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Legal Staff News & Views Newsletter
May 2002

Internet Search Engine
It has been almost four years since the search engine "Google" came on the scene. Like most search engines Google begins by downloading and indexing web pages. The user can enter a search request and the engine will produce a list of "hits" of which it knows, and sometimes additional sites or information. The trick of course, is to find the most useful hit.

Google's technology is based on the assumption that web pages that are often linked by other web pages are more likely to have information on the requested topics than pages that are never referred to by others. Google places the most referred to web pages at the top of its hit list.

This premise seems to make some sense. However Google does its job by putting what you seek at or near the top of the list.

One of the problems with searching the world wide web is that the web is an evolving entity. Particularly frustrating is that what is here today will not necessarily be available tomorrow. If you find a perfect answer to your question, you had better download the page if you want to guarantee that you will be able to find it again when you need it. Also, a lot of search engines do not automatically remove indexed references, making it possible, and even likely, that hits that sound to be the perfect answer to your question turn out to not be available at all. Google has pretty much solved both problems by caching many of its indexed pages; the entire site including live links may not be available, but if Google has a cache of the hit, you will at least be able to read the text that was on the page. (The availability of a Google cache is marked on the list as a part of the information about the hits).

Another Google feature is a "similar pages" link on the listing of linked page. If the hit is exactly what you want, "similar pages" should give you a new hit list that is more like that desirable hit than your original hit list.

The Web is world wide, and it is most obvious when a particular hit comes up written in a foreign language. Google now has a "translate" feature that will translate between French, German, English and Spanish, making possible to read the foreign language Web page. It will even translate individual sentences. The translations, however, are produced through an automated process and the translations into English are not accurate, grammatical

English. But they will give you a rough idea of the information contained in the page. The "similar pages" capability and translations are not unique to Google. Alta Vista has both features. Alta Vista doesn't seem to offer anything directly comparable to Google's Image Search feature. Click on "images" on the top of the Google page, then enter the search request. Google will attempt to find, usually successfully, an image that matches your request. A search for "Osama bin Laden" returns 24 different images and includes a map of Afghanistan and a few other pages irrelevant to a search for a picture of bin Laden. Google suggests that a least some of the images may not be appropriate for viewing by children, and has a "mature content" filter which is on by default. Turn the filter off, and Google now returns 40 images.

One of the best features of Opera Web browser is a tool bar that lets the user enter a Google search, without the bother of going directly to Google. This alone has made Opera Web a great browser. But Google itself has brought out a tool bar that integrates with the Microsoft Internet Explorer and it is even better.

The Google tool bar permits a search directly from the current page displayed by Internet Explorer, but if the page is the result of a Google search, it will show the relative ranking of the page and provide more information about the page, and will highlight the search works as they exist on the page.

Another tool bar feature available on any page moves the user one level up on the Web site you are viewing. It takes a few minutes to download the tool bar and install it on Internet Explorer. The tool bar, as all of the Google features and search capability, does not cost anything. The URL is www.google.com.

Do You Have an IRA Working For You?

If you do not have a retirement opportunity at the firm where you work there are options available to you. Rich Ferrari, who is an Associate Member of our Association, will be available to explain the difference between traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs, etc. There tax alternatives to both and he will advise us as to which would suit our individual needs and the benefit to those who do have a 401k or SEP plan already in place. Please let me know if you are interested in a get together to investigate these options call me at 665-7779 or e-mail me at gnorton@dcba.org. We will make every effort to meet at a central location. Please let me hear from you by June 3rd.

What's Cookin'...

Scalloped Potatoes
6 Medium Potatoes 3 Tbs. Butter
3 Cups Milk 2 Tbs. Flour
1 Tsp. Salt 1/4 Tsp. Pepper
1 Small Onion-chopped
½ to 1 Cup of grated Colby or Cheddar Cheese (To taste).

Peel and thinly slice potatoes. Add copped onion. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over potatoes and onion. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Test potatoes with a fork to be sure they are done.

For information contact Gloria Norton at DuPage County Bar Association, 126 S. County Farm Road, Wheaton, IL 60187-4597, Telephone 630-653-7779, Fax to 630-653-7870 or E-Mail to: gnorton@dcba.org.