"Google It"
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So many people use the Google site when browsing the Internet that this brand has become a de facto verb: to "Google" something is now synonymous with online searching. This marvelous cyberspace tool is certainly an excellent place to begin looking for a broad range of P&O related information. For example, type in "polycentric knee" and page after page of articles appear within seconds, and the majority are related to prostheses or prosthetic components.
Google can do much more than simply search for text articles, however. After initiating a Google search for "polycentric knee", click on the "Images" heading and several pages of thumbnail illustrations of polycentric prosthetic and orthotic joints appear. Clicking on the thumbnails takes you to a higher resolution example of the image, and provides a link to the site where the picture is located.
Clicking on "Froogle" heading calls up items for sale that contain the key words. In the case of "polycentric knee", more than 300 sources for prefabricated knee braces pop up. The left column has a series of options that allow you to instantly sort by price or price range, display them as a grid or list, search by source, etc.
This is an excellent way to comparison shop for consumer items online. Try Froogling for "MP3 Player" and more than 90 thousand options come up. Many have a numeric value next to the listing such as "4.2/5.0". Clicking on the numerals takes you to consumer evaluation sites such as BizRate.com, where you can read customer comments about the merchant to understand why that company is rated 4.2 on a 5-point scale. So, you can quickly identify those companies who have poor customer service or don't live up to their promises.
Google is excellent for tracking down numbers, and it's often smart enough to figure out where to look. Just type in shipper tracking numbers, patent numbers, airline registrations, vehicle identification numbers, telephone area codes, etc. For example, typing "330" whisks you to a site that maps this Ohio area code and surrounding area codes.
Travel updates are a breeze with Google. Typing in the three letter official abbreviation followed by the word "airport" [e.g. :MSP airport"] brings up a wealth of information about that venue. The first in the list is the official Federal Aviation Authority site, so one more click tells you the average flight delays and local weather conditions. To check on a specific flight, just type in the name or abbreviation of the airline and the flight number, such as "Northwest 623" and click over to Travelocity, Expedia, or similar travel sites.
Want to look up the definition of an unknown word? Type "define:" and the word, and Google will look it up for you! Try "define:prosthesis" as an example. Google will also serve as a calculator: type in the mathematical formula and hit "enter" to solve it. This is particularly handy for conversions. To figure out how many cups of liquid it takes to equal one liter, just type in "cups in a liter" and Google instantly tells you that "1 liter = 4.22675282 US cups".
Of course, Google is also a complete telephone number/address listing for the United States, stock quotes, street maps, and newspaper headlines. Do a Google search for "prosthesis" and then click on the "News" heading to find links to hundreds of recent news articles on the topic.
Perhaps the slickest feature of Google is the ability to do an instantaneous rough translation from French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese into English. This means if you find an interesting web site in a language you do not read, you can click on "translate this page" to get a good idea of the content.
Last but not least, if you install the Google tool bar in your browser, you will have automatic protection against those annoying pop-ups that are so ubiquitous in today's world! There are a number of other good search options, but this constellation of services explains why Google has become the most popular web-searching tool in the world. Try it when you have a few moments!!
