Keeping up with the Googlebots (Spring 2012 Edition)

1. This work is licensed by Patrick Crispen to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license. All other rights reserved.

2. Keeping up with the Googlebots (Spring 2012 Edition) a presentation by Patrick Douglas Crispen, Ed.D. NetSquirrel.com

3. Pencils down! • Instead of scribbling down everything I say, just visit http://netsquirrel.com/ when you get home. • This is my personal Web site and it contains free, zipped copies of most of my PowerPoint presentations – including this one. • In return, though, I have one small favor to ask of you … PLEASE SILENCE YOUR CELL PHONE!

4. An alternative (and highly controversial) viewpoint about … Google privacy

5. Google’s New Privacy Policy When you use any of Google’s tools, the information they collect includes: • Information you give Google (e.g., personal information from your Google account) • Information Google collects from your use of their services (e.g., your device information, your queries, your location)

6. Google’s New Privacy Policy • On March 1, 2012, Google began collating user data across all 60 of its sites. • Google plans to take all the data it has about you and use that to ‘bias’ your search results and advertisements. • “And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” -- Matthew 13:42

7. The Way the Internet Works • Every Internet site you visit collects information about you. Every one. • Theses sites aggregate your data with everyone else’s and uses that to “monetize” the sites – to make money. • Internet tools and sites are free because someone else (usually advertisers) pays your way in exchange for their getting an opportunity to advertise to you. • This is a fundamental, universal truth.

9. Now for the controversial part: I’m okay with this.

10. Google Dashboard • Still concerned? • Google Dashboard shows you what Google knows about you. • When you go to your Dashboard you’ll find a single page where you can see the various Google products you use with your account and what’s stored in them, along with easy access to the product-specific controls. google.com/dashboard

11. Google Ads Preferences Manager • Google Ads Preferences Manager lets you to view and edit the information that Google uses to show you interest-based ads on websites in Google’s ad network. • Your interests are associated with an advertising cookie that’s stored in your browser. • Using Ads Preferences Manager you can edit the categories associated with this cookie google.com/ads/preferences/

12. Managing Search Personalization • To disable history-based search customizations while you’re signed in, you need to remove Web History from your Google Account. • Go to google.com/history • Click Remove all web history. • You can also choose to remove certain entries or pause your web history. google.com/history

13. Managing Search Personalization • If you are not logged in, Google customizes your search experience based on past search history that’s linked to a cookie on your browser. • To disable that, logout of Google. • Then go to google.com/history/optout • Click Disable customizations based on search activity. google.com/history/optout

14. Google Takeout • Google also offers a free service that lets you download all of your content from Google, including • Google Plus +1’s and Circles • Contacts • Google Docs • Picasa Web Albums (?) • Your Google Profile • All of your data is converted into portable and open formats. google.com/takeout/

15. For More Info: Good to Know • For in-depth information about Google’s privacy settings, policies, and practices written in plain English, check out Google’s Good to Know Site. • Google’s Good to Know campaign also aims to help people stay safe on the Internet and manage the information they share online. www.google.com/goodtoknow/

16. New googleSITES

17. Google Play • Android Marketplace, Google eBookstore, Google Music have been combined into a new platform-agnostic site named “Google Play.” • Media and app purchases are stored on the cloud and can be accessed from any browser or Android device. • It’s Google’s answer to iTunes and iCloud… only without any software to install. play.google.com/store

18. Google Play (continued) • You can purchase, store, and/or upload up to 20,000 songs (just like the old music.google.com service). • Google Play has “world’s largest selection of eBooks” • Audiobooks may be coming soon. • There is no movie upload capability, but you can rent and play moves (cheaply). • Rumor has it that Google Play will add cross-platform games in the future. play.google.com/music

19. Coming Soon (?): Google Drive • Google has been working on it own cloud storage solution a la Dropbox. • Industry insiders predict that Google Drive will let you store files on Google’s servers, access those files from any platform, and share or collaborate with others. • On February 9, 2012, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google Drive (or GDrive) will • launch in the coming weeks or months, and • be free for most consumers and businesses (with additional pricing for more storage)

20. Google Offers • A few months after Groupon turned down Google’s $6BN buyout offer in early 2011, Google launched their own deal-of-the-day website. • You receive an email with a deal that lasts for 24 hours. • The deals are valid no matter how many people participate. • Google Offers has been slow to roll out, but Google intends to localize the deals to major North American markets. google.com/offers

21. A Google A Day • Much like the Internet Hunts of yore, AGoogleADay.com is a daily trivia puzzle that tests your searching ability. • Click Submit > Show answer for information on how to find the answer.

22. New google features

23. Google Preferences • Google has updated its preferences page. • If you have logged in with your Google account, you can use this page to modify your settings for • SafeSearch • Google Instant • Personal Results • You can also modify Google’s default language as well as your location. www.google.com/preferences

24. Google Voice Search (in Chrome) • Google has been working on voice search for a while (e.g., GOOG-411, Google Mobile App) • On June 14, 2011, Google embedded voice search into Chrome. • Click the microphone button and speak your search term or phrase.

