Tuesday, January 4, 2005

Google Hacks, 2nd Edition

Google Hacks, 2nd edition (by Tara Calishain & Rael Dornfest) is out. I’m holding a copy in my hand and I’m glad my Search Grid and Centuryshare are featured as Hack #14 and #17.

I find Google Hacks to be simply the best general-purpose Google book out, covering everything from search basics to advanced tricks in easy-to-grasp chunks. The second edition brings many new ideas (and not just from FindForward).

One of the Google hacks new to me was WebCollage. This tool creates a collage of images found by feeding different search engines random words. Not always safe for work.

A special new chapter in Google Hacks is devoted to Gmail. Most importantly (and this should be of interest to many people posting in the forum every day) how to get a Gmail invite. Here are the top suggestions:

• Ask an aquaintance
• Request one of a stranger
• eBay for one
• Swap something
• Join the military
• Google for it

Google Hacks, 2nd Edition by Philipp Lenssen

Google Images in Google Web Search

It looks like Google is showing a test feature to some users: upon entering a query in Google web search, thumbnails from Google Images are displayed above normal results. [Thanks Ades in the forum.]

Related: Google News showing on Google Images.

Google Images in Google W ... by Philipp Lenssen

Google Encyclopedia

This English encyclopedia and dictionary was built using Google’s “define” operator and the Google translation service. All pages were assembled from scratch using nothing but a word database and screen-scraping. (Note most translations are currently still being compiled – the letter “a” gives an idea how this will look like soon.)

Google Encyclopedia by Philipp Lenssen

Google Mystery Image 2

I’ve been to Google Images again. Who or what do you see above?

Google Mystery Image 2 by Philipp Lenssen

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