If you think you've seen it all, you AIN't lived till you try Google now.
Their new set up showed up yesterday.
As many people know, I use Google to search many kinds of records
for genealogical and history information as well as just about anything
you can wish to find. Anything medical that a doctor could wish to know
is a few clicks away for you also. You need only to put in a word or two
and you find thousands and millions of sites from medical colleges,
hospital and pharmecutical websites. Even very rare medical problems
may be found and a physician or facility who specializes in that field.
Got weird car problems? Type in the brand, model, year, and a few
words about the problem. There are sights for every type of car, truck,
and equipment and then there are sites where master mechanics
offer their suggestions for the solution. My landlord's son's 1998
pickup burned up 3 fuel pumps in one month. The dealer replaced
two and when I searched it on the third, an Auto Doctor site had
the answer. Check the wiring for cracks or corrosion of the insulation
on the wiring. Yep, that was the answer. The dealer needed to get
a home computer instead of going through all the labor of dropping
the fuel tank and just sticking in another fuel pump. The costs
he ate to replace the fuel pumps would have bought the computer
just on this one vehicle.
I gave a presentation in June on using Google to locate any information
that is out in cyberspace and I had located over 800 sites from other
states or countries that had references to Saratoga County in some way.
I have to wonder what gems this new set up will produce now. This
is what it is like and I have only used it for a couple of hours because
I do not have any time just now to really try more.
The new set up is just unbelievable. When you go to www.google.com
you will now see some choices. One of the most fascinating is
the IMAGES. I have a 14400 modem and the images just come right
up so fast. My granddaughter formerly ran Cross Country at Saratoga
and now runs for Wake Forest. When I showed my daugher, we were
shocked to find websites we never knew about that had her picture.
We tried the WEB and found loads of sites that had her name on it.
The new home page at Google now has the following to select from:
WEB IMAGES GROUPS DIRECTORY
I think the most exciting is IMAGES. I did not spend any time looking
at the sites found but when I tried the following, in less than a second
it found:
searched for: searched for:
Archives History Archives History NY
WEB 2,080,000 in 0.30 sec. 347,000 in 0.27 sec
IMAGES 13,700 in 0.50 sec 94 in 0.50 sec.
GROUPS 175,000 in 0.66 sec 26,800 in 0.63 sec
DIRECTORY 1,480,000 in 0.24 sec 200,000 in 0.28 sec
I think the Internet just got better. When my daughter tried certain
search words for specific needlework terms (she creates beautiful
Victorian needlework with intricate raised flowers) the IMAGES
produced hundreds of sites with needlework, patterns, suppliers
of the items she uses, and so much more. All in 0.25 sec. You
click on any photo and they fill the screen. 10 -15 images per
screen show up in each page you bring up so you can review
quite a few at one time.
Like I tell everyone, put food and beverage beside the computer
and go to the potty before getting on Google, because you are
going to be there for hours. John Austin, Warren County Surrogate
Judge is a Genealogical Fellow and he told how this has changed
his search life altogether. In minutes, we found hundreds of sites
that had the surname Beadleston which he has searched for years
and he found to be rare to locate. He was so surprised at what
Google found in less than a minute.
The good thing is that many archives and repositories are now
reproducing their holdings and are making them available on
websites. I have found loads of European records that are now
available this way that have not previously been published in
any way. The connections to the world have really been defined
and searchable.
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