Google is one of my most favourite website. Whatever little knowledge and information I have collected from the Internet has mostly been with the use of Google. Google is fast becoming the world’s best and favourite search engine. It’s certainly the most talked about. Let me try to explain why.
For starters, Google has got a deceptively simple and almost lovable interface. But there’s a lot more to Google than meets the eye. Analysts have figures that show Google at par with MSN and Yahoo. A large chunk of web surfers are happy Googling as Google is fast, clean and relevant with its search results. It indexes over 3 billion pages and is the ‘biggest’ as well as the ‘freshest’ according to analysts.
Google has signed up for a new partnership with AOL, for which Google will provide editorial search results and paid sponsored links. Hit by the economic downturn and the collapse of online advertising, some of the biggest names on the Net have begun selling ads to appear next to search results. Google’s partnerships have helped strengthen its brand and put it in a good position to do business.
The best thing about Google is that it always tries to innovate with new features and services. These could enhance your search experiences considerably. And yet, surprisingly, few people bother to explore them.
About a year ago, Google has added ‘Image Search’ to its interface. It’s fast and shows up to twenty pictures at a time of search.
Google has also launched a ‘Current News Frame’. With this feature, when you search for something, you’ll get news headlines on the subject. Or, go to news.google.com to search news directly. This isn’t new technology and lots of other search engines feature it, but it’s a good addition to Google’s repertoire.
Google is also currently testing out a new pay-for-research service called ‘Google Answers’ at https://answers.google.com. Users pay $0.50 to post a question and agree to pay up to $50 for the answer, which comes from an expert.
Then there’s the Google toolbar. You can download it from the Google site and use it to search from your browser rather than go looking for Google.
Its search-this-site tool is also pretty useful. But that toolbar has had people excited for another reason.
Another ambitious project Google kicked off was to allow software developers to use its search databases, and use free tools (APIs or application programming interfaces) to create other programs – within some limits.
Google also has a slice of the enterprise search space with its new search appliance – effectively Google in a pizza box. For use on internal networks and intranets, it’s an easy-to-set-up hardware-software product. It indexes and updates documents which are searchable by keyword.
There’s a lighter side, too, to Google. ‘Googlewhacking’ (finding keywords so rare they return only one search result on Google) has caught the attention of Web searchers. Though one must admit that ‘Googlewhacking’ has nothing to do with Google apart from the fact that it is done on the Google website. I have already written a review on this some time back. Interested readers may read that too.
Other search engines and portals are watching Google keenly and waiting to take a cue as it innovates and experiments its way to glory and better business.
So all you Googlers, go gaggling Googling….