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Tomi Häsä

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More options Jun 14 2005, 6:09 am

Newsgroups: google.public.support.general

From: "Tomi Häsä" <tomi.h...@gmail.com>

Date: 14 Jun 2005 03:09:48 -0700

Local: Tues, Jun 14 2005 6:09 am

Subject: google.public.support.general FAQ

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=================================
google.public.support.general FAQ
=================================

Last modified: June 13th, 2005
Posting frequency: once a month
URL: http://www.geocities.com/googlepubsupgenfaq/

============
INTRODUCTION
============

This article includes answers to questions that appear especially
frequently in the newsgroup google.public.support.general. It is not
intended to replace Google's official FAQs and information for
webmasters. Please read them if you haven't already done so.

http://www.google.com/help/faq.html
http://www.google.com/googlegroups/help.html
http://www.google.com/googlegroups/about.html
http://www.google.com/webmasters/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

========
CONTENTS
========

1. GOOGLE WEB SEARCH
2. GOOGLE GROUPS
3. WEBMASTERS
4. GOOGLE DIRECTORY
5. GOOGLE TOOLBAR
6. GMAIL
7. MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS
8. GLOSSARY

----------------------------------------------------------------------

=================
LIST OF QUESTIONS
=================

1. Google Web Search

Q: How do I stop my previous searches from appearing when I type in a
new search term?
Q: My computer began to behave strangely. Why?
Q: Why am I getting redirected to other search engines when I try to
go to Google, or click on Google search results?
Q: Why can't I access Google or some other search engines?
Q: Why am I getting all these popups from Google?
Q: How do I report spam to Google?
Q: Why doesn't a "link:" search show all my backlinks?
Q: Why does [link: your.url] (with a space) give me more results than
[link:your.url] ?
Q: How do I stop being redirected from www.google.com to other Google
pages?
Q: How can I save preferences for Google?
Q: Why doesn't Google remember my preferences after I switch off my
computer and turn it back on?
Q: How can I make Google my home page?
Q: Is there a way to see the search results numbered and without
description (titles only)?
Q: Where can I find the most popular search queries?
Q: What is the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button?
Q: How do I search for special characters like &, %, #, @, $, £, €,
+, -, /, *, =, <, {, [, (, ), ], }, >, :, ;, !, ?
Q: Can I make a proximity search with Google?
Q: Can I use wildcard symbols in searches?
Q: How can I search for an exact phrase?
Q: How can I exclude certain words from search queries?
Q: How can I search only from the title of the page?
Q: How can I search only from the URL of the page?
Q: How can I search only from the links to the page?
Q: How can I search only from the text of the page?
Q: How can I search for PDF, PostScript, Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
or Rich Text Format documents?
Q: How can I search from pages that have been changed in 3, 6 or 12
months?
Q: How can I search from a certain domain only?
Q: How can I find similar pages?
Q: How can I find pages that link to a page?
Q: What operators can I use in the search query?
Q: How can I make Boolean searches?
Q: How can I search from a specific country?
Q: I searched for example for the word "this" and it says "this is a
very common word and was not included in your search". How can I
include very common words in searches?
Q: How can I exclude adult sites from the search?
Q: Where can I find commands for the Calculator?
Q: What kind of constants can I see with the Calculator?
Q: What kind of calculations and conversions can I do with the
Calculator?
Q: I have enabled the "Open search results in a new browser window"
preference, but all results open in the same new browser window.
How do I make each result to open to a totally new window?
Q: How do I make each search result open in a new full sized window
in Microsoft Windows?
Q: What is Supplemental Result?
Q: What is Cached page?
Q: What is Local Search?
Q: Which search engines (or services) use Google search results?
Q: How many web servers does Google have?
Q: What operating system does Google use on the web servers?
Q: How many search queries do people make with Google?

2. Google Groups

Q: How can I change my name that appears every time I want to post or
reply with Google Groups?
Q: How can I change my email address in Google Groups?
Q: Why can't I reply to articles with Google Groups anymore?
Q: Is there a list of original Google Groups (GG1) sites?
Q: My messages have disappeared. Where are they?
Q: How can I check the threads on what I post?
Q: How can I read google.public.support.general with a newsreader?
Q: How do I remove messages I have posted with Google Groups?
Q: I don't want to receive spam, but I still want to post with Google
Groups. How do I avoid spam?
Q: How do I respond to a post over a month old?
Q: How can I include international characters, like European
(e.g. Icelandic), Cyrillic (e.g. Russian), Arabic, Hebrew,
Chinese, etc. characters into my postings?
Q: How many newsgroups are there?
Q: What is DejaNews?
Q: Is Google Groups a message board?
Q: Are Google discussion groups same as Usenet newsgroups?
Q: Why does it take so long for my post to show up in Google Groups?
Q: I have found a newsgroup that isn't archived by Google Groups. How
can I ask it to be added to Google Groups?
Q: I have a question that doesn't relate to this newsgroup, where can
I ask it?
Q: Can I post commercial advertisements in
google.public.support.general?
Q: Where is the Group Charter for this newsgroup?
Q: Do Google employees post to this newsgroup?
Q: Where can I report problems with Google Groups Beta?
Q: Are there other official Google discussion groups and/or mailing
lists?

