8 Ways to Sunday

Google turned five on Sunday, and BBC News has a story with some history on the search engine and the company. To help you celebrate this birthday in style, I’ve added links to some of my favorite Google tools and toys.

For your googling pleasure…

• The official history of Google can be found in the “Corporate Information” section of the company’s web site, as can this handy time-line.
• Google Zeitgeist offers a (family friendly) rundown of the top searches on Google, with lots of interesting stats.
• The Google Relator uses Google’s “similar pages” feature (A.K.A. GoogleScout) to present you with a 3D representation of the links most relevant to your query or the sites most similar to the address you entered. Each site is a “node” linked to others by lines. You can get information or visit a node by clicking the “info” tag at the top of each one, or expand a node to see what it’s related to by double-clicking on it. Very slick, and a surprisingly effective search technique when you’re not exactly sure what you’re looking for. Requires Java.
• Google Alert provides a search alert service to notify you of new hits on your most important Google searches. A multitude of delivery options are available, including RSS feeds.
• Googlism generates a list of “opinions” from Google about a person, place, thing, or time/date that you give it. This may not sound like much, but when you check out some examples you’ll see how hilarious and addictive it can be.
• Google Fight pits mortal enemies against one another in a fight to the death based on what really matters: Google hits. Witness epic battles such as Bill Gates vs. Linus Torvalds, McDonald’s vs. Burger King, or paper vs. plastic.

Have fun, but don’t blame me when your boss wants to know why you didn’t get anything done today.

[Listening to: Don’t Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult | Agents of Fortune (05:10)]