Number 195 - August 1999

UPDATE
The More Things Change...     In the article in the Beginner's Section, take a look at the date of the piece. Some of the software and hardware references are 'way out-of-date, but the thoughts expressed and the message aren't. And, as the author points out, even the experts among us can, and do, benefit from access to experts in fields other than our own--and who, as members, represent the considerable resources of the user group--available to all members. This gives meaning to the universal User Group motto: "Users Helping Users."    (Some groups not wishing to hint at a drug addict connotation in that phrase, include the modifying "PC" or "Computer" as in "Computer Users Helping Computer Users." Not to make light of the subject, in some cases computer usage could almost be termed an addiction, or at least, a compulsion.)     And to finish the header quotation: ... ...The More They Remain The Same!	Google - Great Search Engine...     by James Bodard, N Texas PC News Jul 99     We've all experienced the problem:     The automated search engines (like Alta Vista) return 54,321 items "in no particular order" (many of which are porn sites). But the human-indexed search services (like Yahoo) often can't find what you want because they're only able to index a small fraction of the entire Web (since they're human). So you're left with the uneasy (but probably accurate sense that what you want is out there somewhere ... but you're no closer to finding it.     The truly amazing new solution:     A couple of extremely bright guys at Stanford University solved the Web Search Engine Problem once and for all, creating the last search system you will ever need: http://google.com.     What's their secret? They use Linux-based Web robots to explore and index the entire Web. But then they determine the QUALITY of each resulting link based upon the QUALITY of the OTHER sites that link INTO that site. So, the ONLY WAY a site can be highly rated, under Google, is if other highly rated sites have links pointing into it! It's brilliant.     This simple concept works SO WELL that every single person I've told about Google has switched permanently to using Google as their Web search engine of choice. It really is that good!     And of course it's free! ... so give it a shot for yourself!
Number 195 - August 1999