Goooooooooogle
Written: Feb 27 '02
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| Full Review |
When someone first mentioned the Google.com to me I got this curious look on my face and said, "Google? Never heard of that site, I use Yahoo." I used Yahoo for everything and just assumed that they were the best choice because they seemed to be one of the most popular sites on the internet. Slowly I started hearing more and more people talk about Google so one day I jumped to their site to check it out.
Join me in my journey of the site www.google.com.
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First stop, their main page (www.google.com) & a search:
My first impression? Their main page does not have very much information. There is the Google logo at the top, a link header with "Web" highlighted but you are allowed to click on images, groups, or directories as well. There's the search box, the submit "Google Search" button and another submit “I’m Feeling Lucky" button. The main page also has the following links: advanced search, preferences, language tools, Get the Google Search Appliance for your company, Advertise with Us, Search Solutions, News and Resources, Google Toolbar, Jobs, Press, Cool Stuff..., and of course Make Google Your Homepage!
I assume most users would be able to figure out they need to type in their search words in the search box, but I could see how this could be confusing for some new users. Nowhere on their main page is a help link or link to instructions on how to use the site. I definitely feel that Google should add a help link to their main page.
I type in the word "cookie" and hit "Google Search." In seconds, up pops the results page with ten search results. One of the search results is indented and underneath another result. The top result happens to be "Cookie Central" and the indented result underneath is "The Unofficial Cookie FAQ" which means this is a page inside the "Cookie Central" site. Also at the top of the page is information about my results that reads: "Results 1 - 10 of about 3,110,000. Search took 0.09 seconds."
At the bottom of the page is the word "Goooooooooogle" with numbers 1-10 underneath each of the o's in Google. This instantly shows me that my search came up with at least ten pages of results. As seen for the search result information posted at the top of the page, my search came up with around 3,110,000 results. That sure is a lot of results to sort through! Luckily at the bottom of the page there is a link where I can Search within results. This is an excellent way to decrease the number of results
I was given. I click the "search within results" link and am taken to a very short small page that reads: "There were about 2,980,000 Google results for cookie. Use the search box below to search within these results." I type in "chocolate chip" WITH the quotes into the box and click the Search within results button. Almost instantly I am taken to the results page. Now I have reduced the results to around 84,000. That's still too many results for me so I click on the link "Search tips" and come to a help page!
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Second stop, Google Help Central
Here they provide help to features, search help, frequently asked questions, and a section to contact them. This is where the new users can go to get all the answers they need. Google needs to add a link to this page on their main page.
Search Help - This section provides the basics of search, interpreting results, customize results, and advanced search tips. I especially found the advanced search tips section helpful, as it showed all the hints and secrets of performing a web search. You can use a + or - sign in your search to include and exclude words and other nifty tricks.
Features - This section contains the following:
• Cached Links - A wonderful option if the page is unavailable or offline. You can click on the cached link and see a copy of the page that Google has saved. It may not be the most updated version, but it's better than nothing!
• Catalog Search (BETA) - This option allows you to search catalog sites online. I haven't used this feature yet but it sounds like it would be very helpful.
• Dictionary Definitions - Before doing this review I didn't even know Google had this option available and I must say that I'm very impressed that they do! I'm constantly looking for definitions to words and now I know that I can use Google to do it!
• File Types: PDF, Word - An explanation of the different file types available.
• I'm Feeling Lucky - By doing a search and clicking the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button you are taken to the first page Google found for your search. A great option especially if you are looking for a particular company.
• Maps, PhoneBook, Stock Quotes - Other great options I didn't know were available until writing this review. Just type in the information you're looking for and hit search and up comes a result page with the information you need!
• Similar Pages - Clicking this link after performing a search will take you to web sites similar to the one you are looking at.
• Site Search - This is a great option for web page owners, they allow you to search the pages within a site.
• Web Page Translation - Allows you to translate web pages into different languages!
• Who links to you? - Another great option for web page owners. By doing this search, you can find out who links to your site!
Frequently Asked Questions - Here you can find all different types of FAQ's from General to the Toolbar FAQ.
Contact us - Links to all the different options and ways to contact Google if you have questions or problems.
There are also links on this page about why Google does not use pop up advertising, which is one of the reasons I love their site. They also have user support discussion forms.
So, after looking through the Search Tips page, I got the information I need in order to make my search complete. I go back to the main Google page and in the search box type in "chocolate chip cookie recipie" not noticing I spelled recipe incorrectly. I get sent to a page with about 10 results. At the bottom of the page Google states, Did you mean to search for: "chocolate chip cookie recipe"? Of course this is what I meant to search for, so I click the link. The first result is to the Big Chocolate Chip Cookie Page (www.skyport.com/rogue-press/chocchip/). This sounds just like what I was looking for! I click on the link and am taken to a page that has a bunch of recipes for chocolate chip cookies, just what I wanted!
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Final Stop - Overall comments
Because Google offers so much customization, options, and is very easy to use it is by far the best search site. I know that when I perform the same search on another site such as Yahoo or Lycos, I come up with about half of the results that Google gives. Many times I'm searching for something that is difficult to find, so the more results the better. Besides that, Google is fast - they actually show you how long it takes to perform the search, which other search sites do not do. You can do everything in one stop, search for addresses, people, stock quotes, etc all with just the hit of a button. I rarely, if ever, find dead links and I usually can always find what I'm looking for. Another item that I love about Google is their toolbar that offers even faster and easier searches. I will probably write a review on the toolbar itself because I use it so much.
Overall Google is the best search site that I've used and I definitely recommend giving them a try!
Recommended:
Yes
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Location: USA
Reviews written: 135
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