Google: The Missing Manual

Everybody knows that Google is the world's current number one search engine. People use it 250 million times a day to access the eight billion plus pages indexed in its database.

This is a guide to all the features hidden behind its famously 'blank' homepage. First of all, Sarah Milstein and Rael Dornfest take you through the basic search strategies - such as when to use quote marks round a term, how to use AND and OR to improve your results, and how to employ the much under-used 'search within results' to cut down all those thousands of pages to get closer to what you want. Mastering a few of these basics can save you a lot of time.


Next come special Google tricks - using 'define' plus a word to find what it means; using the search box to do mathematical calculations; using it to look up phone numbers and addresses; plus looking up stock market quotations, patents, ISBNs, and even flight numbers.

Advanced searches can start by setting your interface language preferences, then searching on file type, date, and domain name. These options will also automatically translate a page into or from any language of your choice.

You can search the special Google collection of 880 million images, ask its feeds from 4,500 news sources for the very latest information on breaking scandals and disasters - and you can even ask Google to email you the news directly.

Another useful but under-used option is the Google directory option. Look at this if you want an overview of a topic - such as butterflies or architecture. Instead of a long list of results, Google gives you a hierarchical breakdown of topics and sub-topics for the subject. This is very useful for checking that you've explored all aspects of a subject you might be researching.

I hadn't realised before that Google bought up USENET, and now hosts the service and all its archives, dating back to 1981, as Google Groups. The new Web-based interface makes it much easier to participate in these groups than in the Old Days (that is, five to ten years ago).

If you can't find what you want in the Groups database, there is now also a Google Answers service where skilled researchers will answer your queries for a fee which you set. Old answers are available in an archive, so check there first. The latest addition to the Google homepage is Froogle. Use this if you want to compare prices at online shopping stores.

The latter part of the book is given up to the advanced tools available via the deskbar or sidebars which seem to replace the place currently occupied by Windows favourites. There is now a free Google toolbar you can download and integrate with your own browser. It takes up a sliver of screen real estate, but it's fully customisable and comes with a built-in popup blocker.

You could be forgiven for thinking that Google was trying to take over most of the functions of your browser, but it does give you the chance to control what happens and to switch all these extra features on and off.

For Webmasters there are two interesting features - maximising your own site for indexing by Google, and making money from the Adsense scheme. This operates by letting Google insert context specific ads onto your pages. Some people have wondered if this is a short term bubble which might burst, but since it outstripped Amazon as an income generator on my site in the first month of operations, it's a big plus so far as I'm concerned.

Nobody is likely to make use of every one of these features; but to make the most out of Google, it's useful if you try them all at least once, so that you know they exist.

All of this is explained in a friendly and crystal-clear style, with lots of reassuring screenshots. This is a good-value and well-written guide to a terrific resource for researchers of all kinds - even if it's for comparing CD prices or looking up the meaning of 'antinomian'.