Department of English
Like most computer users, members of the Department of English undoubtedly utilize Google with considerable frequency. Indeed, the ubiquity of the program is demonstrated in part by the recent emergence of "google" as a verb. When I googled "googled," for example, the program returned 166,000 "hits." Moreover, when "googling" was googled, 205,000 hits were returned, thereby demonstrating that the participial/gerundive form of the verb has even greater frequency of usage.
Having used Google on an almost daily basis, I was surprised to learn from Todd Finley, via Al Muller, that there were aspects of the program of which I was unaware. For example, when one goes to the Google home page, immediately above the box in which one enters the term to be googled are links entitled Images, Groups, News, Froogle, and Desktop. The Images link leads to a Google search page for ... images! If you need a picture of John Milton, you can quickly have your choice of the following and some 3700 more. (I don't know who John Milton Duncan is, by the way, but I liked his picture since the caption confirms my ability to read, dyslexically speaking, that is.)
Froogle provides a search engine for merchandise. Need a calligraphy pen? You can find 167 "confirmed" pens for sale, with prices ranging from $1.02 for an individual pen to $122.79 for a set of seven. What about new seats/backs for your tattered director's chairs? Multiple versions are available for $12.95 to $24.97.
Desktop, however, is the Google search engine that I found most interesting. When you download Desktop to your computer, it immediately goes to work indexing all the files on your personal computer. And if you have Outlook opened, it will also index all of the email messages that you've saved. For someone like me, who keeps a copy of everything, an ability to google my own files is of incredible value. While I might vaguely remember a memo that I sent to Todd Goodson several years ago, it's very handy to be able to google "Todd Goodson" in Desktop and instantly have access to 45 documents, with "Todd Goodson" appearing in context within a two-line blurb from the memo.
Desktop's indexing of my computer runs in the background whenever I turn the computer on. Since installing the program yesterday, when it initially indexed 375 terms, the program has now indexed 56,469 items and is still running. I'll be interested in seeing how many items it eventually indexes.
I hope that you, too, find these features of Google to be of interest. And now for my official disclaimer: I have not purchased any shares of Google's stock following its recent IPO.
Having used Google on an almost daily basis, I was surprised to learn from Todd Finley, via Al Muller, that there were aspects of the program of which I was unaware. For example, when one goes to the Google home page, immediately above the box in which one enters the term to be googled are links entitled Images, Groups, News, Froogle, and Desktop. The Images link leads to a Google search page for ... images! If you need a picture of John Milton, you can quickly have your choice of the following and some 3700 more. (I don't know who John Milton Duncan is, by the way, but I liked his picture since the caption confirms my ability to read, dyslexically speaking, that is.)
Froogle provides a search engine for merchandise. Need a calligraphy pen? You can find 167 "confirmed" pens for sale, with prices ranging from $1.02 for an individual pen to $122.79 for a set of seven. What about new seats/backs for your tattered director's chairs? Multiple versions are available for $12.95 to $24.97.
Desktop, however, is the Google search engine that I found most interesting. When you download Desktop to your computer, it immediately goes to work indexing all the files on your personal computer. And if you have Outlook opened, it will also index all of the email messages that you've saved. For someone like me, who keeps a copy of everything, an ability to google my own files is of incredible value. While I might vaguely remember a memo that I sent to Todd Goodson several years ago, it's very handy to be able to google "Todd Goodson" in Desktop and instantly have access to 45 documents, with "Todd Goodson" appearing in context within a two-line blurb from the memo.
Desktop's indexing of my computer runs in the background whenever I turn the computer on. Since installing the program yesterday, when it initially indexed 375 terms, the program has now indexed 56,469 items and is still running. I'll be interested in seeing how many items it eventually indexes.
I hope that you, too, find these features of Google to be of interest. And now for my official disclaimer: I have not purchased any shares of Google's stock following its recent IPO.
