What’s a Googledrome? It’s a search on Google.com which yields the
same top result no matter if it’s spelled forward or backward. A
Google palindrome, if you will, but the search itself may not be a
perfect palindrome or consist of palindromes (the query must not stay
the same in reverse, e.g. “rats live on no evil star” doesn’t count, and
also no two words in the query may be the reverse of each other, e.g.
“palindrome emordnilap palindrome” doesn’t count).
Further rules are that the search may contain only letters and numbers,
and that there must be at least two letters in it (and at least two letters
for every word in the query as well). Also, the result page may not in
any way be prepared to be a target of this challenge.
Dave Pettit discovered the first Googledrome ever on March 15, 2006:
it was Oprah… because a search for “oprah” and “harpo” (which is
Oprah in reverse) returns the same number 1 result, oprah.com.
Can you find a Googledrome?
শনিবার, ৩ জুলাই, ২০১০
12. Fun With Google Translations
There are many useful things to do with the Google Translator (you’ll
find it by clicking on “Language tools” next to the Google search box),
but I won’t discuss any of those here. Instead, I’ll show you how to
have fun creating nonsense texts by translating something back and
forth!
Here’s what to do. Pick any English text you like. Now paste it into the
Google translator. Choose to translate it from English to French. Now
copy the French translation into the box, and translate it back to
English. Repeat for another round, and check what you’ve got.
The following example is the first paragraph from the White House
George W . Bush biography:
George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States.
He was sworn into office on January 20, 2001, re-elected
on November 2, 2004, and sworn in for a second term on
January 20, 2005. Prior to his Presidency, President Bush
served for 6 years as the 46th Governor of the State of
Texas, where he earned a reputation for bipartisanship and
as a compassionate conservative who shaped public policy
based on the principles of limited government, personal
responsibility, strong families, and local control.
What happens after translating it to French and back for two rounds?
This:
George W Bush is the forty-third chair of the United
States. One swore to him in the office January 20, 2001,
was re-elected November 2, 2004, and interior sworn in for
a second limit January 20, 2005. Before his presidency,
President Bush was useful during 6 years like the forty-
sixth governor of the state of Texas, where it gained a
reputation for the bipartisanship and like the conservative
to sympathize who formed the law and the order based
according to principles’ of the limited government, the
personal liability, of the strong families, and of the local
order.
find it by clicking on “Language tools” next to the Google search box),
but I won’t discuss any of those here. Instead, I’ll show you how to
have fun creating nonsense texts by translating something back and
forth!
Here’s what to do. Pick any English text you like. Now paste it into the
Google translator. Choose to translate it from English to French. Now
copy the French translation into the box, and translate it back to
English. Repeat for another round, and check what you’ve got.
The following example is the first paragraph from the White House
George W . Bush biography:
George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States.
He was sworn into office on January 20, 2001, re-elected
on November 2, 2004, and sworn in for a second term on
January 20, 2005. Prior to his Presidency, President Bush
served for 6 years as the 46th Governor of the State of
Texas, where he earned a reputation for bipartisanship and
as a compassionate conservative who shaped public policy
based on the principles of limited government, personal
responsibility, strong families, and local control.
What happens after translating it to French and back for two rounds?
This:
George W Bush is the forty-third chair of the United
States. One swore to him in the office January 20, 2001,
was re-elected November 2, 2004, and interior sworn in for
a second limit January 20, 2005. Before his presidency,
President Bush was useful during 6 years like the forty-
sixth governor of the state of Texas, where it gained a
reputation for the bipartisanship and like the conservative
to sympathize who formed the law and the order based
according to principles’ of the limited government, the
personal liability, of the strong families, and of the local
order.
11.Google Parodies
Not all sites that look like Google are Google. Though there are some
official humor-powered Google sites (like Google Klingon, Elmer
Fudd Google, or “Google Pigeon Rank”), the following screens are all
unofficial:
Note:
You can find the search engines shown here by searching for their title
in Google – Gizoogle , Toogle and so on (this is their “Googlonym,” or
“Memomark”… a bookmark that is a Google search). Sometimes, only a mock-
up exists, and not a full-fledged search engine.
