Google Guide: Making Searching Even Easier
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How Well Do You Know Google?

Take this quiz and find out how well you know Google. If you want a hint, click on the link(s) in the question. When you have completed the quiz, click here or visit classic.googleguide.com/quiz_answers.html to see the answers and tally your score.

  1. What's on Google's homepage?
    1. Just Google's logo.
    2. Google's logo, a search box, and two banner ads.
    3. Google's logo, a search box, a link to job openings at Google, and a copyright notice.
    4. Google's logo, a search box, some links, a copyright notice, and perhaps a weather report, news headlines, or stock quotes if you personalized Google's homepage.

  2. What happens if you enter a query such as google tutorial on Google's homepage and then click the I'm Feeling Lucky button?
    1. You're shown one of the Google's holiday logos.
    2. You're taken directly to the first result for your query instead of Google's results page.
    3. Google donates $1 to the charity of your choice.
    4. Google displays your fortune along with a cookie.

  3. Is Google case sensitive, i.e., does Google return different results for Red Cross than for red cross?
    1. Yes, use capitalization to fine-tune your results.
    2. No, ignoring case distinctions increases the number of results Google finds.
    3. Yes, but Google ignores capitalized query terms, such as OR and AND, which are special operators.
    4. All of the above.

  4. Does Google care if you misspell one or more of your query terms?
    1. Yes, Google will not find any results.
    2. No, there's a good chance that Google will recognize your spelling mistakes and suggest an alternative more common spelling.
    3. Yes, but you can run a spelling checker on your query before you submit it to Google.
    4. No, Google will figure out what you want even if you just enter the first letter of each query term.

  5. What results does Google favor?
    1. Pages that have your search terms near each other.
    2. Pages that have the terms in the same order as in your query.
    3. Pages that match your search terms exactly.
    4. All of the above.

  6. How can you use Google to find the meaning of a word?
    1. When you include "define," "what is," or "what are" in your query in front of a word, phrase, or acronym, Google displays one Glossary definition above your search results, e.g., define phishing.
    2. When your query includes the "define:" operator, Google displays all the definitions it finds on the web, e.g., define:deipnosophist.
    3. Search for the word and then click on the definition link in the statistics bar that appears below the Google search box and above your search results.
    4. All of the above.

  7. How can you translate a word, sentence, webpage, or other material into another language?
    1. Ask a native speaker.
    2. Type in define, colon, whatever word you want defined, e.g., define:suchmaschine.
    3. Go to Google Language Tools and enter the text or webpage you want translated.
    4. A or C.

  8. Does Google return only pages that match all your search terms?
    1. Pretty much, so select your search terms carefully.
    2. No, Google also includes pages with variations of your search terms.
    3. No, Google ignores some common words, such as "a," "the," and "how."
    4. All of the above though they contradict each other.

  9. What variants of your search terms does Google include in your results?
    1. Google searches for your query words as well as each of their synonyms.
    2. None. Google only returns pages that match your search terms exactly.
    3. Google searches for your search terms as well as misspellings of each term.
    4. Google uses a technique called stemming to search on the stem or root of a word that can have multiple endings.

  10. Google limits query to how many words?
    1. There is no limit.
    2. 65 (because the design engineer wanted to impress her colleagues)
    3. 32 (naturally because it's 2^5 or 2*2*2*2*2, an easy number for a computer to compute)
    4. 8 (who needs more than 8 search terms)

  11. What's the quickest way to find driving directions using Google?
    1. Type the address in the Google search box, e.g., 1099 Lombard Street San Francisco CA, and then click on one of the map provider links.
    2. Type the address in the search box, e.g., 1 Broadway Ter, New York, NY, and Google will display a satellite view of the street.
    3. Use Froogle, Google's shopping tool, to buy a GPS system. Then install it in your car.
    4. Search Google Images for a map, e.g., 1900 Louis Road, Palo Alto, CA.

  12. What's the fastest way to find someone's phone number?
    1. Visit 411.info, and search for a person by last name and city or zip code.
    2. Enter a person's name and a city, state, or zip code into Google's search box, e.g., Barack Obama Chicago IL.
    3. Pull out your local phone book and look up the person.
    4. Buy a CD-ROM phone database and look up phone numbers without being connected to the Internet.

  13. What is the fastest way to find where a particular movie is playing at your local cinema?
    1. Look in the entertainment pages of your newspaper.
    2. Call 777-FILM if you are in the United States.
    3. Search Google for "movie" followed by your city or zip code, e.g., movie 10001.
    4. Search Google for "movie" followed by the name of the film you want to see, e.g., movie March of the Penguins.

