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Google search

Google search

Overview
Google search is a web search engine
Web search engine
A web search engine is a tool designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data...

 owned by Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies. Google has also...

 Inc. and is the most-used search engine on the Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks...

. Google receives several hundred million queries each day through its various services. Google search was originally developed by Larry Page
Larry Page
Lawrence Edward "Larry" Page, is a US computer scientist best known as cofounder of Google Inc. He is ranked 26th on the 2009 Forbes list of the world’s billionaires and is the 6th richest person in America...

 and Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin is a Russian-born American computer scientist best known as the co-founder of Google, Inc., the world’s largest Internet company, based on its search engine and online advertising technology. As of 2009, Forbes ranks Brin as the 26th richest person in the world.Brin immigrated to the...

 in 1997.

Beyond the original word-search capability, Google Search provides more than 22 special features, such as: synonyms; weather forecasts; time zones; stock quotes; maps; earthquake data; movie showtimes; airports; home listings; sports scores, etc.
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Encyclopedia
Google search is a web search engine
Web search engine
A web search engine is a tool designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data...

 owned by Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies. Google has also...

 Inc. and is the most-used search engine on the Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks...

. Google receives several hundred million queries each day through its various services. Google search was originally developed by Larry Page
Larry Page
Lawrence Edward "Larry" Page, is a US computer scientist best known as cofounder of Google Inc. He is ranked 26th on the 2009 Forbes list of the world’s billionaires and is the 6th richest person in America...

 and Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin is a Russian-born American computer scientist best known as the co-founder of Google, Inc., the world’s largest Internet company, based on its search engine and online advertising technology. As of 2009, Forbes ranks Brin as the 26th richest person in the world.Brin immigrated to the...

 in 1997.

Beyond the original word-search capability, Google Search provides more than 22 special features, such as: synonyms; weather forecasts; time zones; stock quotes; maps; earthquake data; movie showtimes; airports; home listings; sports scores, etc. (see below: Special features). There are special features for numbers: prices; temperatures; money/unit conversions ("10.5 cm in inches"); calculations ( 3*4+sqrt(6)-pi/2 ); package tracking; patents; area codes; plus rudimentary language translation of displayed pages.

A Google search-results page is ordered by a priority rank called a "PageRank
PageRank
PageRank is a link analysis algorithm, named after Larry Page, used by the Google Internet search engine that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set...

" which is kept secret to avoid spammers from forcing their pages to the top. Google Search provides many options for customized search (see below: Search options), such as: exclusion ("-xx"), inclusion ("+xx"), alternatives ("xx OR yy"), and wildcard matching ("xx*").

PageRank



Google's algorithm
Algorithm
In mathematics, computing, linguistics, and related subjects, an algorithm is an effective method for solving a problem using a finite sequence of instructions. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and many other fields....

 uses a patent
Patent
A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for a public disclosure of an invention....

ed system called PageRank
PageRank
PageRank is a link analysis algorithm, named after Larry Page, used by the Google Internet search engine that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of "measuring" its relative importance within the set...

 to help rank web pages that match a given search string. The PageRank algorithm computes a recursive
Recursion
Recursion, in mathematics and computer science, is a method of defining functions in which the function being defined is applied within its own definition. The term is also used more generally to describe a process of repeating objects in a self-similar way...

 score for web pages, based on the weighted sum of the PageRanks of the pages linking
Hyperlink
In computing, a hyperlink is a reference in a document to an external or internal piece of information. The most common usage is in the Internet to browse through web pages: some text in the current document is highlighted so that when clicked, the browser automatically displays another page or...

 to them. The PageRank derives from human-generated links, and is thought to correlate
Correlation
In statistics, correlation indicates the strength and direction of a relationship between two random variables. The commonest use refers to a linear relationship. In general statistical usage, correlation or co-relation refers to the departure of two random variables from independence...

 well with human concepts of importance.
The exact percentage of the total of web pages that Google indexes
Index (search engine)
Search engine indexing collects, parses, and stores data to facilitate fast and accurate information retrieval. Index design incorporates interdisciplinary concepts from linguistics, cognitive psychology, mathematics, informatics, physics and computer science...

 is not known, as it is very hard to actually calculate. Previous keyword-based methods of ranking search results, used by many search engines that were once more popular than Google, would rank pages by how often the search terms occurred in the page, or how strongly associated the search terms were within each resulting page. In addition to PageRank, Google also uses other secret criteria for determining the ranking of pages on result lists, reported to be a number over 200.

Search results


Google not only indexes and caches web pages but also takes "snapshots" of other file types, which include PDF
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. PDF is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system....

, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Flash SWF, plain text files, and so on. Except in the case of text and SWF
SWF
The file formatSWF a partially open repository for multimedia and especially for vector graphics, originated with FutureWave Software and...

 files, the cached version is a conversion to (X)HTML, allowing those without the corresponding viewer application to read the file.

Users can customize the search engine, by setting a default language, using the "SafeSearch" filtering technology and set the number of results shown on each page. Google has been criticized for placing long-term cookies
HTTP cookie
In computing, a cookie is a small piece of text stored on a user's computer by a web browser...

 on users' machines to store these preferences, a tactic which also enables them to track a user's search terms and retain the data for more than a year. For any query, up to the first 1000 results can be shown with a maximum of 100 displayed per page.

