Tech Team Newsletter - Volume 5 Issue 4

Tech Team: In the Trenches

May 2007 Volume 5 Issue 4

Table of Contents

Smart Web Search with Instant Suggestions

Q. When I used a friend’s computer recently and did a Web search with Google, a drop-down menu came up with suggested Web addresses and other words. How can I make my computer suggest words and Web sites?

A. The majority of Internet browsers have an auto-complete feature that can fill in Web site addresses you previously typed. However, there are a few things you can do to add the search suggestion feature to your machine or to have your Web browser suggest search words as you make entries.

For instance, among the Web browsers that have the search suggestion feature is Mozilla’s Firefox 2. As you type into the Search box for the Google, Yahoo or Answers.com search engines, the browser guesses what you're typing and offers suggestions in real time. The list of suggested keywords gets narrowed down to fewer options the more you type. You can download the free Firefox browser for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux systems at www.mozilla.com.

Google has a Google Suggest utility as well. It works with several Web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. To learn more about Google Suggest or to find out how to use it, visit http://labs.goole.com/suggestfaq.html.