How-To/
Google Everywhere
Search results can find you many ways.
By Tara Calishain
November 16, 2004 12:00AM EST
Most of us use Google many times a day for many different things: Phone-book lookups, word definitions, news searches, and, of course, ordinary Web searches. Most of the time, we do this sitting at our computers looking at our browsers. That's fine, but you're not in front of your PC all the time, and even when you are, you have other things to do than keep up with searches. Happily, both Google and third parties offer alternatives for getting Google information without using your browser. Some of them don't even require a computer!
There are several ways to get Google search results sent to your mailbox.
Google Alerts ( www.google.com/alerts ) are still in beta, but they're already useful. Simply enter a Web or news search query, how often you want to receive updates (either once a day or as it happens), and an e-mail address. Google will then send you notes with the titles, URLs, and brief snippets from matching stories. If you get a Google account (they're free) you can sign in and manage the alerts, choosing how often you want them and whether you want them in text or HTML e-mail.
Google Alert ( www.googlealert.com ), which is not affiliated with Google, is another option for tracking Web searches. You need to register (it's free), but then you can track several different queries.
If you just want to run one search at a time, however, use Cape Clear's Google by E-mail. Send a note to google@capeclear.com with your query in the subject line, and you'll get the first ten results back by e-mail. Unfortunately, since Cape Clear's application uses the Google API, you can only use this service for Web searches. (The Google API doesn't offer access to Google's "special searches," including phone numbers, news, and images.) That's a pity, because it would be much cheaper than dialing 411 from a mobile phone.
Of course, e-mail is passé to some people; all the cool kids these days use Google via RSS feeds. Some of the feeds are within Google's terms of service; some, alas, are not. The aforementioned Google Alert makes its search updates available as RSS feeds. ( See Figure 2. ) Also, try Peter Drayton's Google2RSS ( www.razorsoft.net/weblog/stories/2002/04/13/google2rss.html ). If you'd rather not install the Goo-gle API, you can use Ben Hammersley's Google-to-RSS solution, which is available at www.benhammersley.com/tools/google_to_rss.html .
If you really want to get away from your browser, try instant messaging to get answers from Google. YIMGoogle provides search results in Yahoo Instant Messenger. You'll find instructions for using YIMGoogle at www.tropo.com/techno/java/ yimgoogle. For Mac OS X users, there's a Perl script called Googlematic that lets you search Google via AIM or MSN ( www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/7633 ).
What about staying in touch with Google even when you're away from your computer? Google offers two forms of search by cell phone. One is for shoppers: Froogle Wireless ( http://labs.google.com/frooglewml.html ) allows any WML-capable cell phone to search Froogle's catalog of online products. Unfortunately, the search results list only prices. Froogle is meant to be a price comparison engine, not a catalog offering details about the items. To do regular Google Web searches by phone or wireless PDA, visit Google's Wireless User Guide ( www.google.com/options/wireless.htm ). Here you'll find out how to access Google via a Palm PDA or an Internet-enabled cell phone.
Finally, the Google Voice Search is also worth noting, though at this writing the service is not available. But the page at http://labs1.google.com/gvs.html instructs visitors to "check back in a little while." We look forward to trying this out when it becomes available.
Tara Calishain is the author of Web Search Garage (Prentice Hall).
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