Non-indexable data


Despite its immense index, there is also a considerable amount of data available in online databases which are accessible by means of queries but not by links. This so-called invisible or deep Web
Deep web
The deep Web refers to World Wide Web content that is not part of the surface Web, which is indexed by standard search engines....

 is minimally covered by Google and other search engines. The deep Web contains library catalog
Library catalog
A library catalog is a register of all bibliographic items found in a library or group of libraries, such as a network of libraries at several locations...

s, official legislative documents of governments, phone books, and other content which is dynamically prepared to respond to a query.

Privacy in some countries forbids the showing of some links. For instance in Switzerland every private person can force Google Inc. to delete a link, which contains its name.

Google optimization



Since Google is the most popular search engine, many webmaster
Webmaster
A webmaster , also called a web architect, web developer, site author, website administrator, or webmeister, is a person responsible for maintaining a website...

s have become eager to influence their website's Google rankings. An industry of consultants has arisen to help websites increase their rankings on Google and on other search engines. This field, called search engine optimization
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid search results as opposed to search engine marketing which deals with paid inclusion...

, attempts to discern patterns in search engine listings, and then develop a methodology for improving rankings to draw more searchers to their client's sites.

Search engine optimization encompasses both "on page" factors (like body copy, title elements, H1 heading elements and image alt attribute
Alt attribute
The alt attribute is used in HTML and XHTML documents to specify alternative text that is to be rendered when the element to which it is applied cannot be rendered. In HTML 4.01, the attribute is required for the img and area tags...

 values) and Off Page Optimization factors (like anchor text
Anchor text
The anchor text, link label or link title is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. The words contained in the anchor text can determine the ranking that the page will receive by search engines. Since 1998, some web browsers have added the ability to show a tooltip for a hyperlink before it is...

 and PageRank). The general idea is to affect Google's relevance algorithm by incorporating the keywords being targeted in various places "on page", in particular the title element and the body copy (note: the higher up in the page, presumably the better its keyword prominence and thus the ranking). Too many occurrences of the keyword, however, cause the page to look suspect to Google's spam checking algorithms.

Google has published guidelines for website owners who would like to raise their rankings when using legitimate optimization consultants.

Functionality


The Google search engine has many intuitive features making it more functional. Google search consists of a series of localized websites. The largest of those, the google.com site, is the top most-visited website today. Some of its features include a definition link for most searches including dictionary words, a list of how many results you got on your search, links to other searches (e.g. for words that Google believes to be misspelled, it provides a link to the search results using its proposed spelling), and many more. It is unknown whether functionality, speed, or luck brought it its peak status.

Search syntax


Google's search engine normally accepts queries as a simple text, and breaks up the user's text into a sequence of search terms, which will usually be words that are to occur in the results, but may also be phrases, delimited by quotations marks ("), qualified terms, with a prefix such as "+", "-", or one of several advanced operators, such as "site:". The webpages of "Google Search Basics" describe each of these additional queries and options (see below: Search options).

Google's Advanced Search web form gives several additional fields which may be used to qualify searches by such criteria as date of first retrieval. All advanced queries transform to regular queries, usually with additional qualified terms.

Query expansion


Google applies query expansion
Query expansion
Query expansion is the process of reformulating a seed query to improve retrieval performance in information retrieval operations.In the context of web search engines, query expansion involves evaluating a user's input and expanding the search query to match additional documents...

 to the submitted search query, transforming it into the query that will actually be used to retrieve results. As with page ranking, the exact details of the algorithm Google uses are deliberately obscure, but certainly the following transformations are among those that occur:
  • Term reordering: in information retrieval
    Information retrieval
    Information retrieval is the science of searching for documents, for information within documents and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching relational databases and the World Wide Web...

     this is a standard technique to reduce the work involved in retrieving results. This transformation is invisible to the user, since the results ordering uses the original query order to determine relevance.
  • Stemming
    Stemming
    In linguistic morphology, stemming is the process for reducing inflected words to their stem, base or root form – generally a written word form. The stem need not be identical to the morphological root of the word; it is usually sufficient that related words map to the same stem, even if...

     is used to increase search quality by keeping small syntactic variants of search terms.
  • There is a limited facility to fix possible misspellings in queries.

"I'm Feeling Lucky"


Google's homepage includes a button labeled "I'm Feeling Lucky". When a user clicks on the button the user will be taken directly to the first search result, bypassing the search engine results page
Search engine results page
A search engine results page , is the listing of web pages returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query. The results normally include a list of web pages with titles, a link to the page, and a short description showing where the keywords have matched content within the page...

. The thought is that if a user is "feeling lucky", the search engine will return the perfect match the first time without having to page through the search results.

According to a study by Tom Chavez of "Rapt", this feature costs Google $110 million a year as 1% of all searches use this feature and bypass all advertising.

Rich Snippets


On 12 May 2009, Google announced that they would be parsing the hCard
HCard
hCard is a microformat for publishing the contact details of people, companies, organizations, and places, in HTML, Atom, RSS, or arbitrary XML...

