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

Last modified: January 9th, 2009
Posting frequency: once a month
URL: http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/google-general-faq (Who's computer is this?)


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

This article includes answers to questions that appeared especially
frequently in the old Google newsgroup google.public.support.general.
This newsgroup has been replaced by other official Google forums and
Google employees no longer post here and it may be full of spam if
you visit it. The web version of the FAQ is still kept for its useful
information and might still get updated sometimes. And of course the
monthly posted newsgroup versions are still available. This FAQ 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 (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

1. Google Web Search

Q: How do I clear information about my previous searches?
Q: How do I stop my previous searches from appearing when I type in a
new search term?
Q: How do I clear the history information of previously visited
web pages?
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 am I getting all these popups from Google?
Q: Why can't I access Google or some other search engines?
Q: How can I adjust the settings of my web browser to make browsing
the web pages safer?
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 change the language Google uses on its web 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 allow cookies for Google?
Q: How can I delete cookies for Google?
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 24 hours,
week, month or year?
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 was 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 automatically quote messages in Google Groups?
Q: What quoting styles and techniques can I use?
Q: How can I change my email address in Google Groups?
Q: My messages have disappeared. Where are they?
Q: How can I check the threads on what I post?
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 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?
Q: Are there other official and unofficial Google forums?

3. Webmasters

Q: My web site has never been indexed by Google. Why?
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: Why isn't my web site on the first page of search results (my web
site is indexed by Google)?
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 do I need incoming links pointing to my web site?
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: Does Google index dynamic pages?
Q: Does Google crawl JavaScript?
Q: Someone copied my entire website. What should I do now?
Q: How does my mirror site affect my Google PageRank?
Q: How can I remove a page or a site from Google search results?
Q: Why Googlebot comes only to my first page, but it never follows
the links into the rest of the site?
Q: How can I stop Googlebot from downloading the same file over and
over again?
Q: How can I stop Googlebot from downloading too fast?
Q: How can I stop Googlebot from crawling my web site altogether?
Q: What is robots.txt?
Q: What is robots meta tag?
Q: How do I recognize visits from search engine spiders (including
Googlebots) in my log file?
Q: How search engine spiders see my web pages?
Q: Can search engine spiders access my web site?
Q: How can I help my web site rank higher on a national Google
search for a certain country?
Q: Where can I see the dates of the previous Google updates?
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 web page?
Q: How can I make my site rank higher in search results?
Q: How do I avoid my site getting banned by Google?
Q: Are there any webmaster tools or services?
Q: Are there any SEO tools?

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: I have installed Google Toolbar. Where is it?
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 (Google Mail)

Q: After I have logged in to 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: What is google.public.support.general?
Q: How can I read google.public.support.general with a newsreader?
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 add feeds to Google?
Q: Does Google offer a webhosting service?
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?

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

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

Q: How do I clear information about my previous searches?

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

Depending on what web browser you use, your previous searches can be
saved as form information, history information and cache information.
See questions "How do I stop my previous searches from appearing when
I type in a new search term?", "How do I clear the history information
of previously visited web pages?" (see the next two questions), and
"How can I empty the browser's cache?" (see section 6).

If you have Google Toolbar installed, see also question "How can I
clear the search history in Google Toolbar?" (see section 5).

If you are using the Google Web History service, go to page
http://www.google.com/history/ (Who's computer is this?) and sign in, so you can remove
previous searches if you have saved any searches.

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

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

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

Some web browsers save information you type into web pages (known as
form information). Instructions for some web browsers:

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 (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=465&topic=352 (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/using/howto/customizing/autocomplete.mspx (Who's computer is this?)

If you are using Internet Explorer 7, click "Tools", select "Internet
Options", click "General" tab, push "Delete...", push "Delete
forms...", and then "Yes" button. If you want to remove individual
search queries, see instructions for Internet Explorer 6 above.

If you have a program that uses Internet Explorer, such as another
browser or an add-on for Internet Explorer (for example MSN Explorer,
Avant Browser, or Maxthon Browser), see the instructions for Internet
Explorer above. You may need to close that browser or add-on before
clearing the form information.

If you have Mozilla Firefox 0.x or 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 you have Mozilla Firefox 0.9 or above,
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 (or use
Down arrow key), and delete individual searches by moving the mouse
cursor (or use Down arrow key) over one of the search queries and
press Shift + Delete on keyboard (press Shift key and keep it pressed,
then press Delete key once and release it, finally release Shift key).

If you have Mozilla Firefox 2.x, click "Tools", select "Options",
click "Privacy", click "Clear Now...", check "Saved Form and Search
History", push "Clear Private Data Now" button.

If you are using Netscape 8, at the top part of the Netscape browser
window there should a Location bar (also called address field). Type
about:config into the Location bar (and press Enter). Now you should
see a text field (also called a text box) right to text "Filter:".
Type browser.formfill.enable to the text field. Now you should see
under the text field "browser.formfill.enable". Double-click it to
change it from value true to false. 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 (or use Down arrow key), and delete
individual searches by moving the mouse cursor (or use Down arrow key)
over one of the search queries and press Shift + Delete on keyboard
(press Shift key and keep it pressed, then press Delete key once and
release it, finally release Shift key).

If you are using Netscape 8 in Windows, and you want to use Internet
Explorer engine for Google, you can also do this: go to the main page
of Google (you can do the same procedure for the national domains 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 (jtb5358@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: How do I clear the history information of previously visited
web pages?

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

Instructions for some web browsers:

If you are using Internet Explorer 6, click "Tools", select "Internet
Options", push "Clear History" button. If you don't want documents to
be added to the history, change the value to 0 (zero) in "Days to keep
pages in history". If you want to remove individual documents in
history, click the "History" button in Standard Buttons toolbar,
right-click a web site or a document and select "Delete" (you may need
to add the "History" button to the Standard Buttons toolbar:
right-click the toolbar, select "Customize...", and add the "History"
button from "Available toolbar buttons" section to "Current toolbar
buttons" section).

If you are using Internet Explorer 7, click "Tools", select "Internet
Options", click "General" tab, push "Delete...", push "Delete
history...", and then "Yes" button.

If you have a program that uses Internet Explorer, such as another
browser or an add-on for Internet Explorer (for example MSN Explorer,
Avant Browser, or Maxthon Browser), see the instructions for Internet
Explorer above. You may need to close that browser or add-on before
clearing history.

If you have Mozilla Firefox 0.x or 1.x, click "Tools", select
"Options...", click "Privacy", click "History", push "Clear" (Firefox
0.x or 1.x) button or "Clear Browsing History Now" (Firefox 1.5.x)
button. In Firefox 1.5.x if you don't want documents to be added to
the history, change the value to 0 (zero) in "Remember visited pages
for the last" ... "days". If you want to remove individual documents
in history, click the "History" button in Navigation Toolbar,
right-click a folder or a document and select "Delete" (you may need
to add the "History" button to the Navigation Toolbar: right-click the
toolbar, select "Customize...", and drag the "History" button to the
toolbar).

If you have Mozilla Firefox 2.x, click "Tools", select "Options",
click "Privacy", click "Clear Now...", check "Browsing History",
push "Clear Private Data Now" button.

If you have Mozilla (Mozilla Suite) 1.x, click "Edit", select
"Preferences...", expand "Navigator", click "History", push "Clear
History" button. If you don't want web documents to be added to the
history, change the value to 0 (zero) in "Remember visited pages for
the last" ... "days". You may need to close the browser to get the
history cleared.

If you have Netscape Navigator (Communicator) 4.x, click "Edit",
select "Preferences...", click "Navigator", push "Clear History"
("Expire Now" on Mac OS). If you don't want documents to be added to
the history, change the value to 0 (zero) in "Pages in history expire
after" ("Visited links expire" on Mac OS). If you want to remove
individual documents in history, click "Communicator", select "Tools",
select "History" and in History window right-click a document and
select "Delete".

If you have Netscape 7.x, click "Edit", select "Preferences...", click
"Navigator", push "Clear History". If you don't want documents to be
added to the history, change the value to 0 (zero) in "Remember
visited pages for the last" ... "days". If you want to remove
individual documents in history, click "Go", select "History" and in
History window right-click a folder, a web site or a document and
select "Delete".

If you have Netscape Browser 8.x, click "Tools", select "Options...",
click "Privacy", expand "Page History", push "Clear". If you don't
want documents to be added to the history, change the value to 0
(zero) in "Remember visited pages for the last" ... "days". If you
want to remove individual documents in history, click "Go", select
"History" and in History section right-click a folder, a web site or a
document and select "Delete".

If you have Opera 8.x or 9.x, click "Tools", select "Preferences...",
"Advanced", "History", click "Clear" button next to "Typed in
addresses" and "Visited addresses" (Opera 8) or click "Clear" button
next to "Addresses" (Opera 9). If you don't want web documents to be
added to the history, change the value to 0 (zero) in "Typed in
addresses" and "Visited addresses" (Opera 8) or "Addresses" (Opera 9).
If you want to remove individual documents in history, click "Tools",
select "History", and in History window right-click a document and
select "Delete".

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

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 am I getting all these popups from Google?

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

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

One quick scan with only one spyware remover using an old spyware
database probably won't find all the spyware, so install, update and
use all of the below free (or trial version) programs with the full
scan option even though it can take hours before you have used them
all: CWShredder, Ad-aware, Spybot - Search & Destroy, SpywareBlaster,
RapidBlaster Killer, SpyRemover, Spy Sweeper, and Windows Defender:

http://www.download.com/CWShredder/3000-8022_4-10301587.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.safer-networking.org/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.wilderssecurity.net/specialinfo/rapidblaster.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.spychecker.com/program/spyremover.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.download.com/Webroot-Spy-Sweeper/3000-8022_4-10192729.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx (Who's computer is this?)

Use a virus scanner also. Here are some free virus scanners (if you
don't already have a virus scanner):

http://www.free-av.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.avast.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.ca.com/us/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx (Who's computer is this?)

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 for assistance:

HijackThis:

http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html (Who's computer is this?)

Spyware and security forums:

http://boards.cexx.org/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/index.php (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/cleanup (Who's computer is this?)

Spyware newsgroup:

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.privacy.spyware (Who's computer is this?)

Also, you might have trojan Qhosts:

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2003-100116-5901-99 (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.ca.com/us/securityadvisor/virusinfo/virus.aspx?id=37191 (Who's computer is this?)

Malware may reside in your computer's memory and disable or fool your
security software, so to effectively remove malware from your computer
you may need start Windows in Safe Mode, which means you need to tap
continually the F8 key when your computer begins to boot until you see
a menu where you can select Safe Mode:

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm (Who's computer is this?)
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc787501.aspx (Who's computer is this?)

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/ (Who's computer is this?)

More about spyware, parasites and hosts files:

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.imilly.com/google.htm (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.doxdesk.com/parasite/ (Who's computer is this?)

Security directory pages:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Security/Internet/Products_and_Tools/Security_Scanners/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Security/Malicious_Software/Spyware_and_Adware/Detection_and_Removal_Tools/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Security/Malicious_Software/Viruses/Products/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Security/Malicious_Software/Trojan_Horses/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Freeware/Security/ (Who's computer is this?)

Free toolbars with pop-up blockers:

http://toolbar.google.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://companion.yahoo.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

Free firewalls:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Security/Firewalls/Products/Personal_Firewalls/ (Who's computer is this?)

Other tips:

Use an up-to-date virus scanner and a firewall.

Avoid using disreputable spyware tools (some of them might even
install more spyware to your computer):

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm (Who's computer is this?)

Make browsing the web pages safer by disabling features such as
scripting, Java and ActiveX, see question "How can I adjust the
settings of my web browser to make browsing the web pages safer?".

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

Q: Why can't I access Google or some other search engines?

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

Sometimes browser's full cache memory can cause various problems. Try
to clear browser's cache memory and then reload the web page (see
section 6).

If that doesn't help, try to search for spyware from your computer,
which can prevent you from accessing some web sites (see question
above).

If that doesn't help either, then your ISP (internet service provider)
might have DNS or some other problems. You could contact your ISP if
the problem persists.

If there is only one search engine you can't access (for example
Google), you might want to contact that search engine company, because
it might have for example DNS problems.

If you can't use your Gmail account, look at the Gmail section in this
FAQ.

