Reclaiming Your Time from Wasteful Searching
This is where we get down to business. Searching for sites, finding files, wrangling with results, and generally raiding Google for all it’s worth. You might be thinking, “I know how to search Google. You type a few words, press Enter, blink rapidly, and view the results.” I won’t comment on disturbing facial tics, but that process is essentially correct. And if you’re impatient to explore more esoteric stuff, feel free to skip this chapter. I won’t be hurt, bitter, or resentful. (And if I am hurt, bitter, or resentful, you’ll never know it, so don’t trouble yourself over my misery.)
Now, for those of you remaining, I’m going to send you each a million dollars. Which pales beside the wealth of useful information that follows in these pages. I get the basics out of the way quickly and lead you straight to the finer points of the search results page, advanced searching, narrowing your search results in various ways, and other life-altering techniques.
So read on. Your check is in the mail.
Setting Preferences
Many people breeze through Google umpteen times a day without bothering to set their preferences — or even being aware that there are preferences to set. A recent Internet study asked users whether they would rather set Google preferences or get bathed in chocolate syrup. Sentiment was overwhelmingly against setting Google preferences. But I’m here to tell you that the five settings on the Preferences page enhance the Google experience far more than the effort required to adjust them. To adjust Google preferences, click the Preferences link on the Google home page or go here:
If you set your preferences and later return to the Preferences page by manually entering the preceding URL, your browser displays an unadjusted Preferences page (without your settings). That’s because your Preferences page has a distinct URL with your preferences built in to it. For example, after selecting English as Google’s default language for your visits, the URL appears like this:
www.google.com/preferences?hl=en
Your best bet for reaching the Preferences page after first setting your preferences (when you want to readjust them, for example) is to use the Preferences link on the home page. A single basic process changes one preference or several. Just follow these steps:
1. Go to the Preferences page.
As mentioned, just click the Preferences link on the home page or go directly to www.google.com/preferences.
2. Use the pull-down menus, check boxes, and radio buttons to make your adjustments.
3. Click the Save Preferences button.
4. In the confirmation window (which merely says “Your preferences have been saved” and is unnecessary), click the OK button.
The next sections describe what you can accomplish on the Preferences page.
The international Google
If you’re reading the English-language edition of this book, you probably enjoy Google in its default English interface. If you’re reading the Icelandic edition of this book, please send me a copy — I want to see whether my jokes are funnier in a chilly language. Whatever your native language, you should know that you can get Google to appear in one of dozens of languages unpronounceable by George W. Bush (besides English, I mean). Interface Language is the first Google preference, and it adjusts the appearance of certain pages — specifically, the home page, the Preferences page, the Advanced Search page, and many Help pages and intrasite directories. Changing the interface language does not alter the language on the search results page or the search results themselves. (To change the language on those pages, you use the Search Language preference, up next.)
The Interface Language preference changes the Interface Language list in the pull-down menu! So if you choose an obscure language that uses an unfamiliar alphabet while playing around (it’s irresistible), you might have trouble finding your way back to the mother tongue by means of the drop-down menu. But Google does provide a link to Google in English on the home page of most non-English language interfaces.
Google is nothing if not occasionally silly, and Interface Language offers a few must-try languages:
_ Elmer Fudd: First on my favorites list, Elmer Fudd (or should I say Ewmew Fudd) capriciously changes all Rs and Ls to Ws. On the home page, Groups is now Gwoups, and Directory has been cartoonized to Diwectowy. Most hilariously of all, the I’m Feeling Lucky button is denatured to I’m Feewing Wucky. Before changing the language menu back to its original state, be sure to ponder the difference between Twaditional and Simpwified Chinese.
_ Pig Latin: Ouyay owknay owhay isthay orksway.
_ Hacker: Changes alphabet letters to numerals and symbols wherever possible (pretty much everywhere), rendering a semicoherent page best comprehended after several bags of potato chips and a six-pack of soda.
_ Interlingua: A vaguely Euro blend of tourism-speak roughly understandable by nearly everyone.
