Setting Preferences / Google For Dummies

Setting Preferences

Many people breeze through Google umpteen times a day without bothering to set their preferences — or even being aware that there are preferences to set. A recent Internet study asked users whether they would rather set Google preferences or get bathed in chocolate syrup. Sentiment was overwhelmingly against setting Google preferences. But I’m here to tell you that the five settings on the Preferences page (see Figure 2-1) enhance the Google experience far more than the effort required to adjust them.

Figure 2-1: Part of the Google Preferences page. Its settings enhance the Google experience.

To adjust Google preferences, click the Preferences link on the Google home page or go here:

www.google.com/preferences

Tip

If you set your preferences and later return to the Preferences page by manually entering the preceding URL, your browser displays an unadjusted Preferences page (without your settings). That’s because your Preferences page has a distinct URL with your preferences built into it. For example, after selecting English as Google’s default language for your visits, the URL appears like this:

www.google.com/preferences?hl=en

Your best bet for reaching the Preferences page after first setting your preferences (when you want to readjust them, for example) is to use the Preferences link on the home page.

When you set preferences in Google, the site is customized for you every time you visit it, as long as you’re using the same computer through which you set the preferences. To provide this convenience, Google must place a cookie (a small information file) in your computer. The site and the cookie high-five each other whenever you visit Google, and the site appears according to your settings. For this system to work, cookies must be turned on in your browser.

Some people are militantly anti-cookie, claiming that the data files represent an invasion of computer privacy. Indeed, some sites plant cookies that track your Internet movements and identify you to advertisers.

The truth is, Google’s cookie is fairly aggressive. It gets planted when you first visit the site, whether or not you visit the Preferences page. Once planted, the Google cookie records your clicks in Google and builds a database of visitor behavior in its search results pages. For example, Google knows how often users click the first search result and to what extent they explore results lower on the page. Google uses this information to evaluate the effectiveness of its service and to improve it.

As to privacy, Google does indeed share aggregate information with advertisers and various third parties and even publicizes knowledge about how the service is used by its millions of visitors. The key word is aggregate. Google’s privacy policy states that individual information is never divulged except by proper legal procedure, such as a warrant or a subpoena, or by individual consent. The privacy policy is published on this page:

www.google.com/privacy.html

I have no problem with the Google cookie or with cookies in general. The convenience is helpful, and I don’t mind adding to the aggregate information. It’s rather comforting being a data droplet in Google’s information tsunami.

A single basic process changes one or several preferences. Just follow these steps:

Go to the Preferences page.
Use the pull-down menus, check boxes, and radio buttons to make your adjustments.
Click the Save Preferences button.
In the confirmation window (which merely says “Your preferences have been saved” and is unnecessary), click the OK button.

The next sections describe what you can accomplish on the Preferences page.

The international Google

If you’re reading the English-language edition of this book, you probably enjoy Google in its default English interface. If you’re reading the Icelandic edition of this book, please send me a copy — I want to see whether my jokes are any funnier in a chilly language. Whatever your native language, you should know that you can get Google to appear in one of dozens of languages unpronounceable by George W. Bush (besides English, I mean).

Interface Language is the first Google preference, and it adjusts the appearance of certain pages — specifically, the home page, Preferences page, Advanced Search page, and many Help pages and intrasite directories.

Remember

Changing the interface language does not alter the language on the search results page or the search results themselves. (To change the language on those pages, you use the Search Language preference, up next.)

Warning

Interface Language changes the Interface Language list in the pull-down menu. If you choose an obscure language that uses an unfamiliar alphabet while playing around (it’s irresistible), you might have trouble finding your way back to the mother tongue. (English is the only language identified in its native tongue no matter which language is selected.)