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

Q: How can I adjust the settings of my web browser to make browsing
the web pages safer?

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

Instructions for some web browsers (you may need to have Administrator
rights for the computer):

If you are using Internet Explorer 6 or 7, select "Tools", "Internet
Options", click the "Security" tab, select "Internet", push the
"Custom Level..." button, select "Disable" (or "Prompt", or similar)
for ActiveX, Scripting and Java options (for example "Download signed
ActiveX", "Download unsigned ActiveX", "Initialize and script ActiveX
controls not marked as safe", "Run ActiveX controls marked safe for
scripting", "Active scripting", "Java permissions") and also for some
other options, such as "Allow META REFRESH", "Display mixed content",
"Drag and drop or copy and paste files", "Installation of desktop
items", "Launching programs and files in an IFRAME", "Navigate
sub-frames across different domains". Some sites you are using may
need for example scripting so if you think you can trust a site (for
example your bank or a search engine), you can add it to the trusted
sites: in Internet Explorer 6 or 7 select "Tools", "Internet Options",
click the "Security" tab, select "Trusted sites", push the "Sites"
button, and add the trusted site (for example type *.google.com and
press "Add" button).

If you have Mozilla Firefox 0.x or 1.x, select "Tools", "Options...",
click "Web Features", uncheck "Allow web sites to install software",
"Enable Java", and "Enable JavaScript". Some sites you are using may
need for example scripting so if you think you can trust a site (for
example your bank or a search engine), you may need to allow for
example JavaScript while you visit a web site you trust.

If you have Mozilla Firefox 2.x, select "Tools", "Options...", click
"Content", uncheck "Enable JavaScript" and "Enable Java". Some sites
you are using may need for example scripting so if you think you can
trust a site (for example your bank or a search engine), you may need
to allow for example JavaScript while you visit a web site you trust.

If you are using Mozilla (also known as Mozilla Suite) 1.x, select
"Edit", "Preferences...", click "Web Features", click the plus (+)
sign next to "Advanced", click "Scripts & Plug-ins", uncheck
"Navigator" and "Mail & Newsgroups". Some sites you are using may need
for example scripting so if you think you can trust a site (for
example your bank or a search engine), you may need to allow for
example JavaScript while you visit a web site you trust.

If you are using Netscape 4, select "Edit", "Preferences...", click
"Advanced", uncheck "Enable Java", and "Enable JavaScript". Some sites
you are using may need for example scripting so if you think you can
trust a site (for example your bank or a search engine), you may need
to allow for example JavaScript while you visit a web site you trust.

If you are using Netscape 7, select "Edit", "Preferences...", click
the triangle next to "Advanced" until the triangle points to down,
click "Advanced", uncheck "Enable Java" and "Enable native object
scripting", click "Software Installation" (or similar) and uncheck
"Enable software installation". Some sites you are using may need for
example scripting so if you think you can trust a site (for example
your bank or a search engine), you may need to allow for example
JavaScript while you visit a web site you trust.

If you are using Netscape 8, select "Tools", "Options...", click
"Site Controls", click "Trust Preferences" tab, select "Do Not Use
Netscape Trust Ratings", and after the text "Always use this setting
as a default" select "I Don't Trust This Site". Some sites you are
using may need for example scripting so if you think you can trust a
site (for example your bank or a search engine), you can add it to the
trusted sites: in Netscape 8 go to the site you think you can trust
(for example http://www.google.com/intl/en/ (Who's computer is this?) ), click the exclamation
mark (!) in the tab which is for the site you are viewing, click
"Trust Settings" tab, select "I Trust This Site", push "Done".

If you are using Opera 8 or 9, select "Tools", "Preferences...", click
"Advanced" tab, select "Content", uncheck "Enable JavaScript", and
"Enable Java". Some sites you are using may need for example scripting
so if you think you can trust a site (for example your bank or a
search engine), you may need to allow for example JavaScript: go to
"Tools", "Preferences", "Advanced", "Content", "Manage site
preferences" and edit (or add) the settings for the site you trust:
select the site, push "Edit", click "Scripting" tab, check "Enable
JavaScript", push "OK", "Close" and "OK".

If you are using HotJava Browser 3, select "Edit", "Security
Preferences...", select "Advanced", click "Applets and JavaScript",
uncheck "Enable Applets", and "Enable JavaScript". Click "OK". Some
sites you are using may need for example scripting so if you think you
can trust a site, you may need to allow for example JavaScript while
you visit a web site you trust (for example your bank or a search
engine).

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

Q: How do I report spam to Google?

A: From Martin Hagstrøm (mha@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 (Who's computer is this?)

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 Payne (cbpayne@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 (mha@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.hasa@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 national Google
sites (for example to www.google.co.uk), try to click the link "Go to
Google.com" (or similar) on the national Google main page or go to
page http://www.google.com/ncr (Who's computer is this?)

If that doesn't help, your cookies might be corrupted, so try to
delete your cookies for Google. Also, make sure your web browser and
security software still allow cookies for Google:

http://www.google.com/help/faq.html#eng_home (Who's computer is this?)

If you can't or don't want to allow cookies for Google, you can use
one of the below pages and save it to your web browser's bookmarks
(favorites):

http://www.google.com/webhp (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/intl/en/ (Who's computer is this?)

If you don't mind being redirected, but you are redirected to an
incorrect national Google domain, you can contact Google:

http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=873&topic=354 (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How can I change the language Google uses on its web pages?

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

You can change your language setting on page
http://www.google.com/preferences (Who's computer is this?)

You may need to change the language settings for the international
Google domain (google.com) and for your local/national Google domain
(for example google.co.uk).

If you are using a Gmail account, try changing the language setting
for your Gmail account also ("Settings", "General", "Language").

If that doesn't help, your cookies might be corrupted, so try to
delete your cookies for Google. Also, make sure your web browser and
security software still allow cookies for Google:

http://www.google.com/help/faq.html#eng_home (Who's computer is this?)

If you can't or don't want to allow cookies for Google, you should
find a language interface for your language (if one exists) on page

http://www.google.com/language_tools (Who's computer is this?)

You could also try to move up your preferred language (you may need to
add that language first) in the language settings of your browser. If
you have Internet Explorer 7, select "Tools", "Internet Options",
click the "General" tab, and press the "Languages" button. If you have
Mozilla Firefox 2, select "Tools", "Options...", "Advanced", and press
the "Choose..." button under the "Languages" heading. If you have
Opera 9, select "Tools", "Preferences...", click the "General" tab,
and press the "Details..." button near the "Languages" heading.

http://www.google.com/help/faq.html#display (Who's computer is this?)

If you can't see the characters for your language correctly try a
different character encoding in your web browser (for example
"Western", "Unicode", "ISO-8859-1", "UTF-8", etc.). If you have
Internet Explorer 7, select "View" and "Encoding". If you have Mozilla
Firefox 2, select "View", and "Character Encoding". If you have Opera
9, select "View", and "Encoding".

If you still can't see the characters for your language correctly, you
may need to install the correct language files for your operating
system. If you have the Windows operating system, push "Start" button,
select "Settings", select "Control Panel", double-click "Regional and
Language Options", click the "Languages" tab. There you may need to
select "Install files for complex script and right-to-left languages
(including Thai)" or "Install files for East Asian languages". The
settings in different Windows versions may differ. Also, you probably
need to have administrator rights for your computer and the Windows
installation disc.

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

Q: How can I save preferences for Google?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.hasa@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/ (Who's computer is this?) and click "Advanced Search" (or
similar) link on that page.

2. Choose the settings you want to use (search language, number of
results per page, etc.) and click "Advanced Search" (or similar)
button.

3. 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&newwindow=1&safe=active&output=search (Who's computer is this?)

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 (Who's computer is this?) 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/ (Who's computer is this?) where the code is "en" for English.

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.

You can find a list of the interface language codes (hl=) and search
language (lr=lang_) codes here:

http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/google-language-codes (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

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

Q: How can I allow cookies for Google?

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

Check the settings for your web browser and for your security software
(virus scanner, firewall, ad blocker, etc.), which may block or delete
your cookies. Instructions for some web browsers on how to allow
cookies:

If you are using Internet Explorer 6 or 7, 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" (IE6) or "Sites" (IE7), type google.com in the field and push
"Allow", "OK" and "OK".

If you have Mozilla Firefox 0.x or 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 Mozilla Firefox 2.x, click "Tools", select "Options...",
click "Privacy", push "Exceptions", type google.com in the field, push
"Allow", "Close", and "OK".

If you have Mozilla 1.x (Mozilla Suite), 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 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 8 or 9, 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: In Opera 8 click "Tools", select
"Preferences...", click "Cookies", under text "Normal cookies" select
"Let me decide every time I receive one", or "Accept all cookies" and
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 your
national Google domain (for example google.co.uk). In Opera 9 click
"Tools", select "Preferences...", click "Cookies", select "Accept
cookies" or "Accept only cookies from the site I visit", and to make
sure you are allowing cookies for Google, push "Manage cookies...",
push "Add...", click "General", type google.com, click "Cookies",
select "Accept cookies" or "Accept only cookies from the site I
visit", push "OK", "Close", and "OK" and do the same for your national
Google domain (for example google.co.uk).

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

Q: How can I delete cookies for Google?

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

If you are using Internet Explorer 6 or 7, click "Tools", select
"Internet Options", click "General" tab, push the "Settings" button
under the "Browsing history" (or "Temporary Internet files") heading,
push the "View files" button, press the "Internet Address" or "Type"
column headings to find more easily cookies for Google, right-click
the name of the cookie and select "Delete". If you are using Internet
Explorer 6, and you want to delete all the cookies for all the
services at once, click "Tools", select "Internet Options", and push
the "Delete Files" files button. If you are using Internet Explorer 7,
and you want to delete all the cookies for all the services at once,
click "Tools", select "Internet Options", click "General" tab, push
"Delete..." button, and press "Delete cookies..." button.

If you have Mozilla Firefox 2.x, click "Tools", select "Options...",
click "Privacy", push "Show Cookies..." button, delete cookies for
Google. If you want to delete all the cookies for all the services at
once, push the "Remove All Cookies" button.

If you have Mozilla Firefox 1.x, click "Tools", select "Options...",
click "Privacy", select "Cookies", push "View Cookies" button, delete
cookies for Google. If you want to delete all the cookies for all the
services at once, push the "Remove All Cookies" button.

If you have Mozilla 1.x (Mozilla Suite), click "Edit", select
"Preferences...", expand "Privacy & Security" section by pressing the
"+" character next to it, select "Cookies", push "Cookie Manager"
button, click "Stored Cookies" tab, delete cookies for Google. If you
want to delete all the cookies for all the services at once, push the
"Remove All Cookies" button.

If you have Netscape 8, click "Tools", select "Options...", select
"Privacy", select "Cookies", push "View Cookies", delete cookies for
Google. If you want to delete all the cookies for all the services at
once, push the "Remove All Cookies" button.

If you have Opera 8 or 9, click "Tools", select "Preferences...",
click "Advanced" tab, click "Cookies", push "Manage cookies..."
button, remove cookies for Google.

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

Q: How can I make Google my home page?

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

See instructions here:

http://www.google.com/options/defaults.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=463 (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

http://www.google.com/ie (Who's computer is this?)