, hReview
HReview
hReview is a microformat for publishing reviews of books, music, films, restaurants, businesses, holidays, etc. using HTML on web pages, using HTML classes and rel attributes.....

 and hProduct
HProduct
hProduct is a microformat for publishing details of products using HTML on web pages, using HTML classes and rel attributes..On 12 May 2009, Google announced that they would be parsing the hProduct, hCard and hReview microformats, and using them to populate search result pages....

 microformats, and using them to populate search result pages with what they called "Rich Snippets".

Special features


Besides the main search-engine feature of searching for text, Google Search has more than 22 "special features" (activated by entering any of dozens of trigger words) when searching:
  • synonym search – A search can match words similar to those specified, by placing the tilde sign (~) immediately in front of a search term, such as:  ~fast food.
  • weather – The weather humidity, temperature and forecast, for many cities, can be viewed by typing "weather" followed by the city and state, U.S. zip code, or city and country (such as: weather Lawrence, Kansas
    Lawrence, Kansas
    Lawrence is the 6th largest city in the U.S. State of Kansas and the county seat of Douglas County. Located in northeastern Kansas, Lawrence is the anchor city of the Lawrence, Kansas Metropolitan Area which encompasses all of Douglas County...

    ; weather Paris; weather Bremen, Germany).
  • stock quotes – The market data for a specific company or fund can be viewed, by typing the ticker symbol
    Ticker symbol
    A stock symbol or ticker symbol is a short abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. A stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers or a combination of both...

     (or include "stock"), such as: CSCO
    CSCO
    CSCO may refer to:*Cisco Systems, stock exchange symbol*Complete set of commuting observables...

    ; MSFT; IBM stock; F stock (lists Ford Motor Co.
    Ford Motor Company
    The Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford also owns Volvo Cars of Sweden, and a small stake...

    ); or AIVSX (fund). Results show inter-day changes, or 5-year graph, etc.
  • time zone – The current time in many cities (worldwide), can be viewed by typing "time" and the name of the city (such as: time Cairo; time Pratt, KS).
  • sports scores – The scores and schedules, for sports teams, can be displayed by typing the team name or league name into the search box.calculator – Calculation
    Calculation
    A calculation is a deliberate process for transforming one or more inputs into one or more results, with variable change.The term is used in a variety of senses, from the very definite arithmetical calculation of using an algorithm to the vague heuristics of calculating a strategy in a competition...

     results can be determined, as calculated live, by entering a formula in numbers or words, such as: 6*77 +pi +sqrt(e^3)/888 plus 0.45. The user is given the option to search for the formula, after calculation.
  • unit conversion – Measurements can be converted, by entering each phrase, such as: 10.5 cm in inches; or 90 km in miles
  • currency conversion – A money or currency converter can be selected, by typing the names or currency codes (listed by ISO 4217
    ISO 4217
    ISO 4217 is the international standard describing three-letter codes to define the names of currencies established by the International Organization for Standardization...

    ): 6789 Euro
    Euro
    The euro is the official currency of 16 of the 27 Member States of the European Union . The states, known collectively as the Eurozone, are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain...

     in USD; 150 GBP in USD; 5000 Yen in USD; 5000 Yuan
    Yuan
    Yuan may refer to:* Chinese yuan, the basic unit of currency in China** Renminbi, the current currency used in the People's Republic of China, whose basic unit is Yuan...

     in lira
    Lira
    Lira is the name of the monetary unit of a number of countries, as well as the former currency of Italy, Malta, San Marino and the Vatican City ....

     (the U.S. dollar can be USD or "US$" or "$", while Canadian is CAD, etc.).
  • dictionary lookup – A definition for a word or phrase can be found, by entering "define" plus the word(s) to lookup (such as: Define philosophy)
  • maps – Some related maps can be displayed, by typing in the name or U.S. ZIP code
    ZIP Code
    The ZIP code is the system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service . The letters ZIP, a backronym for Zone Improvement Plan, are properly written in capital letters and were chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...

     of a location and the word "map" (such as: New York map; Kansas map; or Paris map).
  • movie showtimes – Reviews or film
    Film
    Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....

     showtimes can be listed for any movies playing nearby, by typing "movies" or the name of any current film into the search box. If a specific location was saved on a previous search, the top search result will display showtimes for nearby theaters for that movie. These listings however are sometimes totally incorrect and there is no way to ask google to correct them; for example, on 25 July, for the El Capitan Theatre
    El Capitan Theatre
    El Capitan Theatre is a fully restored movie palace at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. It is owned by Pacific Theatres and operated by The Walt Disney Company. It serves as the venue for many of Walt Disney Pictures' movie premieres...

    , google showtimes lists Up
    Up (2009 film)
    Up is a American computer-animated comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The film premiered on May 29, 2009 in North America as the first animated film to premiere on the 2009 Cannes Film Festival...

     but according to the El Capitan website, the only movie playing that day is G-Force
    G-Force (film)
    G-Force is a spy-fi comedy film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer for Walt Disney Pictures in Disney Digital 3-D. Written by Cormac and Marianne Wibberley, the film is the directorial debut of Hoyt Yeatman, whose earlier work includes in the area of visual effects...

    .
  • public data – Trends for population (or unemployment rates) can be found for U.S. states & counties, by typing "population" or "unemployment rate" followed by a state or county name.
  • real estate and housing – Home listings in a given area can be displayed, using the trigger words "housing", "home", or "real estate" followed by the name of a city or U.S. zip code.
  • travel data/airports – The flight status for arriving or departing U.S. flights can be displayed, by typing in the name of the airline
    Airline
    An airline provides air transport services for passengers or freight, generally with a recognized operating certificate or license. Airlines lease or own their aircraft with which to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for mutual benefit.Airlines vary...

     and the flight number into the search box (such as: american airlines
    American Airlines
    ...

