Thursday, August 23, 2012

HOW TO FIND STUFF.

I’m learning how to use Google Earth. It can be kind of fun to type your own address, and have it zoom right in on your  roof.  In getting a bid for solar on my rental, the company did just that. Looked at my roof from afar, to see if it is shaded by trees, the pitch of the roof and so on.  And if you twiddle around enough, you can get it down to  street level and see your daughter’s front yard with the kids playing ball on the driveway. In some ways, that is scary, too. Like being spied on from a big eye in the sky.
But, if you want directions from one address to another, on Google, if you don’t have the exact address, it can’t comply.  For instance, I can’t type in FROM:  Highway 88 Jackson, CA.     TO:  my own precise address.  You have to be specific. I don’t know anyone’s address on Highway 88 Jackson, nor the zip code. I have to take the time to  look up an address in the phone book. But, I can look at the whole city of Jackson and  that feature is very handy. Jim, before he moves the motor home, will look for a parking space for our big rig.
I’m sure this is all old hat to many of you, but if you want Google to find you particular site, like skinny dipping spots,  put that phrase between quote marks.  “skinny dipping spots.”  Now I can skinny dip anywhere  in the world.
If you want a new refrigerator , and  you are getting too many results, you can put a minus sign in front of  appliances  and repair so your search might look like this  “refrigerators” -repair-appliances.   Hmm. I even got the book, Hitchhiking Across Ireland with a refrigerator. Fun, cute book, as it turned out.
This is a really an unusual kind of search,  that could come in handy and bring you something interesting you didn’t know about.  if you put the tilde ~  sign in front of a word,  you find it as a capital one on the keyboard,  Google,  will also search  all other words that it believes mean the same.  So if you were searching for solar, ~SOLAR, it may give you solar cooking sites, solar roofing, solar installers, solar water heating and sun burn. Hey, who knew?
If you want Google to find sites with a particular word in them type a + before the word, as in +skinny, and you will immediately lose 6 pounds. No!  Just kidding.
Then, when I  typed in Supporters for Banking Fraud Amnesty I got the names of all those CEO’s who have never been prosecuted for causing our economy to take a major dump.
Google makes you feel like a world citizen. I like it. Next time I think I’ll type in “adventure” and see if  it takes me to Jim.  

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