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

http://googlerankings.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

See Google Zeitgeist:

http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

Explained here:

http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=30735 (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

Google doesn't support special characters very well, because it
ignores most of them in search queries. 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.hasa@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 24 hours,
week, month or year?
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.hasa@gmail.com):

Use page http://www.google.com/advanced_search (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

Here are some of them:

Basic operators:

+
Include a common word or a character in search results by putting
a + in front of it. For example include the common word "the" in
search results:
term1 +the term2

-
Exclude a word or a character from your search results by putting
a - in front of it. For example include term1 and exclude term2
in search results:
term1 -term2

~
Include synonyms for a word in search results by putting a ~ in
front of it. For example show results for the words car, auto,
automobile, truck, etc.:
~car

*
Replace any single word in a phrase. For example search for
phrases "term1 and term2", "term1 or term2", "term1 with term2",
etc.:
"term1 * term2"

""
Search for complete phrases by enclosing them in quotation
marks. For example search for phrase "term1 term2":
"term1 term2"

..
Search for a numeric range. For example search DVD players in the
price range from 250 to 350 US dollars:
DVD player $250..$350

OR
Show documents that include the word left to OR, or the word
right to OR, but not both on the same document. For example
search for documents that have term1 (but not term2) or term2
(but not term1):
term1 OR term2

Site and page specific operators:

cache:
Google's version of the page in Google's cache. For example show
cached version of Google's main page:
cache:http://www.google.com/

link:
List webpages that link to the specified webpage. For example
show webpages that link to the Google's main page:
link:http://www.google.com/

related:
List webpages that are "similar" to the specified web page. For
example show pages that Google thinks are similar to the Google's
main page:
related:http://www.google.com/

info:
Show some information that Google has about the specified web
page. For example show some information about the Google's main
page:
info:http://www.google.com/

site:
Restrict results to a given domain. For example search for the
term FAQ from documents in the google.com domain:
FAQ site:google.com

Search for terms from a particular area of a document:

allintext:
Return only pages that have all the words you entered in the
text of the page. For example show documents where all the words
(Make Google Your Homepage) are in the text of the document:
allintext:Make Google Your Homepage

intext:
Return only documents that have the first word after the
"intext:" in the text of the page and other words anywhere in the
document (in text of the page or not). For example search for
documents that have the word Google in the text of the page and
other words (Labs Beta) anywhere in the document:
intext:Google Labs Beta

allintitle:
Return only documents that have all the words you entered in the
title. For example search for documents that have the words
Google Directory in the title of the document:
allintitle:Google Directory

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). For example show documents that have the word
Google in title and other words (Make Google Your Homepage)
anywhere in the document:
intitle:Google Make Google Your Homepage

allinurl:
Return only documents that have all the words you entered in the
URL. For example search for URLs that have the words google
groups:
allinurl:google groups

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). For example show documents where google.com is
in URL and other words (Site Map) are anywhere in the document:
inurl:google.com Site Map

allinanchor:
Return results where the terms occur in links to the page. For
example show documents that have the words Google News in links
to the page:
allinanchor:Google News

inanchor:
Return only documents that have the first term after the
"inanchor:" in links to the page and other words anywhere in the
document (in links to the page or not). For example search for
documents that have the word Google in links to the page and
other words (news archive) anywhere in the document:
inanchor:Google news archive

Miscellaneous operators:

filetype:
Find documents of the specified type. For example search for PDF
documents with the word Google:
Google filetype:PDF

define:
Provide a definition of the words you enter from various online
sources. For example search for a definition for ISP:
define:ISP

phonebook:
Show phonebook listings. For example search for computer related
companies from California:
phonebook:computers CA

stocks:
Show stock information for the symbols you enter. For example
show stock information for the Google stock:
stocks:GOOG

weather
Show weather information for a location. For example show weather
information for Mountain View in California:
weather Mountain View CA

movie:
Search for movie reviews and showtimes. For example search for
movies made in 2005:
movie:2005

daterange:
Search for documents indexed by Google in a particular date
range. You can use a date converter service to create the
"Julian date" numbers (for example
http://www.numerical-recipes.com/julian.html (Who's computer is this?) ). For example find
documents that contain the words Google FAQ and are indexed by
Google on January 1, 2005 or June 16, 2005 or between those
dates:
Google FAQ daterange:2453385-2453551

Operators used in Google Groups:

author:
Search for articles that contain a name or email address in the
"From:" field of an article. For example find articles that are
probably posted by a Google employee:
author:Google author:Employee
author:groupmonitor@google.com
author:googleguy@google.com

group:
Search from a specific Google discussion group or Usenet
newsgroup. For example search for articles that contain the words
Google Toolbar and which are posted to the official Google
support discussion group:
Google Toolbar group:google.public.support.general

allinsubject:
Find articles that have all the words in the "Subject:" line of
the article. For example search for articles that have the words
Google Update in the "Subject:" line:
allinsubject:Google Update

insubject:
Return only documents that have the first word after the
"insubject:" in the "Subject:" line of the article and other
words anywhere in the article (in the "Subject:" line or not).
For example search for articles that have the word Google in the
"Subject:" line of the article and the word Toolbar anywhere in
the article:
insubject:Google Toolbar

http://www.google.com/help/operators.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=searchguides.html&ctx=advanced (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How can I make Boolean searches?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.hasa@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 (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How can I search from a specific country?

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

Go to http://www.google.com/language_tools (Who's computer is this?) 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.hasa@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.hasa@gmail.com):

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

http://www.google.com/advanced_search (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/preferences (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=searchguides.html&ctx=preferences#safe (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: Where can I find commands for the Calculator?

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

Visit page http://www.google.com/help/calculator.html (Who's computer is this?)

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

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.hasa@gmail.com):

Google hasn't documented all the features of the Calculator (February
2004). 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.hasa@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.hasa@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/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: What was Supplemental Result?

Google has removed supplemental results approximately in year 2008.
Supplemental Results enabled users to find results for queries beyond
Google's main index.

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?&answer=73028 (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: What is Cached page?

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

A Cached page is a "snapshot" of a page when Google crawled and
archived it. A Cached page can be viewed if the original web server is
having problems showing the current version of the page.

http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=searchguides.html&ctx=results (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?&answer=35306 (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: What is Local Search?

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

Local Search gives you results for a store, restaurant, or other local
business. For example you can search for [Italian food 02138]. Works
best with North American zip codes.

http://www.google.com/help/features.html#local (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

In February 2004 for example AOL, Netscape.com, and CompuServe used
Google's search results:

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/aol.html (Who's computer is this?)

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

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Searching/Metasearch/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

In 2002 Google used Linux on more than 10,000 web servers:

http://www.google.com/googlefriends/sep2002.html (Who's computer is this?)

In 2006 it was estimated Google used approximately more than 200,000
web servers:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/Googles-Chip-Search-Leads-to-AMD/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3595946 (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

More than 40 million search queries per day in year 2000:

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/pressrelease34.html (Who's computer is this?)

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

================
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.hasa@gmail.com):

If you want to change the name Google Groups suggests when you
subscribe to a Usenet newsgroup or to a Google discussion group, go to
http://groups.google.com/ (Who's computer is this?) and sign in. Then click the "Profile" link
in the top right-hand corner and click the "edit" link next to the
"My profile" text.

If you want to change your name for one or for all the groups you
have already subscribed to, go to http://groups.google.com/ (Who's computer is this?) and sign
in. Then click "My Groups" and click "Manage my memberships" link
below the list of groups you have subscribed to.

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

Q: How can I automatically quote messages in Google Groups?
Q: What quoting styles and techniques can I use?

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

Click "More options", "Reply". In Google Groups web interface you can
find "More options" link next to the date of the message. If you click
"More options", Google Groups will show you more information about the
message and more options. One of the options is the "Reply" link, and
if you click it, Google Groups will add greater than ">" signs to the
beginning of the text lines of the quoted article as a way to
distinguish the quoted text from your own text.

You can use three well-known quotation styles: top posting, bottom
posting or interleaved posting (trimmed posting).

Top posting means you type your answer before the original text.
Bottom posting means you type your reply after the original text. In
interleaved posting you type your text in between the original text
and trim out unnecessary text. Trimming saves the time of all the
other people when they only need to read the text necessary to
understand which part of your text is a response to which part of the
original text you reply to.

Many people prefer interleaved posting, because in many languages you
read the text from top to bottom so it is logical that the reply is at
the bottom of the message and it is easy to follow the discussion when
the answer is immediately after the quoted question. An interleaved
and trimmed answer could look like this:

Neil Newbie wrote:
> Hello, I would like to ask two questions:
> - what is Google Groups?

Google Groups is a discussion service where you can read and
post messages.

> - how can I get a Google account?

You can get a Google account by going to
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount and following the
instructions on that page.

Ellie Expert

Also, keep in mind that some people read the discussions via email and
they might get a lot of email daily and they may want to delete old
messages from their computers so they don't might have the option to
see the previous messages so if you are replying to a message and you
don't quote anything from the original message it can be difficult to
find out who is replying to whom and what was the original question.

Notice that the Google Groups web interface doesn't support discussion
board tags such as [quote] [/quote] or <blockquote> </blockquote> used
for example in BBCode, Ikonboard, phpBB, vBulletin, WWWBoard, and
YaBB. Instead, discussion board codes are shown as they are without
any special effects.

More info about quoting:

http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/usenet/brox.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/quote.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.xs4all.nl/~wijnands/nnq/nquote.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://mailformat.dan.info/quoting/top-posting.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.caliburn.nl/topposting.html (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

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

If you don't see the link "Change email", then you might have Gmail
address in which case you need to create a new Google account for the
new email address. (You could click the link "Delete Gmail Service"
on page https://www.google.com/accounts/EditServices but it's risky,
because you might want to use the Gmail address later and there can
be problems if you delete it.)


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

Q: My messages have disappeared. Where are they?

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

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

http://groups.google.com/advanced_search?q=& (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

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

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

http://groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46246&topic=9245 (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

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

See also:

http://groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46493 (Who's computer is this?)

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

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.hasa@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-Based/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/net-abuse-faq/harvest/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How do I respond to a post over 60 days old?

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

If you are using a Usenet newsgroup with Google Groups, 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 many newsgroups are there?

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

The authoritative file listed over 45,000 "official" newsgroups on
January 2007. There are also some newsgroups, which aren't on the
list:

ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/CONFIG/active (Who's computer is this?)
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Usenet/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: What is DejaNews?

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

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

http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/pressrelease48.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://groups.google.com/googlegroups/deja_syntax.html (Who's computer is this?)

DejaNews was replaced by Google Groups 1 (GG1), which was replaced
by Google Groups 2 (GG2), which was replaced by Google Groups 3 (GG3)
in January 2007:

http://groups.google.com/group/google-friends/msg/7e803f0c7fb6974f (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Messaging-and-Collaboration/Google-Launches-Revamped-EMail-Groups/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

Google Groups is not only 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 (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/6billion.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://groups.google.com/group/google.public.support.general/msg/d88f36fb3e2c0aac (Who's computer is this?)
http://groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46854&topic=9246 (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2001/12/21/usenet.html (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

There are over 45,000 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 (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/pressrelease48.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/6billion.html (Who's computer is this?)

If you are having problems sending, seeing or receiving your messages
with Google Groups, see this unofficial troubleshooting guide:

http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/google-groups-sending-messages (Who's computer is this?)

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

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.hasa@gmail.com):

You could try contacting Google Groups using this contact form:

http://groups.google.com/support/bin/request.py (Who's computer is this?)

But Google Groups prefers you post your request to their forum:

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Groups-Guide (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

Search for the most appropriate newsgroup or forum and ask there:

http://www.geocities.com/findnewsgroup/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.giganews.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.newsville.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/search?&q=%5Byour-topic%5D+forum (Who's computer is this?)

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

http://groups.google.com/group/news.newusers.questions (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/search?&q=newbie+forum (Who's computer is this?)

You might also be interested in Yahoo! Answers:

http://answers.yahoo.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.hasa@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-abuse@google.com."

http://groups.google.com/group/google.public.support.general/msg/9addeed9fdbf2a16 (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: Where is the Group Charter for this newsgroup?

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

http://groups.google.com/group/google.public.support.general/msg/9addeed9fdbf2a16 (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: Do Google employees post to this newsgroup?

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

They haven't posted here since year 2004 as this group has been
replaced with other official Google forums. Here are some of their
old posts:

http://groups.google.com/groups?&q=author:googleguy%40google.com+ (Who's computer is this?)
http://groups.google.com/groups?&q=author:groupmonitor%40google.com+ (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: Where can I report problems with Google Groups?

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

You can use this feedback page:

http://groups.google.com/support/bin/request.py (Who's computer is this?)

Or you can post a message to this discussion group:

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Groups-Guide (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: Are there other official and unofficial Google forums?

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

The following page includes some of the official and unofficial Google
forums and newsgroups:

http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/google-forums (Who's computer is this?)

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

=============
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.hasa@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 web site has never been indexed by Google. Why?

