Sign me up: the first class

So, a few weeks back I decided to take Google's Power Searching course. I just completed Class1 (and will start the next soon enough). I learned a few new things and developed some random thoughts in the process. Let's see then.

Random thought #1. When taking the pre-course assessment, i had to answer "don't know" to most questions - at first I felt a little dumb; then I imagined the answers to be "don't know because I haven't tried," and felt better :D

Random thought #2. One new thing I learned was to sort image search by a specific colour. Sure enough, I've been using the "grayscale" and other complex sorting options quite a bit. And my eyes have registered the palette being there. But it never ocurred to me to try it out. So, I'm glad they drew attention to that - a pretty cool feature once you know to pay attention to it.

Random thought #3. When the class got to the part about keyword choices I felt a pang of pride - the techniques they discussed there were pretty close to the intuitive-chaotic ways I've come to practice on my own!

Random thought #4. When I was able to start the first class, I had arrived from a business trip, dog-tired. I didn't really feel like watching a portion of video os someone explaining "how it's done". At that moment I was really grateful that the class sontents were also made available as text and slides. (In fact, I grasped the Image sort lesson solely from the slides.) Then again, with the more verbal-focused lessons I found it more enjoyeable to sit back and "watch them explain their craft".

Random thought #5. As a somewhat-seasoned Google-dweller, I greatly enjoy how Google's own people are putting their habitat into use. The medium truly is the message.

Random thought #6. In the very beginning of the first lessons, my own professional background nearly gave me the knee-jerk urge to start analyzing the course formats and whatnot. And then I got over it - and instead, observed how the form followed function and naturally shaped itself by purpose.




And here is a pretty picture to complete the first class. No, seriously - I searched for "pretty picture" and then filtered the images by green.