Google provides shortcuts for finding commonly sought utilities and information, which you may have previously found offline or on specialized sites. The results of these shortcuts appear to the right of a tag or specialized icon and above your search results.
To read about all of these shortcuts, one by one, simply click the “Next” links […]

...read all of: Shortcuts: Introduction

You can use Google even when the www.google.com page isn’t currently in your browser. It’s simple to do with the following tools and features.

Google Toolbar, Googlebar, or Apple’s Safari web browser
Deskbar
Browser Buttons
Built-in Browser Support
Setting Google as your home page
Setting Google as your default search engine

1. Toolbar
(Well worth installing if you use Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP with Internet Explorer […]

...read all of: Making Google Easier with Google Tools

In this course segment you’ll learn — among other things — how to:

Enter a query even if Google’s home page isn’t in your browser
Access shortcuts for finding commonly sought utilities and information

Several nice summaries of some of Google’s features and services are available online:

Google Guide’s cheat sheet (www.googleguide.com/cheatsheet.html)
Sacramento State University’s Google QuikRef is available from […]

...read all of: Search Tools Intro

Google’s web-page-ranking system, PageRank, tends to give priority to better respected and trusted information. Well-respected sites link to other well-respected sites. This linking boosts the PageRank of high-quality sites. Consequently, more accurate pages are typically listed before sites that include unreliable and erroneous material. (The various browser toolbars can show you the PageRank of the […]

...read all of: Evaluating What You Find

Some search engines sell their search results, in addition to showing ads. A sold result means that a link to the buyer’s page is put at or near the top of the results page, just as if the search engine thought it was one of the best results. Usually, there is no indication that the […]

...read all of: Ads

Though the statistics bar may estimate that more than 1000 results match your query, Google doesn’t serve more than 1000 results for any query. You can get to the 1000th or last result by setting your Preferences to display 100 results/page and clicking on the highest number or last “o” at the bottom of the […]

...read all of: Last Results Page

As we said in our earlier introduction, Tracking, a cookie is a bit of data from a web server. (Think of “fortune cookies” you might get after a Chinese meal, with little bits of wisdom inside each one.) Each web browser keeps its own set of cookies. So, if you use several computers — or […]

...read all of: Cookies

A Google Account is free of charge. The easiest way to get one is by visiting . There you’ll be asked for information like your email address and a password.

Note: If you’re planning to get a Gmail account, and you’d like to use your Gmail address as your primary email address, you should sign up […]

...read all of: Google Accounts

One of Google’s corporate philosophies has always been not to “do evil.” Google’s Privacy Policy Highlights explain more. (You’ll also find a link to their complete Privacy Policy on that page.)
Whether you trust Google or not, it’s good to know something about how Google tracks you. What does Google do to remember your Preferences? When […]

...read all of: Tracking

Whenever I run a new piece of software, … I [first] … look at the program’s ‘preferences’ panel. By clicking through the options, I rapidly learn what a program can do and what its shortcomings are. Google is no different. — Simson Garfinkel, Getting More from Google, Technology Review, June 4, 2003

You can customize the […]

...read all of: Customizing Your Results: Preferences