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July, 2003

The Secret Garden of Google.

 by Larry Gilbert   

Googol, a mathematical term for the number represented by a one followed by 100 zeroes or 10¹⁰⁰.  In 1940, Mathematician Edward Kasner asked his nephew, nine-year-old Milton Sirotta, to come up with a name for such a big number.  Sirotta came up with googol and also suggested the term googolplex for an even bigger number.  Kasner assigned that term the value of ten to the googol power.  A googol could also be referred to as 10 duotrigintillion.

Young Mr. Sirotta made up this great word, and then dropped into obscurity with nothing more than rumors that he taught high school mathematics.

Maybe you have heard of the search engine and software company, “Google”. The name is a deliberate variant of the mathematical term. The company's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, came up with the name in 1998, altering the spelling for trademark purposes. The verb to Google, meaning to search for something on the World Wide Web, is from the corporate trademark and dates to 2000.

In addition for having a very memorable name, Google is doing it where it counts as well.  They just won Best News Web Site and the Peoples Voice for Technical Achievement awards at the 2003 “Webby’s”.

http://www.webbyawards.com/main/webby_awards/nominees.html#news

As I do Google searches and check out news.google.com all the time, it occurred to me that perhaps not everyone knows all the little things that make using Google a fun and successful experience.

So with all the grace and aplomb I can muster, here we go.

The first thing to check out, is the first thing I always check out when I pick up a new program; the preference settings area.  By taking inventory here, you can get a ballpark idea of the potential limits of the application at hand.

To find and set Google preferences, go to the Google home page (www.google.com), and click on “Preferences” just to the right of the search box.  Take a quick inventory of what is available.  You can choose what languages you would like to interface and search in, filtering of results, number of results per page, and display activation of the results.

The first setting lets you change the interface language, so that if you speak Esperanto, you can adequately communicate with the engine.  Take the time to explore some of the other language interface options; I won’t spoil the fun, you have to look for yourself you waskly wabbits.

The second setting is to search in pages written in specific languages.  It is usually best to keep it at the default “all languages”, but it can be useful, depending on the search, to target specific languages.

The third option is “SafeSearch Filtering”.  If you have young ones at home that wish to use Google without parental input (don’t get me started on that topic!), you might wish to enable strict filtering.  That way there are no unpleasant surprises when searching for topics regarding barnyard animals.  But for most adults searching for empirical details, the filtering is a hindrance that might exclude specific results based on the limitation of the terms database.

The next option is “Number of Results” with results numbering from 10 to 100.  This is one I use all the time.  If I am looking for detailed search where I am picking loose details like so much lint off my jacket, I turn the results up to a 100.  It’s way faster to scroll through 100 results than viewing 10, clicking on “next 10”, scroll, click, etc…  If I am looking for items that I know are common, I turn the results down to 10.  It’s all about using the right amount of horsepower and bandwidth for the job.

Lastly, there is an option for “Open search results in a new browser window”.  If I am hunting for vendors or shopping options, I usually enable this one so I can compare prices and descriptions from window to window.

Like all preferences, settings should be fluid and perhaps conditional based on the task you have at hand.

Once you have these settings placed to your satisfaction, click on “save settings” in the lower right.  “Cookies” need to be enabled in your web browser for this to be successful.  (We will discuss “cookies” another day; remember www.whatis.com)

Now, that that is out of the way, hows-about we search for something.

Say you wish to search for an exact phrase, type into the search box the phrase encased in quotation marks.  Lets try “Number One Vacation Spot”.  Drop that in, press enter, and the number one hit lets you know that by 1971 the swamp was gone in Orlando Florida and the gates were opened to another world!

My Washington raised brain reels with smart-alecky comments.  Sorry.

Subtle variations in a quote-encased search may yield wildly different results.  For example, try “Number One Vacation”, and you get all sorts of stuff about Maui.

So what to do about buffering the results somewhat.  You can combine the search by inserting OR between the two phrases like so…

“Number One Vacation Spot” OR “Number One Vacation”.  It is important to note that the OR must be capitalized for it to work.  The other option is the use the vertical bar ( | ).  The “|” is found third key right of the “P” key on your keyboard.

Lets try it.  Maui is still the winner, but the Florida Swamp Gas is now the number four hit; it was non-existent with the previous Maui yield search.

You might remember I’m from the black-and-white TV generation, but I am also from the ProDos / MS-DOS 2.0 generation in my computer youth.  Well I suppose you could count the Ann Arbor dumb terminal with the 300-baud acoustiset I used in High School.  We used to dial up Western, and mess with the text-only Star Trek games, changing Captain Kirks’ name to something less than flattering.

But if you remember anything about DOS, it was to use the “*” key as a wildcard.  You can do the same thing in Google, for example…

 "Number * Vacation Spot" | "Number * Vacation"

 Maui still dominates, but now information shows up regarding the declining number of vacation days in the US, and vacation policy at the University of Kentucky.

 Happy Hour at the Google Bar!

 If you are have Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP, and are using Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5 or later, you can download a custom feature tool bar for free that incorporates right into your browser.  This toolbar includes automated features that would require several steps to achieve at Google.  Go to toolbar.google.com and follow along.

 If you return to www.Google.com, below the search box is a link for “Services and Tools”.  Follow this link, and you get some other great Google sponsored features. 

There is a comparison-shopping service, one stop catalog ordering links, language translation tools, forum  / blog tracts, and specific search areas based on corporations or universities.  Take some time to play with these options.

And speaking of playing, try typing in your full name at Google and see what you get.  The results may surprise you, and perhaps give you a distinct creeped-out feeling.

For an excellent book on all of the Google tricks, pick up “Google Hacks”, by Tara Calishain and Rael Dornfest printed by O'Reilly press.  More info on the book may be found at http://books.slashdot.org/books/03/03/11/1448253.shtml?tid=95.

Books are excellent and reliable analog devices that employ advanced intuitive interfaces, long term storage and excellent battery life.

So now with all that has been said, what ever happened to Milton Sirotta?  I can’t seem to find an answer anywhere.  Perhaps I’m not looking in the right place.