TJ - The Publication for Learning and Development

Netcheck

By Clare Forrest (June 2004 Issue)
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Way back in July 1999, this column looked at searching the Internet using Google™ – www.google.com. In those days, Google was pretty new and very different to most other available search engines in that it was clean, effective and easy to use. Since then it has gone from strength to strength, so much so that it is a serious candidate for stock market flotation. The current prediction is that Google, if it decides to float this year, will probably end up with a market value of $20 billion to $25 billion by the end of its first day as a publicly traded company. This would instantly make Google worth more than Lockheed Martin, Federal Express or Nike! You could say it’s one of the few, genuine, dotcom successes.

It is interesting that Google, from being a new and unfamiliar search engine in 1999, has now become ubiquitous. Most people, however little they know about the Internet, seem to know of Google. There’s even a verb now – googling – to describe the art of checking people’s backgrounds on the Internet via Google. And, of course, a certain Major Charles Ingram (he of the notorious cough on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire) may have had a small part to play as his £1,000,000 question was this: ‘A number one followed by 100 zeros is known by what name? A googol, a megatron, a gigabit or a nanomol.’ A googol is the answer and, according to Google’s corporate history, Google is a play on googol, and reflects the company’s mission to organise the immense, seemingly infinite amount of information available on the web.

Just recently, both when running courses and when reading UK-HRD, I’ve noticed a rise in the number of queries indicating that there are still many people who find Internet searching troublesome. It therefore seems a good moment to return to Google, both to see what’s new and to do a revision of basic search principles.

Google loads with a wonderfully simple page that most of us are pretty familiar with by now. You get the Google logo, a box for your search query and two big search buttons – one for a general search and one headed ‘I feel lucky’. Above the search query box is a short selection of links in blue text and these change occasionally as Google expands, but more of these later.

First some basic search principles. Let’s imagine you want to find details on one Diane Bailey (my colleague, friend and an occasional contributor to this Journal). If you type her name into the search box you will get 303,000 hits. And a quick glance down the page tells you that none of them are who you are looking for. So, at this point, it is entirely likely that your heart sinks. ‘All those matches – what on earth do I do next?’ Well, there are some options. The first is simply to start looking through the hits, because it is important to know that, generally, those that most closely match your query come first. However, this approach will not work well in this case because there are many Diane Baileys in the world.

You could, alternatively, hit the ‘I feel lucky’ button which takes you directly to a site that Google chooses but, given that you know there are so many Diane Baileys, this is probably unwise. Use ‘I feel lucky’ only when you are reasonably sure of where you want to go but haven’t got the full address (for example, a named company website).

A better plan, given that there are so many possibilities, is to refine your search somewhat. So, try this instead. Surround the text in double quote marks so that now it reads “Diane Bailey”. Hit search again and immediately your search has become more manageable – from 303,000 hits to 2,510. Why? Because the double quote marks instruct Google to look for these two words together. Your first search found you all the Dianes, all the Baileys, and all the Diane Baileys, which was rather more than you wanted.

It’s true that 2,510 hits are still a lot to get through, so maybe you need to refine your search further. Somewhere, at the back of your mind, you have the vague feeling that Diane lives and works in the North West. Add these words (also in quotes to keep them together) to your search box. Now you’re down to a mere 24 hits, but that’s still quite a few to get through. You notice that the first four or five hits refer to a Diane Bailey who has something to do with health, which means they’re definitely not the person you’re looking for. Quickly you type in ‘-health’ in the search box (note that there’s a minus sign right next to the word you don’t want) and search again. Bingo! Nine hits and the person you want is fifth on the list.

Google hits are easy to follow. They are black text, fairly obviously, and provide a short abstract from the site. But it’s the underlined blue text that says ‘Cached’ that’s particularly useful to know about. Web pages change extremely quickly, but their URL (address) does not. So, you can often go to a page and find something entirely different from what Google led you to believe was there. Google’s cache solves this problem. It means there is a permanent record of the web page you really want, rather like a photocopy. Plus, as an added bonus, your search terms will be highlighted so you can scan it quickly to see if it’s what you want.

