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Slide 1: This work is licensed by Patrick Crispen to the public under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercialShare Alike 3.0 license
Slide 2: Keeping Up With the Googlebots: What’s New at Google [as of November 2007] a presentation by Patrick Douglas Crispen NetSquirrel.com
Slide 3: Googlebots? • Google has special programs called spiders (a.k.a. “Googlebots”) that constantly search the Internet looking for new or updated Web pages. When a Googlebot finds a new or updated page, it reads that entire page, reports back to Google, and then visits all of the other pages to which that new page links. • Image source: http://www.disobey.com/
Slide 4: Eeek! Spiders! • When the Googlebot reports back to Google, it doesn’t just tell Google the new or updated page’s URL. • The Googlebot also sends Google a complete copy of the entire Web page – HTML, text, images, etc. • Google then adds that page and all of its content to Google’s cache.
Slide 5: A long time ago, in a PowerPoint far, far, away… • In Google 201 [available in the PowerPoint Files section of netsquirrel.com] we talk about how to search the stuff the Googlebots uncover. • In particular, we discuss – – – – Google’s Pagerank algorithm, Search engine math, Query modifiers, and Alternative query types.
Slide 6: “These are much deeper waters than I had thought.” • Google is a constantly-moving target. • Google adds new tools and features practically daily. • In this presentation, we’re going to track what Google has been up to recently. Image source: http://google.com/
Slide 7: Our Topics • Google on the Road • Google Research Tools • Google Search Tools • Google Productivity Tools • New Google Announcements
Slide 8: GOOGLE ON THE ROAD
Slide 9: 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) Google Business Directory Assistance
Slide 10: Additional Google 411 Features • “Text Message” – To receive an SMS google.com/goog411/ • “Map It” – To receive a map • “Details” – To get more details
Slide 11: About Google 411 • Google 411 is completely free. • You can access Google 411 from any telephone. – You need a cell phone to receive text messages and maps. • Google 411 doesn’t offer residential information … yet.
Slide 12: Google Mobile Maps • You can access Google maps on most new cell phones, not just iPhones. • Google Mobile Maps is a downloadable cell phone application that lets you view maps and satellite imagery, find local businesses, see real-time traffic information, and get driving directions on your cell phone. • Just go to google.com/gmm in your web-enabled cell phone [including Treos!]
Slide 13: Mo’ Mobile • Depending on your cell phone and provider, you may be able to access additional Google services on your cell phone. • Visit mobile.google.com on your cell phone’s web browser. mobile.google.com
Slide 14: GOOGLE RESEARCH TOOLS
Slide 15: Google Book Search Search inside over one million books. – 100,000+ books added by partner publishers and authors – 10,000+ works from the public domain – 3,000 new library books added each day [Harvard, Oxford, UC System, NY Public Library, etc.] books.google.com
Slide 16: Cache or Carry? • When do you a search at Google, Google searches through its cache looking for matches. • BUT, when you click on a link, Google DOESN’T point you to their cached copy, they point you back to the original. • Copyright complicates this.
Slide 17: Book Search Goal • Google Book search’s goal isn’t to get you a book for free. • Rather, Google Book search’s goal is to – Help you find what you are looking for inside of a book; and – Show you where you can find that book in a bookstore or a library • There are a few exceptions.
Slide 18: Full View Books • “Full View” books are books out of copyright or books whose publishers or authors have chosen to make fully viewable. • You can view any page in a Full View book. • And, if the book is in the public domain, you can also download it as a free PDF file.
Slide 19: Full View Book PDF Downloads Click a Full view link Click the Download button
Slide 20: Limited Preview Books “Limited Preview” books are books whose publishers or authors have given Google permission to display a limited number of the books’ pages.
Slide 21: Snippet View Books The Snippet View, like a card catalog, shows information about the book plus a few snippets – a few sentences to display your search term in context.
Slide 22: No Preview Available Books You’ll see basic information about the book and where you can purchase or borrow it.
Slide 23: Google Scholar [Beta] • Limits your searches to – – – – Peer-reviewed papers Theses Books Abstracts and articles scholar.google.com • A great tool to search for scholarly information from – – – – Academic publishers Professional societies Preprint repositories Universities and other scholarly organizations Source: http://scholar.google.com/scholar/about.html
Slide 24: News Archive Search • Google News now lets you search through over 200 years of news articles. • Just go to news.google.com and click the “News Archive Search” link.
Slide 25: “All The News That’s Fit to Search” • The default search shows articles in order of relevance to the query. • The timeline presents a timeline of events and articles associated with the query.
Slide 26: Google Notebook • Google Notebook is a free research tool, available to everyone with a Google account, that lets you create a notebook of your online discoveries – quotes, images, etc. • Think of this as Google’s 3x5 index cards for internet research. • Step one is to download and install a free Google Notebook browser extension for IE or Firefox. google.com/notebook
Slide 27: Using Google Notebook • The next step is to find a resource you want to remember – a text passage and/or an image. • Highlight that resource and then click the Open Notebook link in the bottom corner of your browser.
Slide 28: Using Google Notebook • Click the Star. – This adds the highlighted resource and its URL. – It also adds the date you added the resource to your notebook.
