WWW TIPS
WWW TIPS
Our information highway contains massive numbers of links, however finding the information you need still comes down to brute force: search engines plough through the 'net adding pages, determining keywords and updating their vast catalogues of sites. Unfortunately as the 'net grows ever bigger, their job is made increasingly difficult - and our job as users gets increasingly difficult too. Many users simply don't make it past the first page of results, let alone take the time to sift through the 1000s of links generated by even the most precise search query.
I'm well practised at using the search engines, so here I will pass on a few tips. Hopefully they'll get you to the information that you need and save you time. There's no particular order to this list, just dig in - Oh, and don't be shy if you can think of more efficient ways of searching - please tell me and I'll post them here!
Open more than one window at a time.
Possibly the most important thing you can do when using a search engine is to open multiple windows from the results that you get. The idea here is to make maximum use of your time, by using all the bandwidth available to your computer. What? Okay. Think of your internet connection like a pipe, your aim is to keep that pipe full and pumping information to your computer all the time you are searching. Too often new users select a single search engine result, then for that page to load, then realise it wasn't quite right, go back to the search results (possibly by reloading them rather than using the 'Go Back' function on their browser), and then try another single link. The problem with this is that your internet bandwidth pipe is almost empty - you're getting only a trickle as your browser attempts to connect to a single site.
Consider the alternative. A page of results is displayed and you select 5 of them, which you open in 5 new windows. Instead of waiting for them to come in, you ask the search engine for the next set of results. Then, one of the five happens to load, and you can check it out, another loads, you check that out. A third might fail, giving a 403 file not found - but you don't care because you haven't wasted any time on it!
So how do you load multiple windows? It is so simple. All you do (in Windows at least) is to hold a shift key while you click the link with the mouse - Windows will then know to load this page into a new window!
This simple technique means that your internet connection is working to the best of its ability and you are working as fast as you can... why is this good? It's good because the major factor in search failure is mere user boredom! You've got to not only be able to find the site - but to find it before you get totally bored with the search!
Note: Windows can now stand about 20 instances of IE being open and loading at once - so don't be afraid to shift-click as much as you want. (It's not always been this easy!).
Choose your search engine wisely.
The different search engines, Google, Metacrawler, Lycos, excite etc All have different strengths. It's important to choose the right one for the right job.
If you want a comprehensive list of high quality results a 'meta'-search engine (like metacrawler) might be a good choice. These submit your request to the other engines and collect and collate the results for you.
Yahoo is a great choice for the highest qualtity sites, since most if not all are hand reviewed for inclusion. Go here if you want the best sites in a genre rather than all the sites relevant to your query.
Excite prides itself on its ranking system. Whenever you select a site from the results lists that site is marked as a more relavant answer to the particular query. In this way Excite hopes to build up a ranking, not necessarily on quality, but on relavance to the question asked. Other engines rate websites on the number of other sites which link to them - working on the basis that if people have bothered to link to a site it must be pretty good.
AskJeves bolts a natural language interpreter on the top of the search engine.
Finally, remember that a search engine isn't the only place to go - about.com has an unbelievable number of quality articles on most subjects. There's also the Usenet discussions - the archives of which are available at Deja.com.
Ask a real person!
Sometimes a comprehensive search fails to turn up the information you want. Maybe there's a few sites which are close, but not quite right. You could solve your problem by simply asking the author of one of those sites if they can help you. Be careful though, people are glad to help, but expect the user to have at least tried a simple search engine search before asking!
Just wait.
The internet is big, but not all inclusive. Maybe the information you want simply isn't online yet. Further, there's millions of pages which have not yet been found and indexed by the search engines. Often the answer to a particular question comes through mere patience. A month, a year down the line, perhaps someone will have bothered to put up a page. Remember that at the moment for anything to get on the 'net it relies on a person being interested in it and having an interest/skill in computers. Web design just isn't simple enough for people yet.
Think about value.
Think about the value. If the information you require is valuable then people are more likely to be coy about sharing it. Thankfully there's millions of good-guys out there who understand the benefits of sharing their knowledge - otherwise the internet would be a much smaller place - if it existed at all.
If the knowledge is worth something, while it may still be on the 'net somewhere, it may be a great deal more hidden - to the extent that a simple web search will only turn up lists of other people looking for the same thing.
At this stage it might be quicker (and more appropriate) to actually consider shelling out some cash! Just because the internet is free/quick it doesn't mean that books are suddenly worthless! The information might be behind pay-per-view or require subscription. Consider how much you want the information and how certain you are that the provider really does have what you require.
Short-cuts instead of favourites.
Personally I prefer short-cut icons on my desktop and in folders than accessing the favourites drop down menu. Sorting short-cut icons seems to be easier (for me at least) if I can drag and drop them where I want them.
In terms of searching - whenever you find what looks like a good site, create a desktop short cut to it, or add it to your bookmarks/favourites list immediately. Your connection might drop, your computer might crash, or you might just close the wrong window... whatever causes it, you don't want to have to perform your search again simply to get back to the site that you've already found once!
Take tangents.
If you're opening mulitple windows, it's easier to allow yourself to take tangents off the topic every so often. Besides the fact that they often prove to be extremely useful, they kinda help you to break the habitual routes that you can so easily fall into. The internet is so large and contains so many varied viewpoints that people tend to keep to their own patch - often seldom straying into unknown territory. This is pretty sad really!
A page from James David Chapman's website.
Located at: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jchap/
Site mirrored here at: http://www.j.chap.btinternet.co.uk
This page last updated:
My rating for the page: 