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Learning independence with Google Search features
March 29, 2012
Searches can become stories. Some are inspiring, some change the way we see the world and some just put a smile on our face. This is a story of how people can use Google to do something extraordinary. If you have a story,
share it
.
- Ed.
We all have memories of the great teachers who shaped our childhood. They found ways to make the lightbulb go off in our heads, instilled in us a passion for learning and helped us realize our potential. The very best teachers were creative with the tools at their disposal, whether it was teaching the fundamentals of addition with Cheerios or the properties of carbon dioxide with baking soda and vinegar. As the Internet has developed, so too have the resources available for teachers to educate their students.
One teacher who has taken advantage of the web as an educational tool is Cheryl Oakes, a resource room teacher in Wells, Maine. She’s also been able to tailor the vast resources available on the web to each student’s ability. This approach has proven invaluable for Cheryl’s students, in particular 16-year-old Morgan, whose learning disability makes it daunting to sort through search results to find those webpages that she can comfortably read. Cheryl taught Morgan how to use the
Search by Reading Level
feature on Google Search, which enables Morgan to focus only on those results that are most understandable to her. To address the difficulty Morgan faces with typing, Cheryl introduced her to
Voice Search
, so Morgan can speak her queries into the computer. Morgan is succeeding in high school, and just registered to take her first college course this summer.
There’s a practically limitless amount of information available on the web, and with search features, you can find the content that is most meaningful for you. For more information, visit
google.com/insidesearch/features.html
.
Posted by Glen Shires, Speech Technology
To pitch a perfect game, teach yourself online
October 20, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Inside Search blog
)
Searches can become stories. Some are inspiring, some change the way we see the world and some just put a smile on our face. This is a story of how people can use Google to do something extraordinary. If you have a story,
share it
. - Ed.
My major league pitching career was anything but perfect. The closest I ever came was a seven-inning outing against Milwaukee while
playing for the Cincinnati Reds
, in which I gave up only four runs and earned the victory. In baseball, you can be successful without coming close to perfect. Just think about batting average: a .400 average is insanely good, but that means you strike out or get out in some other way more than half the time you're at bat. Hall of Fame pitchers give up an average of more than two runs per game. Seldom does a pitcher throw a shutout. A perfect game—in which a pitcher does not allow a single player on base—is incredibly rare.
In the majors, setting your team up to win involves daily physical workouts, hours of practice and in-depth analysis of the opposing teams’ traits and tendencies. The idea that someone without this training and background could instead go online, gather and process the necessary information and use it to throw a perfect game is unfathomable. Yet that’s exactly what happened to Brian Kingrey.
Brian is a high school music teacher from Hammond, La. and not much of a sports fan. As one of his students put it, “I’ve never heard him say the word baseball.” But Brian is a gamer—so naturally, he was intrigued by the $1 million prize he saw in a TV commercial for a new baseball video game called MLB 2K11. He knew nothing about baseball, had never even played the real game in his life, but encouraged by his wife, he went out, bought the game and started playing. A few weeks later, Brian won the $1 million prize for pitching the first perfect game in MLB 2K11. And he learned how to do it entirely online.
“I had to figure out what baseball was, not just what a perfect game was,” Brian said. He found that everything he needed to know was online: he was able to search about batters, batting averages, the different kinds of pitches. He combined the information to figure out that he had the best odds in a match-up between the Phillies -- with star pitcher Roy Halladay on the mound -- and the Houston Astros. He also researched the weak spots of each player—for instance, the toughest batter Halladay would face was going to be Astro’s infielder Bill Hall. After that, Brian was ready to play.
And play he did. On his third try, Brian pitched the perfect game and became a millionaire. “Once I got past Bill Hall, I knew I had it,” he said. “Without online search, I would’ve been in deep trouble. If I had played like it was in my head, I would’ve done it all wrong.” Perhaps if I’d known that search was the answer when I was playing in the major leagues, I might have come a little closer to perfection more often.
Posted by Jeff Austin, Google Apps channel manager and former Major League Pitcher
Our latest search story: run on
August 19, 2010
This is part of our summer series of new Search Stories. Look for the label
Search Stories
and subscribe to the series. -Ed.
Recently, a group of Google product managers challenged one another to run 100 miles over 30 days in the interest of encouraging summer fitness. I grew up in Huntsville, AL, where I always loved exercising and experiencing the great outdoors, so I took to the challenge immediately. One hundred and thirty-three miles and a few pairs of new running shoes later, it was an incredible opportunity to push myself further than I’d ever imagined. But, I must admit—it wasn’t easy.
I’m delighted to help introduce our latest Search Story, Healthy Habits. This is a story of one woman’s journey to get back into shape. It shows the difficulties of sticking to a workout routine, and the empowerment that comes with reaching—and even exceeding your goals. It highlights the many tools and tricks that make Google a great workout companion, and I hope it inspires you to incorporate new healthy habits into your own lifestyle.
Enjoy this week’s video, and don’t forget to
check out the other videos
if you haven’t already. Search (and run) on!
Update
Aug 20
: Some of you may have had trouble watching this video due to "restricted" messages, especially if you're reading this post in a feed reader. We're working to resolve the issue now—in the meantime, you can still watch on the blog itself or directly on YouTube. -Ed.
Update
Aug 20, 3:00 PM PST
: The video should be viewable everywhere now. Thanks for your patience.
