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Google Revisited

Last month's Corner pointed out a few of the more useful aspects of the Google search engine :

1. Searching for text on the Net
2. Searching for images on the Net
3. Searching for products/prices on the Net
4. Finding word definitions
5. Finding addresses, phone numbers, etcetera
6. Basic translation
7. Pop-up suppression

One conspicuous omission from this list is the Google Desktop search engine, which is currently downloadable for free in its Beta configuration from desktop.google.com . At the time last month's Corner was being written, a significant vulnerability had been identified that might let a hacker gain access to your information, so I chose not to mention Desktop in that article. Fortunately, the software has now been updated and that vulnerability eliminated.

Desktop uses the same type of search engine as their more familiar net crawler, but confines its efforts to the hard drive on your computer. The download is surprisingly small [400k] and takes very little time to install. Google recommends initially installing the program at the end of the day so it can run in the evening, when you are not using your computer, to perform this initial indexing of all of your files. This can take several hours, depending on the size of your hard drive and the total volume of files.

But, once the initial indexing has been completed, Google Desktop takes just seconds to keep the index updated with new files you have produced. Users report that this background scanning is unobtrusive and does not slow down the computer or interfere with any other tasks being done at the same time. At this time, only the following file types are indexed:

• Text files
• Outlook
• Outlook Express
• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint
• AOL Instant Messaging chats
• Web history files

Google has announced plans to add PDF files and to implement word searching within PDFs, but there is no timetable for when this will be functional. For many Microsoft-centric users, the currently indexed files will account for most items of interest.

Google Desktop has the same look and feel as the familiar Google search engine, so it is a piece of cake to retrieve a list of files based on key words. Almost instantly, the Desktop engine produces the familiar Google results page, and you can click on the links to go immediately to those files that are of interest. And, when you do a Google Internet search, a list of related desktop files appears inside the results screen automatically.

You can visit the Google site for more details, or read an article from Small Business Computing on this Google tool.

Google recently announced four additional features that are potentially among the most useful applications of software on the planet. The first is Google Scholar , a specialized Web search engine for peer-reviewed papers, books, abstracts, and similar scientific information. Go to scholar.google.com to try this powerful, free service. Try typing in "microprocessor controlled knee" and within less than a second, over 350 citations with hot links to more detailed abstracts appear. While not every citation will be about prosthetic knees, most of the articles on the first screen are directly relevant to our field, including abstracts from MIT on what is now known as the RHEO, translated abstracts from a German article on the C-Leg, and information on the Endolite microprocessor-controlled prosthetic knees including a recent article from Prosthetics & Orthotics International .

The second new Google feature is the ability to search within the text of published books . This feature is accessed by typing "book about" in the standard Google search engine. As an example, keying in "book about artificial limbs" results in 183,000 hits in a little over one half-second. Contents on the first two screens include:

• Information about a North Carolina book on the provision of prostheses to Confederate Civil War veterans
• Links to several patient education pamphlets, including the classics by Ben Wilson and Al Muilenburg CP
• Excerpts from A.A. Marks turn-of-the-century book from the late 1800s
• A concise introduction to pediatric upper limb prostheses written by a University of Strathclyde staffer
• A book review by Dudley Childress PhD
• A one-page "history of prostheses" from the University of Iowa
• The full text and graphics from Professor Charles Radcliffe's 1950 article titled "Functional Considerations in the Fitting of Above-Knee Prostheses"

The current fledgling capability is part of a much more ambitious plan: to scan and make available online millions of the world's written works, including excepts from works currently under copyright and complete word-searchable contents from those that are in the public domain. Working in collaboration with many of the world's major libraries, Google's is planning nothing less than a worldwide electronic book repository.

Much like a cross between Borders Books and the New York City public library, this third new offering [called Google Print ] will let you browse through electronic volumes until you find one that you want to read. If the book is in the public domain, you will be able to read it online. If not, you can click a link to order a copy that will be shipped to your home or work. You can read about this initiative at print.google.com .

If that is not enough, the fourth new service was born when Google recently purchased Keyhole , a company who developed software that turns satellite survey maps into realistic 3D maps of the earth. One of the first things Google did was to slash the annual subscription rate by two thirds, so a personal version of the software now costs just $29.95. In typical Google style, the plan is to add to the database until it permits you to view the entire earth's surface from your PC!

You've probably already seen this technology on CNN when they zoom in to a news site, or electronically "fly" into a storm center. To download a free 7-day trial of the software, or for more details, click over to www.keyhole.com .

With all these powerful features, it's hard to imagine that the Google software was only developed six years ago, by a couple of Stanford University computer science graduate students who had a grand idea, very little money, and were working out of a dormitory room. A brief history of the development of Google is posted online. For a good chuckle, read a tongue-in-cheek explanation of how the Google search functions are conducted by clusters of pigeons harvested from public parks and plazas by 50 PhDs.