Google Power Tools Bible

Some Google Labs tools are designed to make browsing and searching simpler and more targeted. The Web Accelerator, for example, uses a number of methods for increasing the speed of page loading. After you find your speedy results, check out Google Notebook for storing snippets of information and other data for future reference.

Google Web Accelerator

Google Web Accelerator uses Google’s computer network to make pages load faster and shows you how much time you have saved. The Web Accelerator is a download, and there’s nothing to do manually once it is installed. Download the file from http://webaccelerator.google.com.

Saving time

The Web Accelerator tool works in several ways, including these:

• Sending page requests through dedicated Web Accelerator traffic servers

• Storing copies of frequently used pages for quick access

• Scanning for and downloading updates to Web pages rather than the entire page

• Compressing data before downloading to your computer

• Prefetching pages in advance

• Managing your Internet connection’s function to reduce delays

The list of actions appears to infringe on your personal security, and it does to some extent in order for the tool to work - for example, prefetching pages that you haven’t asked for. In order for the Web Accelerator tool to work, it must create a cache on your hard drive, and it works in many ways like your ISP.

When you restart your browser after installation, you find a small toolbar added to the interface, as shown in Figure 40.12. The toolbar uses a speedometer icon to indicate that it is active, and it displays the amount of time that has been saved since the tool was installed or the cache cleared.

Figure 40.12: The Web Accelerator increases your browsing speed using a variety of methods.

Managing settings

Change the way the Web Accelerator works on specific sites or in general. Click the down arrow on the Web Accelerator toolbar to open the drop-down menu, and then do any of these things:

• Choose Don’t Accelerate this Website to exclude the page you are viewing from the tool’s function. When you view a page that is excluded, the speedometer icon is shown in grayscale.

• Choose Stop Google Web Accelerator to prevent the tool from operating. When you stop the program, the icon appears as a pale gray circle without its speedometer indicator.

• Choose Performance Data from the menu, or click the time indicator shown on the tool to open a Web page showing the data from your Web Accelerator cache. You can reset the counter on this page.

• Choose Preferences to open the Preferences in a Web page. You can specify how pages are cached, whether to use prefetching, and the list of sites to exclude from the tool’s operation. Select Clear History in the preferences to clear the Web Accelerator cache.

You can find the Web Accelerator in Internet Explorer by choosing View Toolbars Google Web Accelerator. In Firefox, choose Tools Extensions to find the toolbar listed in the Extensions dialog box.

Google Notebook

Many times, Web browsing is done for a specific purpose, such as searching for information on a particular topic or researching products before purchasing. Organizing the information you gather as you conduct your research can be difficult, and sometimes you don’t have the information when you need it.

Installing the extension

Google Notebook is designed to make researching and organizing information simpler as well as portable. Google Notebook is a browser extension that you download and install before use.

Follow these steps to install and open Google Notebook:

1. Log in to your Google Account. In order to use Google Notebook, you must have a Google Accounts username and password.

2. Open the page at www.google.com/notebook.

3. Read the Terms of Service information, and click Agree and Download if you are using Firefox. For Internet Explorer, click the appropriate link on the page to locate and download the extension.

4. Close and reopen your browser to install the extension. When it is active, you see an icon and Open Notebook displayed at the lower-right edge of the browser window on the status bar.

5. To open the mini Google Notebook window, click Open Notebook on the status bar, as shown in Figure 40.13.

   Figure 40.13: Install Google Notebook as a single icon on the status bar at the bottom of the browser window.

Adding content

You can add content to the Notebook, referred to as clippings, in two ways:

• Right-click the text, image, or link you want to clip, and choose Note this (Google Notebook).

• When using Google for searches, right-click the link, image, or other search result and choose Note this (Google Notebook).

Organizing results

The mini Google Notebook window that pops up from the status bar is handy for storing clips as you capture them, but it’s not designed for organizing your clippings. Instead, use the full-page view. Either click the Actions button on the mini Google Notebook window and choose Go to full page view, or log in through www.google.com/notebook.

In full-page view, you can organize the clippings, add notes and comments, use section headings, and so on. Some of the common actions are shown in Figure 40.14 and include these:

• Rename the notebook: By default, a notebook is named My Notebook. To change the name, click the Actions down arrow at the upper right of the browser window and choose Rename this Notebook from the drop-down list. In the field that opens, type the new name and press Enter.

• Use section headings: By default, all contents are collected into one group. To add a section, click the first listing you want to appear under the section heading. Then click the Actions down arrow, and choose Add section heading from the drop-down list. Type a name for the heading, and click off the field to add the heading.

• Reorganize content: Drag a clipping from one heading to another, as shown in Figure 40.14.

  Figure 40.14: Organizing clips into sections is a convenient way to keep track of your information.

• Delete content: Select a note or section on the Notebook page, and click Delete when the link appears at the upper-right edge of the note. If you have multiple notebooks, select the notebook. Click the Actions down arrow, and choose Delete this notebook from the drop-down menu.

After you are working in the browser, the mini Google Notebook displays a list of your notebooks. Open the mini Google Notebook, and click Actions. Choose Show Notebook list to open the set of notebooks you are storing, as shown in Figure 40.15. Click a notebook’s name to list its contents.

Figure 40.15: Access the contents and add more clips to specific notebooks in the mini Google Notebook available on the browser window.

Google makes several widgets specifically for the Mac OS X user. Dashboard is an interface used to display widgets - small applications that you use for specific functions or tasks like the temperature, joke of the day, stock tracking, dictionaries, and so on. The Google widgets include Blogger, Gmail, and a Search History function.