     18). Delays at a specific airport can also be viewed (by typing the name of the city or three-letter airport code plus word "airport").
  • package tracking – Package mail can be tracked by typing the tracking number of a UPS
    UPS
    - Science, technology and medicine :* Ubiquitin proteasome system* Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy* Ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy* Uninterruptible power supply* Universal Polar Stereographic coordinate system* Ups...

    , Fedex
    FedEx
    FedEx Corporation , originally known as FDX Corporation, is a logistics services company, based in the United States. The name "FedEx" is a syllabic abbreviation of the name of the company's original air division, Federal Express, which was used from 1978 until 2000.-History:FedEx Corporation was...

     or USPS
    United States Postal Service
    The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution. Within the United States, it is commonly...

     package directly into the search box. Results will include quick links to track the status of each shipment.
  • patent numbers – U.S. patents can be searched by entering the word "patent" followed by the patent number into the search box (such as: Patent 5123123).
  • area code – The geographical location (for any U.S. telephone area code) can be displayed by typing a 3-digit area code (such as: 650).
  • U.S. Government search – Searching of U.S. government websites can be performed from webpage: www.google.com/ig/usgov.


There might be other special features, beyond those listed here.

Search options


The webpages maintained by the Google Help Center have text describing more than 15 various search options.
The Google operators:
  • OR – Search for either one, such as "price high OR low" searches for "price" with "high" or "low".
  • "-" – Search while excluding a word, such as "apple -tree" searches where word "tree" is not used.
  • "+" – Force inclusion of a word, such as "Name +of +the Game" to require the words "of" & "the" to appear on a matching page.
  • "*" – Wildcard operator to match any words between other specific words.


Some of the query options are as follows:
  • define: – The query prefix "define:" will provide a definition of the words listed after it.
  • stocks: – After "stocks:" the query terms are treated as stock ticker symbols for lookup.
  • site: – Restrict the results to those websites in the given domain, such as, site:www.acmeacme.com. The option "site:com" will search all domain URLs named with ".com" (no space after "site:").
  • allintitle: – Only the page titles are searched (not the remaining text on each webpage).
  • intitle: – Prefix to search in a webpage title, such as "intitle:google search" will list pages with word "google" in title, and word "search" anywhere (no space after "intitle:").
  • allinurl: – Only the page URL address lines are searched (not the text inside each webpage).
  • inurl: – Prefix for each word to be found in the URL; others words are matched anywhere, such as "inurl:acme search" matches "acme" in a URL, but matches "search" anywhere (no space after "inurl:").


The page-display options (or query types) are:
  • cache: – Highlights the search-words within the cached document, such as "cache:www.google.com xxx" shows cached content with word "xxx" highlighted.
  • link: – The prefix "link:" will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage, such as "link:www.google.com" lists webpages linking to the Google homepage.
  • related: – The prefix "related:" will list webpages that are "similar" to a specified web page.
  • info: – The prefix "info:" will display some background information about one specified webpage, such as, info:www.google.com. Typically, the info is the first text (160 bytes, about 23 words) contained in the page, displayed in the style of a results entry (for just the 1 page as matching the search).


Note that Google searches the HTML coding inside a webpage, not the screen appearance: the words displayed on a screen might not be listed in the same order in the HTML coding.

Error messages


Some searches will give a 403 Forbidden error with the text

"We're sorry...

... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.

We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google."

sometimes followed by a CAPTCHA
CAPTCHA
A CAPTCHA or Captcha is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to ensure that the response is not generated by a computer. The process usually involves one computer asking a user to complete a simple test which the computer is able to generate and grade...

 prompt.

The screen was first reported in 2005, and was a response to the heavy use of Google by search engine optimization
Search engine optimization
Search engine optimization is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid search results as opposed to search engine marketing which deals with paid inclusion...

 companies to check on ranks of sites they were optimizing. The message is triggered by high volumes of requests from a single IP address. Google apparently uses the Google cookie as part of its determination of refusing service.

In June 2009, after the death of pop superstar Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson , known as the "King of Pop", was an American musician and one of the most commercially successful and influential entertainers of all time...

, this message appeared to many internet users who were searching Google for news stories related to the singer, and was assumed by Google to be a DDoS attack, although many queries were legitimate searchers. This phenomenon quickly became known as the Jackson Effect.

January 2009 malware bug


Google flags search results with the message "This site may harm your computer" if the site is known to install malicious software in the background or otherwise surreptitiously. Google does this to protect users against visiting sites that could harm their computers. For approximately 40 minutes on January 31, 2009, all search results were mistakenly classified as malware
Malware
Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer without the owner's informed consent. The expression is a general term used by computer professionals to mean a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software or program code...

 and could therefore not be clicked; instead a warning message was displayed and the user was required to enter the requested URL manually. The bug was caused by human error. The URL of "/" (which expands to all URLs) was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file.

