Cool Google Tools for School
More Back-to-School News
Telling Tales of Google
Search Tip of the Month
Searching for a Good Time
Dear Google Friends:
It's September, and whether you came back from summer vacation to a
new academic year or an inbox full of unanswered email, Google offers
ways to ease the transition. Read on for an update on what we did
over our summer vacation, including some useful tools and tips to
put your back-to-reality back in order.
The Google Team
Cool Google Tools for School
Don't know that expression? Try Google's calculator
Now you can use Google to help with your math, no matter how arcane
the expression you're trying to evaluate. Google even tackles Roman
numerals and hexadecimal problems (check your answer for
"VII * 0x7d3=" against our solution below). You can use the calculator for quick translation of miles into kilometers, Fahrenheit into
Celsius, or liters into teaspoons. Or calculate your favorite
physical constants, like "G*mass of earth/radius of earth^2"
(hint: G = the gravitational constant).
For more information on the Google Calculator, visit: http://www.google.com/help/features.html#calculator
Answer: VII * 0x7d3 = 14,021
Alert! Alert! Something news is coming your way!
Now you don't have to wait to get the latest news on the topics you
care most about. Google News has launched a news alert service that
scours the web for breaking stories and emails them to you as soon as they're found.
Or you can choose to receive an email with a digest of stories once a day. It's a great way to monitor your competition,
keep up on your favorite celebrities and stay up to date on
developments in your area of expertise.
And while you're at Google News, check out the advanced news search,
which adds five new ways to search the stories in Google News: by
date, publication, country, U.S. state, and location of your search
terms in the story.
To sign up for Google News Alerts, go to: http://www.google.com/newsalerts
To try Google News advanced search, visit: http://news.google.com/advanced_news_search
If you love your Blogger tools, set them free
We liked Blogger's web publishing tools so much, we bought the
company. And once we did, we were able to provide many of their
formerly paid subscription services for free. Blogger Pro features
like spell checking, post dating, draft saving, daily archiving,
and image/file uploading were just too wonderful to restrict to a
fortunate few. Fret not for former Blogger Pro users – they'll be
gifted with a Blogger hooded sweatshirt or a pro-rated refund for
their early support and loyalty.
Learn more about self-publishing using Blogger tools at:
http://www.blogger.com
Speed shopping of a different sort. New Froogle features
Froogle is Google's product search service and offers a great way to
find information about things for sale online – especially now that
it includes a way to sort your search results by price. Other
enhancements to Froogle include the new "grid view" option, which
enables you to view 20 product thumbnail images on each results page.
Froogle is still in the development (beta) stage, so please send us
your thoughts on how we can make getting information about products
faster and easier.
Find that essential dorm accessory or widget replacement part at:
http://froogle.google.com
Labs go local with Google search by location experiment
If you live in Dayton and you're looking for someone to unstop your
drain, you probably don't need listings for plumbers in Paris. Google is taking the first steps to enable localized searching with a new
experiment on Google labs that restricts results to those that we
calculate are near you. While still in very early test mode (beta),
the service offers some promising glimpses of what's yet to come.
Interestingly, it incorporates work that was first done by the winner of last year's Google programming contest, and who is now a full-time member of Google's engineering department.
Try search by location. Take your browser (and your patience) to: http://labs.google.com/location
More Back-to-School News
Is your C++ A+? Try Google's Code Jam programming
contest
Google is proud to sponsor the Google Code Jam programming contest
for those who excel at the hacking arts. Prizes include free trips to the GooglePlex in Mountain View, Calif, substantial cash awards and
possible employment with Google's engineering department. The
competition is powered by TopCoder, with registration opening
October 1, 2003.
Details and entry information can be found at: http://www.google.com/codejam/
World studies – A new look for Spain, free search for Japan
With the launch of google.es and google.se, Google is now available
in a localized format for both Spain and Sweden, with country
restricted search and interfaces offered in the languages of those
countries. The total number of Google country domains is now 84.
And Google has also introduced a localized version of Google Free
customizable web and site search in Japan. The search tool is easy
to download and customize, and is free to all website owners who want to make it easier to find information within their pages or across
the Internet.
