briefly summarize what’s under the hood:

A phone book: You heard me, a phone book. Actually, it’s both a phone book and an address book — it works in both directions. And in my experience, the Google address finder works better, faster, and with less clutter than similar services provided by Yahoo!, Switchboard, WhoWhere, and others. See Chapter 16.
A shopping portal: This is one of Google’s huge, hidden, under-appreciated strengths. Again, comparisons to Yahoo! Shopping are difficult to avoid, and again, Google shames its competitor with its depth of innovation and superb ease of use. The two services differ crucially, though, in that you don’t actually buy things through a Google transaction system as you can in Yahoo!. (For example, Google has no Google Wallet for storing credit card information for one-click purchasing.) Google has two main shopping services, Froogle and Google Catalogs. You use Froogle to find shopping sites. Google Catalogs — arguably the more important of Google’s two shopping services and certainly the more fun — gives you a paper-free sense of accessing a mail-order universe. See Chapter 5.
A document repository: Most people, most of the time, search for Web pages. But many other types of viewable (or listenable) pieces of content are available on the Internet. For example, almost every modern computer comes with the capability to view PDF files, which are documents such as articles, white papers, research texts, and financial statements that retain their original formatting instead of being altered to fit a Web page. Google includes documents other than Web pages in its general search results and also lets you narrow any search to a specific file type. See Chapter 2.
A translator: Google is ferociously multilingual. Its fluency is occasionally evident in search results and comes to life on special pages that invite you to dump foreign text into an on-screen box for instant conversion to the tongue of your choice. See Chapter 10.
A government and university tracker: Not to get all paranoid on you, but if you’re into watching your back, the first of these features could prove helpful. More benignly, Google reserves distinct portions of its search engine for university domains and another for government domains. This arrangement has uses explored in Chapter 6.

These and other new aspects of the Google experience came from a dedicated technology incubation project called Google Labs. Remember when entire businesses were built solely on cultivating online ideas? Most of them crashed and burned, adding to the rubble of the exploded Internet bubble. Google is modestly, but importantly, continuing the incubating tradition by continually evolving ways of enhancing its information engine. See Chapter 8.

Answers from real people

One problem with the Web as an information source is the question of authenticity. Anybody can put up a Web site and publish information that might or might not be true. True expertise is difficult to verify on the Web.

Google Answers is . . . well, the answer. Staffed by a large crew of freelance researchers in many subjects, Google Answers lets you ask questions and receive customized answers — for a price. How much? That’s up to you; an auction system is used whereby you request an answer for a specified price, and individual researchers either take on your question or not. (See Chapter 7.)

One nice touch: Google maintains a directory of previously asked and answered questions, sorted by topic. Browsing through the archives is a nice way to audition the quality of the service (it’s good), and possibly find that your query has already been solved.

And now . . . Weblogs

Are you ready for Weblogs? They’re ready for you. Weblogs — blogs for short — aren’t new, but awareness of them is still growing at a terrific clip, and I believe the phenomenon of blogging is still in the early stage of popu- larity and prevalence. Google thinks so, too, leading the company to acquire one of the most popular do-it-yourself Weblog providers: Blogger.com. With Blogger.com in the fold — and incorporated into the new version of the Google Toolbar (see Chapter 9) — this book treats that service as part of the Google suite of features.

Chapter 13 covers Blogger in some detail. For now, know that Blogger is free and even hosts Weblogs at no charge. Both the hosting and the basic blog service can be upgraded to more powerful versions for modest subscription fees. Blogger is not the fanciest Weblog tool around — in fact, it’s one of the least fancy. Its simplicity is a selling point to beginners who like the idea of easy Internet publishing and don’t want to surmount the learning curve other programs and services demand.

Portable information butler

Google provides excellent results for the lazy, one-stop Internet searcher. And don’t we all deserve a search engine that works hard on our behalf? Well, Google goes beyond the call of duty by following you around even after you’ve left the site. Only if you want it to, of course.

You can rip the Google engine right out of its site (so to speak) and take it with you while traipsing around the Web in three ways:

Wireless Google: The most portable style of Googling possible, the wireless method works with Web-enabled cell phones (and, boy, is the built-in phone book handy then), on Palm handheld computers, and on Handspring PDA (personal digital assistants). See Chapter 16 if you’re ready to Google away from your desktop or laptop.
Google Toolbar: If you’re aware of the Google Toolbar, you’re probably using it. You should be, anyway. If this is the first you’ve heard of it, today is the first day of the rest of your online citizenship. Internet life will never be the same. The Google Toolbar bolts right into your browser, up near the top where your other toolbars reside. It enables you to launch a Google search without surfing to the Google site. I believe that in some dictionaries there’s a picture of the Google Toolbar next to the definition of cool. (See Chapter 9.)
Google browser buttons: Perhaps even snazzier than the Google Toolbar, the browser buttons attach to your browser’s existing toolbar, where they inscrutably await your mouse clicks. By so clicking, you can highlight a word of text on any Web page and launch a Google search with that keyword. Another button takes stock of the page you’re on and delivers similar pages. (See Chapter 9.)

Google’s portable features insinuate the service into your online life more deeply than merely bookmarking the site. Google will take over your mind. But that’s a good thing.

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