Posted by Avni Shah, Group Product Manager, Geo
What to search when you’re expecting
July 28, 2010
This is part of our summer series of new Search Stories. Look for the label
Search Stories
and subscribe to the series. -Ed.
Having been a new dad for six months now, I’ve quickly come to learn two valuable parenting lessons. First, being a father is truly a full-time job—and second, sleep is completely overrated. Whether buying the latest bottles, binkies, blankets and bibs, or just blogging about the whole magical journey, becoming a father has been the most invigorating and moving experience of my lifetime.
This week, I’m excited to help introduce our latest search story,
New Baby
. The video really captures the joys (and costs!) of becoming a new parent. I’d like to share my heart-felt compassion with new dads everywhere (and of course, my wife and the other mothers out there who are the true heroes.) We will all rest when they head off to college—in the meantime, enjoy!
Posted by Murali Viswanathan, Product Manager
He said, she said: a sibling search story
July 21, 2010
This is part of our summer series of new Search Stories. Look for the label
Search Stories
and subscribe to the series. -Ed.
My sister is my best friend in the world. But that wasn’t always the case. When we were young, my sister and I always had our sibling rivalries. Quarrels over who got more (or fewer) birthday presents, ongoing debates around whose week it was to walk the dog and your average diary lock-picking weren’t uncommon. But now that we've grown older, it's become clear that those moments have brought us closer together, and today my sister is my best friend.
Our search story this week really struck a chord with me, and I’m excited to help introduce our latest video, “Brother and Sister.” It’s a fun, playful snapshot of an evolving sibling friendship. I hope you enjoy this week’s video as much as I did.
Posted by Bernardo Hernandez, Head of Consumer Marketing
A Search Story for the dog days of summer
June 30, 2010
This is part of our summer series of new Search Stories. Look for the label
Search Stories
and subscribe to the series. -Ed.
When I first brought my dog Yoshka with me to work, I didn’t expect he would go on to become a
part
of our
company history
and help inspire our dog-friendly culture. At Google, any employee can bring their dog to work, and it’s rare that I reach my desk in the morning without seeing a pup or two on the way. All these dogs—my own and those I meet around campus—seem to possess that uncanny canine ability to bring a smile to my face. I hope this week’s Search Story,
Dog
, will do the same for you.
Visit
www.youtube.com/searchstories
to check out the whole collection, or to create your own story.
Yoshka
Posted by Urs Hoelzle, Senior Vice President, Operations & Google Fellow
Graduation: our latest Search Story
June 24, 2010
This is part of our summer series of new Search Stories. Look for the label
Search Stories
and subscribe to the series. -Ed.
My dad’s family grew up in Vietnam. Even as they faced an uncertain future, they attended school, believing strongly in the value of education. So when my aunts and uncles immigrated to the U.S., they went to great lengths to make sure their sons and daughters had the best opportunities. It wasn’t always easy—learning a new language and finding a new job was a struggle at first. But through their selfless efforts, my cousins and I were able to excel in our studies and pursue college degrees.
So for this reason, and on behalf of the Search Stories team, I’m delighted to introduce our latest video,
Graduation
. It’s both poignant and relevant to my family’s own experiences, and I think it speaks to devoted caregivers the world over.
Visit
www.youtube.com/searchstories
to check out the whole collection, or to create your own story.
Posted by Dana Nguyen, Product Marketing Manager, Google Apps Education
A Father’s Day dedication
June 18, 2010
This is part of our summer series of new Search Stories. Look for the label
Search Stories
and subscribe to the series. -Ed.
Our latest Search Story,
Father and Daughter
, is a tribute to all the wonderful relationships dads have with their daughters.
While working on the story we came across a comment posted to Paul Simon’s
Father and Daughter video
on YouTube. Maybe it’s because I’m a father of two little girls, but this almost made me cry. One day, I hope that my daughters will feel compelled to write something like this.
To Cullenlvr961: we don’t know if you’ll read this or see the video, but we just wanted to put it out there and let you know you really touched us and we’re dedicating this Search Story to you and your dad. We’ll be proud if our video evokes even a small piece of the emotion your note did.
Posted by Robert Wong, Google Creative Lab
Woody and Buzz star in a Google Search Story
June 8, 2010
Hopefully some of you have seen one or two of our Search Story
videos
. We’ve been blown away by the creativity and brilliance of everyone that shared their own search story using the
Search Stories Video Creator
. It’s been a pleasure to see how all kinds of people use search to tell tales—whether silly, inspiring, true or imagined.
It seemed like the next logical step was to ask the world’s best storytellers to get involved, so I called up my friend at Pixar. He liked the idea, the writers at Pixar were into it—and a few days later, we were brainstorming with the minds behind
WALL-E
,
Finding Nemo
and, of course,
Toy Story
. We’re huge fans of their work, so getting to explore what the
Toy Story
gang would discover using Google has been pretty special. Together, we ended up creating a
short video
that looks at Google through the eyes of Andy’s toys and how they deal with the fact that Andy’s about to leave for college.
A big thank you to the nice folks at Pixar for their spirit and their sense of collaboration. Check it out now online and in theaters nationwide kicking off
Toy Story 3
, opening June 18.
We hope you enjoy watching it as much as we did making it.
Update
5:55PM: Clarified that the YouTube video is currently only available in the U.S.
Update
Jun 10: Thanks for your patience! The video is now available outside the U.S. and we've removed our previous note about availability.
Posted by Robert Wong, Creative Director, Creative Lab
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