Google Much More Than You Might Think

For many of us the term “Google” has become a part of our regular vocabulary. Anytime we need some information we “Google” it.  In fact the term has morphed to include any search function. When was the last time you “Binged” or “Yahooed” something?  For sure the folks at Google are delighted that their brand has become synonymous with searching for information. You may be surprised that the search function of Google is really only the tip of the iceberg.

In August Google’s parent company got a new name. According to the big wigs at the company it is more reflective of the diversity in services offered.  The name is “Alphabet.”  While one would think that the smart, creative people at Google could have been a bit more creative, Alphabet does offer 25 more letters for new service names if they grow tired of the “G.”

Most people using Google don’t get beyond the search box.  If you do you will find some amazing tools and toys and most of them are free to use.  A good place to start is to adopt Google Chrome as your web browser. Once you do that it is easy to navigate to the other features.

One of my favorites is the Translate application.  You can type a word, phrase, or paragraph in one language and ask Google to translate it into another.  The translation is not perfect but it is getting better all the time.  You would not want to use it for a legal document but it does help you get the sense of what someone has written in an unfamiliar language.

Perhaps the tool that amazes me most is the Image search.  You can paste a picture of a person or place into the search box and it will seek out pictures on the internet that most closely match it. Here again the technology is still developing but it gets better and better each time I use it.

Google Earth also never cease to amaze me.  With its world-spanning satellite images, Google Earth is an encyclopedia, globe, terrain map, and world atlas all in one.

Of course there are several esoteric services that most of us will never use. “Google Scholar” searches papers, learned journals and research findings of the world’s most respected scientists.  “Patent Search” is self-explanatory.

So when you have a few minutes take the time to peel back the many layers of Google (or Alphabet.) You might find something you never knew was there.

The Internet Can Provide Rose Colored Glasses

For an increasing number of us, the Internet is becoming our window on the world. Gone are the days when the nightly TV news or the morning newspaper served as our source of what is happening around town or around the world. It is not only late breaking news events that beckon us to our computer screens, iPads and smart phones. We look for recipes for chicken, instructions on fixing a faucet and the current weather forecast for the weekend getaway. In short, the Internet and search engines like Google and Bing have become our trusted advisor, our news source, and in so doing have gathered more information about us than perhaps any person in our life.

For many of us who use online retailers like Amazon.com, having suggestions for items that we might like to buy when we sign on to the service is nothing new. When you are first presented with these suggestions it is kind of cool. It makes the online experience feel like talking to an old friend who knows your likes and dislikes, your interests and avocations. It is comfortable.

There has been much discussion of late about this phenomenon. In his recently published book "The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding From You," Eli Pariser, details what companies are doing online to personalize your Internet experience. For sure this personalization is helpful when looking for some music or a new book to read. It can have some negative impacts if it also filters what you see and hear as news.

In order to be an informed citizen and make good knowledgeable choices in the voting booth, it is necessary that we get all points of view. If our Internet experience is filtering what we see and hear based on our current political bent we can be come insular to what is really happening in the world. This can happen on both sides of the political spectrum. If we only log on to Fox.com our perception of the world will reflect that point of view. Those who only reference only MSNBC.com will be equally under-informed.

Pariser suggests that there is a simple test you can do that demonstrates how your search results may be filtered based on what the search engine “thinks” you want to see. Do a search on some news item or person. Search for Barack Obama or Osama Bin Laden. Take note of the results and the order that they are displayed on your Bing or Google search. Now ask a friend to do the same thing. Compare the results. You might be amazed at the difference.

For sure the Internet allows you to save time and effort when you are shopping by giving you selections for what you are most interested in based on what you have purchased before. A suggestion for a new restaurant based on where you have gone in the past can be very helpful. When it comes to keeping up on local or national news and issues, there may be things that you might not want to know but need to know. There may be things you are missing. According to Pariser, instead of doing what great media does, which is push us out of our comfort zone at times and show us things that we wouldn't expect to like or wouldn't expect to want to see, some online services are showing us a very narrowly constructed zone of what they think is most relevant to us.

bing.com, No Challenge to Goggle

It is always hard to try to unseat an incumbent be it in the political arena or in business. This is especially the case when the product or service has become part of the lexicon. A great example of this is found in Mircosoft’s renewed campaign to unseat Google as the leading online search engine. Using TV and print advertising, the computer giant is touting bing.com as everyman’s search engine.

There are and have been many challengers to Google over the years. Microsoft and others have invested millions in R&D and advertising only to throw in the towel and change the name a few times. Others survive but barely. Remember “AskJeves.com” now just “Ask.com?”

I did some searching on Google and bing to see what differences I would find. What I found is that there are two big differences and I don’t like either.

When you first sign on to bing.com you are greeted with a very colorful screen with a beautiful picture and fancy buttons. For me that is nice, but just as I really don’t care what my hammer looks like when I am pounding nails, I don’t need eye candy when I am doing a search. Save the beautiful pictures for Facebook..

The second “feature” that I find irritating is Mircosoft’s continued insistence on “helping” me do things. Using some set of arcane algorithms, many Microsoft programs decide what you want to do and then “help” you do it. While you can turn these features off, I still find myself working on a document in MS Word fighting the programs format functions. I don’t need help and if I see that cute animated paper clip one more time I am going to go nuts. I found the same “helps” in bing.

As for actual searching, bing does OK. I found some strange results but essentially the same results came back for searches in Google and bing. The difference was that bing tried to figure out what you really wanted and listed the results accordingly.

I for one will stay with Google. While “bing” is indeed part of the lexicon, I think it will stay that way because of the song “White Christmas” and not for its ability to look up the meaning of “white” or “Christmas.”