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

Check out with site search [site:your.site] is your site really not
indexed by Google. If it isn't, here are some possible reasons why
your site isn't indexed:

* Your site is new. It takes time to get indexed.
* There are no web pages indexed by Google linking to your web site.
* Your web site is not accessible to search engine spiders.
* You are using spamming techniques.
* You are linking to web sites that use spamming techniques.
* Previous owner of your site got your domain name banned.

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

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

A: From Martin Hagstrøm (mha@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 Payne (cbpayne@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: Why isn't my web site on the first page of search results (my web
site is indexed by Google)?

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

There is a lot of competition especially for popular keywords. For
example on February 23, 2006 there were about 1,910,000,000 documents
containing the word 'Google' in the index of Google Web Search:

http://www.google.com/search?&q=Google (Who's computer is this?)

People usually look at the top 10 search results for a search query.
That is only about 0.0000005 % of all the search results for search
[Google]:

http://www.google.com/search?&q=10+%2F+1910000000 (Who's computer is this?)

Google doesn't show more than about 1,000 search results for a search.
That is only about 0.00005 % of all the search results for search
[Google]:

http://www.google.com/search?&q=1000+%2F+1910000000 (Who's computer is this?)

So you might have a very low probability to be seen on the first page
of search results especially for a popular search term.

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

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

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

Your web pages should be in the index if you can find some of your
pages with one of these searches: ["Title of your page"] or [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.hasa@gmail.com):

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

If there are no web pages in Google's index that link to your web
site, Google might remove your web site from the index (that doesn't
mean your site is banned, it means your site doesn't seem to be
important, because no page links to your pages). One way to try to
find out are there web pages in Google's index linking to your web
site is to search with Google for your site inside quotes, for example
"your.site":

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22your.site%22 (Who's computer is this?)

Some pages might mention your web site, but do they also link to your
web site?

One reason might be you have changed your web site so that search
engine spiders can't access your web site anymore. See question "Can
search engine spiders access my web site?".

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

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

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

Clean up your web site from possible spamming techniques. After that
send a re-inclusion request to Google. It can take some time. You need
to create a sitemap file, which can be for example a text file, HTML
file or an XML file containing URLs (and possibly other information)
for the main or even all the public pages on your web site. You also
need to create a Google Webmaster Tools account (if you don't already
have one) at http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/. (Who's computer is this?) Then you need to
submit the sitemap file to your Google Webmaster Tools account. After
your sitemap file has been accepted, log in to Google Webmaster Tools
and select the "Request reconsideration" link and follow the
instructions. More info:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40318 (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34575 (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35843 (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How do I submit my site to Google?

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

You could use this URL: http://www.google.com/addurl.html. (Who's computer is this?) 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 (mha@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 do I need incoming links pointing to my web site?

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

Because Google doesn't have enough employees to check all the over 1
trillion (1,000,000,000,000) URLs indexed by Google every day, Google
uses search engine spiders and spam recognition algorithms instead:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/we-knew-web-was-big.html (Who's computer is this?)

Here's an illustrational example calculation:

If one Google employee would check every single URL in the index 8
hours a day using one minute per document, it would take over five
million years:

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&q=%281000000000000+minutes%29+%2F+%288+hours+%2F+day%29+in+years (Who's computer is this?)

Google had 10,674 employees on December 31, 2006:

http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html#2007 (Who's computer is this?)

If everyone of the 10,674 employees would use 8 hours a day checking
those trillion documents, it would take over 500 years until the job
was done:

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&q=%281000000000000+minutes+%2F+10674%29+%2F+%288+hours+%2F+day%29+in+years (Who's computer is this?)

But those web pages need to be checked more often than only once every
500 years. Preferably every day.

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

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

A: From JB (jtb5358@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.hasa@gmail.com):

Google advises to use an HTTP 301 permanent redirect from the old site
to the new site:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34444 (Who's computer is this?)

Depends on your webhost what you can do. Contact your webhost and read
about 301 redirects:

http://www.google.com/search?&q=301+redirect (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.seocompany.ca/seo/url-redirect.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles3/spiders-301-redirect.htm (Who's computer is this?)

Warning: don't use an HTTP 302 temporary redirect:

http://www.mcanerin.com/EN/articles/301-redirect-apache.asp (Who's computer is this?)
http://seotoday.com/seo-tips/the-rundown-on-301-and-302-redirects (Who's computer is this?)

Use an HTTP response viewer (see question "Are there any SEO tools?")
to make sure you are using the correct redirect.

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

Q: Does Google index dynamic pages?

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

Yes, Google does index dynamic pages, but Google still prefers static
pages over dynamic pages. There also are some restrictions and
problems:

The more parameters a page has in the URL, the less probably it will
get indexed by Google.

Also session IDs can cause problems, as most of your pages might end
up in supplemental results and rank poorly as Google doesn't like
duplicate content and it is difficult for Google to know are you
creating duplicate pages on purpose or by accident as the same page
can have many URLs as in this imaginary example where there are many
URLs for the same example.html page:

hxxp://your.site.com/dynamic/example.html?sessionid=a_BrNylSYB5o_2BIQa
hxxp://your.site.com/dynamic/example.html?sessionid=axQSWD5Lp_7-QrT5Py
hxxp://your.site.com/dynamic/example.html?sessionid=aL7YVtEm_1I7nLQN-w

You could disable session IDs, but if you are using for example a
shopping cart functionality you need to save visitor information. You
could use cookies instead of session IDs to save session information,
but some people disable cookies.

That's why you could create different versions of your pages. You
could create pages without session IDs intended only for search engine
bots and pages with session IDs for your customers and keep your pages
with session IDs in their own directory. Then you could tell search
engine bots not to crawl pages with session IDs using a robots.txt
file for example with lines like (in case the dynamic pages are in
directory 'dynamic'):

User-Agent: *
Disallow: /dynamic/

Yet another solution is to identify search engine bots by their
User-Agent string and turn sessions IDs off only for them. In that
case remember to check that your solution works.

More info:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40360&topic=8846 (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=40364 (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.robotstxt.org/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.frozenminds.com/disable-sessionid.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.websitepublisher.net/article/search_engine_friendly_urls/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: Does Google crawl JavaScript?

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

Yes, Google can crawl JavaScript for complete (clean) URLs. Because
some search engines may not see links in JavaScript at all and there
are people who have disabled JavaScript, you could create a static
sitemap file with links to your other pages so search engine bots
should more probably be able to find more pages on your site.

http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/003737.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.markcarey.com/googleguy-says/archives/discuss-google-crawls-javascript.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/bot-obedience-herding-googlebot/#comment-45561 (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

A: From Craig Payne (cbpayne@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 (Who's computer is this?)

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 Payne (cbpayne@gmail.com):

Duplicate content gets booted from the index.

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

Q: How can I remove a page or a site from Google search results?

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

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35301&topic=8459 (Who's computer is this?)

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

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.hasa@gmail.com):

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

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

Q: How can I stop Googlebot from downloading the same file over and
over again?
Q: How can I stop Googlebot from downloading too fast?

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

Contact Google as this is a bandwidth issue:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=48620&ctx=sibling (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How can I stop Googlebot from crawling my web site altogether?

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

You can use a robots.txt file or a robots meta tag:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?&answer=93708 (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: What is a robots.txt?

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

http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: What is a robots meta tag?

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

http://www.robotstxt.org/meta.html (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How do I recognize visits from search engine spiders (including
Googlebots) in my log file?

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

Depends on your log file or service. It might show the IP address,
hostname and/or user agent info for the visitors.

Here are some example IP addresses (and hostnames if available) of
Googlebots (April 9, 2006):

64.68.90.1 (crawl-66-249-64-1.googlebot.com)
64.233.173.193 (not available)
66.249.64.1 (crawl-66-249-64-1.googlebot.com)
209.185.253.167 (c2.googlebot.com)
216.239.45.4 (216-239-45-4.google.com)

Here are some examples of the user agent info Googlebot might give
you (April 9, 2006):

Googlebot/2.1 ( http://www.google.com/bot.html (Who's computer is this?) )
Googlebot/2.1 ( http://www.googlebot.com/bot.html (Who's computer is this?) )
Googlebot/Test ( http://www.googlebot.com/bot.html (Who's computer is this?) )
Googlebot-Image/1.0

More info:

http://www.iplists.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.spidermatic.com/en/supported_spiders.php (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.jafsoft.com/searchengines/webbots.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.user-agents.org/index.shtml (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.robotstxt.org/db.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Searching/Search_Engines/Robots/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How search engine spiders see my web pages?
Q: Can search engine spiders access my web site?

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

Use a search engine simulator or a text only web browser such as lynx
to find out how search engine spiders see your web site and can they
access your web site.

Search engine simulators:

http://www.pagerank.net/search-engine-simulator/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php (Who's computer is this?)

lynx:

http://lynx.browser.org/ (Who's computer is this?)

Another way is to use Amaya (uncheck all options in "Special",
"Preferences", "Browsing"):

http://www.w3.org/Amaya/ (Who's computer is this?)

Or disable at least JavaScript and cookies in your web browser, see
question "How can I adjust the settings of my web browser to make
browsing the web pages safer?".

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

Q: How can I help my web site rank higher on a national Google
search for a certain country?

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

Google looks at the IP address and TLD (top-level domain) of your web
site, so host your server in the country for which you want to rank
high for and/or use a country-specific TLD (e.g. uk).

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

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

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

Here are some of the Google updates with approximate dates:

2005

October 16 - Jagger
May - Bourbon
February - Allegra

2004

February 17 - Brandy
January - Austin

2003

November 14 - Florida
June 15 - Esmeralda
May - Dominic
April 11 - Cassandra
March 6 - Boston
January 25
January 1

2002

November 27
October 31
September 26
August 21
July 25
June 23
May 24
April 25
March 6
February 20
January 25

2001

December 27
November 25
October 28
September 16
August 19
July 19
June 22
May 21
April 23
March 26
February 19
January 21

2000

December 19
November 18
October 22
August 29
July 26

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

Q: What is Google Dance?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.hasa@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/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: What are the Google data centers?

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

Google adds and changes data centers now and then. Here are some
examples of IP addresses of Google's data centers (April 9, 2006):

64.233.161.99
64.233.167.104
66.249.93.104
66.102.9.147
72.14.207.99
72.14.207.107
216.239.37.105
216.239.53.106

Here are some of Google's historical data center domains of which only
www, www2, and www3 work anymore (April 9, 2006):

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

More thorough list:

http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/google-data-centers.htm (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: What is the PageRank?

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

PageRank Explained
http://www.google.com/technology/index.html (Who's computer is this?)

The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine
by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html (Who's computer is this?)

The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web
by Lawrence Page, Sergey Brin, Rajeev Motwani and Terry Winograd
http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/422/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

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

http://toolbar.google.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

Or you can use this page:

http://www.top25web.com/pagerank.php (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How can I make my site rank higher in search results?
Q: How do I avoid my site getting banned by Google?

A: From Tomi Häsä (tomi.hasa@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)
- if you create a fake web site (web site with no real content humans
would read, for example fake "directory" pages or fake "article"
pages with nothing for humans to be read, except advertisements or
links to advertisement pages) just to make money using Google
AdSense and/or affiliate programs, your web site might get banned by
Google

Avoid:

- avoid HTML errors
- avoid spelling errors
- avoid broken links
- avoid keyword stuffing
- avoid too high keyword density
- avoid hidden text or hidden links
- avoid cloaking only to get more traffic to your site
- avoid doorway pages created just for search engines
- avoid suspicious SEO firms
- avoid link farms, and suspicious link-sharing programs
- avoid linking to web spammers
- don't send automated queries to Google

Advanced:

- use keywords on titles, headings, URLs, and beginnings of pages
- use descriptive and accurate title and alt elements
- learn more about robots.txt, log files, validation, HTML, CSS, SEO

More tips:

http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/FAQs,_Help,_and_Tutorials/ (Who's computer is this?)

Search engine guidelines for webmasters:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769 (Who's computer is this?)
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/basics/basics-18.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-US&project=wl_webmasters (Who's computer is this?)

Speculation about ranking factors:

http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/google-ranking-factors.htm (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors (Who's computer is this?)

Google's "Spam & SEO" patent:

Entity Display Priority in a Distributed Geographic Information System
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=20050071741&OS=20050071741&RS=20050071741 (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: Are there any webmaster tools or services?
Q: Are there any SEO tools?