3. Webmasters

Q: My new site appeared in the Google results for a few days, but now
it has disappeared. Why?
Q: Why is it that some days my site is listed (lately in the top
position) and on other days it isn't?
Q: How do I determine if my web pages are in the Google index?
Q: I can't find anymore any web pages of my site. Is it banned?
Q: I'm quite sure by site is banned. How can I get it back to Google
search results?
Q: How do I submit my site to Google?
Q: Will my site be banned if I submit it too often?
Q: Why don't the keywords in my meta tags have any effect?
Q: We have a new version of our website, but when you search in
Google for information about our website, the search result still
points to the old web pages. What would be the process to have the
search pointing at the new website pages?
Q: Someone copied my entire website. What should I do now?
Q: How does my mirror site affect my Google PageRank?
Q: Somehow a private document has been made public through Google.
How can it be removed from Google search results?
Q: Where can I see the dates of the previous Google updates?
Q: How search engine spiders see my web pages?
Q: Why Googlebot comes only to my first page, but it never follows
the links into the rest of the site?
Q: Why Googlebot is downloading the same file over and over again?
Q: What are the IP addresses of search engine spiders (including
Googlebots)?
Q: What is robots.txt?
Q: What is Google Dance?
Q: What are the Google data centers?
Q: What is the PageRank?
Q: How can I see the PageRank number for a website?
Q: How can I make my site rank higher in search results?

4. Google Directory

Q: How do I change the description of my site in Google Directory?
Q: When is Google Directory updated next?

5. Google Toolbar

Q: How can I clear the search history in Google Toolbar?
Q: Can Google Toolbar be used in other browsers than Internet
Explorer?

6. Gmail

Q: After I have logged in Gmail, why doesn't Gmail work?
Q: How can I reload a web page?
Q: How can I empty the browser's cache?
Q: How can I allow JavaScript for Gmail?

7. Miscellaneous Topics

Q: Where can I find Google logos?
Q: Why is my phone number listed in Google search results?
Q: Where does the word google come from?
Q: How can I insert the Google Search to my web page?
Q: How can I find people (e.g. email, address, or phone number)?
Q: Can you do my homework assignment?
Q: How can I make a good newsgroup post?
Q: How can I make people understand me?
Q: How can I contact Google?
Q: Are there any other FAQs about Google?
Q: Are there any other informative web pages about Google?
Q: How can I find this FAQ?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

====================
1. GOOGLE WEB SEARCH
====================

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How do I stop my previous searches from appearing when I type in a
new search term?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

If you are using Internet Explorer 6, click "Tools", select "Internet
Options", click "Content" tab, push "AutoComplete", and uncheck
"Forms". To clear previous searches, push "Clear Forms". You can also
delete search queries one by one: empty the Google Search Field and
double-click on it to see the earlier search queries, and delete
individual searches by moving the mouse cursor (or use Down arrow key)
over one of the search queries and press Delete key on keyboard.

http://www.google.com/help/faq.html#iehistory
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/using/howto/customizing/autocompl...

If you have Mozilla Firebird 0.x or Mozilla Firefox 0.x/1.x, click
"Tools", select "Options", click "Privacy", click "+" next to "Saved
Form Information", and uncheck "Save information I enter in web page
forms and the Search Bar". To clear previous searches, push "Clear"
next to "Saved Form Information".

If are using Netscape 8 in Windows, go to the main page of Google (you
can do the same procedure for the national domain of Google, for
example google.co.uk), and if the icon at the bottom left corner of
the Netscape browser window looks like a Mozilla icon, click it and
select "Display Like Internet Explorer" so Netscape uses Internet
Explorer's AutoComplete mechanism to save form information. Now you
can go to Internet Explorer, and empty or disable the AutoComplete
information from Internet Explorer, by selecting "Tools", "Internet
Options", "Content", and "AutoComplete".

>From JB (jtb5...@yahoo.com):

If you're using Safari on a Macintosh: In the "Safari" menu, choose
"Preferences..." and click on the "AutoFill" tab. Uncheck the "Other
Forms" box to stop all autofilling. If you do want to keep
autofilling forms on certain web sites, click the "Edit" button and
add those sites to the list.

In the Mac version of Firefox, go to the "Firefox" menu, and choose
"Preferences", then "Privacy", then "Saved Form Information".

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: My computer began to behave strangely. Why?
Q: Why am I getting redirected to other search engines when I try to
go to Google, or click on Google search results?
Q: Why can't I access Google or some other search engines?
Q: Why am I getting all these popups from Google?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

You have probably inadvertently downloaded and installed adware,
spyware, parasite, trojan or a browser hijacker from some web site.

