Template talk:Google

First deletion discussion

This template has survived TfD, with no consensus. See Wikipedia:Templates for deletion/Log/2006 February 11 for details. - Mailer Diablo 11:09, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Multi-word queries

Doesn't work with multi-word queries. Pimlottc 06:23, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

It does work, sort of, but you because of the sillyness of URL syntax, you have to replace spaces (" ") with plus signs ("+"), as in foo+bar. Dragons flight 06:28, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

Someone fixed this problem a while ago by adding the urlencode: magic word to the template. --Teratornis (talk) 20:07, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

TfD nomination of Template:Google

Template:Google has been nominated for deletion. You are invited to comment on the discussion at the template's entry on the Templates for Deletion page. Thank you. Kungming2 00:03, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Templates_for_deletion/Log/2006_April_19#Template:Google, not deleted.--Patrick 00:00, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

Template:Ghits

I just created this one for better convenience without passing arguments, but on second thought, perhaps it would be better to screw with the template syntax to make Template:Google do this automatically if there is no argument, effectively merging the concepts? It would certainly help to unify and improve the endeavor. Also, why not make the link text more descriptive than just the basic argument being passed? This seems counter-intuitive to me and misrepresents the fact that this is a google link. Please give input or feel free to contact me; if there is no input on the matter, I will assume there are no objections and will attempt it myself. (|-- UlTiMuS 23:06, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

• Implemented these changes. I think this is much more useful. Please give feedback. (|-- UlTiMuS 20:56, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
  • I don't mind the default parameter, but making the [Google links for blah] reduces the flexibility of how it can be incorporated into discussions. Often I might be talking about, for example, Saturn cars and want to provide a relevant link with breaking the flow with strangely formatted text. Also, using small and sup is basically illegible on IE. If people want to identify that it is a google link, they are free to do so, but it shouldn't be required. Dragons flight 21:11, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
  • PS. Keep in mind that this is intended only to be used on discussion pages and should essentially never be incorporated directly into articles. Dragons flight 21:15, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
    • Fine by me - that's why I didn't nom Template:ghits for deletion yet, to see how merging with Template:google would take. But did you really have to basically wipe out all of the other unrelated improvements I made (see also, commenting, etc.)? I'm assuming that's not what your intention was or you did it for convenience, so I'll try to rebuild those bits. (|-- UlTiMuS 23:14, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
      • Also note the substitution bit; this may be trivial, but it is worth noting since a lack of subst with a common template can be bad news when it is modified heavily. (|-- UlTiMuS 23:26, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

(undent) But a substitution tends to obliterate from the wikitext any obvious sign that a user substituted text from a template. This makes Wikipedia less self-documenting and thus harder for new users to learn. That is, a user who does not know about the {{Google}} template will have a difficult time learning about it merely by reading someone else's substitution of it. That's why I like transclusion; a user can look at the wikitext and see exactly how another user did something. One of my favorite features of Wikipedia is how we can learn from each other's wikitext, and substitution defeats this. What exactly do you mean by "bad news", and how bad is it? Many instances of {{Google}} will be on talk pages which tend to get archived anyway. Has anyone actually caused old transluded instances of {{Google}} to create problems on pages by editing the template? --Teratornis (talk) 21:39, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Safe Search

I've undone this edit. The "safety level" is a user option. I don't think we have any right to override that. —Nricardo 06:23, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Site parameter

Wouldn't the site parameter be useful here? I know it can be put inside the query, but that way we would be able to obtain statistics someday (plus makes the usage clearer). -- ReyBrujo (talk) 12:40, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

If you want to make links to search on specific sites, you may find {{Google custom}} useful. (My comment is only about searching specific sites or subdirectories of sites with Google; I don't know what statistics you refer to.) --Teratornis (talk) 08:30, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

I added a subsection of examples showing some options for searching on specific sites. --Teratornis (talk) 21:27, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Google Calculator and the '=' symbol

There's a note in /doc explaining how to insert an equals sign using Template:=, but the wording seems to imply that use of the Google Calculator requires that trailing equals sign. Actually, the = is only necessary if you need to hint to Google that this is an expression to evaluate - 1 pound in kilograms and 1 lb in kg both work fine. Is there a way to say this without it getting too verbose? Rosuav (talk) 05:06, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

I added the parenthetical remark:

• (A trailing equal sign may sometimes be necessary to trigger the Google Calculator, depending on the search expression.)

I don't think this is too verbose. Google may have changed its parser since we documented that example, to make the trailing equals sign less necessary. Thanks for pointing this out. I will also add another example illustrating that the equal sign is not always necessary. It's interesting that Google returns slightly different search results for the variations on "one pound in kilograms". --Teratornis (talk) 21:05, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

I removed the parenthetical remark since it seemed like overkill after I added the example showing that the trailing equals sign is not always necessary. --Teratornis (talk) 21:32, 22 August 2008 (UTC)