This week we will talk about how to use Google to get the information we want from the Internet. We will also discuss privacy with how Google organizes the universe and touch on topics like page rank and what that means. Is Google a good example of how artificial intelligence works? Check back for changes to this post as we approach the show.

How does Google Work? Google applies formulas to web pages which they crawl with small programs called bots or spiders. These programs look for the oranization of information and turn words and website features like headlines into a kind of math picture. Then when someone searches for something and selects that page from the results a second kind of math takes place. How we search and which results we select are also “observed” by Google bots. If a lot of us click on the same link in a search then very likely that item will rise up in page rank. The bots are smart so if the same person goes to their own site time after time that page might actually fall in rank.

But is it a good idea to only go to sites where others have gone? In the early days of the internet almost all travel was by word of mouth or links from one website to another. Surfing was the common way to get around in the mid 1990’s although there were search engines even back then like Alta Vista. But for most of us we would find a web page we liked and then follow the links of that web page author until we found another page that we liked and then we would follow the links of that author. Now Google does it for us. It isn’t really going to sites that others have gone, it is going to sites that others like us have gone.

How should we search? Let’s say that we want to know how to pronounce the word Zietgeist. Google will help with spelling so we just type in the terms “pronounce zeitgeist”. Let’s look at the results.

Listen to how the word Zeitgeist is pronounced.

Now what is Google Zeitgeist