Google is nothing if not occasionally silly, and Interface Language offers a few must-try languages:

Elmer Fudd: First on the list, Elmer Fudd (or should I say Ewmew Fudd) capriciously changes all Rs and Ls to Ws. On the home page, Groups is now Gwoups, and Directory has been cartoonized to Diwectowy. Most hilariously of all, the I’m Feeling Lucky button is denatured to I’m Feewing Wucky. Before changing the language menu back to its original state, be sure to ponder the difference between Twaditional and Simpwified Chinese.
Pig Latin: You nowkay owhay histay orksway.
Hacker: Changes alphabet letters to numerals and symbols wherever possible (pretty much everywhere), rendering a semicoherent page best comprehended after several bags of potato chips and a six-pack of soda. (See Figure 2-2.)

Figure 2-2: Google in the mythical Hacker language.
Interlingua: A vaguely Euro blend of tourism-speak roughly understandable by nearly everyone.
Klingon: If I have to explain it, you don’t watch enough Star Trek. In fact, the folks at Google should bone up on their reruns, too, because the term is Klingonese, not Klingon. (Have they no honor?)

All right, stop playing around with the languages. Let’s move on.

Searching for non-English pages

After you have the Google interface speaking your language, you can turn your attention to searching for Web pages written in certain languages.

Tip

The language you search for doesn’t need to match the language you search in. In other words, the first two preferences can be set to different languages. Furthermore, you can select more than one language in the Search Language setting, whereas the Interface Language preference, naturally, can be only one language at a time.

Use Search Language to narrow your search results by language. Choosing French, for example, returns Web pages written only in French. Use the check boxes to select as many languages as you want.

Remember

If you don’t select any languages, leaving the Search Language preference in its default setting, your search results do not discriminate based on language. You’re likely to see an international array of pages if you rummage through enough results.

G-rated searching

Google uses a filter called SafeSearch to screen out pornography from Web-page and image searches. In its default setting (moderate), SafeSearch applies fairly strict filtering to image searches and leaves Web search results unedited. Change the setting to strict for harsher filtering of images and clean Web-page searches. You can turn off the filter entirely for an unbiased search session. You select the filtering strength on the Preferences page, as shown in Figure 2-3.

Figure 2-3: The bottom portion of Google’s Preferences page.

Tip

SafeSearch operates automatically but can be modified manually by the Google staff. They accept suggestions of sites and images that should be subject to the adult-content filter. If you come across any objectionable material through a Google search (with SafeSearch set to moderate or strict), feel free to send a link to the offending page or image to the following e-mail address:
Safesearch@google.com

Opening the floodgates

You can increase the number of search results that appear on the page, raising it from the default 10 results. It’s a good idea, I think; I keep my preference set at the maximum — 100 results per page.

Google reminds you that shorter pages are displayed more quickly, which is a good point for people who hit the site for lightning-quick searches many times a day. Google’s results are so uncannily accurate that you might not often need more than 10 results. Still, I like the higher number because the long page of search results arrives more rapidly than shorter pages at competing search engines. Furthermore, I have the impatient attitude of a demanding Web surfer, and I never like calling up a second page of search results. If the content I want isn’t on the first page of results, I usually try new keywords, so stocking the results page with 100 hits gives me a better chance of quick success.

You might not agree with my reasoning, in which case you should leave the number or results set to the default or choose a medium number of results from the drop-down menu.

Tip

Google is fast no matter how many results per page you request. The only thing that might hold you back is your modem speed. If you access the Internet using a high-speed connection (cable modem, DSL, corporate, or university connection), you might as well set the results number to 100 and be done with it.

New windows

The Results Window setting is an important preference setting in my life. It consists of a single check box which, when checked, opens Web pages in new windows when you click a search result. This is a useful way of staying anchored in the search results page, from which you might want to sample several Web pages that match your keywords. Without this preference, your browser opens the Web pages in the same window that Google is in, forcing you to Back-button your way back to Google if you want to see the search results again. And if you drill deeply into a site, it becomes even more difficult to get back to Google.

Tip

If you dislike multiple browser windows cluttering your desktop, leave the Results Window box unchecked. If you prefer a hybrid experience in which you sometimes want to anchor at Google while exploring several search hits, leave the box unchecked and get in the habit of right-clicking search result links when you want a new window. Choose Open in New Window from the right-click menu that your browser displays.