Install, update and use all of these programs: CWShredder, Ad-aware,
Spybot - Search & Destroy, SpywareBlaster, RapidBlaster Killer,
SpyRemover, and Spy Sweeper:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html
http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
http://www.safer-networking.org/
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html
http://www.wilderssecurity.net/specialinfo/rapidblaster.html
http://www.spychecker.com/program/spyremover.html
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22934,00.asp

Be careful what to remove. If you are uncertain what to remove with
the programs or you can't get rid of the problem, send your HijackThis
log file to a spyware/security forum/newsgroup for assistance:

HijackThis:

http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

Spyware and security forums:

http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/forums.html
http://forums.spywareinfo.com/
http://boards.cexx.org/
http://forums.net-integration.net/index.php?
http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/index.php
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/security

Spyware newsgroup:

http://groups.google.com/groups?group=alt.privacy.spyware

Also, you might have trojan Qhosts:

http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.qhosts.html
http://www3.ca.com/virusinfo/virus.aspx?ID=37191
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/trojan.qhosts...

To prevent new spyware to be installed to your computer, update your
Windows frequently to remove the latest security holes so there's a
smaller probability to get new spyware to your computer:

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

More about spyware, parasites and hosts files:

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
http://www.imilly.com/google.htm
http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/

Security directory pages:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Security/Internet/Products_...
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Security/Malicious_Software...
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Security/Malicious_Software...
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Security/Malicious_Software...
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Freeware/Security/

Free virus scanners:

http://www.free-av.com/
http://www.avast.com/
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx

Free toolbars with pop-up blockers:

http://toolbar.google.com/
http://companion.yahoo.com/

Free firewalls:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Security/Firewalls/Products...

Other tips:

Use an up-to-date virus scanner and a firewall, and don't go to
suspicious web pages.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How do I report spam to Google?

A: From Martin Hagstrøm (m...@altavista.net):

Google is not the Internet Police, but in cases where SPAM lowers the
quality of Google's results (e.g. misleading titles) you may report
them. Either use this URL:

http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html

or click the link at the bottom of the search results that says
"Dissatisfied with your search results? Help us improve".

Note: Don't expect immediate results. Google prefers to use the data
to help them develop better algorithms that improve results overall,
instead of playing "whack-a-mole" with individual sites.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Why doesn't a "link:" search show all my backlinks?

A: From Craig (cbpa...@gmail.com):

Google have never shown all the links to a site. They have only ever
shown a "sample". Previously the criteria for being in the sample was
a PR threshold (probably a very high 3). Now there are other criteria
to be in the sample ncluding a PR threshold - but it is not clear
what the criteria is ...

Google still takes all links into account when calculating PR, even
though they do not show in the backlinks sample.

Google do not show them for what could be any number of reasons eg to
prevent reverse engineering of the PR algorithm; to save on computing
resources; etc

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Why does [link: your.url] (with a space) give me more results than
[link:your.url] ?

A: From Martin Hagstrøm (m...@altavista.net):

The former command will find: all pages that mention your site and
contain the word "link". + some of the pages that link to your site
and contain the word "link".

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How do I stop being redirected from www.google.com to other Google
pages?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Google redirects you by probably using geotargeting, which usually
means detecting your geographical location based on your IP address
and on an IP-to-country database, which aren't 100 % accurate. Also,
inaccuracies can happen if you are using a proxy.

To stop being redirected from www.google.com to other Google pages,
allow cookies for Google:

http://www.google.com/help/faq.html#eng_home

If you can't or don't want to allow cookies for Google, you can use
this page:

http://www.google.com/intl/en/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How can I save preferences for Google?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Allow cookies for Google.

If you can't or don't want to allow cookies for Google, try Method A
or Method B.

Method A
--------

1. Go to http://www.google.com/language_tools and click "Google
Search" (or similar) button on that page.

2. Click "Preferences" (or similar) link.

3. Choose the settings you want to use (interface language, search
language(s), number of results per page, open search results in a
new window, etc.) and click "Save Preferences" (or similar) button.

4. Because you can't or don't want to allow cookies for Google, you
may want to bookmark the resulting page so you can use Google with
those preferences again the next time you use Google.

Method B
--------

Another way to change the settings is by modifying the below URL:

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=ISO-8859-1...

As you can see, the interface language is English (hl=en), the search
language is any language (lr=), SafeSearch is set to strict filtering
(safe=active), number of search results per page is 100 (num=100),
and search results will be opened to new windows (newwindow=1).

The interface language code (hl=) can be found by going to
http://www.google.com/language_tools and clicking one of the links
under the "Use the Google Interface in Your Language" (or similar)
headline and looking at the URL. For example, if you click "English"
(or similar) link, you will be directed to
http://www.google.com/intl/en/ where the code is "en" for English.

At the moment (March 2004) the language codes for interface language
are: af, sq, am, ar, az, eu, be, bn, bh, xx-bork, bs, br, bg, ca,
zh-CN, zh-TW, hr, cs, da, nl, xx-elmer, en, eo, et, fo, tl, fi, fr,
fy, gl, ka, de, el, gn, gu, xx-hacker, iw, hi, hu, is, id, ia, ga, it,
ja, jw, kn, xx-klingon, ko, ky, la, lv, lt, mk, ms, ml, mt, mr, ne,
no, nn, oc, or, fa, xx-piglatin, pl, pt-BR, pt-PT, pa, ro, ru, gd, sr,
sh, st, si, sk, sl, es, su, sw, sv, ta, te, th, ti, tr, tk, tw, uk,
ur, uz, vi, cy, xh, yi, zu.