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

Here are some tools, services, and documents:

Spamdexing detection tool (doesn't recognize all the spam techniques)

http://tool.motoricerca.info/spam-detector/ (Who's computer is this?)

Duplicate content detection tool (not 100 % certain)

http://www.copyscape.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Webmaster Tools

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ (Who's computer is this?)

Keyword analysis tools for web pages

http://www.webconfs.com/keyword-density-checker.php (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-density/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.pagerank.net/keyword-density-analyzer/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/keyword-analysis-tool.shtml (Who's computer is this?)

Show related words for a search (to get ideas for new keywords)

http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en (Who's computer is this?)
http://labs.google.com/sets (Who's computer is this?)
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-suggestions-google/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/keyword-research-tool.shtml (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.googspy.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-typo-generator/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.gorank.com/seotools/ontology/ (Who's computer is this?)

Show real-time search queries

http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/searchspy/ (Who's computer is this?)

Show popular searches and search trends

http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/press/intl-zeitgeist.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://sp.ask.com/en/docs/iq/iq.shtml (Who's computer is this?)
http://buzz.yahoo.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://hotsearches.aol.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://50.lycos.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

Link popularity tools

http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/link-popularity/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.addpro.com/popularity.htm (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.iconinteractive.com/tools/pop/index.php (Who's computer is this?)

Search engine spider simulators

http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.pagerank.net/search-engine-simulator/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/search-engine-simulator.shtml (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.1-hit.com/all-in-one/tool.search-engine-viewer.htm (Who's computer is this?)

HTTP response viewers

http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://web-sniffer.net/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.1-hit.com/all-in-one/php/header-check.php (Who's computer is this?)
http://livehttpheaders.mozdev.org/ (Who's computer is this?)

Link checker tools

http://validator.w3.org/checklink/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.anybrowser.com/linkchecker.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.1-hit.com/all-in-one/tool.broken-link-finder.htm (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-checker.shtml (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/valet/ (Who's computer is this?)

Search engine friendly redirect checker

http://www.webconfs.com/redirect-check.php (Who's computer is this?)

Screen size test tools for web pages

http://www.anybrowser.com/ScreenSizeTest.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.webconfs.com/web-page-screen-resolution.php (Who's computer is this?)

HTML/XHTML/WML/XML validators

http://validator.w3.org/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.w3schools.com/wap/wml_validate.asp (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.htmlvalidator.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

CSS validators

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/csscheck/ (Who's computer is this?)

robots.txt validators

http://validator.czweb.org/robots-txt.php (Who's computer is this?)
http://tool.motoricerca.info/robots-checker.phtml (Who's computer is this?)

Feed validators

http://validator.w3.org/feed/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://feedvalidator.org/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://rss.scripting.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google data center tools

http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/multiple-datacenter-google-search/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.seocritique.com/datacentertool/ (Who's computer is this?)

Meta search engines (see have other search engines indexed your site)

http://www.mamma.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.metacrawler.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.ixquick.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

Search engine guidelines for webmasters

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769 (Who's computer is this?)
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-18.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_REF_GuidelinesforOptimizingSite.htm&FORM=WGDD (Who's computer is this?)

Directions for manual spamdexing checking

http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/banned-by-google (Who's computer is this?)

Directory pages

http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Searching/Search_Engines/Google/Tools/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Promotion/Tools/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

===================
4. GOOGLE DIRECTORY
===================

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

Q: How do I get my site listed in Google Directory?

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

Google Directory at http://directory.google.com/ (Who's computer is this?) uses the data from
DMOZ (Open Directory Project). Submit your site to DMOZ. See these
instructions:

http://www.dmoz.org/add.html (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How do I change the description of my site in Google Directory?

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

Google Directory uses the data from DMOZ (Open Directory Project).
Submit the change using the DMOZ "update URL" link:

http://www.dmoz.org/help/update.html (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: When is Google Directory updated next?

A: From Craig Payne (cbpayne@gmail.com):

Google only updated the Directory 8 times in 2002 and 2 times in 2003
(the last being early November) - so the next one is anyones guess.

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

=================
5. GOOGLE TOOLBAR
=================

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

Q: I have installed Google Toolbar. Where is it?

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

1. Use the correct web browser: you can see Google Toolbar only in
Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Following instructions are for
the Internet Explorer version of the Google Toolbar:

2. In Internet Explorer select "Tools", click "Internet Options",
click "Advanced" tab, check "Enable third-party browser extensions".
If you still don't see the Google Toolbar, in Internet Explorer select
"View", click "Toolbars", and select "Google". If you see the Google
Toolbar, you can select "View", click "Toolbars" and select "Lock the
Toolbars" so you should see the Google Toolbar all the time in
Internet Explorer.

3. If the above instructions don't help, uninstall and reinstall the
Google Toolbar. To uninstall the Google Toolbar, push the green
"Settings" button (it should be at the right side of the toolbar),
select "Help", select "Uninstall...". Or in Windows, select "Start",
select "Settings", click "Control Panel", double-click "Add/Remove
Programs". Find "Google Toolbar" (or similar) from the list, push the
"Remove" button (or similar). Reboot your computer and reinstall the
Google Toolbar from http://toolbar.google.com (Who's computer is this?) and repeat step 2.

4. If even reinstalling Google Toolbar won't help, then you might have
spyware, which can hide or disable the Google Toolbar. See question
"My computer began to behave strangely. Why?" for instructions on
how to remove spyware.

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

Q: How can I clear the search history in Google Toolbar?

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

Click the "G" letter or the little black arrow on the left side of the
search box, click "View History...", click "Clear History" link (if
you don't see the "Clear History" link, make sure you have made
searches while you have allowed toolbar to show you search
suggestions, see below text paragraph).

If you don't want Google Toolbar to save searches, click "Settings",
"Options...", "Search Box Settings...", and uncheck "Suggest searches
from my search history".

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

Q: Can Google Toolbar be used in other browsers than Internet
Explorer?

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

Yes, there is a version for Mozilla Firefox:

http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/ (Who's computer is this?)

There is also an unofficial version for Mozilla/Netscape 7 called
Googlebar:

http://googlebar.mozdev.org/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

======================
6. GMAIL (GOOGLE MAIL)
======================

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

Q: After I have logged in to Gmail, why doesn't Gmail work?

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

There can be many reasons: Gmail may have problems, or you may have
proxy issues, or your internet security software (antivirus, personal
firewall, web filtering program) or an extension for Mozilla Firefox
may prevent you from using Gmail, or your browser isn't supported by
Gmail. Here are some solutions:

- if you are using internet security software (antivirus, personal
firewall, web filtering program), disable them for troubleshooting
purposes
- you may have problems because of proxy issues, so try logging in at
https://gmail.google.com (or https://mail.google.com/ for Google
Mail users)
- reload web page after you have logged in to Gmail
- empty browser's cache
- allow cookies for Google
- allow JavaScript for Gmail

After these changes, close the browser window, and open another to log
in to Gmail.

If the above tips don't help and if possible, try a different browser
(for example Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, or Opera) or a
different computer to find out if the problem is with a setting or a
program instead of Gmail.

Fully supported browsers by Gmail (January 2009):

- Internet Explorer 7,
- Mozilla Firefox 2.0+,
- Google Chrome, and
- Safari 3.0

Somewhat supported browsers by Gmail:

- Internet Explorer 5.5+,
- Mozilla Firefox 0.8+,
- Mozilla 1.4+,
- Netscape 7.1+, and
- Safari 1.3+

Only Basic HTML view used for browsers:

- Internet Explorer 4.0+,
- Netscape 4.07+, and
- Opera 6.03+

You might find your answers from the Gmail Help pages:

http://mail.google.com/support/ (Who's computer is this?)

You can also use a discussion forum about Gmail to ask for assistance:

http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Help-Discussion (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum100/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How can I reload a web page?

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

Instructions for some web browsers:

If you are using Internet Explorer 6 or 7, press F5 on keyboard. Or
click "View", and select "Refresh".

If you have Mozilla Firefox 0.x, 1.x, 2.x, Mozilla 1.x (Mozilla
Suite), Netscape 7 or 8, press F5 on keyboard. Or click "View", and
select "Reload".

If you have Opera 8 or 9, press F5 on keyboard. Or click "Reload"
icon.

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

Q: How can I empty the browser's cache?

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

If you are using Internet Explorer 6, click "Tools", select "Internet
Options", push "Delete Files..." button.

If you are using Internet Explorer 7, click "Tools", select "Internet
Options", click "General" tab, push "Delete...", push "Delete
files...", and then "Yes" button.

If you have Mozilla Firefox 0.x, 1.x, or Netscape 8, click "Tools",
select "Options", click "Privacy", push "Clear" button next to
"Cache".

If you have Mozilla Firefox 2.x, click "Tools", select "Options",
click "Privacy", click "Clear Now...", check "Cache", push "Clear
Private Data Now" button.

If you have Mozilla 1.x (Mozilla Suite) or Netscape 7, click "Edit",
select "Preferences...", select "Advanced", select "Cache", push
"Clear Cache" button.

If you have Opera 8 or 9, click "Tools", select "Preferences...",
select "Advanced", click "History", push "Empty now".

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

Q: How can I allow JavaScript for Gmail?

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

If you are using Internet Explorer 6 or 7, add Gmail and Google to
trusted sites: click "Tools", select "Internet Options", click
"Security" tab, click "Trusted sites", push "Sites" button, write
*.gmail.com in the text field, push "Add" button, write *.google.com
in the text field, push "Add" button. Push "OK", and "OK". Next check,
that Internet Explorer allows JavaScript for Trusted sites: click
"Tools", select "Internet Options", click "Security" tab, click
"Trusted sites". If the setting is "High", change it to a lower one,
for example "Medium". Push "OK".

If you have Mozilla Firefox 0.x or 1.x, click "Tools", select
"Options", select "Web Features", and check "Enable JavaScript".

If you have Mozilla Firefox 2.x, click "Tools", select "Options",
select "Content", check "Enable JavaScript".

If you have Mozilla 1.x (Mozilla Suite) or Netscape 7, click "Edit",
select "Preferences...", select "Advanced", select "Scripts &
Plug-ins", and check "Navigator".

If you have Opera 8 or 9, click "Tools", select "Preferences...",
select "Advanced", click "Content", check "Enable JavaScript". You may
also want to push "Manage site preferences" button to make sure your
settings for gmail.com and google.com are correct.

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

=======================
7. MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS
=======================

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

Q: What is google.public.support.general?

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

The google.public.support.general is an official Google newsgroup that
was created by Google in year 2001 and which is supposed to be
accessed with the Google Groups web interface using a web browser:

http://www.google.com/googlefriends/oct2001.html#talk (Who's computer is this?)

The google.public.support.general newsgroup has been replaced by
official Google forums, see the below page for a list of some of the
official and unofficial Google forums:

http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/google-forums (Who's computer is this?)

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

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

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

The google.public.support.general newsgroup and other newsgroups in
the google.* hierarchy are special newsgroups in the sense they are
only supposed to be read with the Google Groups web interface using a
web browser. Some newsservers do contain a newsgroup called
google.public.support.general, because the newsserver owners may
create newsgroups with any names they like and some people may think
it is the original and official newsgroup, but that kind of
newsservers probably won't contain the same messages as the original
and official google.public.support.general newsgroup at:

http://groups.google.com/group/google.public.support.general (Who's computer is this?)

Even though I mentioned above, that the google.* hierarchy is only
supposed to be read with the Google Groups web interface, you may be
able to post messages to the original and official
google.public.support.general newsgroup (Google Groups version) with
a Usenet newsreader using a trick where you cross-post your message to
another newsgroup. But you probably won't be able to reply with your
newsreader application to messages in the official newsgroup, if they
have not been cross-posted to some other newsgroup so that you can see
that message from a newsserver.

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

Q: Where can I find Google logos?

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

http://www.google.com/holidaylogos.html (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: Why is my phone number listed in Google search results?

A: From JB (jtb5358@yahoo.com):

If your phone number is published in the phone company's directory, it
is public information. As for your address, even if it weren't in the
phone book, there are surely other public records that contain it

From Craig Payne (cbpayne@gmail.com):

Google is one of numerous websites that has been doing this for a long
time (are you also complaining to them as well).

