Sometimes each of us ends up doing things so many times, almost every day, that we forget that others may not know how to do it. This is the case with the Information Superhighway. I use it on a daily basis, and I sometimes forget that some people don't know how to go about getting information for themselves. And this puts the person at a severe disadvantage. Normally I'd post this in the computer section, but since this is so important, I'm posting it here.
Searching for information does not need to be hard, and it can be fun. This is from
http://www.learnthenet.com/English/html/31wsearc.htm
Quote:
With billions of web pages online, you could spend a lifetime surfing the Web, following links from one page to another. Amusing perhaps, but not very efficient if you are after some specific information. So where do you start? Searching the Internet requires part skill, part luck and a little bit of art. Fortunately, a number of free online resources help with the hunt.
You've probably heard of search engines such as Yahoo!, Google, and Ask Jeeves. There are literally dozens of these tools to help you locate what you're looking for. The trick is understanding how they work so you can use the right tool for the job.
Directory search Search engines break down into two categories: directories and indexes. Directories, such as Yahoo!, are good at identifying general information. Like a card catalog in a library, they classify websites into similar categories, such as accounting firms, English universities and natural history museums. The results of your search will be a list of websites related to your search term. For instance, if you are looking for the Louvre museum website, use a directory.
But what if you want specific information, such as biographical information about Leonardo da Vinci? Web indexes are the way to go, because they search all the contents of a website. Indexes use software programs called spiders and robots that scour the Internet, analyzing billions of web pages and newsgroup postings and indexing all of the words.
Indexes like MSN Search and Google find individual pages of a website that match your search criteria, even if the site itself has nothing to do with what you are looking for. You can often find unexpected gems of information this way, but be prepared to wade through a lot of irrelevant information too.
Search results may be ranked in order of relevancy--the number of times your search term appears in a document--or how closely the document appears to match a concept you have entered. This is a much more thorough way to locate what you want.
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It is also helpful to note that most news agencies and even the congress and senate have their own search engines built right into their sites, which makes it far easier to search for information.
A slight difference in the search words you use can also give you quite different results. Human nature is to be a little lazy, but searching for information isn't that difficult, and it can be fun if you let it be. Best of all, you won't need to rely on others to give you the information; you'll be able to do it yourself! You will find this very important as time goes by. The information superhighway isn't real helpful if you don't know how to find the onramp, or if you are out of gas. LOL
6th October 2006, 06:41 PM
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