The search language (lr=lang_) setting has less codes than the
interface language setting and can be changed by placing the language
code after the lang_. For example lang_en is for English.

The language codes for search language are: ar, bg, ca, zh-CN, zh-TW,
hr, cs, da, nl, en, et, fi, fr, de, el, iw, hu, is, id, it, ja, ko,
lt, no, pl, pt, ro, ru, sr, sk, sl, es, sv, tr.

The number of search results per page setting can be 10 (num=10),
20 (num=20), 30 (num=30), 50 (num=50) or 100 (num=100).

The SafeSearch setting can be strict (safe=active), disabled
(safe=off) or moderate (remove the safe=xxx part from the URL).

The open search results to new windows can be on (openednewwindow=1)
or off (remove the openednewwindow=xxx part from the URL).

After you have modified the URL, remember to press Enter, Return, etc.
for the changes to take effect.

When you are happy with the URL, you could bookmark it for future use.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How can I allow cookies for Google?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

If you are using Internet Explorer 6, click "Tools", select "Internet
Options", click "Privacy" tab, and see what setting you have for
cookies. If the setting for cookies is "Block All Cookies", you can't
allow cookies for Google or any other website. If you are willing to
receive cookies, change to some other setting, for example "High",
and click "OK". Now you can allow cookies for google.com: click
"Tools", select "Internet Options", click "Privacy" tab, push "Edit",
type google.com in the field and push "Allow", "OK", and "OK".

If you have Mozilla 1.x, click "Edit", select "Preferences...", select
"Privacy & Security", select "Cookies", push "Cookie Manager", click
"Cookie Sites" tab, type google.com in the field, push "Allow", push
"Close", and "OK".

If you have Mozilla Firebird 0.x or Mozilla Firefox 0.x/1.x, click
"Tools", select "Options...", click "Privacy", select "Cookies", push
"Exceptions" type google.com in the field, push "Allow", "OK", and
"OK".

If you have Netscape 4.x, click "Edit", select "Preferences...",
select "Advanced". Select "Accept all cookies" or "Accept only
cookies that get sent back to the originating server". You might
also want to check "Warn me before accepting a cookie". Push "OK".

If you have Netscape 7, click "Edit", select "Preferences...", select
"Privacy & Security", select "Cookies", and see what setting you have
for cookies. If the setting for cookies is "Disable cookies", you
can't allow cookies for Google or any other website. If you are
willing to receive cookies, change to some other setting, for example
"Enable cookies for the originating web site only", and click "OK".
If that doesn't help, then you might have accidently blocked cookies
for google.com. To see if that has happened, click "Edit", select
"Preferences...", select "Privacy & Security", select "Cookies", push
"Manage Stored Cookies", click "Cookie Sites" tab, click
www.google.com, and push "Remove Site".

If you have Opera 7, you might have to first empty the cache: click
"File", select "Preferences...", select "History and cache", push
"Empty now", and "OK" (you might have to do this a few times). Then
you can enable cookies: click "File", select "Preferences...", select
"Privacy", and check "Enable cookies", and select next to "Normal
cookies" the option "Display in dialog box with multiple choice".

If you have Opera 8, you might have to first empty the cache: click
"Tools", select "Preferences...", select "Advanced", click "History",
push "Empty now", and "OK" (you might have to do this a few times).
Then you can enable cookies: click "Tools", select "Preferences...",
click "Cookies", and under text "Normal cookies" select "Let me decide
every time I receive one", or "Accept all cookies". If you select
"Treat as specified in Server Manager", then also push "Manage
cookies...", push "New...", type google.com, check "Apply these
settings for entire domain" and "Accept cookies for server/domain",
push "OK", push "Close", and do the same for the national Google
domain (for example google.co.uk).

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Why doesn't Google remember my preferences after I switch off my
computer and turn it back on?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Delete all cookies for Google Web Search, and try to save preferences
again.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How can I make Google my home page?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

http://www.google.com/options/defaults.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Is there a way to see the search results numbered and without
description (titles only)?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

http://www.google.com/ie

This page shows the position of a web page for a certain search query:

http://googlerankings.com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Where can I find the most popular search queries?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

See Google Zeitgeist:

http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: What is the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

http://www.google.com/help/features.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How do I search for special characters like &, %, #, @, $, £, €,
+, -, /, *, =, <, {, [, (, ), ], }, >, :, ;, !, ?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Google doesn't support special characters very well, because it
ignores most of them. Try different search tactics with different
keyword combinations.

But Google does allow some uses of special characters:

You can search for I/O.

You can search for notes: A_, A#, B_, B#, C_, C#, D_, D#, E_, E#, F_,
F#, G_, G#.

You can use &, + and _ one or more times in the middle or at the end
of a character or a word or between characters and words: A+, a_, C++,
net__, page_count, i++++, a&b&c, i&&, "Health +& Human", "&& year".

But you can't use + in front of a word or a character: +i, "++number".