25. Search by Image (in Chrome) • Google Goggles is a visual search application that lets you search the web by taking a picture with your Android’s or iPhone’s camera. • Google Goggles is now built into Chrome. • Go to images.google.com and drag-and-drop or upload your image. • Also available as a Chrome and Firefox extension.

26. Advanced Search Has Moved • Google has kind of hidden Advanced Search. • To find it, do a regular search and then click on the gear. • Choose Advanced Search. www.google.com/advanced_search

27. Advanced Search Benefits • Advanced Search lets you narrow searches by language, last update, usage rights, and more. • Remember: these are one-off settings; Google does not store them for future searches.

28. Advanced Search: Reading Level • Annotate results with reading level • ‘Basic’ = elementary level texts • ‘Intermediate’ = more advanced texts • ‘Advanced’ = you have got to be kidding www.google.com/advanced_search

29. Recipes • Search for an ingredient, food, or event and then click ‘Recipes’. • You can then refine your search by additional ingredients, cooking time, and even calories.

30. More Search Tools • On the results page, click “More search tools”. • This gives you more search options including • Sites with images • Related searches • Translated foreign pages

31. Refine Your Searches by Location • Click “nearby” to limit results to pages that are … well … nearby. • You can choose to see results either near your default location or near a custom location. • You can also narrow results to the city, region, or state level.

32. Additional Options • ‘Sites with images’ displays a handful of images per hit. • ‘Related Searches’ shows sites that are related to your original search term. • ‘Translated foreign pages’ looks for hits on pages written in languages other than English and then translates those pages for you.

33. Google Verbatim Verbatim disables Google's spelling corrections and Google no longer replaces some of your keywords with synonyms (e.g., television / TV), similar terms (e.g., buy flowers / send flowers), and words with the same stem (e.g., fixing / fix)

34. Google miscellany

35. ChromeVox • ChromeVox is a a free screen reader extension for the Chrome browser. www.chromevox.com

36. Zygote Body • Formerly a Google Labs project, Zygote Body is a web application that renders manipulable 3D anatomical models of the human body. • Requires a browser that supports WebGL (e.g., Chrome, Firefox). • Caution: The site can be a bit slow at times. zygotebody.com

37. Google Doodles and Search Stories • Valentines Day 2012 • http://youtu.be/WTGUjRJiqik • Freddy Mercury’s 65th Birthday • http://youtu.be/Xe0gIFxYhrk • Parisian Love • http://youtu.be/nnsSUqgkDwU • Brother and Sister • http://youtu.be/Fy5LGfZgv04

38. Google Wallet • Google Wallet is a mobile payment system that lets you store credit cards, loyalty cards, and gift cards on certain mobile phones. • The phones use near field communication and PINs to make payments at MasterCard PayPass- or Visa payWave- enabled cash registers.

39. Google Public DNS code.google.com/speed/public-dns • One cause of slow page loads, especially on complex web pages, is slow DNS lookups. • Google has made their incredibly speedy DNS servers available to the public at no cost. • For more information, visit code.google.com/speed/public-dns/ • Note: I would not recommend this for travelers—some hotel connections require you to use the hotel’s DNS.

40. Youtube

41. YouTube and Creative Commons http://youtube.com/ Modify your search term so that it ends with a comma followed by a space and the word creativecommons mitosis, creativecommons Alternative Conduct a regular YouTube search Click Filter > Creative Commons

42. YouTube HTML5 Beta youtube.com/html5 If you have an extremely up-to-date browser, you can choose to use the HTML5 player instead of the Flash player for most YouTube videos. The site will let you know if your browser can handle this. This is an opt-in beta trial, so expect some bugs. NEW: h.264 encoding (in addition to WebM)

43. YouTube Leanback youtube.com/leanback • Designed for large screens [e.g., televisions], YouTube leanback autoplays videos in full screen and HD (when available). • Looking for the search box? Just start typing. • Press the down arrow on your keyboard to browse.

44. Old (but cool) stuff

45. Google URL Shortener goo.gl Paste a long URL in the box. Google will convert that URL to a goo.gl shortcut. Add .qr to the end of any goo.gl-shortened URL to convert it into a QR code.

46. Google Moderator google.com/moderator Google Moderator is a free tool that allows distributed communities to submit and vote on questions for talks, presentations, and events. Participants vote on whether or not the questions are ‘good.’ Moderator automatically tallies the votes and displays the best questions first.

47. LIFE Photo Archive • Millions of photographs from the LIFE archive are now included in Google Image Search. • Browse the archive directly or add source:life to limit your search to the LIFE archive http://images.google.com/hosted/life

48. Google Translate translate.google.com • Enter your text, document, or URL in the text box and Google will [attempt to] translate that text into another language. • Supports over 50 languages, including Latin. • Also available for Android and iPhone: Live audio translation.

49. Google Help google.com/support Google now has a unified help center, categorized by activity [e.g., “searching, shopping, and browsing the web”] The search box at the top of the help center is actually a custom search engine that searches most Google sites.

50. Google graveyard