Google Doodle


On certain occasions, the logo
Google logo
Google has had several logos since its renaming from "BackRub". The current official Google pop logo was designed by Ruth Kedar, and is a wordmark based on the Catull typeface....

 on Google's webpage will change to a special version, known as a "Google Doodle". Clicking on the Doodle links to a string of Google search results about the topic. The first was a reference to the Burning Man Festival in 1998, and others have been produced for the birthdays of notable people like Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist. His many contributions to physics include the special and general theories of relativity, the founding of relativistic cosmology, the first post-Newtonian expansion, explaining the perihelion advance of Mercury, prediction of the deflection of...

, historical events like the interlocking Lego
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...

 block's 50th anniversary and holidays like Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day or Saint Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14 by many people throughout the world. In the English-speaking countries, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards, presenting flowers, or offering...

.

Google Caffeine


In August 2009 Google announced the rollout of a new search architecture, codenamed "Caffeine". The new architecture was designed to return results faster and to better deal with rapidly updated information from services including Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a global social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and...

 and Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers...

. Google developers noted that most users would notice little immediate change, but invited developers to test the new search in its sandbox
Sandbox (computer security)
In computer security, a sandbox is a security mechanism for separating running programs. It is often used to execute untested code, or untrusted programs from unverified third-parties, suppliers and untrusted users....

. The move was interpreted in some quarters as a response to Microsoft's recent release of an upgraded version of its own search service, renamed Bing.

Languages



  • Afrikaans
    Afrikaans
    Afrikaans is an Indo-European language derived from Dutch and thus classified as Low Franconian West Germanic. It is mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia, with smaller numbers of speakers living in Botswana, Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Australia, New Zealand, the United...

  • Albanian
    Albanian language
    Albanian is a unique Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, Montenegro, and southern Serbia. Albanian is also spoken by native enclaves...

  • Amharic
  • Arabic
  • Armenian
    Armenian language
    The Armenian language is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian people. It is the official language of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The language is also widely spoken by Armenian communities in the Armenian diaspora...

  • Azerbaijani
    Azerbaijani language
    Azerbaijani is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...

  • Basque
    Basque language
    Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is the mother tongue of approximately one fifth of Basques, 632,000 out of nearly 3,000,000...

  • Belarusian
    Belarusian language
    The Belarusian language, or Belorussian is the language of the Belarusian people and is spoken in Belarus and abroad, chiefly in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland...

  • Bengali
    Bengali language
    Bengali or Bangla is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages....

  • Bihari
    Bihari languages
    Bihari is a name given to the western group of Eastern Indic languages, spoken in Bihar and neighboring states in India. Bhojpuri and Maithili are spoken in Nepal as well. The Bhojpuri and Maithili speaking population form more than 20% of Nepalese population. Despite the large number of speakers...

  • Bosnian
    Bosnian language
    Bosnian is a South Slavic language spoken primarily in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the region of Sandžak in Serbia and Montenegro, although it is also spoken in various places throughout the world, as many speakers were forced to become refugees during the Bosnian war...

  • Breton
    Breton language
    The Breton language is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France.-History:Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish,...

  • Bulgarian
    Bulgarian language
    Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian demonstrates several linguistic innovations that set it apart from all other Slavic languages except the Macedonian language, such as the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite...

  • Cambodian (Khmer)
  • Catalan
    Catalan language
    Catalan is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencià , as well as in the city of Alghero on the Italian island of...

  • Chinese (Simplified)
  • Chinese (Traditional)
  • Corsican
    Corsican language
    Corsican is a continuum of Romance languages spoken and written on the islands of Corsica and northern Sardinia , alongside French and Italian, which are the official languages. Corsu is the traditional native language of the Corsican people, and was long the sole language of the island, which...

  • Croatian
    Croatian language
    Croatian is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Croatian minorities in some neighbouring countries, in the Italian region of Molise, and parts of the Croatian diaspora....

  • Czech
    Czech language
    Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. Czech is similar to and mutually intelligible with Slovak and, to a lesser extent, to Polish and Sorbian. - Official status :Czech is widely...


  • Danish
    Danish language
    Danish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the...

  • Dutch
    Dutch language
    Dutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
    "1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language...

  • English
    English language
    English is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...

     (United States)
  • English
    English language
    English is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...

     (United Kingdom)
  • Esperanto
    Esperanto
    is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto, the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887. The word esperanto means "one who hopes" in the language itself...

  • Estonian
    Estonian language
    Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...

  • Faroese
    Faroese language
    Faroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese in Denmark and elsewhere...

  • Filipino
    Filipino language
    Filipino is the national language of the Philippines and, along with English, is an official language; designated in the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Filipino is an Austronesian language that is based on various existing native languages in the Philippines, with a significant number of Spanish...

  • Finnish
    Finnish language
    Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a Finnish dialect, are spoken...

  • French
    French language
    French is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...

  • Frisian (West)
    West Frisian language
    West Frisian is a language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. West Frisian is the name by which this language is usually known outside of the Netherlands, to distinguish it from the closely related Frisian languages of Saterland Frisian and North Frisian,...

  • Galician
    Galician language
    Galician is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, as well as in small bordering zones in the neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castile and León and in Northern Portugal.Galician and Portuguese...

  • Georgian
    Georgian language
    Georgian is the native language of the Georgians and the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus.Georgian is the primary language of about 3.9 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad...

  • German
    German language
    German is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...

  • Greek
    Greek language
    Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...

