Phil Bradley trawls the internet to find the answers to this month’s readers’ queries.
Q Someone was telling me about a book that covers different games that you can play on Google. I did a search for games Google on Amazon, but didn’t have any luck. Do you know anything about this?
A The book you’re referring to is 55 ways to have fun with Google and it’s written by Philipp Lenssen, who writes the ‘Google Blogoscoped’ weblog (http://blog.outer-court.com/) which is worth reading if you’re interested in what Google is up to. The book goes into detail about some of the games that you can play using the search engine, and some of them would be useful as training aids, both for children and adults alike. You can find out more details on the book (including where to buy it and how to get it free) at www.55fun.com/
Q I know that in Google I can get a lot of information about a website with a search for info:www.sitename.com but is there any way that I can find out how many images there are on a website?
A There is, and it’s very simple. Just do a search for site:www.sitename.com and click on the Images tab. This will then pull up a collection of all the images on a site. You can also combine this with a search term, so a search for site:www.bbc.co.uk blair will pull up a collection of all the images on the BBC site that refer to Blair (Tony or otherwise).
Q There are sites on the internet that you can use to ask questions, but I’ve been asked to see if there is one that is specific for philosophy. Do you know if such a thing exists?
A You’re quite right to say that there are lots of sites that you can use to ask questions. Yahoo Answers (http://answers.yahoo.com/) is proving very popular at the moment, and Google Answers (http://answers.google.com/answers/) is also well used, though you do have to pay for the privilege of getting your question answered. They’re both useful for general questions, as is Ask MetaFilter (http://ask.metafilter.com/), which has a one-off $5 registration fee. However, as you suspected, a specific site does exist for philosophical questions (www.amherst.edu/askphilosophers/). Simply post your question, and if it is deemed philosophical enough it will be placed before the panel for an answer from a professional philosopher. Be warned though, it’s a very addictive site!
Q Can you suggest a source for information on working out where an email has come from? I sometimes get spam sent back to me that I supposedly sent out (though I didn’t) and I want to see if I can track down the real sender.
A There are lots of resources that will help you read and understand email headers, and the one that I’d recommend is from the Stop Spam website (www.stopspam.org/email/headers.html).
Site of the month
As some of you may know, Firefox is my browser of choice, since I think that it’s far superior to Internet Explorer. My site of the month is the Best 50 Firefox Extensions for Power Surfing (http://tinyurl.com/eghh4). As the name suggests, it’s a listing of some of the best extensions that are available for the browser to really power it up for searchers and general surfers alike.
Phil Bradley is an internet consultant, trainer, web designer and author. Visit www.philb.com for free information on internet introductions, search engine articles, web design tips and a host of other free information. New: 3rd edn of The Advanced Internet Searcher’s Handbook is now available! If you have any questions about the internet send an email to philb@philb.com with the subject header ‘column query’.
Updated: 11 July 2006