  14. How can you add a list of numbers, convert from miles to kilometers, or evaluate some other mathematical expression?
    1. Use your cell phone or PDA, if it has a built-in calculator.
    2. Use a calculator.
    3. Enter the expression you want evaluated in Google's search box and hit the ENTER or RETURN key.
    4. All of the above.

  15. What's the fastest way to find the exchange rate between the US dollar and the Euro?
    1. Buy a newspaper and look in the financial section.
    2. Find a currency conversion site, such as XE.com and use their universal currency converter.
    3. Search Google for 1 Euro in USD. (USD for US Dollars)
    4. You can't find out because the rate is volatile.

  16. How would you find a weather forecast for where you live?
    1. Search Google for weather and your city or zip code, e.g., weather 94010.
    2. Read the weather report in your local newspaper, listen to or watch the weather report on the radio or on TV.
    3. Personalize Google's homepage to include a weather forecast for where you live.
    4. Any of the above.

  17. How can you read a page when the hosting website is down?
    1. You can't find a page if the hosting website is down.
    2. In Google's search results, click on the title of a webpage, and Google will provide the page even when the hosting website is down.
    3. In Google's search results, click on the cached link.
    4. Visit the Wayback Machine, a.k.a., Internet Archive, and search for several snapshots of the webpage.

  18. What is the fastest way to find flights between San Jose and Boston?
    1. Call your favorite travel agent before he loses his job.
    2. Go to Expedia.com or CheapTickets and specify the dates you want to fly.
    3. Search Google for sjc bos or San Jose Boston.
    4. Call United or Delta; they both need your business.

  19. Before going to the airport, what's a quick way to find out when your friend's flight will arrive?
    1. Search Google for your friend's flight to find out when it will arrive and at which gate, e.g. United 42.
    2. Call a taxi to pick up your friend at the airport and relax.
    3. Check the travel conditions at the airport by searching google for the 3-letter airport code followed by the word "airport," e.g., sfo airport.
    4. Call the airlines to find out about when the flight will arrive and where.

  20. In addition to the Web, what other things can you search using Google?
    1. Images, news, stores, dictionaries, books, parking spaces
    2. Images, news, products, books, recipes
    3. Images, news, products, Usenet (online discussions), Blogs (online journals), local businesses, books, movies
    4. Images, news, products, books, Blogs (online journals), genealogy charts

  21. How can you check gas prices in your area?
    1. Search for "gas" followed by your zip code in Yahoo's search box, e.g., gas 94010, and click on the Gas Buddy link.
    2. Although Google can handle volatile commodities, such as stocks and currency, Google doesn't currently provide a shortcut to gas prices. Given the rate at which Google is adding features, I expect Google will soon include capabilities for checking gas prices.
    3. Search for "gas" followed by your zip code in Google's search box, e.g., gas 94010, to find your local gas stations and then drive by them and see the prices they posted.
    4. All of the above.

  22. How does Google decide how to rank ads on a page?
    1. The advertiser that pays the most per click through gets the top spot.
    2. The ad that gets the most click throughs gets the top spot.
    3. The ad that generates the most revenue to Google gets the top spot, taking into consideration rate of click throughs and cost per click.
    4. The exact formula is proprietary information that Google doesn't divulge
    5. Google doesn't show ads on its website.

  23. What ads does Google display next to your search results?
    1. Ads from advertisers who pay the most for a given search term.
    2. Ads with the highest click-rate.
    3. Ads that are related to your present search terms.
    4. Ads that are related to your previous search terms.

  24. How can you improve the ranking of your website on Google?
    1. Place lots of ads on Google.
    2. Include useful high-quality information on your site and then publicize and get links to your website.
    3. Buy lots of Google stock and schmooze with Larry and Sergey at the shareholder's meeting.
    4. Don't worry about Google. Instead try to get your site included on Yahoo.

  25. How can you find the current price of Google shares?
    1. Search for goo on Google.
    2. Search for goog on Google.
    3. Search for google on Google.
    4. Don't bother looking it up. It will only make you sad that you didn't buy it at the IPO.

When you have completed the quiz, click here or visit classic.googleguide.com/quiz_answers.html to see the answers and tally your score.

About.com's Google Quiz inspired me to create this quiz.


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For Google tips, tricks, & how Google works, visit Google Guide at classic.GoogleGuide.com.
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