(Approx. 1,166 words)
The New, the Best, and the
Worst
May 2007
Collected by Pim Borman,
Webmaster, SW Indiana PC Users Group, Inc.
swipcug(at)sigecom.net
Obtained from APCUG with the
author's permission for publication by APCUG member groups.
(Since the original
publication of this article Google has changed it's main Web page. The
"more" button is now on the menu bar and the drop-down menu does not
list all the features described in this article, although they are still
available. The easiest way to find all the Google services is to do a Google
search on "google." It yields more than 40 direct references to
Google offshoots.- Pim B.)
Google – The Rest of the
Story
If you only use Google the
way I do, using keywords to search the Web, you're like the polar bear
walking on top of an iceberg, ignorant of all that's underneath. As scientists
are finding out in the Antarctic, there is an awful lot to be learned from
drilling down into the ice below, and there is a lot to be learned by drilling
down in the Google menus. Go to www.google.com, click on more... and in
the pop-up window click on even more... and you'll find a page full of
links to Google offshoots. I'll just list some of them here, as space permits,
but you may want to go see for yourself.
Google News (news.google.com) presents a current news update
worth being bookmarked for a quick check on what's going on in the world. Google
Finance (finance.google.com/finance) has all the latest financial news. Google
Alerts (www.google.com/alerts) sends email updates on the topics of your
choice. Monitor a developing news
story, get the latest on a celebrity or event, or keep tabs on your favorite
sports teams. This site is still in beta.
Froogle (froogle.google.com) is the place to go for online
shopping. If you like to browse through catalogs, go to Google Catalogs (catalogs.google.com).
Find local businesses as well as directions for getting somewhere with Google
Maps (maps.google.com/maps). Use Google Checkout (google.checkout.com)
to set up a Google account with which you can order from many participating
stores and be protected against online fraud.
Search a variety of printed
matter with Book Search (books.google.com), covering the full text of
books, although many publishers refuse Google permission to put the content of
their books online. Scholarly publications are available in Google Scholar (scholar.google.com),
but many of the publications at best only provide an abstract to
non-subscribers. Sometimes you may be able to get access to the complete
articles through the Web site of your local library, such as the
Evansville-Vanderburgh Public Library. Over 7 million US Patents can be
searched with Google Patent Search (www.google.com/patents)
Google Images (images.google.com) lets you search for images that include a title, description, or
keywords. To come up with descriptions for unlabeled images Google uses an
online game, Google Image Labeler (images.google.com/ imagelabeler). Two
separate contestants are shown a picture and asked to come up with descriptive
labels. For each label they provide in common they earn points. It is an
addictive game with the benefit that the resulting winning labels are accurate
descriptions of the image.
For general searches use the
Google Directory (www.google.com/dirhp) that organizes the Web by topic into
categories. And if you have a problem locating stuff on your own
computer drives, Google Desktop (desktop.google.com) will help you find
it.
Other
Features. Google has
been extending its services beyond searching. GMail (mail.google.com)
offers online email accounts with many features and very large mail storage
areas (several gigabytes as of this writing). Docs and Spreadsheets (docs.google.com)
offers an online word processor and spreadsheet program that facilitates
project cooperation between groups of persons. Additional cooperative programs
are Calendar (www.google.com/calendar), to organize your
schedule and share events with friends,
and Groups (groups.google.com) to create mailing lists and discussion groups.
With Talk (www.google.com/talk)
you can IM and call your friends through your
computer. You can also use Blogger (www.blogger.com) to create a shared online diary. Picasa
(picasa.google.com) lets you edit, organize and share your photos with others,
while YouTube (www.youtube.com) lets you watch, upload and share videos.
Google Earth (earth.google.com) is in a category of its own. It lets you roam
all over the earth and zoom in on specific areas of interest.
If you want to know what
else Google may come up with visit Google Labs (labs.google.com) for a
preview.
Rebates With Manners?
I recently purchased a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements. It came
with a $20 upgrade rebate offer for which almost any photo editing program,
including Picasa2, passed muster. I sent in the box tab with a Xerox copy of my
old MS PhotoDraw disc and the invoice. To my surprise I received an email,
several days later, acknowledging receipt of
my submission. A week later I received a notice that “Your rebate check was
mailed on 09-Apr-2007. Please allow at least 30 days for delivery.” So far, so
surprisingly good. I received the check on April 25, not bad for, maybe,
surface mail from India.
Super Internet Creation?
Many newspapers carried an Associated Press article by Anick Jesdanun, dated April 14, 2007, about
movements afoot to create a new and improved Internet from scratch to replace
the current one. As the article states, “...many believe a clean slate approach
is the only way to truly address security, mobility and other challenges...” For some time this has been the dream of
university researchers trying out new concepts, but now “Industry is playing a
bigger role this time, and law enforcement is bound to make its needs for
wiretapping known. “ Sounds ominous.
The National Science
Foundation is sponsoring several projects toward the goal of establishing an
experimental network known as the Global Environment for Network Innovations,
or GENI. Major universities are involved, as well as the Defense Department.
The European Union has its own independent efforts underway.
The current Internet and its
World Wide Web superstructure, with all its shortcomings, is a truly wonderful
achievement. Twenty years ago no one in his wildest dreams could have foreseen
the worldwide scope and the extent to which it has become an integral part of
our civilization. It demonstrates how natural evolution can achieve the
unthinkable. And that should now be replaced by a politically correct product, created by committees of programmers
and approved by international governments and “industry”? Lord help us. Let's stick with evolution.
(If you want to read the
original article use Google to search for “Jesdanun Associated Press”. Thanks
to Linda Gonse, editor of the Orange County PCUG, for bringing the article to
my attention).
© 2007 Willem F.H Borman. This article may be reproduced in its
entirety only, including this statement, by non-profit organizations in their
member publications, with mention of the author's name and the Southwestern
Indiana PC Users Group, Inc.
This
article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by
APCUG member groups. All other uses require the permission of the author (see
e-mail address above).