It has been possible to do this on CD's of phone books for >10years -
have you also been been complaining to them for this long as well?

If you are that concerned, Google allows you to remove your number
here:
http://www.google.com/help/pbremoval.html (Who's computer is this?)

But this will not get your number removed from the telephone company
CD,s and all the other websites that do this.

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

Q: Where does the word google come from?

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

Google comes from the word googol, which is 1 followed by 100 zeros:

http://www.google.com/corporate/index.html (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How can I insert the Google Search to my web page?

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

http://www.google.com/coop/cse/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How can I add feeds to Google?

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

You can add feeds to Google's services iGoogle (previously known as
Google Personalized Homepage) and Google Reader by submitting the URL
of the web page or by searching for keywords in the title of the page
or you can try to find links for the feeds from the web page and try
to submit one of them to Google's services. More info:

http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/feeds (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: Does Google offer a webhosting service?

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

Not in the widest sense (you can't use all the gimmicks available in
commercial web hotel services). In the past you were able to make your
own web pages and host various kind of files in Google Page Creator,
which should have been shut down in year 2008. And now you can use
Google Sites, which doesn't have the same functions such as the
ability to host HTML files having your own JavaScript code and CSS:

http://sites.google.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
(http://pages.google.com/ (Who's computer is this?) )

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

Q: How can I find people (e.g. email, address, or phone number)?

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

You can type the name of the person in Google Web search. Try for
example searches [first name, last name] and [last name, first name].
You might also like to add the city and country where that person
might live. You could also try to use a national Google site if there
is one for that person's country:

http://www.google.com/language_tools (Who's computer is this?)

Services for finding people:

http://www.google.com/help/features.html#wp (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/finding-addresses/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.inventio.nl/metanamesearch/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://person.langenberg.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://directory.google.com/Top/Reference/Directories/Address_and_Phone_Numbers/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/search?q=find+people (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: Can you do my homework assignment?

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

No.

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

Q: How can I make a good newsgroup post?
Q: How can I make people understand me?

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

http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/usenet/dont.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/writing-style/part1/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://groups.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=46492 (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How can I contact Google?

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

Instructions here:

http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/google-contact-information (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: Are there any other FAQs about Google?

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

1) Official FAQs:

"Add to Google" button FAQ
http://www.google.com/webmasters/add.html (Who's computer is this?)

Anita Borg Scholarship FAQ
http://www.google.com/anitaborg/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Dodgeball FAQ
http://www.dodgeball.com/help (Who's computer is this?)

File Types FAQ
http://www.google.com/help/faq_filetypes.html (Who's computer is this?)

Gmail FAQ (Help Center)
http://mail.google.com/support/ (Who's computer is this?)

GOOG-411 FAQ (part of Mobile Help Center)
http://mobile.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=13550 (Who's computer is this?)

Google Accessible Search FAQ
http://labs.google.com/accessible/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Accounts FAQ (Help)
http://www.google.com/support/accounts/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Acquires Postini FAQ
http://64.233.179.110/blog_resources/FINAL_Google_Postini_acquisition_FAQ.pdf (Who's computer is this?)

Google Ad Manager FAQ (and Help Center)
http://www.google.com/admanager/login/en_US/index.html#faq (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support/admanager/publisher/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google AdSense FAQ (Help Center)
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/

Google AdSense for domains FAQ
http://www.google.com/domainpark/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Advertising Professionals FAQ (Support)
https://adwords.google.com/support/select/professionals/

Google AdWords FAQ (Help Center)
http://adwords.google.com/support (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/ads/aw_faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google AdWords API FAQ
http://www.google.com/support/adwordsapi/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google AdWords Editor FAQ
http://www.google.com/support/adwordseditor/bin/static.py?page=about.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google AdWords Website Optimizer FAQ
https://www.google.com/analytics/siteopt/siteopt/help/FAQ.html

Google AJAX Language API
http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxlanguage/faq/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google AJAX Search API FAQ
http://code.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=10021 (Who's computer is this?)

Google Alerts FAQ
http://www.google.com/support/alerts/bin/static.py?page=faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Analytics FAQ (previously Urchin)
http://www.google.com/support/analytics/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Android FAQ
http://code.google.com/android/kb/index.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google and Space FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/space/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Answers FAQ
http://answers.google.com/answers/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google App Engine FAQ
http://code.google.com/appengine/kb/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Apps for Your Domain FAQ (Help)
http://www.google.com/support/a (Who's computer is this?)

Google Base FAQ (Help Center)
http://base.google.com/support/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Blog Search FAQ
http://www.google.com/help/about_blogsearch.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/help/blogsearch/about_pinging.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Book Search FAQ (formerly Google Print)
http://books.google.com/support/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://books.google.com/googlebooks/author_faq.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://books.google.com/googlebooks/common.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://books.google.com/googlebooks/publisher_library.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Browser Sync FAQ
http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/browsersync/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Calendar FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/calendar (Who's computer is this?)

Google Catalogs FAQ
http://catalogs.google.com/googlecatalogs/help.html (Who's computer is this?)
http://catalogs.google.com/googlecatalogs/help_merchants.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Chart API FAQ
http://code.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=13605 (Who's computer is this?)

Google Checkout FAQ (Help)
http://checkout.google.com/support/?alltopics=1 (Who's computer is this?)

Google Chrome FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/chrome/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Click-to-Call FAQ
http://www.google.com/help/faq_clicktocall.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Code FAQ
http://code.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=10435 (Who's computer is this?)

Google Code Search FAQ
http://www.google.com/help/faq_codesearch.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google crawl FAQ (robots.txt, Googlebot, Feedfetcher)
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8843 (Who's computer is this?)

Google Custom Search Engine FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/customsearch/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Desktop FAQ (Help Center)
http://desktop.google.com/support/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://desktop.google.com/support/mac/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://desktop.google.com/support/linux/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Docs FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/writely/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support/spreadsheets/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://documents.google.com/support/presentations/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Earth FAQ (Help Center)
http://earth.google.com/support/?alltopics=1 (Who's computer is this?)

Google Finance FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/finance/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Friend Connect FAQ (Help)
http://www.google.com/support/faqs/bin/static.py?page=faq_friend_connect.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Gadgets API FAQ
http://code.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=10027 (Who's computer is this?)

Google Gadgets for your page FAQ
http://code.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=10043 (Who's computer is this?)

Google Gadget Ventures FAQ
http://www.google.com/gadgetventures/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Gears FAQ
http://code.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=11628 (Who's computer is this?)

Google General FAQ
http://www.google.com/help/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Grants FAQ
http://www.google.com/grants/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Groups FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/googlegroups/about.html#faq (Who's computer is this?)
http://groups.google.com/support (Who's computer is this?)

Google Health FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/health/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Help
http://www.google.com/support/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=alpha_index.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google I/O FAQ
http://code.google.com/events/io/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Image Labeler FAQ
http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/help.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Image Search FAQ
http://www.google.com/help/faq_images.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google in Your Language FAQ
http://www.google.com/transconsole/giyl/check/staticfile?staticfilekey=faq (Who's computer is this?)

Google Insights for Search FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/insights/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Labs FAQ
http://labs.google.com/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Mail FAQ
http://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en-GB/about.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Map Maker FAQ
http://www.google.com/mapmaker/mapfiles/s/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Maps FAQ (Google Local)
http://local.google.com/support/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Maps API FAQ
http://code.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=10028 (Who's computer is this?)
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Maps for mobile FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/topic.py?topic=9112 (Who's computer is this?)

Google Mars FAQ
http://www.google.com/mars/about.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Message Security & Compliance FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/appsecurity/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Mini FAQ
http://www.google.com/support/mini/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Moon FAQ
http://www.google.com/help/faq_moon.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Navigator (China) FAQ
http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN_ALL/help/faq_daohang.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google News FAQ (Help)
http://www.google.com/support/news/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google News Alerts FAQ
http://www.google.com/help/faq_newsalerts.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Notebook FAQ
http://www.google.com/googlenotebook/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google on your mobile device FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Pack and Updater FAQ (Help)
http://www.google.com/support/pack/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Page Creator FAQ
http://pages.google.com/-/about.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Patent Search FAQ
http://www.google.com/googlepatents/about.html#faq (Who's computer is this?)

Google Privacy FAQ
http://www.google.com/privacy_faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Product Search FAQ (previously Froogle)
http://froogle.google.com/froogle/about.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Protocol Buffers FAQ
http://code.google.com/apis/protocolbuffers/docs/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Public Service Search FAQ
http://services.google.com/pss_faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Public Transit FAQ (Help)
http://maps.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=12356 (Who's computer is this?)

Google Reader FAQ
http://www.google.com/help/faq_reader.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Ride Finder FAQ
http://labs.google.com/ridefinder/help.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Scholar FAQ
http://scholar.google.com/scholar/about.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Search Appliance FAQ
http://www.google.com/support/gsa/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Security and Compliance Services FAQ
http://www.google.com/support/appsecurity/bin/answer.py?answer=87530 (Who's computer is this?)

Google Sitemaps FAQ (Help)
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/topic.py?topic=8476 (Who's computer is this?)

Google Sites FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/sites/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google SketchUp FAQ (Help Center)
http://sketchup.google.com/support/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Sky FAQ
http://www.google.com/sky/about.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google SMS FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/topic.py?topic=9123 (Who's computer is this?)

Google SOAP Search API
http://code.google.com/apis/soapsearch/api_faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Store FAQ
http://www.google-store.com/contact_us.php (Who's computer is this?)

Google Suggest FAQ
http://labs.google.com/suggest/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Summer of Code 2008 FAQ
http://code.google.com/opensource/gsoc/2008/faqs.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Talk FAQ (Help)
http://www.google.com/support/talk/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support/talkgadget/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Talk Labs Edition FAQ
http://www.google.com/talk/labsedition/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Toolbar FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/toolbar/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.google.com/support/firefox/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Translate FAQ
http://www.google.com/help/faq_translation.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Trends FAQ
http://www.google.com/intl/en/trends/about.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Video FAQ (Help Center)
http://video.google.com/support/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Video Upload Program FAQ
https://upload.video.google.com/video_faq.html

Google Visualization API FAQ
http://code.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=14181 (Who's computer is this?)

Google Web Accelerator FAQ
http://webaccelerator.google.com/support.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Web Alerts FAQ
http://www.google.com/help/faq_webalerts.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Web Directory FAQ
http://www.google.com/dirhelp.html (Who's computer is this?)

Google Webmasters FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Web Search Help Center
http://www.google.com/support/?ctx=web (Who's computer is this?)

Google WiFi Mountain View FAQ
http://wifi.google.com/support/ (Who's computer is this?)

Hello FAQ
http://www.hello.com/support.php (Who's computer is this?)

iGoogle FAQ (previously Google Personalized Homepage)
http://www.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=1592 (Who's computer is this?)

Investor FAQ
http://investor.google.com/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Joga FAQ
http://help.joga.com/support/ (Who's computer is this?)

KML FAQ
http://code.google.com/apis/kml/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Knol FAQ (Help)
http://knol.google.com/k/knol/knol/Help (Who's computer is this?)

Lively FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.lively.com/help/ (Who's computer is this?)

OpenSocial API FAQ
http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

orkut FAQ (Help Center)
http://help.orkut.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

Picasa FAQ (Help)
http://picasa.google.com/support/ (Who's computer is this?)

Picasa APIs FAQ
http://code.google.com/apis/picasa/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Premium Service FAQ
http://www.google.com/ads/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

University Search FAQ
http://services.google.com/univ_faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

YouTube FAQ (Help Center)
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/ (Who's computer is this?)

YouTube Data API FAQ
http://code.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=12357 (Who's computer is this?)

2) Unofficial FAQs:

Unofficial Gmail FAQ
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/gmail (Who's computer is this?)

Unofficial Google Earth FAQ
http://seamap.env.duke.edu/help/google_earth/ (Who's computer is this?)

Unofficial Google Groups FAQ
http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/google-groups-faq (Who's computer is this?)

Unofficial Google Maps FAQ
http://mapki.com/index.php?title=FAQs (Who's computer is this?)

Unofficial Google Modules FAQ
http://www.googlemodules.com/help/ (Who's computer is this?)

