Google Preferences

Google Preferences allows you to set default search preferences like Language, Number of Results, Safe Search Filtering and whether or not your results are opened in a new window.

The greatest preference is the Language setting. It allows you to choose search results only for pages written in the languages you choose.  All this is profoundly useful. In the West we take for granted sometimes that documents we may have run across years ago will be freely accessible on the Internet, and naturally enough through a search engine like Google.

But imagine if you speak a relatively obscure language, possibly native to a part of the world far from where you’re living: you might have no access whatsoever to the documents in this language. Now Google serves as a convenient conduit allowing you to filter results with as much granularity as you require.

What is the Best Font for your Website?

The research paper “A Comparison of Popular Online Fonts: Which Size and Type is Best?” from Usability News involved a research group of sixty participants (16 males and 44 females).

The study explores the following characteristics of fonts used on the Internet:

  • Reading Efficiency
  • Reading Time
  • Perceived Legibility
  • Perceived Attractiveness
  • Font Preference

The paper concludes that “Generally, Times and Arial were read faster than Courier, Schoolbook, and Georgia. Fonts at the 12-point size were read faster than fonts at the 10-point size. In addition, a font type x size interaction was found for the perception of font legibility. In general, however, Arial, Courier, and Georgia were perceived as the most legible. “