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Can I make a proximity search with Google?
Q: Can I use wildcard symbols in searches?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

You can only use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard symbol in a phrase
search so that each asterisk replaces one word. For example search for
"1 * 3" can give results like "1 2 3", "1 1 3", "1 and 3", "1 to 3",
etc. Search for "one * * four" can give results like "one, two, three,
four", "one out of four", "one of top four", and so on.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How can I search for an exact phrase?
Q: How can I exclude certain words from search queries?
Q: How can I search only from the title of the page?
Q: How can I search only from the URL of the page?
Q: How can I search only from the links to the page?
Q: How can I search only from the text of the page?
Q: How can I search for PDF, PostScript, Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
or Rich Text Format documents?
Q: How can I search from pages that have been changed in 3, 6 or 12
months?
Q: How can I search from a certain domain only?
Q: How can I find similar pages?
Q: How can I find pages that link to a page?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

http://www.google.com/advanced_search

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: What operators can I use in the search query?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Here are most of the search operators:

+
Include a common word or a character in search results by putting
a + in front of it.

-
Exclude a word or a character from your search results by putting
a - in front of it.

~
Include synonyms for a word in search results by putting a ~ in
front of it.

*
Replace any single word in a phrase. For example:
"term1 * term2".

""
Search for complete phrases by enclosing them in quotation
marks.

..
Search for a numeric range. For example: [DVD player $250..$350].

OR
Show pages that include the word left to OR, or the word right
to OR.

cache:
Google's version of the page in Google's cache.

allinanchor:
Return results where the terms occur in links to the page.

link:
List webpages that link to the specified webpage.

related:
List webpages that are "similar" to the specified web
page.

info:
Show some information that Google has about the
specified web page.

define:
Provide a definition of the words you enter from various
online sources.

stocks:
Show stock information for the symbols you enter.

site:
Restrict results to a given domain.

allintext:
Return only documents that have all the words you entered in the
text of the page.

allintitle:
Return only documents that have all the words you entered in the
title.

intitle:
Return only documents that have the first word after the
"intitle:" in title and other words anywhere in the document
(in title or not).

allinurl:
Return only documents that have all the words you entered in the
URL.

inurl:
Return only documents that have the first word after the
"inurl:" in URL and other words anywhere in the document
(in URL or not).

filetype:
Find documents of the specified type.

http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html
http://www.google.com/help/operators.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How can I make Boolean searches?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Examples: [x AND y], [x OR y], [x AND (y OR z)],
[(x OR y) AND (z OR q)], [x AND (y OR z OR q)],
[x AND (y OR z) AND q].

http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/features/google/googleboolean.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How can I search from a specific country?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Go to http://www.google.com/language_tools and select the country
under the title "Visit Google's Site in Your Local Domain".

For example, if you want to search for web pages from UK, click
www.google.co.uk and select "pages from the UK".

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: I searched for example for the word "this" and it says "this is a
very common word and was not included in your search". How can I
include very common words in searches?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Add a plus sign in front of the word, for example +this.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How can I exclude adult sites from the search?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Use the SafeSearch option from the Advanced Search page or from the
Preferences page:

http://www.google.com/help/customize.html#safe
http://www.google.com/advanced_search
http://www.google.com/preferences

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Where can I find commands for the Calculator?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

http://www.google.com/help/calculator.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: What kind of constants can I see with the Calculator?
Q: What kind of calculations and conversions can I do with the
Calculator?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

At the moment (February 2004) Google hasn't documented all the
features of the Calculator. Here are some procedures that work:

Constants:

Avogadro constant
electron mass
googol
molar gas constant
pi
Planck's constant
Stefan-Boltzmann constant

Calculations:

Arithmetic:
(1 - 2^(3 / 4))/(4 + 5) * 6 + (3^2^3)

Trigonometry:
sin(30 degrees) + arctan(2 radians)

Transcendental functions:
e^7 + ln(1000) + cosh(3.6)

Mechanics:
(1 kg) * (9.8 m/s^2)

Thermodynamics:
((1 mol)*(8.315 J/mol*K)*(280 K))/(1.013 * 10^5 Pa)

Waves:
sqrt((1 / 93 * 10^11 Pa)/(1.26 * 10^3 kg/m^3))

Electromagnetism:
(4 farad) * (1*10^-3 m) / (7.43 * 10^-12 farads/m)

Optics:
((0.09 m)(600 * 10^-9 m))/(2 * 0.021 * 10^-3 m)

Relativity:
(1.98 * 10^-6 s)/sqrt(1-(0.995)^2)

Quantum mechanics:
(4.894 * 10^-15 eV*s)(3 * 10^8 m/s)/0.0114 eV

Nuclear physics:
25*(1.007825 u) + 35*(1.008665 u) - ((548.5 MeV)/(931.5 MeV/u))

Conversions:

Number conversions:
0b1010 in decimal

Angle conversions:
2 radians in degrees

Distance conversions:
inches in feet

Temperature conversions:
kelvin in celsius

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: I have enabled the "Open search results in a new browser window"
preference, but all results open in the same new browser window.
How do I make each result to open to a totally new window?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Keep Shift key pressed down and left-click the links to open them to
new windows.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How do I make each search result open in a new full sized window
in Microsoft Windows?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Pull the windows to full size, keep Shift key pressed and click Close
button in the windows, or try AutoSizer:

http://www.southbaypc.com/AutoSizer/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: What is Supplemental Result?
Q: What is Cached page?
Q: What is Local Search?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

http://www.google.com/help/interpret.html
http://www.google.com/help/features.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Which search engines (or services) use Google search results?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

At the moment (February 2004) for example AOL, Netscape.com, and
CompuServe.