  • Guarani
    Guaraní language
    Guaraní, specifically the primary variety known as Paraguayan Guaraní , is an indigenous language of South America that belongs to the Tupí-Guaraní subfamily of the Tupian languages. It is one of the official languages of Paraguay , where it is spoken by 88% of the population, with half of the...

  • Gujarati
    Gujarati language
    Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family...

  • Hebrew
    Hebrew language
    Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered a Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over...

  • Hindi
    Hindi
    Standard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...


  • Hungarian
    Hungarian language
    Hungarian is a Uralic language unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is mainly spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in the seven neighbouring countries...

  • Icelandic
    Icelandic language
    Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. Its closest relatives are Faroese and certain Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognamål....

  • Indonesian
    Indonesian language
    Indonesian is the official national language of Indonesia. It is based on a version of Classical Malay of the Riau-Johor Sultanate. It was first declared the official language with the declaration of Indonesian independence in 1945, following the 1928 unifying-language declaration in the...

  • Interlingua
    Interlingua
    Interlingua is an international auxiliary language , developed between 1937 and 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association...

  • Irish
    Irish language
    Irish is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now only spoken natively by a small minority of the Irish population but also plays an important symbolic role in the life of the Irish state, and is used...

  • Italian
    Italian language
    Italian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...

  • Japanese
    Japanese language
    is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...

  • Javanese
    Javanese language
    Javanese language is the language of the people in the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java...

  • Kannada
    Kannada language
    Kannada is one of the major Dravidian languages of India, spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka. Kannada, whose native speakers are called Kannadigas , number roughly 38 million, making it the 27th most spoken language in the world...

  • Kazakh
    Kazakh language
    Kazakh is a Turkic language closely related to Kyrgyz and Karakalpak.Kazakh is an agglutinative language, and it employs vowel harmony.-Geographic distribution:...

  • Korean
    Korean language
    Korean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers. It was formerly written using Hanja, borrowed Chinese characters pronounced in the Korean...

  • Kurdish
    Kurdish language
    Kurdish is the language spoken by Kurds in western Asia. Unlike many other languages it does not have a single standardized linguistic entity with the status of an official or state language...

  • Kyrgyz
    Kyrgyz language
    Kyrgyz or Kirghiz is a Turkic language and, together with Russian, an official language of Kyrgyzstan...

  • Laothian
  • Latin
    Latin
    Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...

  • Latvian
    Latvian language
    Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language...

  • Lingala
  • Lithuanian
    Lithuanian language
    Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...

  • Macedonian
    Macedonian language
    Macedonian is the official language of Republic of Macedonia and is a part of the Eastern group of South Slavic languages. Macedonian is closely related to and shares a high degree of mutual intelligibility with the Bulgarian language and to a certain extent with Serbian and Croatian...

  • Malay
    Malay language
    Malay is a group of languages closely related to each other to the point of mutual intelligibility but that linguists consider to be separate languages. They are grouped into a group called "Local Malay", part of a larger group called "Malayan" within the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the...

  • Malayalam

  • Maltese
    Maltese language
    Maltese is the national language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English,while also serving as an official language of the European Union, the only Semitic language so distinguished. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic...

  • Māori
    Maori language
    Māori or te reo Māori commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Maori people, where it has is the status of an official language...

  • Marathi
  • Mauritian Creole
    Mauritian Creole
    Mauritian Creole, called Kreol Morisyen in the language itself, is a creole language spoken in Mauritius. Almost all of its vocabulary stems from French, with smaller numbers of words from English and the many African and Asian languages that have been spoken on the island.- Sociolinguistic...

  • Moldavian (Romanian)
  • Mongolian
    Mongolian language
    The Mongolian language is the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. It has about 5.7 million speakers, including over 90% of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region of China...

  • Montenegrin
    Montenegrin language
    Montenegrin language is a South Slavic language, spoken in Montenegro, and in the Montenegrin diaspora. It is based on the Shtokavian dialect. It is the official language of the country...

  • Nepali
    Nepali language
    Nepali is a language in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family.It is official language and de facto lingua franca of Nepal and is also spoken in Bhutan, parts of India and parts of Myanmar...

  • Norwegian
    Norwegian language
    Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants ...

  • Norwegian (Nynorsk)
  • Occitan
  • Oriya
    Oriya language
    Odia or Oriya is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian state of Orissa. The language is also one of the many official languages of India.- Overview :...

  • Pashto
    Pashto language
    Pashto , also known as Afghani, is an Indo-European language spoken primarily in Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Pashto belongs to the Eastern Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family...

  • Persian
    Persian language
    Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...

  • Polish
    Polish language
    Polish is a West Slavic language and the official language of Poland. Its written standard is the Polish alphabet which corresponds basically to the Latin alphabet with a few additions...

  • Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Portuguese (Portugal)
  • Punjabi
    Punjabi language
    Punjabi or Panjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region ....

  • Quechua
    Quechua
    Quechua is a Native American language family spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably some 6 to 8 million speakers...


  • Romanian
    Romanian language
    Romanian or Daco-Romanian is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova. It has official status in Romania, Republic of Moldova, and the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina in Serbia...

  • Romansh
  • Russian
    Russian language
    Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...

  • Scots Gaelic
  • Serbian
    Serbian language
    Serbian is a South Slavic language, spoken chiefly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and in the Serbian diaspora...