বৃহস্পতিবার, ১ জুলাই, ২০১০
10. Google Hacking
There’s a sport called “Google Hacking” which is all about searching
for seemingly private websites using Google. In fact, you can only find
public websites using Google, because private (password-protected)
pages can’t be found by Google – so it’s no real hacking (let alone
“cracking,” which would consist of deleting, changing or abusing the
found data). But it’s fun nevertheless, and often enables people to
discover pages someone was hoping for to stay private. This happens
when the site is misconfigured, i.e. when the webmaster doesn’t know
enough about how to set up a website.
Here are some of the most popular and powerful “Google hack” search
queries. Enter them at your own risk, and know that every once in a
while you step onto a so-called honeypot (a fake website set up to lure
hackers into it, with the goal of finding out more about them and their
tactics).
Finding Error Messages
Search for: “A syntax error has occurred” filetype:ihtml
You’ll find: Pages which caused errors the last time Google checked
them. This may hint at vulnerabilities or other unwanted side-effects.
How this works: The first phrase simply looks for an error the target
server itself did once output. The “filetype” operator on the other hand
restricts the result pages to only those which have the “ihtml” extension
(which are sites using Informix). A related search is “Warning:
mysql_query()”.
Finding Seemingly Private Files
Search for: (password | passcode) (username | userid | user) filetype:csv
You’ll find: Files containing user names and similar.
How this works: The “filetype” operator makes sure only “Comma
Separated Values” files will be returned. Those are not typical web
pages, but data files. “(password | passcode)” tells Google the file must
contain either the text “password” or “passcode,” or both (the “|”
character means “or”). Also, result pages are restricted to those
containing either of the words “username,” “userid” or “user.”
Finding File Listings
Search for: intitle:index-of last-modified private
You’ll find: Pages which list files found on the server.
How this works: The “intitle” operator used above will ensure that the
target page contains the words “Index of” in the title. This is typical for
those open directories which list files (they will have a title like “Index of
/private/foo/bar”). “Last modified” on the other hand is a column
header often used on those pages. And the word “private” makes sure
we’ll find something of interest. A related search query which finds FTP
(File Transfer Protocol) information is intitle:index.of ws_ftp.ini
Finding Webcams
Search for: “powered by webcamXP” “Pro|Broadcast”
You’ll find: Public webcams set up by people to film a location, or
themselves.
How this works: “Powered by WebcamXP” is a text found on specific
kinds of webcam pages. A related search query to find cameras is
inurl:“ViewerFrame?Mode=”.
Finding Weak Servers
Search for: intitle:“the page cannot be found” inetmgr
You’ll find: Potentially weak (IIS4) servers.
How this works: An old Microsoft Internet Information server may
hint at security issues. This is one of many approaches that can be used
to find such a weak server.
Finding Chat Logs
Search for: something “has quit” “has joined” filetype:txt
You’ll find: Chat log files showing what people talked about in a chat
room.
How this works: Though the files found are all public, not everyone
chatting on IRC (the Internet Relay Chat) is aware of potential logging
mechanisms. The “filetype” operator makes sure only text files are
found, and “has quit”/ “has joined” are automated messages appearing
in chat rooms. This search is your chance to tune into people’s chatter.
Note you should replace “something” with the thing you are looking
for.
for seemingly private websites using Google. In fact, you can only find
public websites using Google, because private (password-protected)
pages can’t be found by Google – so it’s no real hacking (let alone
“cracking,” which would consist of deleting, changing or abusing the
found data). But it’s fun nevertheless, and often enables people to
discover pages someone was hoping for to stay private. This happens
when the site is misconfigured, i.e. when the webmaster doesn’t know
enough about how to set up a website.
Here are some of the most popular and powerful “Google hack” search
queries. Enter them at your own risk, and know that every once in a
while you step onto a so-called honeypot (a fake website set up to lure
hackers into it, with the goal of finding out more about them and their
tactics).
Finding Error Messages
Search for: “A syntax error has occurred” filetype:ihtml
You’ll find: Pages which caused errors the last time Google checked
them. This may hint at vulnerabilities or other unwanted side-effects.
How this works: The first phrase simply looks for an error the target
server itself did once output. The “filetype” operator on the other hand
restricts the result pages to only those which have the “ihtml” extension
(which are sites using Informix). A related search is “Warning:
mysql_query()”.
Finding Seemingly Private Files
Search for: (password | passcode) (username | userid | user) filetype:csv
You’ll find: Files containing user names and similar.