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/aol.html

Some meta search engines use Google search results also (for example
Mamma and InfoSpace):

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Searching/Metasearch/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How many web servers does Google have?
Q: What operating system does Google use on the web servers?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Google uses Linux on more than 10,000 web servers (September 2002).

http://www.google.com/googlefriends/sep2002.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How many search queries do people make with Google?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

More than 200 million search queries per day:

http://www.google.com/press/funfacts.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

================
2. GOOGLE GROUPS
================

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How can I change my name that appears every time I want to post or
reply with Google Groups?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

If you want to change the name Google Groups Beta suggests when you
subscribe to a Usenet newsgroup or to a Google discussion group, go
to https://www.google.com/accounts/ and sign in. Then click "My
Account" and click "Name and more".

If you want to change your name for one or for all the groups you
have already subscribed to, go to http://groups-beta.google.com/ and
sign in. Then click "My Groups" and click "Manage my subscriptions".

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How can I change my email address in Google Groups?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Go to https://www.google.com/accounts/ and sign in. Then click "My
Account" and click "Email address".

If you don't see the link "Email address", then you might have Gmail
address in which case you have to click the link "Delete Gmail
Service" first. Also, you could just create a new Google account for
the new email address.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Why can't I reply to articles with Google Groups anymore?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Since about December 2004 you have been able only to post messages
with the original Google Groups, but not reply to articles. Since
about May 2005 you haven't been able to post even new articles with
the original Google Groups.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Is there a list of original Google Groups (GG1) sites?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Here are the Google Groups 1 sites (25th May 2005) for those who still
want to use the old version for searching from the Usenet newsgroups:

English:

No longer GG1 sites (since 25th May 2005):

http://www.google.es/grphp?hl=en
http://www.google.co.id/grphp?hl=en
http://www.google.ru/grphp?hl=en
http://www.google.com.tr/grphp?hl=en
http://www.google.co.hu/grphp?hl=en
http://www.google.kz/grphp?hl=en
http://www.google.ms/grphp?hl=en

GG1 with languages Elmer Fudd, Esperanto, and Interlingua:

http://www.google.com/grphp?hl=xx-elmer
http://www.google.com/grphp?hl=eo
http://www.google.com/grphp?hl=ia

List here also:

http://www.geocities.com/googlepubsupgenfaq/gg1_sites.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: My messages have disappeared. Where are they?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Search for author:y...@email.address or use the Advanced Groups
Search page:

http://www.google.com/advanced_group_search

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How can I check the threads on what I post?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

With Google Groups Beta, click the star next to the topic you are
interested in so that the star changes to yellow.

Or search for author:y...@email.address and bookmark the resulting
page or threads.

http://www.google.com/googlegroups/tour/index.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How can I read google.public.support.general with a newsreader?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

You can't. You can access google.public.support.general only from a
web browser. Or you can subscribe to google.public.support.general
with Google Groups, and make a selection that you want to use it by
email by clicking "My Groups" and "Manage my subscriptions".

http://www.google.com/googlegroups/help.html#newsreader

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How do I remove messages I have posted with Google Groups?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Click "show options" next to your message, and click "Remove".

You can also remove your messages with the Automatic Removal Tool:

http://www.google.com/googlegroups/help.html#9

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: I don't want to receive spam, but I still want to post with Google
Groups. How do I avoid spam?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Get a free email address and create a Google account for it. Spam will
go to the free email address:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/E-mail/Free/Web-Ba...
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/net-abuse-faq/harvest/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How do I respond to a post over a month old?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

You shouldn't reply to old newsgroup posts, because many newsgroup
users can't see messages older than a few weeks, because they are
using newsreaders, which receive only the newest newsgroup articles
from newsservers. But if you still want to discuss about an old
subject, it is wise to create a new thread and to take some points
from the original thread with your thoughts included so people using
newsreaders will know what you are talking about.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How can I include international characters, like European
(e.g. Icelandic), Cyrillic (e.g. Russian), Arabic, Hebrew,
Chinese, etc. characters into my postings?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

After you have clicked "Start a new topic", select the language after
the text "Language:".

You can test the encodings in a test newsgroup, for example in
newsgroups misc.test, or comp.test.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How many newsgroups are there?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

The authoritative file listed over 42,000 "official" newsgroups on
February 2004. There are also some newsgroups, which aren't on the
list:

ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/CONFIG/active/
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Usenet/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: What is DejaNews?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

DejaNews was a Usenet archive, which was acquired by Google on
February 2001:

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/pressrelease48.html
http://groups.google.com/googlegroups/deja_syntax.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Is Google Groups a message board?
Q: Are Google discussion groups same as Usenet newsgroups?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Google Groups is not a message board. Google Groups is a Usenet
archive, which contained more than 845 million archived newsgroup
messages in February 2004. Archived newsgroup messages date back to
year 1981 (Usenet was created in 1979).