Unofficial Google Page Creator FAQ
http://gpcfaq.googlepages.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

Unofficial Google PageRank FAQ
http://www.alvit.de/vf/en/web-development-google-pagerank-frequently-asked-questions.html (Who's computer is this?)

Unofficial Google Scholar FAQ
http://www.library.unlv.edu/help/googlescholar.html (Who's computer is this?)

Unofficial Google Sitemaps FAQ
http://www.arnebrachhold.de/2006/04/07/google-sitemaps-faq-sitemap-issues-errors-and-problems (Who's computer is this?)

Unofficial Google Spreadsheets FAQ
http://gssfaq.googlepages.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

Unofficial Google Webmaster FAQ
http://www.webworkshop.net/google_faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

Unofficial Harvard-Google Project FAQ
http://hul.harvard.edu/hgproject/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: Are there any other informative web pages about Google?

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

Google Site Map
http://www.google.com/sitemap.html (Who's computer is this?)

Directory page about Google
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Searching/Search_Engines/Google/ (Who's computer is this?)

Research Papers
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Searching/Search_Engines/Google/Research_Papers/ (Who's computer is this?)

Efficient crawling through URL ordering
by Junghoo Cho, Hector Garcia-Molina and Lawrence Page
http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/347/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Press Center
http://www.google.com/press/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google Friends Newsletter
http://www.google.com/googlefriends/archive.html (Who's computer is this?)

Official Google Blog
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

Google: Investor Relations
http://investor.google.com/ (Who's computer is this?)

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

Q: How can I find this FAQ?

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

In newsgroup google.public.support.general write FAQ next to button
"Search this group", and push the button:

http://groups.google.com/group/google.public.support.general/search?group=google.public.support.general&q=FAQ&qt_g=1&searchnow=Search+this+group (Who's computer is this?)

Or go to: http://sites.google.com/site/tomihasa/google-general-faq (Who's computer is this?)