How this works: The “filetype” operator makes sure only “Comma
Separated Values” files will be returned. Those are not typical web
pages, but data files. “(password | passcode)” tells Google the file must
contain either the text “password” or “passcode,” or both (the “|”
character means “or”). Also, result pages are restricted to those
containing either of the words “username,” “userid” or “user.”
Finding File Listings
Search for: intitle:index-of last-modified private
You’ll find: Pages which list files found on the server.
How this works: The “intitle” operator used above will ensure that the
target page contains the words “Index of” in the title. This is typical for
those open directories which list files (they will have a title like “Index of
/private/foo/bar”). “Last modified” on the other hand is a column
header often used on those pages. And the word “private” makes sure
we’ll find something of interest. A related search query which finds FTP
(File Transfer Protocol) information is intitle:index.of ws_ftp.ini
Finding Webcams
Search for: “powered by webcamXP” “Pro|Broadcast”
You’ll find: Public webcams set up by people to film a location, or
themselves.
How this works: “Powered by WebcamXP” is a text found on specific
kinds of webcam pages. A related search query to find cameras is
inurl:“ViewerFrame?Mode=”.
Finding Weak Servers
Search for: intitle:“the page cannot be found” inetmgr
You’ll find: Potentially weak (IIS4) servers.
How this works: An old Microsoft Internet Information server may
hint at security issues. This is one of many approaches that can be used
to find such a weak server.
Finding Chat Logs
Search for: something “has quit” “has joined” filetype:txt
You’ll find: Chat log files showing what people talked about in a chat
room.
How this works: Though the files found are all public, not everyone
chatting on IRC (the Internet Relay Chat) is aware of potential logging
mechanisms. The “filetype” operator makes sure only text files are
found, and “has quit”/ “has joined” are automated messages appearing
in chat rooms. This search is your chance to tune into people’s chatter.
Note you should replace “something” with the thing you are looking
for.
9. The Google Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Google?
Are you a Google expert? Do you know everything about the companyand its services? Or are you still new to the topic, and you only used
their search engine for a couple of times so far? Well, you can put your
knowledge to the test in this quiz which will answer the question: How
much do you know about Google? Get a pencil and cross the single
right answer for every question, and calculate your score afterwards.
1. Google Inc. was founded in ...
a) 1996
b) 1998
c) 2000
2. Google Inc. was founded by ...
a) Sergey Page and Larry Brin
b) Eric Schmidt and Larry Page
c) Larry Page and Sergey Brin
3. Which search operator does Google enable by default?
a) The AND operator
b) The OR operator
c) The NOT operator
4. Google once used Yahoo’s search result to feed its engine.
True?
a) Yes, from 1998-2000.
b) No, it was the other way round – Yahoo used Google once.
c) No, Google and Yahoo never had any search relationship.
5. Google Analytics is a service to ...
a) Check if your web pages validate
b) Check how many people visit your web pages
c) Check your Google PageRank
6. In 2006, Eric Schmidt is Google’s ...
a) Vice President Engineering
b) Eric left the company in 2004 to pursue his hobbies
c) Chief Executive Officer
7. What was the name of the search engine the Google founders
developed before Google?
a) PageRanker
b) BackRub
c) Gogol
8. What is the algorithm behind Google’s PageRank?
a) The more pages link to you (and the higher their PageRank), the
higher your page’s PageRank
b) You get 1 PageRank point for every web page you own
c) The algorithm behind PageRank is kept secret, similar to the Coca-
Cola formula
9. Why do some sites get “banned” from the Google index?
a) They tried methods to get their pages ranked better which Google
considers spam
b) They have content which is illegal in this state/ country
c) Both a) and b) are true.
10. At which university did the Google founders meet?
a) Oxford University
b) MIT
c) Stanford University
11. What is the “Googleplex”?
a) It’s where Google employees work
b) It’s a solar system which shares only the name with Google.com
c) It’s the server farm Google built up to deliver search results to you
12. Which words are printed on the Froogle homepage?
a) Search for any product you want (or discover new ones).
b) froo·gle (fru’gal) n. Smart shopping through Google.
c) Froogle. Just shopping.