In addition to reading and posting to Usenet newsgroups, you can also
create your own Google discussion groups. Google discussion groups
are different from Usenet groups, because you can read Usenet
newsgroups with a newsreader (and also with Google Groups), but you
can't read Google discussion groups with a newsreader.

http://www.google.com/googlegroups/archive_announce_20.html
http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/6billion.html
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=90cbefb1.0112211728.4cfe9bb%40po...
http://www.google.com/googlegroups/about.html#usenet
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2001/12/21/usenet.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Why does it take so long for my post to show up in Google Groups?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

There are over 42,000 newsgroups, and Google Groups archives many of
them (over 35,000). Google Groups has newsgroup messages dating back
to 1981 and there are over 845 million messages in the archive. That
is a huge amount of information to deal with.

In addition to Usenet newsgroups, Google Groups also archives Google
discussion groups.

http://www.google.com/googlegroups/archive_announce_20.html
http://groups.google.com/googlegroups/deja_announcement.html
http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/pressrelease48.html
http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/6billion.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: I have found a newsgroup that isn't archived by Google Groups. How
can I ask it to be added to Google Groups?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Contact groups-supp...@google.com.

http://www.google.com/googlegroups/help.html#added

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: I have a question that doesn't relate to this newsgroup, where can
I ask it?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Search for the most appropriate newsgroup and ask there:

http://www.geocities.com/findnewsgroup/
http://www.cyberfiber.com/index.html
http://www.harley.com/usenet/
http://tile.net/news/
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Usenet/Search/
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Usenet/Newsgroup_Directories/

You can ask for most appropriate newsgroup from a newbie newsgroup:

http://groups.google.com/groups?group=news.newusers.questions

If you are willing to pay for an answer, see Google Answers:

http://answers.google.com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Can I post commercial advertisements in
google.public.support.general?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

"this group explicitly prohibits The posting of commercial
advertisements or other promotional material"

"If you would like to report abuse on google.public.support.general,
send an email to groups-ab...@google.com."

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=90cbefb1.0109041229.7985b8fc%40p...

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Where is the Group Charter for this newsgroup?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=90cbefb1.0109041229.7985b8fc%40p...

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Do Google employees post to this newsgroup?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Yes, but not often. Here are some of their posts:

http://groups.google.com/groups?&q=author:googleguy%40google.com+
http://groups.google.com/groups?&q=author:groupmonitor%40google.com+

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Where can I report problems with Google Groups Beta?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

You can use this feedback page:

http://groups-beta.google.com/support/bin/request.py

Or you can send email to Google Groups Beta:

groups-supp...@google.com (groups-support @ google.com)
labs-grou...@google.com (labs-groups2 @ google.com)

Or you can post a message to this discussion group:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/google-labs-groups2

This message contains a list of some the bugs and problems that have
been reported so far:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/google-labs-groups2/msg/b54c12517...

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Are there other official Google discussion groups and/or mailing
lists?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

----------------------------------------------------------------------

=============
3. WEBMASTERS
=============

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: I have a question about my site. Can you help me without me
giving the URL of my site?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

In many cases it's quite difficult to help people without knowing
the URL.

We aren't psychics in google.public.support.general.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: My new site appeared in the Google results for a few days, but now
it has disappeared. Why?

A: From Martin Hagstrøm (m...@altavista.net):

New sites are picked up by the Google FreshBot, but they are dropped a
few days later. It may take several weeks before your site is
permanently included in Google. One reason is that Google keeps copies
of its index on several different data centers, and whenever you
search, you may get connected to a different data center. It takes a
while to update all the data centers.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Why is it that some days my site is listed (lately in the top
position) and on other days it isn't?

A: From Craig (cbpa...@gmail.com)

they may be tweaking algorithms; they maybe temporarily reverting to
old indexes at some datacenters; they maybe brining in missing
backlinks for some sites; they maybe testing spam filters; they
maybe....; is there a full moon tonight?

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How do I determine if my web pages are in the Google index?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Your web pages should be in the index if your PageRank is 0 or higher
or you can find some of your pages with one of these searches:
[keywords on your page] or [URL of your page] or [site:your.domain]
or [link:your.url].

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: I can't find anymore any web pages of my site. Is it banned?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

You shouldn't be banned if your PageRank is 0 or higher or you can
find some of your pages with one of these searches:
[site:your.domain] or [link:your.url].

After the Florida update (November 2003) for a while you could also
find your site by excluding a made-up nonsense word:
[site:your.domain -gduyrse].

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: I'm quite sure by site is banned. How can I get it back to Google
search results?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Send re-inclusion request to h...@google.com.

http://www.google.com/webmasters/2.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How do I submit my site to Google?

A: From Martin Hagstrøm (m...@altavista.net):

You could use this URL: http://www.google.com/addurl.html. But
generally it's best to let Google find your site by having some other
sites point to yours.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Will my site be banned if I submit it too often?