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

===========
8. GLOSSARY
===========

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

* 301 Moved Permanently: An HTTP Status Message that means the
requested resource has been assigned a new permanent URL.
* 404 File Not Found: An HTTP Status Message that appears in most web
browsers when the file trying to be accessed doesn't exist or isn't
available, because the file might have been deleted or the user
typed the URL improperly.
* adjacency: The relationship between words, particularly words used
in a search engine query. Search engines usually assign higher value
to pages where the search terms appear next to one another than to
pages where the search terms are separated by other words.
* adware: Software that may have been installed on your computer by a
web site. Many free utilities that you download from the internet
may install hidden software that sends details of the websites you
visit and other information from your computer. See spyware.
* anchor text: Visible text for a hyperlink. Also known as link text.
For example: <a href="hxxp://vvv.address.com/">anchor.text</a>
* Apache: A free open source web server for Unix, Windows, Linux, and
other platforms. It provides a full range of web server features,
including CGI, SSL, and virtual domains.
* API: Application Program Interface. Interface for programmers. API
specifies how application programs access the operating system and
other services.
* ASP: Active Server Pages. Microsoft's technology, which enables
HTML pages to be dynamic and interactive.
* Atom: A publishing standard for personal content and weblogs. With
an Atom feed enabled program you can follow many blogs without
visiting many websites to see new content.
* ATW: AlltheWeb. A search engine.
* AV: AltaVista. A search engine.
* back door: A channel crackers can use to access your system.
* back link: A link on another page that points to the subject page.
Same as IBL.
* banned: When a web site is banned from Google's index, none of the
pages are indexed by Google anymore, which means you can't find any
of the pages with the site search (site:example.com). See penalized.
* blog: Short for web log. A web site or web page that is constantly
updated with new commentary and links about a particular topic. May
contain a directory, news, message board, on-line diary and other
personal information.
* browser: A program that displays files (usually web pages). For
example Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, Safari, Amaya,
w3m, and lynx.
* cache: Several meanings, here are two: 1. A snapshot of a web page.
2. A region of computer memory where frequently accessed data (for
example web pages) can be stored for rapid access.
* CGI: Common Gateway Interface. CGI defines how data is passed from
a server to a CGI program, so that the content of a web page can
come from a program, rather than from a static HTML page. CGI
programs can be written in a variety of languages (for example
C, C++, and Perl).
* click through: Several meanings, here are two: 1. The process of
clicking on a link in a search engine results page to visit an
indexed site. Good ranking can be useless, if visitors do not click
on the link, if the title isn't descriptive, accurate and
interesting. 2. The act of clicking on a banner advertisement to
visit the advertised site. See CTR.
* client: A computer, program or process which makes requests for
information from another computer, program or process (usually
called server).
* cloaking: Process of delivering one version of a page to a user,
and a different version to another user such as a search engine.
Normally used as a method for stopping page thieves from stealing
optimized pages, but also used for the hope of a better ranking in
search engines. Many search engines will penalize a site if they
discover that it is using cloaking.
* cookie: A small string of text sent by a web server to a web browser
that the browser is expected to save and to send back to the server
whenever the browser makes additional requests from the server.
Cookies allow web sites to keep track of your settings and other
information.
* CPA: Cost Per Action. Cost to an advertiser for each visitor that
takes some specifically defined action in response to an
advertisement, such as subscribing to a newsletter or purchasing
something from a web site.
* CPC: Cost Per Click. Cost the advertiser pays each time a visitor
clicks on the advertisement on a search engine page or on some
other page. See PPC.
* CPM: Cost Per Thousand impressions. This means how much an
advertiser pays for 1,000 page views or impressions of its banner.
* cross-post: To post an article simultaneously to several
newsgroups. Many people don't like cross-posting, especially when
cross-posting is done to more than two or three newsgroups or to
inappropriate newsgroups.
* CSS: Cascading Style Sheets. A language that is used to attach style
(for example fonts, colors and spacing) to structured documents (for
example HTML and XML).
* CTR: Click-Through-Rate. A method of rating how many times a banner
(or a link) is clicked on. A ratio of the number of times a banner
is shown on a web page to the number of times it is clicked on.
* dead link: An internet link which doesn't lead to a page or site,
probably because the server is down or the page has moved or no
longer exists.
* Deepcrawler: Term used for the first mode of operation of Google
spiders. First mode called "Deepcrawler" indexes all the web sites
about once a month or so. See Freshbot.
* DejaNews: A Usenet archive and a Usenet discussion service, which
was acquired by Google in year 2001.
* DHTML: Dynamic HTML. Marketing term for a way of creating dynamic
web sites by using a mixture of HTML, CSS, DOM, and scripting (for
example JavaScript).
* directory: Directories use humans to review and place websites
in categories and sub-categories. For example DMOZ.
* DMOZ: Directory Mozilla. Same as ODP.
* DOM: Document Object Model. Interface that will allow programs
and scripts to dynamically access and modify the content of
documents.
* domain: Part of an internet address. A group of computers whose
hostnames share a common suffix. For example google.com.
* doorway page: The only purpose of a doorway page is for driving
traffic to another page. Doorway pages are usually designed and
optimized to target one specific keyphrase. Doorway pages rarely
are written for human visitors. They are written for search engines
to achieve high rankings and hopefully drive traffic to the main
site. These pages are often designed to be visible to a search
engine spider, but hidden from a human visitor. Treated as spam
by many search engines. Also called gateway page, bridge page,
entry page, portal page, etc.
* download: The process of transferring one or more files from a
remote computer to your local computer, usually over a modem or
network.
* dynamic content: Information on web pages which changes or is
changed automatically, e.g. based on database content or user
information. See ASP, CGI, JavaScript, and PHP.
* dynamic web page: A web page that responds to users' requests
and gathers information from them.
* element: An HTML element usually consists of three parts: a start
tag, content, and an end tag. For example: <p>paragraph</p>
* email: Electronic mail. A way of sending messages electronically
from one computer to another.
* email client: A program used to compose, read, send, and receive
email messages. For example Microsoft Outlook Express, Eudora,
Free Agent, Pegasus, pine, elm, mutt.
* end tag: An HTML end tag ends an element. For example: </b>
* Everflux: Term used for phenomenon where search results appear
to be updated daily between Google's major updates. See Freshbot.
* FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions. Generally, FAQ is a list of
questions and answers about a specific subject. Newsgroup FAQ
contains questions that have been asked many times before. Many
newsgroups have FAQs, which should be read before you post any
messages to them. One way to find the FAQ for a newsgroup,
is to enter "faq" and the name of the newsgroup in the search
box in Google Groups or in Google Web Search. See netiquette.
For example http://www.faqs.org/faqs/faqs/about-faqs/ (Who's computer is this?)
* FFA: Free For All. A website that allows anyone to add a link to
any page.
* Flash: Short for Macromedia Flash. A file format for delivering
interactive vector graphics and animation. See Shockwave.
* forum: Several meanings, usually means a message board, sometimes a
chat room, or a newsgroup.
* frames: A technique for combining two or more separate HTML
documents within a single web browser screen. A framed web site may
not be indexed correctly by search engines. All browsers don't
support frames.
* Freshbot: Term used for the second mode of operation of Google
spiders. The second mode called "Freshbot" indexes high ranking or
frequently updated pages approximately every one to three days.
See Deepcrawler, Everflux.
* fresh crawl: The idea behind the fresh crawl is to update pages
that change regularly. This allows Google to serve results that
are up-to-date with current events. The fresh crawl not only adds
modified pages but also new pages. See Everflux.
* FTP: File Transfer Protocol. The protocol for transferring files
from one computer to another.
* GG: Several meanings, here are two: 1. Google Groups. 2. Google.
* GG1: Google Groups 1, or the Original Google Groups. A Usenet
archive and a Usenet discussion service, which is based on Dejanews,
which Google acquired in year 2001.
* GG2: Google Groups 2, published in year 2004. With GG2 you can read
Usenet newsgroups, but also create your own discussion forums /
mailing lists. You can also access groups with Atom feed.
* GG3: Google Groups 3, published year 2006. Same features as the
previous version, but with GG3 you can also change some of the
visual elements of your group, and add pages and upload files to
your group to their own sections.
* Google bombing: The practice of setting up a large number of web
pages using anchor text to make a specific web page show up in the
SERPs under keywords that are out of context for that page. Some
blogs have been used for Google bombing. See blog.
* Google FAQ: FAQ about Google. For example
http://www.google.com/help/faq.html (Who's computer is this?)
* Google newsgroup: Newsgroup about Google. For example
google.public.support.general or google.public.translators.
* Google sandbox effect: Name given to a phenomenon where a new web
site doesn't immediately receive good ranking in search results for
its most important keywords. The web site might even be search
engine friendly, it might have good content and have many incoming
links and from high PageRank web pages, but it is not ranked well
in search results. The phenomenon discourages web sites to try to
rank high in search results for the first few months by using spam
techniques such as link trading schemes or paying for incoming links
from high PageRank sites or creating web sites to link to a new web
site. Without the phenomenon sites could more easily use spam
techniques to rank well in search results for a while, getting
banned and repeating the process.
* gopher: Method of making menus of material available over the
Internet. It has been supplanted by hypertext.
* g.p.s.g.: Acronym for the newsgroup google.public.support.general.
* HB: HotBot. A search engine.
* hit: Several meanings, here are two: 1. A single request from a web
browser for a single item from a web server. A single item can be
for example a web page or an image on a web page. A visitor opening
a page with 8 images will generate 9 hits. 2. A measure of the
number of web pages matching a query returned by a search engine or
directory.
* HTML: Hypertext Markup Language. Coded format language used for
creating hypertext documents.
* HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol. The protocol for moving
hypertext files across the internet.
* HTTP Status Message: A three-digit integer result code for a
request. The first digit of the status-code defines the class of
response: 1xx is for informational purposes (e.g. 100 Continue), 2xx
is for successful actions (e.g. 200 OK), 3xx is for redirections
(e.g. 301 Moved Permanently), 4xx is for client errors (e.g. 404
File Not Found), and 5xx is for server errors (e.g. 500 Internal
Server Error).
* hypertext: Generally, any text that contains links to other
documents.
* IBL: In Bound Link. A link on another page that points to the
subject page. Same as back link.
* IIS: Internet Information Services. Microsoft's web server
integrated with Windows servers.
* image map: An image or graphical area containing regions
(hot-spots), which are usually links to different pages. Search
engines may not be able to index the pages to which an image map
links.
* index: A searchable database of documents stored by a search
engine or directory. Also called catalog.
* internet: A worldwide network of computer networks.
* IP address: The numeric address of a computer on the internet. An
IP address is written as a set of four numbers separated by periods.
For example: 216.239.33.98.
* ISP: Internet Service Provider. Provides services such as internet
access, email, and web hosting.
* Java: A programming language, which is designed for writing programs
that can be downloaded to your computer through the internet.
* JavaScript: A scripting language, which is designed to be embedded
into HTML documents. Commonly used to add interactive features to
web pages. For example it can be used to tell users whether they
have filled out a form correctly. Many search engines are unable to
index these scripts properly.
* keyword density: The number of times a keyword appears in a
page as a percentage of all the words in the page. Also called
keyword weight.
* keyword frequency: Denotes how often a keyword appears in a page or
in an area of a page.
* keyword prominence: Denotes how close to the start of an area of a
page a keyword (or a phrase) appears. Having the keyword closer to
the start of an area (for example title, heading, or paragraph)
may lead to an improvement in the search engine ranking of a page
for that keyword.
* keyword proximity: How close together the individual words that
make up a keyword phrase are to one another, and in what order.
* keyword stuffing: Repeating keywords or keyword phrases excessively
in body copy, hidden text, meta tags, or any other code on a page.
Originally done in order to increase rankings in search engines.
This tactic is now penalized by many search engines.
* keyword targeting: The practice of optimizing certain pages of a
web site to rank well in a search for specific keywords.
* link farm: A group of separate, highly interlinked websites for
the purposes of inflating link popularity. Engaging in a link farm
could be grounds for banning from a search engine.
* link popularity: Measurement of a combination of factors that are
designed to weigh the importance of each incoming link. Links from
sites with high link popularity will have more weight in a search
engine algorithm than links from unpopular sites. Links from sites
with complimentary content count as more than links from sites that
have no relevance.
* mail: To send email message (not the same as "posting" to a
newsgroup or a message board).
* message board: A web based message center, where users may post
messages, which are converted into web documents.
* meta element: An HTML element that often describes the contents of a
web page, and is placed near the beginning of the page's source
code. For example: <meta name="author" content="name.here">
* mirror: A near identical duplicate of a website (or a page).
* misspelling: People sometimes spell words incorrectly when making
queries with search engines. Some people include common misspellings
of words into web pages in hope of receiving extra hits. For example
goggle, gogle, googel, googl, and googlr are misspellings of google.
* netiquette: Internet etiquette. An informal group of rules and ways
of behaving on the internet. As with real-life etiquette, netiquette
often varies according to community and context. The key element in
netiquette is remembering that actual people are on the other end of
a computer connection, and offensive comments or actions are just as
offensive even if you can't see your recipient. See FAQ.
* newbie: Someone who is new to a particular group, topic, field, or
to the internet in general.
* newsgroup: A discussion group, which is devoted to the discussion of
a specific topic. There are public Usenet newsgroups and also many
semi-private newsgroups that are not propagated beyond their own
server.
* newsgroup article: A single article in a newsgroup.
* newsreader: A program that lets you read and post newsgroup
messages. For example Microsoft Outlook Express, Free Agent,
Xnews, slrn, tin.
* NG: Newsgroup.
* NNTP: Network News Transfer Protocol. The protocol for sending,
distributing and retrieving Usenet messages.
* ODP: Open Directory Project. Same as DMOZ.
* outbound link: A link to a site outside of your own.
* page view: Number of times a web page has been accessed. Also known
as page impression or page request.
* PDA: Personal Digital Assistant. A handheld device, which is small
enough to fit in the palm of your hand. PDA usually includes a
clock, date book, address book, task list, memo pad and a
calculator. You usually can synchronize data with a PDA and a
computer. You also may be able to send and receive email, do word
processing, play music files, get information from the internet,
and play video games. For example Palm Pilot, PocketPC, HP iPAQ,
Sony CLIE, Psion, Casio Cassiopeia.
* penalized: When a web site is penalized, some, but not all, of the
pages might have been removed from Google's index or labeled as
supplemental results, which usually means those pages probably rank
lower in search results for various keywords. You still should find
some of the pages with the site search (site:example.com). See
banned.
* PFI: Pay For Inclusion. Many search engines offer a PFI program to
assure indexing of a site (or page). PFI does not guarantee that a
site will be ranked highly (or at all) for a given search term.
* PHP: PHP Hypertext Preprocessor. A scripting language used to create
dynamic web pages.
* pop up: A new browser window usually containing an advertisement.
A pop up is automatically opened when a user performs a specified
action, like opening a page, or clicking a link.
* portal: A web site that offers services to entice internet surfers
to use the site as their main "point of entry" (first place people
see when using the web) to the web. Typically, a portal has a
directory of web sites or a search engine, or both. A portal site
also may offer news, weather, free email, and other services. For
example www.yahoo.com.
* post: To broadcast an article to a newsgroup or to a message board
(not the same as "mailing" an email message).
* PPC: Pay Per Click. The advertiser is charged depending on the
number of times visitors click on the advertisement on a search
result page or some other page. See CPC.
* PR: PageRank. The name given to Google's link popularity measuring
system.
* query: A request for information from a database or search engine.
A query is a word, a phrase or a group of words, possibly combined
with other syntax used to pass instructions to a search engine or
a directory in order to locate web pages.
* reciprocal links: Outbound links exchanged for inbound links. Also
called link swapping and link exchange.
* referrer: The URL of the web page which a visitor came from. This
information is stored in the server's referrer log file and can be
used to discover which search engines or web pages drive traffic
to a web site.
* robots.txt: A file which spiders read to determine which parts
of a website they may visit. Robots that comply with the
"Robots Exclusion Standard" will obey the commands in this file.
The primary purpose of the robots.txt file is to direct spiders
to ignore directories that may contain private or unnecessary
information.
* search engine: A server or a collection of servers dedicated to
indexing web pages, storing the results and returning lists of
pages which match particular queries. Indexes are normally
generated using spiders (or bots).
* SEM: Search Engine Marketing. Methods of drawing traffic to a web
site through search engines by paid advertising listings. May
include SEO.
* SEO: Search Engine Optimization. The changes that are made to the
content and code of web pages so that they rank as high as
possible in search engine results for particular search queries.
See PPC and SEP.
* SEP: Search Engine Positioning. Also called SEO.
* SERP: Search Engine Results Page.
* server: A computer (or a software application) that provides a
specific kind of service to client software running on some other
computer. For example a web server or a news server.
* SGML: Standard Generalized Markup Language. A metalanguage in which
one can define markup languages for documents. SGML is not in itself
a document language, but a description of how to specify one. HTML
and XML are based on SGML.
* Shockwave: Short for Macromedia Shockwave. A technology that enables
web pages to include multimedia objects such as audio, animation,
and video. Used for games, music and rich-media chat. See Flash.
* site map: An overview on a web page that contains a listing of text
links usually to all sections of a website.
* spam: Several meanings, here are four: 1. Any large amount of
output. 2. To cause a newsgroup to be flooded with irrelevant or
inappropriate messages. 3. Unsolicited email message sent to
large numbers of people to advertise services or products. 4.
Manipulation technique designed to achieve higher ranking
in search engine results. Can be grounds for banning.
* spamdexing: From words spamming and indexing. The practice
of creating or modifying web pages to increase the chance of
them being placed high on search engine results. Also known as
spamming or spoofing.
* spiders: Software programs that vary in purpose from indexing
web pages for search engines to harvesting email addresses for
spammers. Web spiders scan the web by following links to visit
web sites. Also called crawlers, bots, worms.
* spyware: Software that installs itself secretly to a computer.
Spyware usually doesn't allow for easy uninstallation or removal.
It monitors or tracks users actions without the users awareness
or consent. It may alter the behavior or settings of other
programs. See adware.
* SSL: Secure Socket Layer. A protocol used for secure internet
communications. It is implemented in web browsers so you can
visit secure websites. SSL is designed to prevent others from
capturing or viewing the data being exchanged.
* start tag: An HTML start tag starts an element. For example: <b>
* stop word: Word that is so commonly used that it has no impact
on the relevancy of a search query and because of that it is
ignored by search engines when indexing web pages and processing
search queries. Stop words are common words such as "the" and "is".
* submission: The process of submitting information about a web site
(for example URL and title) to a search engine or directory in order
for it to be indexed.
* thread: A continuous chain of messages on a single topic in a
newsgroup or message board.
* title element: An HTML element that contains the title of the
current document, which is usually shown in the top of the browser
window. Having keywords in the title element may increase the search
engine ranking of the page for those keywords. For example:
<title>title.here</title>
* TLD: Top-level domain. Last part of the Internet domain name. For
example "com" (as in domain name google.com) is meant for commercial
organizations and "uk" for United Kingdom (google.co.uk).
* trojan: A software program in which harmful or malicious code is
contained within another seemingly harmless program. Trojans can
carry viruses and other programs that may damage your computer
once you run the program that the trojan is hidden in. Trojans can
be used to gain backdoor access to a user's computer.
* URI: Uniform Resource Identifier. A compact string of characters
for identifying a resource on the web. URI can be for example a
URL or URN.
* URL: Uniform Resource Locator. Unique address of a document or a
resource on the internet. For example http://www.google.com/ (Who's computer is this?) or
news:alt.fan.dejanews.
* URN: Uniform Resource Name. URNs are intended to serve as
persistent, location-independent, resource identifiers. URNs
provide stable names for resources whose location may change over
time. URLs, on the other hand, refer to specific locations.
* Usenet: A worldwide messaging system, which contains more than
42,000 newsgroups (February 2004), which can be accessed through the
internet.
* Usenet message: A single article in a Usenet newsgroup.
* validator: A program or script which is used to check the validity
of for example HTML markup, or to detect bad or deprecated elements.
A validator helps to ensure that the document can be read and used
by all browsers and search engines. For example W3C HTML Validator.
* virtual server: An account on a hosting company server. The idea is
you don't have to purchase your own web server with the appropriate
software and connection to the internet for your website. Many
virtual servers may reside on the same computer host and share an
IP address with other virtual servers on the same machine.
* virus: A program or piece of code designed to replicate itself by
infecting files or other parts of a system (for example boot
sectors). Viruses can be transmitted by downloading programs from
web sites, or opening file attachments in email messages or they
can be present on a diskette. Viruses may make the computer crash,
damage files or delete files. Boot sector viruses infect boot
sectors. Macro viruses infect word processing or spreadsheet
documents that use macros. Web pages may contain JavaScript or other
types of executable code to spread viruses or other malicious code.
* visitor: One person coming to a web site. Also known as user.
* WAP: Wireless Application Protocol. Standard for accessing the
internet with wireless devices, e.g. mobile phones, communicators
and some PDAs.
* web: Short for World Wide Web. Also known as WWW or W3.
* web based newsreader: A web based system, which allows users
without NNTP access to read newsgroups.
* WWW: World Wide Web. Several meanings, here are two: 1. A
collection of resources on the internet that can be accessed
using gopher, FTP, HTTP, Telnet, Usenet, or other tools. 2. A
network of hypertext servers on the internet, which provide
users a way to access global information consisting of text,
graphics, sound and video.
* XHTML: Extensible Hypertext Markup Language. Successor of HTML.
* XML: Extensible Markup Language. A simplified subset of SGML,
capable of describing many different kinds of data. Its primary
purpose is to facilitate the sharing of structured text and
information across the internet. It allows designers to create
their own tags to indicate specific information.
* XSL: Extensible Stylesheet Language. A stylesheet language which
allows one to describe how files encoded in XML are to be formatted.
* YH: Yahoo. A portal, which includes for example a search engine and
a web directory.
* zone: Some search engines allow users to limit a search to specific
zone, which can be a certain geographic area.

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Copyright (C) 2004—2009: Tomi Häsä (tomi.hasa@gmail.com),
Craig Payne (cbpayne@gmail.com), Martin Hagstrøm (mha@altavista.net),
and JB (jtb5358@yahoo.com).

Disclaimer: This article is provided as is without any express or
implied warranties. While every effort has been taken to ensure the
accuracy of the information contained in this article, the
contributors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for
damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.