Google Wins August 25, 2003February 23, 2017 It was already magic and phenomenal (and, naturally, the one dot-com that, being private, you couldn’t invest in) but now – and my apologies to the many of you already way ahead of me – Google is everything. Google rules. Here are things that, up until today (except for #1 and #2), I had not tried. Take 15 minutes and: 1. On the remote off chance you are not already a Google fan, go there and search on something. Anything. You’ll see. 2. Note the I’m Feeling Lucky button. I’ve met people who use Google all the time, yet somehow have never tried this button. You can be the biggest loser in the world and this button will eight times out of ten work miracles, taking you straight to exactly what you wanted. Try it. Want to know what time the bake sale starts? Type in Wichita YMCA bake sale and, if there’s a Y in Wichita (Wychita?) and it’s having a bake sale, you’ll find out when it starts. If your luck does fail, just click the BACK button to redo the search the standard way. Remember that if you search on bake sale, you will get a lot of “bakes” and a lot of “sales,” but that if you search on ”bake sale” – with quotation marks – you’ll get only hits that contain that exact phrase. 3. Add the Google toolbar to your browser. It is completely easy. On Google’s HOME page, just look for New! Add the Google Tool Bar to Your Browser. It puts Google perpetually at your fingertips whenever you’re on-line. (And it uses a little Irish shamrock icon to click if you’re feeling lucky.) Adding the Google toolbar to your browser will pique your curiosity about its features, such as: The Google Calculator. Type 2+2 in the Google search field and hit the Enter key – it equals 4! Type 25 celsius in Fahrenheit and hit the Enter key – it displays: 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Type 2003*365.25*24*60*60 (because the multiplication symbol is the asterisk) and it tells you that it’s been 63 billion seconds since Christ was born. One onethousand, two one thousand, three . . . Image search. Want to see a whole lot of photos of somebody famous, or the Eiffel Tower? Seconds later, there they are. Set up your own blog. I know: blah-g, blah-g, blah-g. Still, if you don’t want to be the last American on the block who’s blogless, Google provides an easy way to get started. There’s a lot more on the Google toolbar to explore, and “Help” to guide you through it. One nice tip: Press Alt-G any time to jump straight to Google’s search box.