A: From Martin Hagstrøm (m...@altavista.net):

No, That would make it too easy to get your competition's site banned
;-) But again: there's really no need to submit your site to Google.
Let Google find it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Why don't the keywords in my meta tags have any effect?

A: From JB (jtb5...@yahoo.com):

Google ignores the "keywords" meta tag because it's too easy to spam
with it. So do most other search engines, by the way. Google *does*
use the "description" meta tag sometimes, I think when it contains
exactly the keywords being searched for, *and* those keywords are also
visible on the page in the body text, title, etc.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: We have a new version of our website, but when you search in
Google for information about our website, the search result still
points to the old web pages. What would be the process to have the
search pointing at the new website pages?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Google advises a 301 permanent redirect. Depends on your webhost what
you can do. Contact your webhost and search for [301 redirect], [301
redirect apache], [301 redirect asp], [301 redirect iis], or similar.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Someone copied my entire website. What should I do now?

A: From Craig (cbpa...@gmail.com):

You have a case under the Digital Millenium Copyright act. Here is
what you do:

1) Burn a screen shot of your site and his site to a CD. Post this to
yourself registered/certified mail. Do not open it. This can be used
as evidence at a later date.

2) Write him (or preferably from your lawyer) a cease and desist
letter - tell them about step one (this makes it sound you are
serious)

3) Write to his ISP (preferably from your lawyer) - give them 48hrs to
take the site down or they will be named as a party to legal action re
copyright(tell them about step one)

4) Lodge a complaint with Google under the DMCA:
http://www.google.com/dmca.html

5) Court action is too expensive, but at least step one makes you
sound serious.

6) If you want to get nasty - send a nice email all those sites that
link to him telling them what a scumbag he is and that they should not
link to such a low life (this will affect his Google rankings)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How does my mirror site affect my Google PageRank?

A: From Craig (cbpa...@gmail.com):

Duplicate content gets booted from the index.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Somehow a private document has been made public through Google.
How can it be removed from Google search results?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

http://www.google.com/webmasters/3.html#removed
http://www.google.com/remove.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Where can I see the dates of the previous Google updates?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2657.htm

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How search engine spiders see my web pages?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Use a search engine simulator or lynx to see that.

Search engine simulators:

http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/sim_spider.cgi
http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php

lynx:

http://lynx.browser.org/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Why Googlebot comes only to my first page, but it never follows
the links into the rest of the site?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Google doesn't crawl deeper into new and low PageRank sites.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: Why Googlebot is downloading the same file over and over again?

A: From Craig (cbpa...@gmail.com):

Email Google and tell them as this is a bandwidth issue:
google...@google.com.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: What are the IP addresses of search engine spiders (including
Googlebots)?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

http://www.searchengineworld.com/spiders/spider_ips.htm
http://www.iplists.com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: What is robots.txt?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

http://www.robotstxt.org/wc/faq.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: What is Google Dance?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

When Google's index was updated about once a month, the Google data
centers displayed different search results for the same search for a
few days until the update settled. Because search results were varying
from server to server, the search results were "dancing". And that's
where the term "Google Dance" comes from. In mid-2003 Google started
to update the index continuously. It seems that an update of the
complete index still happens once in a while.

http://dance.efactory.de/
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2657.htm

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: What are the Google data centers?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Google adds and changes data centers now and then. At the moment
(February 2004) the main data centers are:

www.google.com
www2.google.com
www3.google.com
www-ab.google.com
www-dc.google.com
www-cw.google.com
www-fi.google.com
www-ex.google.com
www-gv.google.com
www-in.google.com
www-kr.google.com
www-lm.google.com
www-mc.google.com
www-sj.google.com
www-va.google.com
www-zu.google.com

http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/google-data-centers.htm

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: What is the PageRank?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

PageRank Explained
http://www.google.com/technology/index.html

The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine
by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page
http://www-db.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html

The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web
by Lawrence Page, Sergey Brin, Rajeev Motwani and Terry Winograd
http://dbpubs.stanford.edu:8090/pub/1999-66/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How can I see the PageRank number for a website?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

You can see it with the Google Toolbar (requires Internet Explorer):

http://toolbar.google.com/

Or you can use these pages:

http://www.top25web.com/pagerank.php
http://www.prsearch.net/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Q: How can I make my site rank higher in search results?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.h...@gmail.com):

Here are some tips:

Do:

- get links from other sites pointing to your site (preferably from
high PageRank sites)
- make good content to your pages (to get links you need to have good
content)
- submit your site to search engines (for example Google, Yahoo!,
AltaVista)
- submit site to directories (for example DMOZ, JoeAnt, GoGuides,
MavicaNet, Yahoo! Directory)
- make a site map with static links pointing to the main sections of
your site
- use timely topics: update content when needed

Extras:

- create a discussion forum where people can discuss about subjects
- create page(s) containing news about current issues

Caution:

- frames, dynamically generated pages, Java, Flash, and Shockwave may
cause problems for web spiders (you might want avoid those
technologies on the first page of your site)

Avoid:

- avoid HTML errors
- avoid spelling errors
- avoid broken links
- avoid keyword stuffing
- avoid too high keyword density
- avoid hidden text or hidden links
- a