Google ...

[Florin]

Do you know how to ... Google?

Google is launching a course to learn you how to do this -->Power Searching with Google ... a short course on becoming a great internet searcher




Will you register?

Lately, many university courses were given available for free, for example: https://www.coursera.org, http://www.khanacademy.org and how to make courses on http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u

Link: http://www.google.com/insidesearch/landi...ching.html

Where do you think we would be without Google?



What do you do when you first open up your computer? How often do you use Google and what do you use Google for?

[KoBE]

Google is probably my second most visited site behind TLF. :D

I use Google for almost anything. If I need the number to a local business: Google. If I want to get directions to somewhere: Google.

Besides being a powerful search tool, I think Google has helped pave the way for a lot of new technologies as well.

[Xavy01]

That iTunes U thing is scaring me.

I spoke to my Design & Technology teacher the other day about some stuff and he said before I leave school the school will most likely require every student to have an iPad.

I sort of figured it wouldn't be possible as we'd still need text books and such, but that sort of shows we don't. I mean, I only have 1 online textbook in any of my subjects (and that's brief at best).

Besides, who would want to be forced to have an iPad... :(

On a more related note, I hardly ever visit the actual google site now (unless they have a particularly hilarious google doodle which I have heard about via Facebook) but instead use the search bar in chrome and at school, just IE's google bar.

But yes, on average I would say I search on google at least 20 times a day. I use it mainly for research on projects. But also, if I can't be bothered to go to youtube and then type the name of the video, I just google "youtube " & video name - the same applies with sites such as wikipedia.

[AceInfinity]

Ahh, nope lol i'm not going to register, I know how to search. It's targetted in my opinion to those who don't know how google returns results. I know people that don't understnad that Google searching is based off keywords, they think it's trying to understand what you're saying, so for example if you have "Weather network" instead of "Network weather" they would think it doesn't work unless you were to show them that it's basically the same thing.

I've never had trouble with searching google because i've been doing it for years to find what I want.

[SFSecurity]

Looking around TLF found this older thread and have a couple of comments. There is a book out by Johnny Long that goes into depth on using Google in a wide variety of ways to find oddball information. It's an O'Reilly book, I believe.

My main comment is that I NEVER use Google anymore. I use Startpage, the only search engine with a European Privacy Seal. They are a Dutch meta-search engine that will search Google for you and not reveal who you are, plus they have a free proxy server to look at things without leaving chicken tracks all over the net. They also have the AOL leak info that will tell you how data can be used to build up a profile of you.

The other search engine I use is DuckDuckGo. Very interesting and very helpful for technical stuff when you want to hone in on something. Their ! searches are very useful. Check out their Goodies page and their Tech Goodies page. Simple joy. Also the guy who runs it is concerned about privacy as well.

As to Google itself, go to http://www.donttrack.us for a quick rundown on some Google problems.

There is another demo on the net that shows how two people sitting next to each other using the same search terms will get different results depending on what they have searched for before. Very spooky as in CIA Spook City. Sorry, don't have the link handy. I'll try to find it. Meanwhile read Eli Pariser's “The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding From You.” Also go to http://www.dontbubble.us/ for one version of this by DuckDuckGo.

Best,

Allen

[Florin]

@SFSecurity: Thank you! Good to know info!

Also, I saw on that page some must have addons:

• Abine
• Adblock Plus
• Adblock
• AdSweep
• Beef Taco
• Disconnect
• Ghostery
• RequestPolicy
• RefControl
• BetterPrivacy
• NoScript
• Javascript Blocker
• ScriptNo
• NotScripts
• HTTPS Everywhere
• Tor

And a test to make: https://panopticlick.eff.org/
Just to mention, even this site uses Google to track every move you make (hits).
Proof:

PHP Code: (SELECT ALL CODE)

<script type="text/javascript">

  var _gaq = _gaq || [];
  _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-27939419-1']);
  _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

  (function() {
    var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;
    ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);
  })();

</script> 


Thanks for your post and keep up with these kind of posts! I like them!

[AceInfinity]

That was interesting to read SFSecurity... :) Good bit of information for me.

@florin - That's the script which has to be existant for me to track site statistics, it's used for Google Analytics.

[KoBE]

So, I decided: "What the hell, I'll sign up". I'm going to go through the course despite having a self-proclaimed good understanding of search techniques already.

There's got to be some things I don't know or have forgotten.

[Predator]

I'll be interested to know how it goes KoBE

I'd love to be a certified Google searcher ;)

[///ViNcE]

A certified searcher, I can imagine employers requiring this whole certificate just to be hired as a researcher. Really, Google has been my whole life but I'm looking to want to switch, switch for more privacy or whatever else. But the search has been the best thing for me.