HAPPY BIRTHDAY GOOGLE (google.com)

Member Name: stuleg

Product:	google.com
Date:	28/07/04 (1273 review reads)
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On the 9th September 2004 Google will celebrate its 6th birthday, can it really be that this giant of the Internet age is less than 6 years old? A mere pup compared to some search engines. But while Google may be the new kid in town, it more than holds its own in the Internet search engine market.

Typing Google.co.uk into your browsers address bar will bring up a predominantly white page with GOOGLE writ large in coloured capital letters. Five small clickable boxes are situated under the writing giving you the choice of searching any one of the web, Images, groups, directories or news. Next, is the bar that you enter your search requirements into followed by two more boxes underneath.

The first is labelled ?Google Search? and is the button to click once you have typed in your search requirements, alternatively hitting the Return button on your keyboard brings the same result. The second button is titled ?I?m Feeling Lucky? and when clicked will load the first page in the search results automatically. This feature is handy if you know the name of the web site you want but cannot remember the exact address. For the purpose of testing this button I typed in ?BBC?, a click on the button loaded the BBC.co.uk homepage in seconds.

Next on the Google homepage are two options asking if you want to search the web or just pages from the UK. Firstly, I ticked the ?Just web pages from the UK? button and entered ?TV? in the search bar. Google returned approximately 4,670,000 results in a time of 0.07 seconds, now that?s what I call fast. The results were all UK specific and included the homepages for the BBC, Sky.com, and other major TV companies in the UK.

Going back and ticking ?the web? button I s
earched for TV again. This search took 0.08 seconds, slightly slower than the UK content but then Google did unearth 81,400,000 results so this can be excused. Amongst the first ten pages this time were the sites for TV Guide, CBS and ABC, so again the major sites rise to the top.

Finally on the Google homepage are clickable links for advertising, business solutions and service & tools. These are aimed at websites or companies who wish to list their sites with Google. Also written small at the bottom of the page is the claim ?Google ? Searching 3,307,998,701 web pages?, that?s rather a lot of pages, I just pity the poor person who had to count them.

So lets do some searching, I tried to think of some particularly obscure subject to type in and decided on ?Mating habits of the Alaskan Snow Crab?. I was amazed when Google threw up 75 results in just 0.03 seconds. I plumped for the third site listed and was amazed to discover that ?the female Alaskan snow crab extrudes many thousands of fertilised eggs onto the swimmerets under her abdomen?! Brilliant, with that knowledge I can sleep well tonight.

But surely I can catch Google out in some way, I return to the front-page and click on ?Images?. Now what do I want a picture of? Not mating Alaskan Snow Crabs that?s for sure, I would never be able to pass the wet fish counter in Tesco again, and as for fish fingers, well it would put me off for life. After some deliberation I decide on ?Ham hocks? and got 19 thumbnails delivered in 0.49 seconds. The majority of these are of lumps of pig in various states of preparation and cooking. Rather worryingly amongst all these porky pictures is an image of a small jack russell dog, but clicking the picture and following through to the website i
t is on reveals that Ham hock is the young canines name and not a recipe suggestion for the hapless beast.

On the Image search page of Google is a small clickable sentence explaining that ?Safe Search is off?. This means that if I wanted, in a moment of weakness, to search for some images of an adult nature Google would not stand in my way. A simple adjustment on the preferences page soon switches Safe search on which is a godsend if children are using the computer. Just to test this feature I type in ?Sex? with Safe Search off and was greeted with images of flesh of all persuasions and in all positions. Once Safe Search is on the same word serves up nothing worst than a cast picture from Sex and the City.

The ?Groups? button lists various usernet discussion forums, all in alphabetical order. If you?d like to discuss any subject from Amiga Computers to Zipnews, this part of Google is for you.

Another major part of Google is its Language tools. You can search for pages in any one of 35 languages or from any country you desire. For instance, if you would like to read about the Middle East crisis from web pages just in Arabic it is possible with just the click of a button. Also in the language section of Google is the ability to translate text from one language to another. All of the major languages are covered including German, French and Spanish.

The piece d?resistance of this section however is the ability to have the Google interface in your language. And when it says your language it really means it. If, for instance, you a fluent in Elma Fudd you can set the preferences to this language. Great fun when it changes the two search buttons to ?Seawch? and ?I?m Feewing Wucky?. Other funny languages include Bork &#
66;ork Bork, Hacker and Klingon. Whichever you choose there is fun to be had in abundance.

The shear power of Google is mind blowing, It is great at searching for whole sentences or quotes; simply enter your text and away it goes. To test this I typed in ?Is this a dagger I see before me? and got given virtually every Shakespeare web page available. I have been using Google for a few years now and cannot remember it ever disappointing me, all I can say is here?s to another six years

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