Google Is Cool

Google is the coolest search engine. I can't say enough about what a great site it is. If Google isn't your main web search page, then you're nuts. Many Internet experts, gurus, and know-it-alls (including myself) owe most of their apparent knowledge and skill to being able to use Google well. Here are some things about Google that you might not know.

Great Home Page. Google is a great browser home page. It loads almost as fast as a blank page and much faster than the MSN home page that IE comes with. Go to Tools-->Internet Options to set your home page to Google.

Find Addresses. If you enter an address or city (such as 'Kansas City, KS') in the Google search line, Google will give you a link to that location at Yahoo Maps or MapQuest.

Find People. If you enter a person or business followed by an city or state (such as 'Mark Hamby, Texas' [not me BTW]), it will give you that person's address, phone number, and map to this house or business. Kind of scary, isn't it.

Best News Source. Google News is great for browsing or searching news stories. You get new stories from newspapers around the world. It's a great way to get full and balanced coverage of the news.

Search For Images. Google provides a image search engine for pictures and images. Pretty handy when you need it. Check out the advanced image search for a particular size of image.

Translate Languages. Google will translate foreign web pages or text. Very handy if you bought goulash mix in Germany, but can't decode the instructions. (Who, me?)

Mail-Order Catalogs. I don't use this much, but it's really cool. Google will search its selection of mail-order catalogs and show you the page in the catalogs that match your search. (How do they do that?)

The Google Toolbar. The Google Toolbar is a great add-on for Internet Explorer. It allows you to search and turn on colored highlights for the words you searched for in the page. It also stops pop-ups, fills out forms for you, and has a "Blog This" feature (in case you wanted to start your own blog). Unfortunately, it will not work with NetCaptor.

More Google Tools. If you're interested, check out all the Google tools. Have fun.