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Why is Google Popular?

This page describes:

• Google's Mission and Philosophy
• What makes Google great
• The types of information you can find with Google's search engine

Google's Mission and Philosophy

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google's philosophy is "Do no evil."

What Makes Google Great?

Here are reasons why Google has more users than any other search engine and why those users search more frequently.

• Google Searches More Than 4 Billion URLs
  Google crawls and indexes more useful web pages than any other search engine, thus increasing the likelihood of its returning what your seeking.

• Google Returns Relevant Results
  It's great at selecting links that closely match your search query. What you want is usually near the top.

• Google Identifies Ads and Sponsored Links
  It doesn't sell placement of search results. Sponsored links and ads are clearly marked and kept separate from search results. Ads relate to content and aren't distracting.

• Google is Fast
  Most results are found in less than a second. You can also access Google's cached version of a web page, often faster than the page itself.

• Google is Simple to Use
  Clear uncluttered simple web pages.

• Google Shows What You Get
  Search results include an excerpt (or "snippet") of the text that matches your query with your search terms in boldface.

• Google Packs Results with Information and with Links Related to your Query
  Google provides definitions, news, maps and more as appropriate along with the selected links

• Shows a Page Even When it's Gone or its Link is Inaccessible
  Google takes a snapshot of each page it examines and caches (stores) it as a backup. If the original isn't available, you can access Google's cached version. Your search terms will be highlighted in color on the cached page, making it easy to find the sections of the page relevant to your query.

• Google Continually Improves its Search Results
  Its capabilities are enhanced and expanded to match the dynamic growth and changing nature of the web.

For more information on the benefits of using Google, visit http://www.google.com/technology/whyuse.html.

What Can You Find with Google?

Google strives to make it easy to quickly find what you're seeking. The following list shows some of the many types of searches Google can easily do. Click on the type of information to learn how to search for it and click on the examples to see the results of such a search.

Type of Information	Examples
Specific person, place, or thing (named entities)	Robin Williams, San Francisco, Pennington restaurants
Information on a subject (web sites by topic)	Scrabble tips, lasik eye surgery, hybrid cars,
Something you've seen before or know exists	what Shakespeare said about lawyers, tax forms, Elvis Presley song lyrics
Answer to a question	What is the weather forecast for Ewing, NJ? How can I book a cheap flight from Newark to London? What is the approximate value of my car? How old is Barbara Bush?
What to write or say	cover letter when applying for a loan,  create a terrific resumé
Specific site (navigational query)	CNN.com,  Ewingsnet.com (this is useful when you know the name of the site)
Someone's phone number or address	New Jersey Senator Jon Corzine's office phone number
Map or directions	map of parking available near Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA
Financial information	current price and stock chart for Google,  current price and stock charts for IBM, Ebay and Amazon.com
Dictionary definition	definition of misogyny
Data	number of Internet hosts,  the population of China
Translation of a page or text	Brandenburg Gate
Similar or related items	sites similar to Consumer Reports,  sites similar to SeniorNet
Visual information	tennis photos of Andre Agassi,  Dilbert cartoons,  Paris metro map
Personal recommendations, opinions, advice	Hawaii travel recommendations, reviews of compact digital cameras or color printers
Recent news	what's happened in the last 24 hours? what's happened in Iraq in the last 24 hours?
Where you can buy something	shop for carry-on luggage browse through the PC Connection catalog
Crunch some numbers	15% of 93.45 8 tablespoons in cups 2 meters + 5 feet
A set of items given a few examples	given the Empire State building, Grant's Tomb, and Madison Square Garden, suggest other places to visit in New York

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