Looking for something specific on the internet can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. This is where search engines give you a helping hand. But even this can be a hard task, as there are so many search engines around these days, it’s hard to know where to start. Many search engines look attractive and inviting at first but they end up taking too long, coming up with too many irrelevant results or bog you down with so many extra features and facilities of their sites it makes you wonder where the search function is!
Sound familiar? Basically, google.com is one amongst many search engines and lets face it a lot of them are so similar I get them confused sometimes.
So what makes this one stand out? First and foremost......speed. It has to be the quickest search engine I’ve ever come across with many searches taking less than half a second. I know this as there’s a handy little display near the top of the screen displaying how long the search took. By the way, this is through a 56k modem and believe me, results this quick are a rarity on such a limited internet connection. Google also claims to search over a billion web pages, so you’re bound to find what you’re looking for.
As with most search engines, you can refine your search to eliminate specific results that you choose and the content is vast. For example, you can specify language, filter out explicit content or choose a particular domain address. I’ve used it to search for many things and it has come up good every time and (touch wood) not a dead link in sight.
It doesn’t have the fancy extras that many search engines have such as personalised home pages, e-mail services, shopping directories. This is a blessing as far as I can see as it means you can get straight to what you want quickly and easily with no advertisement banners or pop up adverts...an efficient search facility.
If by some chance google does not come up with what you’re looking for, it provides links to some of the most popular search engines on the internet. Even one of the biggest search engines; Yahoo, is powered by google for their web page searches.
If you are new to the internet or are not used to search engines, there are search tips which can prove useful to point you in the right direction.
To sum it up, Google stands out from the crowd and is refreshingly fast putting other search engines to shame. Don’t get bogged down with slow servers and millions of unwanted advertisements, give google a go.