Google

It was pretty amazing to learn that Google was created by graduate students. I mean how do you even go about knowing how to create a search engine? Google is the largest of the search engines. I think this is pretty apparent when it becomes part of the current vernacular--I know I've told curious students to "Google it." I guess that makes this NOUN a VERB! Google's attributes that attract users are its clean, easy-to-use interface and its return of highly relevant results. Returns are based on the sites linking to them and their popularity. An interesting aspect of Google is that it "caches" links meaning that it saves a copy of each web page visited. So, if there is a site that no longer exists, you may still be able to find a copy of it using Google's "cached" link. Google searches in its own database and in the Google Directory. Both the main search page and the advanced search page support the Boolean operators. I know Google is not all there is out there, but, as I said before, Google is set as my homepage and is usually my first stop in my searching attempts.