To see all of the Google country domains, visit: http://www.google.com/language_tools
Google Search Appliance goes back to school, makes friends
Google recently returned to its academic roots to give something back to the institution that gave it a beginning. Earlier this year,
Google donated a Google Search Appliance to Stanford University,
which is now using Google technology to provide search over all
parts of its website.
To see the Google Search Appliance in action, visit: http://google.stanford.edu/
Among the many other places you'll find new Google Search Appliance
powered searches are the websites for the U.S. Army, Pfizer, Procter
& Gamble, Xerox, Nextel Communications Inc., Discovery Communications and the City of San Diego. The bright yellow boxes seem to be a
perfect match for just about any website or intranet.
For more news about Google Search Appliance customers, go to:
http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/gsa.html
To get more info about how to improve search on your site, go to: http://www.google.com/appliance/
Don't be a fool, stay in school with Google University Search
Just want to search within the pages of a particular college or
university? Google's University Search enables you to narrow your
search to a specific school website. Try it for things like
admissions information, course schedules, or alumni news. The
alphabetical list of participating schools contains links to almost
800 colleges and universities.
For instant access to information about your school, visit: http://www.google.com/options/universities.html
Telling Tales of Google
Info pleases publisher: A Google AdSense customer speaks
Since its launch earlier this summer, Google AdSense, which enables
publishers to earn money by serving highly relevant Google AdWords on their sites, has been gaining clients and garnering kudos.
InfoPlease.com, a leading online reference site, signed up for a
3-day trial run on a third of their site, hoping to find a way to
generate revenue from extremely varied content. AdSense took only 10 minutes to set up and within a day was doubling the revenue
InfoPlease had been earning from other run-of-site advertisers.
"The ads are a service to our users. They're not flashy – they get
attention by being relevant instead of intrusive," says Erin Martin, Infoplease's Web advertising manager. "In fact, they're close to the
kind of information we would offer as related links to our users. We
like giving our readers what they want – ads that are helpful. And
because Google ads are appropriate, our readers click on them."
Read more about InfoPlease's experience with AdSense at: https://www.google.com/adsense/infoplease
Search Tip of the Month
It slices. It dices. Did you know a Google search box also...
- Provides dictionary definitions – View a dictionary definition for
any or all parts of your query by clicking on the underlined term in
the dark blue bar at the top of your results page.
- Displays news headlines – When a topic you search for is in the
news, Google automatically shows a selection of the latest related
news stories as links at the top of your results.
- Offers phonebook information – Enter a name and a U.S. city and
Google will return the street address and phone number if it's
publicly listed information.
- Lists links to stock quotes – Enter a ticker symbol and Google will give you a link to a stock quote for the company. Maps your destination – Type in a street and city or zip code and
Google will link to a map for the location.
- Offers alternative spellings – If your spelling is wobbly or you're just not sure about a term you're entering, Google will suggest
common alternatives that others have searched for.
Learn more about all the tools packed in a Google search box at: http://www.google.com/help/features.html
Fun With Google
Google fashion fad sweeps campuses – New at the Google Store
From Google DNA logo t-shirts to lovingly branded bike jerseys and
messenger bags, the Google Store is setting the tone for cutting edge college couture. Always open, always well-lit and always stocked to
the ceiling with Google grade-A merchandise you just can't get
anywhere else. Why let others inflict their fashion sense on you when you can let Google do it?
Thumb your nose at the fashionistas. Shop at: http://www.googlestore.com
Youngest in its class – Google turns 5
Given how widespread Google searching has become, it's easy to forget that Google is only celebrating it's 5th birthday this month. And as
with any 5-year-old just starting school, it's clear we have a lot to learn. We don't expect our education to be complete in a year or even a few years. We view it more as an ongoing process of trying new
things, listening to feedback, then making improvements and trying
again. Your comments, suggestions and encouragement are an essential
part of that process. We look forward to seeing you at graduation.
The Google Team
For past issues of this newsletter, browse our archive at:
http://www.google.com/googlefriends/archive.html
To subscribe to the Google Friends Newsletter, please visit:
http://www.google.com/contact/newsletter.html
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