In which language tools take their rightful place beside the oracle
Posted By Kevin Gaugler on October 29, 2008
sponsors this blog
Have you ever been to Google’s homepage? Look to the right of the search box in the middle of your screen. Notice anything of interest to you? Every time I ask teachers to do this in a workshop I receive puzzled looks from the audience. At first, language educators feel the exercise to be a bit condescending as they think, “Of course we are familiar with the Google homepage.”
Google has built a reputation for it’s minimalist search box and only three links sit to the right of that precious real estate: Advanced Search, Preferences, and Language Tools. Yes, there is a link on Google’s main page called “Language Tools” and you, the language enthusiast, have never clicked on it. It’s OK. In my experience 90% of language learners (or educators) have not. Once you have checked on the language tools, go back to the main page and click on Preferences. You will notice that most of the page deals with language settings too. What’s more, even the Advanced Search page includes the option to filter by language. Thus, all three tools on Google’s nearly-empty page deal with multiple language searches. Why is it that more language educators do not know about these features? Not only do the tools prove useful for multilingual learners, but they clearly demonstrate the importance of multilingualism on the Internet.
If you think Google’s simple white box has served all your needs in the past and these tools are unnecessary, try searching for “tortilla” the way you normally would in Google. What are the first results? What are the linguistic and cultural assumptions made by Google’s algorithm that brought you these top results? Next try to use the Language Tools to find Spanish language sites only. The results should look quite different.
Next, only look for sites in various Spanish-speaking countries by using the Advanced Search tool. Be sure to expand the menu on that page called “Date, usage rights, numeric range, and more” and change the “language” and “region”. Look for sites in Mexico and then Argentina. How did your search results vary with each search? Finally, filter your search by “file type” such as “Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt)”. What did you find? You might also filter your results with content that is “free to use or share” so that you can use those PowerPoint slides you found in your next class legally under a Creative Commons Licence.
Now you have mastered the three little links next to the sacred white box. Have you ever been to the Google News site? Next time you go there, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. Notice anything of interest to you? Let us know what you found on the news site along with your tricks and tips for using Google as a multilingual person. And if you found our tips helpful and are looking for a tutorial and a few more tricks regarding Google language tools, watch this video.
About the author
Comments