Google Guide Classic: Making Searching Even Easier
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Introduction to Google Guide Printable Version

Welcome to Google Guide, an online tutorial making searching even easier.

What Google Guide Explains

In this tutorial, you can learn

Why Take the Google Guide Tutorial?

Google is so easy to use, why take this online tutorial? If you're like many people, you use only a small number of Google's services and features. The more you know about how Google works, its features and capabilities, the better it can serve your needs.

How to Use the Google Guide Tutorial

If you have time, read all of Google Guide and work through the examples and exercises. Otherwise, look at the Table of Contents or use the search box at the bottom of each page to find the pages or sections that are likely to be most helpful to you.

Just as the best way to learn how to sail is to sail, the best way to learn how to search with Google is to search with Google. Consequently this Google tutorial contains many examples and exercises designed to give you practice with the material presented and to inspire you to find amusing or useful information.

Try the examples, work the exercises, and click on the links (usually underlined) to see Google in action and to learn more about a topic.

Since the web and Google's algorithms and features constantly evolve, your results may be different from those shown in this tutorial.

In this tutorial, clicking the left mouse button on an example or a link to a page not in Google Guide, will display the results in a new window. Clicking on a link that points to another section in this tutorial, will display the contents of the associated page in the same window. You can make the contents of the linked page appear in a new window by:

Although this tutorial is for people new to Google, it contains information of interest to those who have experience with Google or another search engine. Unless you're familiar with all of Google's features, you'll learn something by taking this tutorial.

Who will Benefit from Google Guide?

Practically anyone who uses Google.

How Much Time Will the Google Guide Tutorial Take?

This online Google tutorial will occupy you from 0.5 to 8 hours, depending on how many sections you elect to skip, and how many of the examples and problems you work through. Most people spend about half an hour at a time, and two hours total.

Navigation Bar

Near the top of each page is a navigation bar. The current section and its subsections are displayed in blue.

Screen shot of Google Guide's navigation bar.
Click on any name in the navigation bar to be taken to the corresponding section.

Searching Google Guide

If you want to restrict your search to just pages on Google Guide's web site, follow your query with site:classic.googleguide.com.

Why the Name Google ~Guide?

Why did I first name this tutorial Google ~Guide? Putting a tilde in front of a search term (with no space in between) effectively turns that term into any of its synonyms. The tilde is known as synonym operator. So, if you search for "Google ~Guide," Google will find Google Guide as well as other Google tutorials.

History of Google Guide

Jerry Peek, author of Unix Power Tools, gave me the idea of writing a book about using Google. I found the idea appealing because I was a fan of Google, was interested in learning how to use it better, there were no other books about Google when I started writing, and with such a job, I could work flexible hours. I created Google Guide and gave seminars on searching with Google to get feedback from users.

Katie Conley, an editor at Osborne/McGraw Hill, approached Fritz Schneider about writing a book about Google. He had written JavaScript: The Complete Reference for Katie. Because of my having mentioned I was writing a book and creating an online tutorial to some Google engineers, Fritz learned of my Google projects. We teamed up so that we could divide the work and write a book more quickly. Eric Fredericksen, a co-worker of Fritz's, joined us. How to Do Everything with Google was published in November of 2003.

How to Do Everything with Google book cover How is Google Guide Different from How to Do Everything with Google?

The book How to Do Everything with Google covers material similar to Google Guide, but it's a reference book while Google Guide is a tutorial, with exercises at the end of nearly every section.

About the Authors: Nancy Blachman and Jerry Peek

To get ideas of what to include in Google Guide, Nancy Blachman gives free seminars on searching with Google. Nancy has been using Google since the spring of 1999, when Google was less than one year old. She has written over a half dozen tutorial and reference books, including How to Do Everything with Google, Mathematica: A Practical Approach, Mathematica Graphics Guidebook, Mathematica Quick Reference, Maple V Quick Reference, and Putting Your Heart Online. Nancy is president and founder of Variable Symbols, a company that specializes in software training and consulting. Nancy obtained a B.Sc. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Birmingham, U.K., an M.S. in Operations Research from the University of California at Berkeley, and an M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University, where she taught for eight years.

Jerry Peek is author/co-author of seven books; he's been a technical writer, instructor, and course developer for more than twenty years. Jerry has a B.S. in Electronic Engineering Technology from California Polytechnic State University and an M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of London, Birkbeck College. He currently writes the Power Tools column in Linux Magazine.

If you want to meet the authors, consider attending Nancy's birthday party/conference.


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Web classic.googleguide.com
For Google tips, tricks, & how Google works, visit Google Guide at classic.GoogleGuide.com.
By Nancy Blachman and Jerry Peek who aren't Google employees. For permission to copy
& create derivative works, visit Google Guide's Creative Commons License webpage.