Those are the Google basics. But there’s much more on offer now. The first thing you need to know about is the Google toolbar. To bring this up you click on the ‘more’ button above the search box, page down to Google Tools and select the ‘Toolbar’. This is a quick download that automatically installs itself onto your browser. It means that you will now have instant access to Google so that you can generate a search immediately. However, it also means much more. You get a ‘pop-up blocker’, which means no more pop-up ads! Then there’s ‘BlogThis!’. With the press of a button you can create a blog post pointing to the web page you’re visiting. You must, of course, have a blog already set up to take advantage of this feature and so need to create a free blog using Google’s Blogger service at blogger.com And how about ‘Search Country’ for a great feature? You can use this to quickly restrict a particular search to a preferred country domain, such as the UK.

My favourite feature of the toolbar is that it provides you with nice little icons that limit your searches to a particular type. These features are, of course, available on the normal Google home page – those blue words above the search box I referred to earlier – but I seem to use the additional features more now. There’s the ‘Image’ button that allows you to type in your search text and find a suitable picture. You can refine this search to find, for example, only black and white pictures or only cartoons. It’s much more interesting than Microsoft’s clipart, but do respect copyright.

Then there’s the shopping button. This is, rather marvellously, called ‘Froogle™’, a play on the word ‘frugal’, meaning thrifty, and the name ‘Google’. It’s a new service that makes it easy to find information about products for sale online. By focusing entirely on product search, Froogle locates stores that sell the item you want to find and points you directly to the website where you can make a purchase. It’s like a worldwide catalogue.

Did I mention ‘Google News’? Here there are 4,500 daily news sources, automatically grouped by type (sports, politics and so on), which include the articles’ leading sentences. Then there’s ‘Google Usenet Advanced Search’ which searches newsgroups so you can get a broad range of opinions on current issues. And there’s ‘GoogleAlert’, which periodically re-runs your search and sends you an alert via e-mail to let you know of any new results.

Not bad for a free service, huh? Why not get the toolbar and explore Google? It’s much, much more than just a search engine. It really is the gateway to the Internet.

Search tips
* Use double quote marks to keep words together.
* Use the plus sign (+) for words you definitely want included in the results.
* Use the minus sign (-) for words you definitely do not want included.
* Hit the ‘cached’ entry to make sure you get the page you want and to get your search terms highlighted.

Ratings
www.google.com
Content *****
Originality *****
Navigability *****
Presentation and graphics *****
Downloads and freebies *****
Links *****

Quick hits
http://www.underoak.co.uk
****
This a comprehensive index of management development and personal skills courses. The index holds details of over 25,000 courses offered by approximately 800 different organisations and it is updated by Underoak every month. In addition they can produce a tailored shortlist of recommended trainers and courses for specific training needs drawn from their details of 7,000 independent trainers and training organisations. Using Underoak to find a trainer costs £95.00, which will be refunded if you use one of the trainers they recommend.
http://Training-Ideas@yahoogroups.com
***
Long time Internet users will remember with some fondness, tempered with occasional exasperation, the trainer’s list-serv (e-mail discussion group) called Tr-Devl. Well, it is back under the guise of the Coaching, Training and Development Community Network and it’s just as idiosyncratic as ever. It’s nothing like as easy to use as our own UK-HRD, but it is another training forum and it does have some interesting discussions. A word of warning, though - make sure you sign up for the digest version or you’ll have far too many e-mails popping up on a daily basis. Those of you with spam filters – hopefully most of you by now – will need to accept it as a friend since Yahoo domains and e-mail addresses are typically treated as spam by most filters.
www.thenub.net
*****
This is a management and career website in the style of a blog, and is the only daily webzine that’s devoted to people-related business news. It’s not only targeted specifically at trainers but at any manager, professional or executive, who has an interest in getting informed, inspired and entertained about the workplace. The premise is simple: ‘Each day we scan the world’s media and offer a daily mix of news and comment that’s designed to inform, inspire and entertain … Favoured topics include: management, leadership, communication, relationships, personal development and stress/work-life balance.’ They also say that: ‘reading this site can seriously improve the quality of your work life’. Actually, you don’t so much read this site as pick and mix choice morsels from it. It’s good fun yet with a serious edge and a great website to have as your home page.

Our thanks to Clare for this month’s ‘Netcheck’. The July issue of Training Journal will see the return of Garry Platt.

Clare Forrest would be pleased to know by snail-mail, e-mail or carrier pigeon the URLs (web addresses) of any sites that you have enjoyed, loathed or found just plain indispensable so that she can bring them to everyone’s attention. She can be contacted at clareforrest@structuredlearning.com or visit www.structuredlearning.com

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