Just google it! (google.com)

Member Name: song_of_calliope

Product:	google.com
Date:	28/10/09 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Works extremely well

Disadvantages: Questionable uses of the data they gather

I don't know of anyone on this planet who hasn't heard of google. This web site is so popular that it has become a verb - I have heard many people using "to google" meaning to search for something on the internet. And indeed I can't think of any other search engine I'd rather use. Yahoo seems to give quite poor results compared to google as well as being too busy and cluttered. Google is fast, clean, and efficient.

Google works differently from other search engines. While search engines used to use meta tags in Web pages to determine what a page was about, Google was revolutionary in that it used "spiders" to trawl through the billions of Web sites on the internet ranking them according to how many other Web sites linked to them, thus giving a better indication of which sites should come up first in searches. This led to the existence of "link farms" which were set up by those looking to take advantage of webmasters anxious to boost their page rankings. But google was too smart to fall for link farms for very long and quickly started excluding them from consideration when counting up how many links each site has to it.

Now google is the most popular search engine in the world. You can use it to search for images or shopping results. It has also expanded into providing maps, videos, and even email via its Gmail service. And google documents is a very useful service for those wishing to collaborate with others by sharing documents and spreadsheets over the internet. You can choose who you share these with - you can share with a select few or just keep them private if you wish.

You can use google to do maths or make conversions by typing your request directly into the search bar. For example, if you type "4 x 5" the first answer you get will be 20. If you type "convert 1000 grams to kilograms", your first answer will be 1. You can try this with much more complicated maths and conversions as well!

Google changes its banner for various holidays as well as for artist's birthdays and other special occasions. If you click on the banner you will automatically be given search results for the occasion and I have learned a lot from these special banners.

Google has fallen victim to controversy regarding its use of data. Despite it's corporate motto which states "don't be evil", many people wonder what google plans to do with the massive amount of information it gathers on people based on their searches. It has already started offering targeted advertisements through gmail based on what people write in their emails!

Despite this controversy I think there is little doubt that by far the majority of people will continue to use google. It is simply the best search engine available. If you need to know something, and I mean almost anything all you have to do is google it!

Summary: I'd be lost without google