Google is primarily a fully-automatic Search engine with no human-intervention involved in the search process. It utilizes robots known as ‘spiders’ to crawl the web on a regular basis for new updates and new websites to be included in the Google Index. This robot software follows hyperlinks from site to site. Google does not require that you should submit your URL to its database for inclusion in the index, as it is anyway done automatically by the ‘spiders’. However, manual submission of URL can be done by going to the Google website and clicking the related link.

One important thing here is that Google does not accept payment of any sort for site submission or improving page rank of your website. Also, submitting your site through the Google website does not guarantee listing in the index.

Cloaking

Sometimes, a webmaster might program the server in such a way that it returns different content to Google than it returns to regular users, which is often done to misrepresent search engine rankings. This process is referred to as cloaking as it conceals the actual website and returns distorted webpages to search engines crawling the site. This can mislead users about what they'll find when they click on a search result. Google highly disapproves of any such practice and might place a ban on the website which is found guilty of cloaking.

Google Guidelines

Here are some of the important tips and tricks that can be employed while dealing with Google.

Do’s

• A website should have crystal clear hierarchy and links and should preferably be easy to
navigate.
• A site map is required to help the users go around your site and in case the site map has more than 100 links, then it is advisable to break it into several pages to avoid clutter.
• Come up with essential and precise keywords and make sure that your website features relevant and informative content.
• The Google crawler will not recognize text hidden in the images, so when describing important names, keywords or links; stick with plain text.
• The TITLE and ALT tags should be descriptive and accurate and the website should have no broken links or incorrect HTML.
• Dynamic pages (the URL consisting of a ‘?’ character) should be kept to a minimum as not every search engine spider is able to crawl them.
• The robots.txt file on your web server should be current and should not block the Googlebot crawler. This file tells crawlers which directories can or cannot be crawled.

Don’ts

• When making a site, do not cheat your users, i.e. those people who will surf your website. Do not provide them with irrelevant content or present them with any fraudulent schemes.
• Avoid tricks or link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking.
• Do not employ hidden texts or hidden links.
• Google frowns upon websites using cloaking technique. Hence, it is advisable to avoid that.
• Automated queries should not be sent to Google.
• Avoid stuffing pages with irrelevant words and content. Also don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with significantly duplicate content.
• Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with hardly any original content.

Google Services

The following are some of the popular and innovative services offered by Google and there are always improvisations in it.

Google Answers
Google Answers is an interesting cross between ‘online marketplace’ and probably a ‘virtual classroom’. Those who wish to participate must register with Google Answers. Here, the researchers who have considerable expertise in online researching provide answers to the queries posted by other users for a fee. When a user posts a question, he or she also needs to mention the price the user is willing to pay in case the question is answered. When the question is answered by any user, then the payment is made accordingly to the user answering the question. Moreover, the questions and the discussion that ensues will be publicly viewable and other registered users can also share their opinions and insights.
There is a non-refundable listing fee of $0.50 per question plus an additional 'price' you set for your question that reflects how much you're willing to pay for an answer. Three-quarters of your question price goes directly to the Researcher who answers your question; the remaining 25 percent goes to Google to support the service.

Google Groups
Google Groups is an online discussion forum and it contains the entire archive of Usenet discussion groups dating back to 1981. These discussions cover the full range of human dissertation and present a fascinating look at evolving viewpoints, debate and advice on every subject from politics to technology. Users can access all of this information all in a database that contains more than 800 million posts by using the search feature of Google.

Google’s Image Search
Google offers a wide collection of images from around the web; its comprehensive database consists of more than 425 million images. All a user has to do is to enter a query in the image search box, then click on the "Search" button. On the results page, by clicking the thumbnail a larger version of the image can be seen, as well as the web page on which the image is located. By default, Google's Image Search uses its mature content filter on the initial search by any user. The filter removes many adult images but it cannot guarantee that all such content will be filtered out. It is not possible to ensure with 100% accuracy that all mature content will be removed from image search results using filters.

Google analyzes the text on the page near the image, the image caption and dozens of other factors which enables it to determine the image content. Google also utilizes several sophisticated algorithms which make it possible to remove duplicates and it in turn ensures that the highest quality images are presented first in the results. Google’s Image search supports all the complex search strategies like Boolean operators, etc.

Google’s Catalog Search
Google offers a unique service in the form of its Catalog Search. Google’s Catalog Search has made it easy to find information published in mail-order catalogs that were not previously available online. It includes the full content of hundreds of mail-order catalogs selling everything from industrial adhesives to clothing and home furnishings. Google’s Catalog Search can help you if you are looking to buy for either yourself or for your business.

The printed copies of catalogs are scanned and the text portion is converted into a format which makes it easy for users to search for the catalog. The same sophisticated algorithm employed by the Google Web Search is then employed to search for catalogs. This makes sure that most recent and relevant catalogs are displayed. Google is not associated with any catalog vendors and is not liable for any misuse of this service on part of the users.

Froogle
The word ‘froogle’ is a combination of the word ‘frugal’ which means ‘penny-wise’ or ‘economical’ and of course ‘Google’. Currently in its beta version, or testing format, Froogle is a recent concept put forth by Google. Google’s spidering software crawls the web looking for information about products for sale online. It does so by focusing entirely on product search and applying the power of Google's search technology to locate stores that sell items you want and consequently pointing you to that specific store.

Just like the Google Web Search, Froogle also ranks store sites based only on their relevance to the search terms entered by the users. Google does not accept payment for placement within their actual search results. Froogle also includes product information submitted electronically by merchants. Its search results are automatically generated by Google’s ranking software.