13. Around how many hits do you get for the word “Hello” ?
a)
420,000
pages
b)
420,000,000
pages
c)
42,000,000,000
pages
14. If you want to find a place to grab a pizza, you go to ...
a) Google Food
b) Google Places
c) Google Local
15. At the Association of National Advertisers annual conference
in October 2005, who said Google will take 300 years to fulfill its
mission to index the world’s data?
a) Eric Schmidt
b) Larry Page
c) Marissa Mayer
16. What colors do the letters of the Google logo have, from left to
right?
a) Red – Blue – Green – Yellow – Green
b) Blue – Red – Yellow – Blue – Green – Red
c) Blue – Yellow – Purple – Yellow – Red – Blue
How well did you do?
Calculate your points by adding 10 points for each question you answered like
the following: 1 - b, 2 - c, 3 - a, 4 - b, 5 - b, 6 - c, 7 - b, 8 - a, 9 - c, 10 - c, 11 - a, 12 -
a, 13 - b, 14 - c, 15 - a, 16 – b.
0–50 points: Though you have a mild interest in Google, you’re new to the
topic. Maybe you prefer other search engines, or you’re not using the web for a
lot of tasks. You have yet to learn how to become a power searcher, but you’re
on your way.
60–110 points: You already understand more than just the basics of how
Google works. Using your search power, you can locate almost anything you
want. You are likely making good use of Gmail, Google News, and other
Google services.
120–160 points: Consider yourself a Google guru. In fact, with your knowledge
you could write a review like this. Chances are you are reading a lot of news
articles on Google, and you know the ins and outs of its services. You probably
use Google on a daily basis for many years now.
8.Google Rotated and Mini Google
Both of the following fun ways to browse Google need the InternetExplorer browser, so feel free to skip this chapter if you’re using
Firefox or any browser other than Internet Explorer.
Google Rotated
blog.outer-court.com/rotated/
shows you the normal,
actual Google (with all of its functionalities)... except that everything’s
rotated 180°. Including the Google homepage, the search results, and
even the web pages you click on in the results. When people visit
Google Rotated they’re usually either trying to adjust their monitor, or
bend their neck leftwards.
Mini Google
blog.outer-court.com/mini.html
, on the other hand, doesn’t
make you bend your neck. Then again, it may make you move your
face really, really close to the screen... ‘cause it’s tiny. About the size of
your thumbnail. Good luck searching for something with Mini Google,
and good luck hitting on a search result page – as a bonus, if you
managed to do that the page you clicked on will be mini too!
7. Google Search Tips
How do you have more fun when searching? Simply: become a better
searcher. Here are some syntax basics as well as advanced tricks or bits
of trivia for searching with Google.com:
A quote/ phrase search can be written with both quotations “like this”
as well as a minus (or dot) in-between words, like-this.
Google didn’t always understand certain special characters like “#”, but
now it does; a search for C#, for example, yields meaningful results.
Note that not every character works yet.
Google allows 32 words within the search query (some years ago, only
up to 10 were used, and Google ignored subsequent words). You rarely
will need so many words in a single query – just thinking of such a long
query is a hard thing to do, as this sentence with twenty words shows. However, it
can come in handy for advanced or automated searching.
You can find synonyms of words. E.g. when you search for house but
you want to find “home” too, search for ~house. To get to know which
synonyms the Google database stores for individual words, simply use
the minus operator to exclude synonym after synonym. Like this:
~house -house -home -housing -floor
Google has a lesser known “numrange” operator which can be helpful.
Using e.g. 2000..2010 (that’s two dots in-between two numbers) will
find 2000, 2001, 2002 and so on until 2010.
Google’s “define” operator allows you to look up word definitions. For
example, define:nasa yields “
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
” along with many more explanations. You can also enter
what is nasa for similar results.
Google searches for all of your words, whether or not you write a “+”
before them. Therefore, writing queries +like +this is not really necessary.
Sometimes, Google seems to understand “natural language” queries
and shows you so-called “onebox” results. This happens for example
when you enter goog, weather new york, ny, war of the worlds (for this one,
movie times, move ratings and other information will show), or beatles
(which yields an instant discography). Not all Googles are the same! Depending on your country, Google might forward you to a different version of Google with potentially
different results to the same query. For example in Germany and
France, certain results are censored for a long time now. In earlier time,
Google decided to self-censor Chinese search results (such as web
pages of human rights organizations) in compliance with Chinese
government requests – which not only resulted in an oddly skewed
Google.cn, but also a public outcry from both diehard fans and
organizations such as Reporters Without Borders.
For some search queries, Google uses its own search result
advertisement system to offer jobs. Try entering work at google and
sometimes, you find job offers straight from Google.