_ Klingon: If I have to explain it, you don’t watch enough Star Trek. In fact, the folks at Google should bone up on their reruns, too, because the term is Klingonese, not Klingon. (Have they no honor?)
All right, stop playing around with the languages. Let’s move on.
Most non-English interface languages present a version of the Google home page tailored to that language. In some cases, the Froogle and Desktop links are missing, à la 2004 — or the Google News link might be missing. It’s a shame, because I long to see “Fwoogle” in the Elmer Fudd language. If you usually navigate Google from the home page, have some familiarity with English, and are trying to decide between your native language and English, you might get more convenience from English.
Searching for non-English pages
After you have the Google interface speaking your language, you can turn your attention to searching for Web pages written in certain languages. The language you search for doesn’t need to match the language you search in. In other words, the first two preferences can be set to different languages. Furthermore, you can select more than one language in the Search Language setting, whereas the Interface Language preference, naturally, can be only one language at a time.
Use Search Language to narrow your search results by language. Choosing French, for example, returns Web pages written only in French. Use the check boxes to select as many languages as you want.
If you don’t select any languages, leaving the Search Language preference in its default setting, your search results do not discriminate based on language. You’re likely to see an international array of pages if you rummage through enough results.
G-rated searching
Google uses a filter called SafeSearch to screen out pornography from Web page and image searches. In its default setting (moderate), SafeSearch applies fairly strict filtering to image searches and leaves Web search results unedited. Change the setting to strict for harsher filtering of images and clean Web page searches. You can turn off the filter entirely for an unbiased search session. You select the filtering strength on the Preferences page. SafeSearch operates automatically but can be modified manually by the Google staff. They accept suggestions of sites and images that should be subject to the adult-content filter. If you come across any objectionable material through a Google search (with SafeSearch set to moderate or strict), feel free to send a link to the offending page or image to the following e-mail address: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Opening the floodgates
You can increase the number of search results that appear on the page, raising it from the default ten results. I think it’s a good idea, so I keep my preference set at the maximum — one hundred results per page. Google reminds you that shorter pages are displayed more quickly, which is a good point for people who hit the site for lightning-quick searches many times a day. Google’s results are so uncannily accurate that you might usually need only ten results. Still, I like the higher number because the long page of search results arrives more rapidly than shorter pages at competing search engines. Furthermore, I have the impatient attitude of a demanding Web surfer, and I never like calling up a second page of search results. If the content I want isn’t on the first page of results, I usually try new keywords, so stocking the results
page with one hundred hits gives me a better chance of quick success. You might not agree with my reasoning, in which case you should leave the number or results set to the default or choose a medium number of results from the drop-down menu. Google is fast no matter how many results per page you request. The only thing that might hold you back is your modem speed. If you access the Internet using a high-speed connection (cable modem, DSL, corporate, or university connection), you might as well set the results number to 100 and be done with it.
New windows
The Results Window setting is an important preference setting in my life. It consists of a single check box which, when checked, opens a Web page in a new window when you click a search result. This is a useful way of staying anchored in the search results page, from which you might want to sample several Web pages that match your keywords. Without this preference, your browser opens the Web pages in the same window that Google is in, forcing you to Back-button your way back to Google if you want to see the search results again. And if you drill deeply into a site, it becomes even more difficult to get back to Google.
If you dislike multiple browser windows cluttering your desktop, leave the Results Window box unchecked. If you prefer a hybrid experience in which you sometimes want to anchor at Google while exploring several search hits, leave the box unchecked and get in the habit of right-clicking search result links when you want a new window. Choose Open in New Window from the right-click (shortcut) menu that your browser displays. If you use a browser that displays Web pages in tabs within a master window, such as Firefox, Netscape, or Opera, Google can still open results in a new window for you. The Google search aids in Firefox (one of which is built in to the browser and the other of which is a version of the Google Toolbar called Googlebar) also can be set to open Google’s search results in a new tab — my favored setting. But that setting works only when you enter keywords into the built-in Google keyword box or the Googlebar. See Chapter 12 for the whole deal about Google toolbars.
