Thanks in no small part to Google, millions of Internet users who could once scarcely dogpaddle through cyberspace are now surfing effortlessly on the crests of information tsunamis. Yet, says computer scientist Nancy Blachman, few people take full advantage of the search engine’s resources. Blachman seeks to remedy that with her website, GoogleGuide.com, which is chock-full of tutorials and simple hints for refining searches.
Blachman, MS ’88, was introduced to Google by a friend in April 1999; her interest grew after her husband, David, began working there the following summer. Before long, she was an avid fan. “They’ve made it so I tend to get relevant results when I do a search, and it’s easy to refine results when they’re not relevant.”
As Blachman explored the search engine, she became more and more adept. Last year, Jerry Peek, author of Unix Power Tools, suggested she write a Google guidebook. The idea appealed to her, and she began developing the website to get feedback from users. Since then, more than Two million people have used Blachman’s tutorials and tips, and the site has gained national press attention.
Blachman makes no assumptions about users’ computer knowledge, guiding her online students through step-by-step lessons. Some tutorials appeal primarily to novices, such as the “entering a query” page or a pointer that the engine ignores common words like “the,” but experienced users can find lessons more appropriate to their needs. One tip: if you aren’t sure whether a word is hyphenated, it is best to search with the hyphen—this way Google will look for the term with the hyphen, without the hyphen and written as two words. And another: users can specify that they want Google to ignore a term or category by putting a hyphen before the word. For example, someone searching for “Dallas cowboys,” who does not want the football team, should simply enter “Dallas cowboys–football.” Typing a tilde before a word instructs Google to search for both the word and its synonyms.
Blachman says the website is her way of continuing teaching and helping people, which she enjoys. From 1990 to 1997, she taught courses at Stanford about mathematical software. She also has written several tutorial and reference books and is a co-author of How to Do Everything With Google (McGraw-Hill Osborne, 2003). “A lot of people see Google as easy to use, and it is easy to use, but I am trying to make it even easier.”
Michael Endler, '05, is an intern for Stanford.