Some say that whoever turns up first for the search query president of
the internet is, well, the President of the internet. Take a look at the
results for this search to find out who’s currently ruling you!
Can you guess why the Disney homepage is in a top 10 search result
position when you enter “Exit”, “No”, or “Leave” into Google? Try it
out, you’ll be surprised (I won’t spoil here why this is happening, but it
has something to do with adult websites). Google doesn’t have “stop words” anymore. Stop words traditionally are words like “the”, “or” and similar which search engines tended to
ignore. Nowadays, Google includes all of your words, even the former
stop words. You can use the wildcard character “*” in phrases. This is helpful for
finding song texts – let’s say you forgot a word or two, but you
remember the gist, as in "love you twice as much * oh love * *." You can
even use the wildcard character without searching for anything specific
at all, as in this search: "* * * * * * *."
The following search tip, on the other hand, you better not follow. But
you may sing along…
When it’s late at night
And you’ve an essay due
And you don’t know what to write
I’ll tell you what to do
Before sunrise
Find something to plagiarize
on Google
Talkin’ ‘bout Google..”
– Mort, The Google Song
searcher. Here are some syntax basics as well as advanced tricks or bits
of trivia for searching with Google.com:
A quote/ phrase search can be written with both quotations “like this”
as well as a minus (or dot) in-between words, like-this.
Google didn’t always understand certain special characters like “#”, but
now it does; a search for C#, for example, yields meaningful results.
Note that not every character works yet.
Google allows 32 words within the search query (some years ago, only
up to 10 were used, and Google ignored subsequent words). You rarely
will need so many words in a single query – just thinking of such a long
query is a hard thing to do, as this sentence with twenty words shows. However, it
can come in handy for advanced or automated searching.
You can find synonyms of words. E.g. when you search for house but
you want to find “home” too, search for ~house. To get to know which
synonyms the Google database stores for individual words, simply use
the minus operator to exclude synonym after synonym. Like this:
~house -house -home -housing -floor
Google has a lesser known “numrange” operator which can be helpful.
Using e.g. 2000..2010 (that’s two dots in-between two numbers) will
find 2000, 2001, 2002 and so on until 2010.
Google’s “define” operator allows you to look up word definitions. For
example, define:nasa yields “
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
” along with many more explanations. You can also enter
what is nasa for similar results.
Google searches for all of your words, whether or not you write a “+”
before them. Therefore, writing queries +like +this is not really necessary.
Sometimes, Google seems to understand “natural language” queries
and shows you so-called “onebox” results. This happens for example
when you enter goog, weather new york, ny, war of the worlds (for this one,
movie times, move ratings and other information will show), or beatles
(which yields an instant discography). Not all Googles are the same! Depending on your country, Google might forward you to a different version of Google with potentially
different results to the same query. For example in Germany and
France, certain results are censored for a long time now. In earlier time,
Google decided to self-censor Chinese search results (such as web
pages of human rights organizations) in compliance with Chinese
government requests – which not only resulted in an oddly skewed
Google.cn, but also a public outcry from both diehard fans and
organizations such as Reporters Without Borders.
For some search queries, Google uses its own search result
advertisement system to offer jobs. Try entering work at google and
sometimes, you find job offers straight from Google.
Some say that whoever turns up first for the search query president of
the internet is, well, the President of the internet. Take a look at the
results for this search to find out who’s currently ruling you!
Can you guess why the Disney homepage is in a top 10 search result
position when you enter “Exit”, “No”, or “Leave” into Google? Try it
out, you’ll be surprised (I won’t spoil here why this is happening, but it
has something to do with adult websites). Google doesn’t have “stop words” anymore. Stop words traditionally are words like “the”, “or” and similar which search engines tended to
ignore. Nowadays, Google includes all of your words, even the former
stop words. You can use the wildcard character “*” in phrases. This is helpful for
finding song texts – let’s say you forgot a word or two, but you
remember the gist, as in "love you twice as much * oh love * *." You can
even use the wildcard character without searching for anything specific
at all, as in this search: "* * * * * * *."
The following search tip, on the other hand, you better not follow. But
you may sing along…
When it’s late at night
And you’ve an essay due
And you don’t know what to write
I’ll tell you what to do
Before sunrise
Find something to plagiarize
on Google
Talkin’ ‘bout Google..”
– Mort, The Google Song
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