"Power searching with Google" online class

A still from one of the class videos

Regular readers of this blog already know many of the methods I'll be teaching in our upcoming "Power Searching with Google" class.  I've seen your comments: You already know the shortcuts--e.g., using the search box as a calculator or finding local movie showtimes by typing [movies] and your zip code. 


BUT there's more. 


And I'm willing to bet that there's someone you know who doesn't know all this stuff.   

Enter: Power Searching with Google, a free, online, community-based course showcasing these techniques and how you can use them to solve everyday problems. 


Our course is aimed at teaching you to find what you need faster, no matter how you currently use search.  Do you know how to search for and read pages written in languages you’ve never even studied? Identify the location of a picture your friend took during his vacation a few months ago? How about finally identifying that green-covered book about gardening that you’ve been trying to track down for years? 


We'll cover all this and more in six 50-minute classes. 

Lessons will be released daily starting on July 10, 2012, and you can take them according to your own schedule during a two-week window, alongside a worldwide community. We'll have literally thousands of students taking the class at once.  So here's your chance to be part of a much larger learning community.  


The lessons include interactive activities to practice new skills, and many opportunities to connect with others using Google tools such as Google Groups, Moderator and Google+, including Hangouts on Air, where world-renowned search experts will answer your questions on how search works. Googlers will also be on hand during the course period to help and answer your questions in case you get stuck. 

Power Searching with Google blends the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) learning format pioneered by Stanford and MIT with our social and communication tools to create what we hope is a true community learning experience. 

Register here on the course homepage. 


By the end of this course, you'll know several new techniques that will make you a Google Power Searcher and help you find out information about whatever you can imagine—from how to prepare for a new family pet to where moss grows on Stonehenge or how to grow katniss in your garden. Sign up now!  (Or at least forward this post to a friend who really should take such a class!) 


Hope to see you online.