Google+Froogle
There is no denying the fact that the Google is a web based search engine which is very much conducive to the surfacing of the information and data in the net. With the advancement in the sphere of technology, now a man can easily unpgrade his knowledge with the help of Google network.
Google Product Search (formerly known as Froogle) is a price comparison service launched by Google Inc. It is currently in beta test stage. It was invented by Craig Nevill-Manning. Its interface provides an HTML form field into which a user can type product queries to return lists of vendors selling a particular product, as well as pricing information.
Google Product Search is different from most other price comparison services in that it neither charges any fees for listings, nor accepts payment for products to show up first. Also, it makes no commission on sales. Any company can submit individual product information via Google Base
[1] or can bulk submit items for inclusion
[2]. Notably, advertising space is available for purchase to be displayed in Product Search in the form of an AdWords ad, similar to those in other parts of the Google network. This is, as elsewhere, noticeably separate from the main body of results.
Last but not the least that searches can be sorted by relevance (“best matchâ€) or by price (either ascending or descending). You can also search for items in specific online stores (assuming they have provided Product Search a data feed). Product Search is only available for selected countries at this point. Google formally announced Froogle in December 2002, after the site had been active in beta for some years. It is now also offered in Wireless Markup Language (WML) form and can be accessed from mobile phones or other wireless devices that have support for WML.
Google talk
The presence of a search engine like Google has greatly eased communication and transfer of information in the internet. With new innovations dawning in the fields of science and technology, a very valuable discovery has been the VoIP which is also known as Voice over Internet Protocol. The Voice over Internet Protocol allows conversations to be carried out through the internet, the only basic requirement being a broadband internet connection. Google Talk, also prevalently referred to as GTalk, includes the instant messaging (IM) and VoIP services offered by Google. This program was first introduced by Google in late 2005 and is today a very popular means of communicating across geographical boundaries through the internet. The Jingle protocol aids in the working of the VoIP in Google Talk while instant messaging is supported ably by XMPP which enables XMPP customers all over to communicate with Google Talk users as they both are supported by the same technical tool.
It is necessary to remember here, that in order to subscribe to Google Talk, one has to possess a Google mail or GMail account. Chatting through Google Talk is also permitted through GMail. Moreover, social networking sites like Orkut owned by Google enable the users to communicate with members of their friend’s list in Orkut through Google Talk. Once logged in Google Talk, users are able to see the current status of those included on their friends list like available, busy or idle. These status messages can be chosen by the user himself according to his will.
Google Talk also facilitates voice mail services along with the VoIP. Even, users are able to receive instant messages sent to them while they were offline, once they are online. The option ‘sends files’ in the Google Talk chat window allows people to share files from across the internet with their friends.
Google Scholar
The communication benefits offered by the internet have facilitated educational opportunities as well and it must be mentioned that a huge amount of scholarly articles are now available to students all over the world on relevant topics on the internet. Google Scholar also referred to as GS is a search program offered by Google for free which provides a catalog of various scholarly articles along with their publishing details. It can be said without any doubt that it has been of great help to researchers worldwide as for them any information related to their object of study or interest can be obtained just a click away. It is definitely for most an easier means of attaining knowledge than running around different libraries often being unable to find all the necessary details.
The internet offers a comprehensive list of articles available, thus making it easier for the researcher to choose his requirements accordingly. Google Scholar boasts of having access to more websites and journals than many of its competitors like getCITED, CiteSeer and Scirus from Elsevier. Also recently in 2006, in order to combat the arrival of its major opponent Microsoft Windows Live Academic, Google Scholar introduced bibliography managers which are also available in the other search engines like getCITED, CiteSeer and Scirus.
However, Google Scholar has been criticized within academic spheres due to several reasons. It has been alleged time and again that searching by referring to publishing dates often produce erroneous results thus affecting research works. The database design is also unsatisfactory and not up to the mark. Moreover, certain journals and authorary articles have denied being a part of this search vehicle thus affecting the prospects of Google Scholar. But despite so, Google Scholar is still undeniably an easy means of acquiring necessary data and information from the internet.