  • Serbo-Croatian
    Serbo-Croatian
    Serbo-Croatian, Croato-Serbian, or Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian , is a South Slavic language or diasystem...

  • Sesotho
  • Shona
    Shona language
    Shona is a Bantu language, native to the Shona people of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia; the term is also used to identify peoples who speak one of the Shona language dialects, namely Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Ndau and Korekore. Shona is a principal language of Zimbabwe, along with Ndebele and the...

  • Sindhi
    Sindhi language
    Sindhi is the language of the Sindh region of Pakistan. It is spoken by 24,410,910 people in Pakistan, and is also spoken in India by 2,535,485 speakers. It is the third most spoken language of Pakistan, and the official language of Sindh in Pakistan. It is also an official language of India...

  • Sinhalese
  • Slovak
    Slovak language
    The Slovak language , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages ....

  • Slovene
  • Somali
    Somali language
    The Somali language is a member of the East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Its nearest relatives are Afar and Oromo. Somali is the best documented of the Cushitic languages, with academic studies of it from before 1900....

  • Spanish
    Spanish language
    Spanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...

  • Sundanese
    Sundanese language
    Not to be confused with SudaneseSundanese is the language of about 27 million people from the western third of Java or about 15% of the Indonesian population....

  • Swahili
  • Swedish
    Swedish language
    Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the Åland islands. It is to a considerable extent mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to a lesser extent with Danish...

  • Tagalog
    Tagalog language
    Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines by about 22 million people.It is related to Austronesian languages such as Chamorro , Indonesian, Malay, Javanese and Paiwan , Cham , and Tetum...

  • Tajik
    Tajik language
    Tajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a modern variety of Persian spoken in Central Asia. Most speakers of Tajik live in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan...


  • Tamil
    Tamil language
    Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in Malaysia, Mauritius and Réunion as well as emigrant communities around the world...

  • Tatar
    Tatar language
    The Tatar language is a Turkic language spoken by the Tatars.-Geographic distribution:Tatar is spoken in Russia , Central Asia, Ukraine, Poland, China, Finland and Turkey....

  • Telugu
  • Thai
    Thai language
    Thai is the national and official language of Thailand and the mother tongue of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Kradai language family. The Kradai languages are thought to have originated in what is now southern China, and are linked to...

  • Tigrinya
  • Tonga
    Tonga language
    Tonga can refer to four different languages:*Tonga language – a Bantu language spoken in Zambia and Zimbabwe*Tonga language – a Bantu language spoken in Malawi...

  • Turkish
    Turkish language
    Turkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...

  • Turkmen
    Turkmen language
    Turkmen is the name of the national language of Turkmenistan. It is spoken by approximately 3,000,000 people in Turkmenistan, and by an additional approximately 380,000 in northwestern Afghanistan and 500,000 in northeastern Iran.- Classification, related languages and dialects :Turkmen is in the...

  • Twi
    Twi
    Twi is a language spoken in Ghana by the Akan people, which comprises the Asantes or Ashantis, the Fantes, the Akuapems, the Kwawus, the Akyems, the Bonos or Brongs and the Denkyiras. The population that speak Twi in Ghana is about 8.3 million...

  • Uighur
  • Ukrainian
    Ukrainian language
    Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses the Cyrillic alphabet....

  • Urdu
    Urdu
    Urdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...

  • Uzbek
    Uzbek language
    Uzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 23.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...

  • Vietnamese
    Vietnamese language
    Vietnamese , formerly known under French colonization as Annamese , is the national and official language of Vietnam...

  • Welsh
    Welsh language
    Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh border and in the Welsh immigrant colony in the Chubut Valley in Argentine Patagonia....

  • Xhosa
    Xhosa language
    Xhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa. Xhosa is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, or about 18% of the South African population. Like most Bantu languages, Xhosa is a tonal language, that is, the same sequence of consonants and vowels can have different meanings when...

  • Yiddish
  • Yoruba
    Yoruba language
    Yoruba is a dialect continuum of West Africa with over 25 million speakers. The native tongue of the approximately 28 million Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and traces of it are found among communities in Brazil, Sierra Leone , northern Ghana Yoruba...

  • Zulu
    Zulu language
    Zulu is the language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa as well as being understood by over 50% of the population . It became one of South Africa's eleven official...


The interface has also been made available in some languages for humorous purpose:
  • Klingon
    Klingon language
    The Klingon language is the constructed language spoken by Klingons in the fictional Star Trek universe. Deliberately designed by Marc Okrand to be "alien", it has a number of typologically uncommon features. The language's basic sound, along with a few words, was first devised by actor James...

  • Bork, bork, bork!
    Swedish Chef
    The Swedish Chef is a Muppet that appeared on The Muppet Show. He was operated by Jim Henson and Frank Oz simultaneously and is now puppeteered by Bill Barretta.-Character:...

  • Elmer Fudd
    Elmer Fudd
    Elmer J. Fudd is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon . His aim is to shoot Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring himself and other antagonizing characters. He has a...

  • Hacker
  • Pig Latin
    Pig Latin
    Pig Latin is a language game of alterations played in English . To form the Pig Latin form of an English word the initial consonant sound is transposed to the end of the word and an ay is affixed...

