Rud 4: Google

I use Google a lot although I remember when it wasn't the first search engine of choice. That would have been Dogpile which is still running. Dogpile used 10 different search engines and would give you the top ten results from each one. Times have changed! Google incorporated predictive searching which I didn't like at the start but I've grown pretty used to it. In fact it's most handy on my phone when I'm still reasonably guaranteed to hit the wrong letter. Google is now my search engine of choice but I do find that if I want results from another country that it's best changing from Google.ie to Google.ca.

The features I most like about Google are:

• Books - useful for quotes and when I can't get a book that the library doesn't hold. I can't use InterLibrary Loan for everything.
• Scholar - Every so often I hear rumours that Google Scholar will shut down and I really hope it doesn't. I like how it offers PDF on the right hand side menu.
• Docs - I use Docs a lot. They're accessible on my iPad but then I can access them at work via the web too. I never lose access unlike when I forget my USB key.
• Maps - So handy for directions from unknown place A to unknown place B. Brilliant as well for street view so that I don't walk past somewhere.
• Translate - one of the classes I teach on is Polish History post-1918. Each time time I check if anyone speaks Polish and so far no one has. How can any student examine primary sources when they can't speak the language? Google Translate helps. Some of the translations are a bit iffy. After all Google detect language told me that Welsh was actually Indonesian but that aside, Google Translate helps out pretty well.
• Google Doodle - I love the random things they celebrate. One of my favourites was for Debussy's 151st birthday. I love how the lights go on and off with the piano notes and of course the two rowers on the river. I like how people and institutions can win a Google Doodle competition or propose something be celebrated like George Boole's 200th birthday on 2 November 2015.

George Boole's 200th Birthday Google Doodle

I had set up my Google+ profile some time ago so that it would fit in with my 'Walker Abroad' brand. I use Google+ rarely whether it be for professional or social purposes or a mish-mash of both. To be honest if I have difficulty keeping LinkedIn and now About.me uptodate, keeping Google+ current will be a super challenge.

However because Blogger is part of the Google family I use this Carl Sagan quote:
"The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries." ~ Cosmos
Before Google took over Blogger I used this quote on my Blogger profile. The subject matter in the quote is rather grand and I don't think blogging will reach such heights but it gives me something to reach for - not unlike the Chris Hadfield philospophy in many ways.