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Even though everybody says that Google is the best search engine, not everybody knows just how great Google is. Some of the engine's most timesaving parts are also its best-kept secrets. That's a shame, really, because folks who spend time searching the Web for information can save a lot of effort if they learn how to use Google effectively.
If you can learn to search for answers quickly and thoroughly — and cut through the garbage on the Web just as quickly and thoroughly — you can't help but save time in everything you do.
The folks at Google created the Google Toolbar so you would use their Web search engine more often: The toolbar's surprising flexibility makes searching for almost anything easy as can be. Because you probably want to use Google for Internet searches anyway, putting the toolbar in your copy of Internet Explorer makes a whole lot of sense.
If you spend any time at all searching the Web, the Google Toolbar rates as a timesaver of the first degree. It's also free.
 | The Google Toolbar is not without controversy. If you tell the Toolbar that you want it to rank the importance of pages — that is, if you use the so-called "Advanced" Toolbar, you also consent to sending information about your surfing behavior to Google's database. The two work together: the more people who look at a page, the higher its rating. In order to keep track of how many people go to a page, the database has to keep track of what you do (although Google says it doesn't collect any personally identifiable information). So if you want to participate in this part of Google's PageRank system, you have to allow Google to track what you're doing. |
You can use the Toolbar without sending any information to Google. But to take full advantage of PageRank, you have to let some go. Fortunately, Google makes the choices clear, obvious, and unambiguous.
Installing the toolbar
You can install the Google Toolbar in your sleep:
1. Start Internet Explorer and go to the google toolbar.
2. At the bottom of the page, pick your language and click Get the Google Toolbar. Read the Terms of Use and then click I Agree to the Terms of Use — Install the Google Toolbar.
The Google company has a very up-front warning about its "spying" on your Web behavior. The key question is whether you want the Google Toolbar to silently send information about your Web surfing behavior to the giant Google database in the sky. It's not an easy choice, but you'll need to go ahead and let Google watch over your shoulder in exchange for more advanced capabilities. You need to choose whatever makes you comfortable.
3. If you're willing to let the Toolbar send detailed information about your surfing behavior (but not about you, personally) to the Google database, click Install with Advanced Features. Otherwise, click Install without Advanced Features.
4. When you see the usual Security Warning, click Yes.
When the Google Toolbar is installed, you see it.
5. Test the Google Toolbar by typing your name in the Search box and pressing Enter.
Bet you didn't know that your name was so popular.
| If you ever want to turn off the Google Toolbar, right-click any empty spot on any toolbar and uncheck the Google option. |
Getting around the toolbar
The Google Toolbar packs a lot of wallop into a small space. Here are the high points:
- Google Menu: The drop-down Google Menu lets you jump directly to various Google pages, so you can use Google's more sophisticated search features quickly. The page you're most likely to jump to is the Advanced Search page.
The Google Menu also allows you to customize the Google Toolbar.
- Search Terms box: You'll spend most of your time working in the Search Terms box. Type the words that you want to find in this box, and then press Enter or click the Search Web button. Google searches the Web for what you ask.
- Search Site: If you're working on a Web site that doesn't have its own search engine, the Search Site button can help. A lot. Type the terms you want to find in the Search Terms box and then click Search Site. Google performs the search, restricting itself to the current Web site.
Frequently, a Google search of a site is more useful — and faster — than using the site's own built-in search engine. For example, if you're looking at the archives on Woody's Watch and you type some words and click Search Site, Google looks at everything in www.woodyswatch.com.
- News: You might think, given the way Search Web and Search Site behave, that typing something in the Search Terms box and clicking the News button would bring up the Google News service, with a search on those terms.
You'd be wrong. When you click the News button, Google goes to its News page and ignores whatever is in the Search Terms box.
- PageRank: When you hover your mouse over the PageRank button — assuming you opted for the Advanced Google Toolbar — you see Google's assigned PageRank, on a scale from 0 to 10.
- Page Info: Click the Page Info button, and you can have Google show you a copy of the page as it was originally scanned, a list of similar pages, a list of pages that link to this page, or a machine-generated (and, generally not very good) translation of the page into the language you're using.
- *p: The *p button lets you move up from the current Web site. If you're looking at Woody's archives again and you click the *p button, IE moves to www.woodyswatch.com/office. Click *p again, and IE moves to www.woodyswatch.com.
- Highlight: If you click the Highlight button, Internet Explorer highlights the words in the Search text box that appear in the Web page, each with a different color.
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