Slide 29: Reviewing Your Notebooks • To view, edit, and organize your notes, either choose Tools > Go to my notebook homepage or go to google.com/notebook • You can – Edit or delete existing notes – Manually add new notes – Create new notebooks – Share your notebooks with other collaborators
Slide 30: Google for Educators • Google for Educators offers teacher’s guides for Google’s most popular tools. These teacher’s guides include – Basic information about each tool – Examples of how educators are using those tools – Lesson ideas google.com/educators • • The site also offers lesson plans and videos from Discovery Education that show you how to use Google Earth and Google SketchUp in the classroom.
Slide 31: GOOGLE SEARCH TOOLS
Slide 32: Creative Commons is a not-for-profit organization of content creators who have built upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach.
Slide 34: Google and Creative Commons • By default, Google doesn’t search for Creative Commons licensed content. • But, if you click Google’s Advanced Search link [to the right of the search box]…
Slide 35: Usage Rights There you’ll find a Usage Rights pulldown list with five options: 1. Not filtered by license 2. Free to use or share 3. Free to use or share, even commercially 4. Free to use share or modify 5. Free to use, share or modify, even commercially
Slide 36: Google Q&A Answers to plain text questions now appear at the top of your search results. • What is the population of Iraq? • Where is Bulgaria? • When did Elvis die? • What is the budget of France? • How many people live in Canada?
Slide 37: Alternative Query Types Google Calculator Enter your equation or problem in the Google search box Google Dictionary Use define:keyword
Slide 38: Alternative Query Types Google Weather Enter weather: and the city, state, and/or zip code Google Movie Showtimes Use movie: and the city, state, and/or zip code
Slide 39: GOOGLE PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS
Slide 40: Google Accounts • Many of Google’s newest tools require you to have a free Google account [which is not the same as a Gmail account]. • To create a new Google account, – Go to google.com/accounts – Click the “Create an account now” link – Follow the on-screen prompts
Slide 41: “Bending” the Rules • If your students don’t [or can’t] have their own email addresses, you can create a free set of classroom email addresses at gaggle.net. • You can then use these email addresses to create a free set of classroom Google accounts. gaggle.net
Slide 42: Google Page Creator • Google Page Creator is a free, online, WYSIWYG web editor that lets you easily create your own webpage. • Google even gives you your own URL [user.googlepages.com/ ] and 100 MB of storage for your pages and uploaded files. pages.google.com
Slide 43: Google Docs & Spreadsheets docs.google.com • • Google Docs & Spreadsheets is available to everyone with a Google account. Docs & Spreadsheets lets you – Upload Word or Excel files or create new documents and spreadsheets online – Edit your files online – Invite others to edit your files online – View the files’ version histories and roll back to previous versions – Publish the finished files to the world as web pages or blog posts – Download the final, edited files as .doc, .rtf, .pdf, .html, and/or .zip files
Slide 44: Our Feature Presentation • As of September 2007, Google Docs also lets you collaboratively create, edit, and share PowerPoint-type presentations. • You can import existing presentations or use the on-screen slide editor. docs.google.com
Slide 45: Google Custom Search Engine • If you have a Google account, you can now create [and share with others] your own personal search engine that only searches the sites you specify. • Examples – Econ Search Engine – Edublogsphere Search – Mrs. Gray’s Research Sites for Kids
Slide 46: Setting Up a Disneyland Search Engine Go to google.com/coop/cse/ and click “Create a Search Engine” Login with or create a Google account
Slide 47: The Happiest Search Engine on Earth • Key in the search engine’s name, description, and keywords. • Enter the sites you want your custom search engine to search. – You can choose between searching only the sites you enter or emphasizing these sites but allowing users to search the entire web.
Slide 48: Query: “Why does a churro cost $20?” Try it out! Share it with others [Google co-op > My search engines > Homepage]
Slide 49: Google Personalized Homepage • You can create your own Yahoo-esque Google homepage that shows you – Your latest Gmail messages, – Headlines from Google News and other top news sources, – Weather forecasts, stock quotes, and movie showtimes, and – Bookmarks for quick access to your favorite sites from any computer. google.com/ig • Google Personalized Homepage [a.k.a., “iGoogle”] is available to everyone with a Google account.
Slide 50: Google Personalized Search • • Google Personalized Search is an option for users with Google accounts. Google Personalized Search reorders your search results based on your history of past searches, giving more weight to topics that interest you. For example, if you search for “fly fishing” today your future results for a search on “bass” will be more heavily weighted toward fishing than the musical instrument. google.com/psearch •
Slide 51: NEW GOOGLE ANNOUNCEMENTS
Slide 52: Google Announcements For more information about what’s new and what’s next at Google, I recommend visiting the following sites: – Google Labs http://labs.google.com/ – Google Press Center http://googlepress.blogspot.com/ – Google Blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ – Google Blogoscoped http://blogoscoped.com/
Slide 53: Our Topics • Google on the Road • Google Research Tools • Google Search Tools • Google Productivity Tools • New Google Announcements
Slide 54: Keeping Up With the Googlebots: What’s New at Google [as of November 2007] a presentation by Patrick Douglas Crispen
Slide 55: This work is licensed by Patrick Crispen to the public under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercialShare Alike 3.0 license