But size isn't everything. Fortunately, Google's excellent search algorithm retrieves unusually relevant results. Its system ranks every website's importance based on the number of sites that link to it. and the importance (as rated by Google) of these sites. In the vast majority of searches, this system seems to return the most high-quality, relevant web pages first.
In fact, in a survey of Internet users done by NPD NewMedia Services, 97% of respondents ranked Google first in relevance and accuracy of results. Google was also the favorite in many other areas of user satisfaction (e.g., overall opinion of site, comprehensive results, reliability, etc.).
Google is strictly a search engine. You won't find special features here on the stock market, travel or even shopping. There are no news headlines or free e-mail accounts. Go to Google when you want to do quick, comprehensive searches yielding above-average results. It's especially valuable for any type of research.
Search Tips
Google's search system is relatively simple. You can use the minus sign to exclude a word and quotation marks to enclose a phrase.
All Search Words Automatically Required: In Google's system every search word you enter is required to appear in every item that is retrieved. Therefore, you don't have to enter the plus sign to require a word. Be careful when you're entering synonyms in a search. For example:
"vitamin C" "ascorbic acid"
The above search statement might miss some relevant items that don't contain both of these words. It's often better to enter synonyms individually in different searches, for example:
"vitamin C"
and
"ascorbic acid"
Stop Words in Phrases: Google doesn't search for stop words (very common words and characters e.g., to, the, I) even if they're part of a phrase. In order to force Google to search for these words in a phrase, enter a plus before each very common word. For example:
"+the king +and +I"
(I know, I know - this doesn't work with "+to +be +or +not +to +be". Alas, there's no perfection in this world.)
Capitals: Google ignores all capital letters no matter where they appear in a word.
Linking Web Pages: You can get a list of web pages that have links to a particular url by entering link: followed by the url. For example,