  • Pirate

Domain names


In addition to the main URL Google.com, Google owns 160 domain names for each of the countries/regions in which it has been localized. As Google is an American company, the main domain name can be considered as the U.S. one, though the gTLD .com
.com
com is a generic top-level domain within the Domain Name System of the Internet. It was one of the original top-level domains , the others being edu, gov, mil, net, org, and arpa established in January 1985...

 can be used by any company in the world (not only those from the United States). Google.us does exist but is only a redirection
URL redirection
URL redirection, also called URL forwarding and the very similar technique domain redirection also called domain forwarding, are techniques on the World Wide Web for making a web page available under many URLs.- Similar domain names :...

 to google.com because dot-US
.us
.us is the Internet country code top-level domain for the United States, established in 1985. Registrants of .us domains must be United States citizens, residents, or organizations, or a foreign entity with a presence in the United States...

 is by far less common than dot-com
.com
com is a generic top-level domain within the Domain Name System of the Internet. It was one of the original top-level domains , the others being edu, gov, mil, net, org, and arpa established in January 1985...

 in the United States. An example is Google.ca or Google.co.nz.

Cybersquatting


Some domain names unregistered by Google are currently squatted
Cybersquatting
Cybersquatting , according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else...

:
  • Google.ua (Ukraine), the correct URL is google.com.ua

Search products


In addition to its tool for searching webpages, Google also provides services for searching images
Raster graphics
In computer graphics, a raster graphics image or bitmap is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium...

, Usenet
Usenet
Usenet, a portmanteau of "user" and "network" , is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It evolved from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name....

 newsgroup
Newsgroup
A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...

s, news websites, videos
Google Video
Google Video is a free video sharing website and also a video search engine from Google. Google Video allows select videos to be remotely embedded on other websites and provides the necessary HTML code alongside the media, similar to YouTube. This allows for websites to host large amounts of video...

, searching by locality, maps, and items for sale online. In 2006, Google has indexed over 25 billion web pages, 400 million queries per day, 1.3 billion images, and over one billion Usenet messages. It also cache
Cache
In computer science, a cache is a collection of data duplicating original values stored elsewhere or computed earlier, where the original data is expensive to fetch or to compute, compared to the cost of reading the cache. In other words, a cache is a temporary storage area where frequently...

s much of the content that it indexes
Web indexing
Web indexing includes back-of-book-style indexes to individual websites or an intranet, and the creation of keyword metadata to provide a more useful vocabulary for Internet or onsite search engines...

. Google operates other tools and services including Google News
Google News
Google News is an automated news aggregator provided by Google Inc. The initial idea, StoryRank—related to Google's PageRank formula—was developed by Krishna Bharat in 2001, the Principal Research Scientist of Google. No human is involved in the altering of the front page or story promotion, beyond...

, Google Suggest, Google Product Search, Google Maps
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...

, Google Co-op
Google Co-op
Google Co-op is a platform provided by Google that allows web developers to feature specialized information in web searches, refine and categorise queries and create customized search engines, based on Google Web Search...

 and Google Desktop
Google Desktop
Google Desktop is desktop search software made by Google for Mac OS X, Linux, and Microsoft Windows. The program allows text searches of a user's e-mails, computer files, music, photos, chats, Web pages viewed, and other "Google Gadgets".-File indexing:...

 Search.

There are also products available from Google that are not directly search-related. Gmail
Gmail
Gmail is a free webmail, POP3, and IMAP service provided by Google. In Germany it is officially called Google Mail.Gmail was launched as an invitation-only beta release on April 1, 2004 and it became available to the general public on February 7, 2007, though still with beta status. ,it has 146...

, for example, is a webmail application, but still includes search features; Google Browser Sync
Google Browser Sync
Google Browser Sync is a software application released as freeware from Google. It debuted in Google Labs on 8 June 2006, and as of June 2008 has been discontinued. It allows users of Mozilla Firefox up to versions 2.x to synchronize their web browser settings across multiple computers via the...

 does not offer any search facilities, although it aims to organize your browsing time.

Energy consumption


Google claims that a search query requires altogether about 1 kJ
Joule
The joule , named for James Prescott Joule, is the derived unit of energy in the International System of Units. It is the energy exerted by a force of one newton acting to move an object through a distance of one metre...

 or 0.0003 kW·h.

Further reading

  • Google Hacks
    Google Hacks
    Google Hacks: Tips & Tools for Smarter Searching is a book of tips about Google, a popular Internet search engine, by Tara Calishain and Rael Dornfest. The book was published by O'Reilly in February 2002 . It covers tips of all kinds, from usage hints for the novice just using Google, to advice...

    from O'Reilly
    O'Reilly Media
    O'Reilly Media is an American media company established by Tim O'Reilly that publishes books and web sites and produces conferences on computer technology topics...

    is a book containing tips about using Google effectively. Now in its third edition. ISBN 0-596-52706-3.
  • Google: The Missing Manual by Sarah Milstein and Rael Dornfest (O'Reilly, 2004). ISBN 0-596-00613-6
  • How to Do Everything with Google by Fritz Schneider, Nancy Blachman, and Eric Fredricksen (McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, 2003). ISBN 0-07-223174-2
  • Google Power by Chris Sherman (McGraw-Hill Osborne Media, 2005). ISBN 0-07-225787-3

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