Other Google Searches and Products
Google provides other search methods that you should be aware of, some of
which have implications on how you optimize your site.
Google Image Search
On the Google home page, click the Images tab. When you search from this
page, Google looks for, um, images. It shows you thumbnails of images it
thinks match the search term, based on words it finds in the filename, the
ALT tag, and the body of the Web page close to the image. It’s a neat little
trick. I just searched on my own name, and within five seconds, I saw a page
that contained 20 images, 3 of which contained me, and 2 of which were pic-
tures of books I’ve written, as well as several pictures of people who have
stolen my name.
Google Catalogs
You can search mail-order catalogs at Google Catalogs (catalogs.google.
com). Google scans thousands of mail-order catalogs, OCRs them (turns the
image files into searchable documents), and then lets you search. See Figure
BC-2. Google Catalogs is an amazing service, though it seems to have been
moribund for a while. Many speculated that it would actually disappear,
but at the time of writing it’s still in business. See Chapter 16 for more
information.
Google Groups
Click the Groups tab on the Google main page to see Usenet discussion
groups (often known as newsgroups). Google stores newsgroup messages,
which originally required you to use special newsreader programs to view
them. When you search Usenet through Google, you see a results page that
looks similar to a Web-search results page. Click a link, and you see a mes-
sage in your browser in a Google Web page.
Google Directory
Click the Directory tab on the main page or go to directory.google.com
to view the Google Directory, which contains data provided by the Open
Directory Project (dmoz.org). You can browse categories by clicking links.
If you’ve used Yahoo!, you’ll find this system very similar.
BC14
Search Engine Optimization For Dummies, 2nd Edition
