Get the most out of your searches
A milestone was reached in October 2006. That month marked the existence of 100 million websites on the Internet. As of mid-year 2011 there were over 350 million websites. I think this thing called the Internet is starting to catch on!
There’s no denying the wealth of information on the net to be researched and enjoyed. The conundrum is how to navigate, sift, and discern what is available in relationship to what you want to find. You’ll find this is a process of trial and error that will improve with practice. Searching the Internet requires a sense of adventure, curiosity, and a positive attitude. Say to yourself, “I think I can. I think I can.” And you know what? You can!
On page 180, I introduced the concept of search engines. To refresh your memory, if you walk into the hallowed halls of your local library in search of information on heart disease, you would head straight for the “card catalog,” which may now be found on a computer, or to the informative person behind the desk. You would use these resources to locate books and periodicals relating to heart disease. Search engines on the Internet work basically the same way. You access a search engine and type keywords pertaining to your query, and the search engine finds websites that contain those keywords. Instead of a few books on the subject, you’ll likely have hundreds, if not thousands, of websites with all their information at your fingertips in your own home.
If you haven’t taken a glance at the recommended websites on page 416, do so when you have a chance. Among the various categories are eight search engines for you to try. Of course, new ones can pop up at any time, and if they’re really good, you’ll hear about them. Even before you picked up this book, I bet you’d heard of Google. You may not have known what it was, but the buzz had probably gotten to you.
• Do not confuse the text area of a search engine with the website address box.
We’ll use google.com, bing.com, and yahoo.com for our searching adventures. You can see from the windows below that although each search engine performs the same basic task, they are designed differently. Yahoo! offers many additional resources above and beyond searching on its home page. At the time of this writing, Bing and Google’s home pages look very lean and at first glance appear only to offer searches. But in fact, both offer much more than just search results. Besides searching, you can find maps, blogs, news, and more if you click on the items above where you type in your search.
In all three sites, the procedure is to click your mouse inside the long text box to activate it. You’ll know the site is ready for you to type when the blinking line (the cursor) appears. Simply type the keywords that succinctly describe what you’re looking for, and then click on Search. Before you type your first search, let’s discuss the keywords to best find what you seek. Let’s say you love visiting botanical gardens. You’re thinking of organizing a vacation around the locations of botanical gardens. You might begin your search with the keywords botanical garden.
• Search results for botanical garden.
Here are the numbers of websites I found searching for botanical garden:
Yahoo! = 19,400,000
Bing = 19,900,000
Google = 23,300,000
Why would one search engine’s results vary in number so dramatically from another? Relatively speaking, a difference of one hundred thousand isn’t so great when you take into account there are almost 400 million websites out there. The seeming discrepancy is because each search engine has its own system and resources for performing a search. That is precisely why you may want to try more than one search engine to cover your bases when seeking information.
Choose specific words to best describe what you seek. For example:
• Type Italian Renaissance Art instead of antique paintings.
• Try Top 10 laptops instead of computers.
To search for an exact phrase, type quotation marks to frame two or more words. You can have a combination of phrases and individual words. For example, free “new york city” “ice skating rink.”
Out of curiosity you might check and see if there’s information about you on the Internet. No matter how certain you may be that a search for you will come up dry, you might be in for a surprise. You could appear on a website because of the political contribution made during the last presidential race or the random interview with the San Francisco Chronicle about busing. Try a search with your name and see what you can find. While you’re at it, click on the word Images, and next click Search Images. If you or someone else with your name has any photos on the Internet you can see them! Remember to click on Web to get you back to your text results.
Here’s something to take into consideration when formulating your search. My full name is Abigail Pemberton Stokes. (Please don’t make fun of my middle name. Thank you!) I wouldn’t search for my formal name because no one ever refers to me by that name, so it’s unlikely I would be found by that name online. Even being addressed as Abigail is a rarity for me, unless my mother’s mad at me. You may want to try a couple of different versions of your name and nickname and see what you discover.
“When I first found myself on the Internet I didn’t like it at all. It felt like an invasion of privacy. However, now I realize that the Internet offers information that is already public.”
—Ronald
Every letter you choose matters. Try a search for hanger in the singular. Now try a search for hangers with an s. The difference in the number of results is significant as a result of one little letter. Interesting, right? Instead of keywords, you can also type your search in sentence form. Experiment with both. Type: what is an eclipse. No need for the question mark, and you can play around with whether the quotes help or hurt your results. Now try only eclipse.
Don’t settle for the first set of results. Try different search engines using different keywords or phrases. With practice, you’ll improve at zeroing in on your searches.
Okay. Let’s try a search together.
Using either Google, Yahoo!, or Bing, type:
free rice
You’ll see different results with each search engine, but in all cases the results will be displayed in the same way.
In most search engines, the top line of each search result is usually blue and underlined. Remember, websites are usually designed so that the links, where you click, stand out from other text. Often links are featured in blue and underlined, but not always. Each website is at liberty to make a link noticeable in any way they choose.
• Yahoo search results for free rice.
Move your mouse over the top line, and you’ll notice the mouse arrow has changed to a hand—positive confirmation that if you click there, you’ll be taken to more information on the subject. This is the link to the search result.
Below the link, in black text, is a short summary of the contents of the site pertaining to the keywords in your search.
The bottom line in green is the actual website address. It’s important to look at that address because it may be a deciding factor for which link you choose to check out. If one result has a recognizable website (e.g., foodnetwork.com) vs. an unknown entity, I’ll go with the familiar website.
Our search for free rice has brought us literally millions of websites (look at the results number at the top right of the page). Each search engine shows us those results ten to a page. Generally, the order of search engine results is based on a set of rules and an algorithm that takes into consideration the number of terms matched and their relevancy. At the bottom of each page you can click Next or the following page number to see the next set of results. Of the websites that fit your criteria, generally most will appear early in the list. I rarely view more than the first three or four pages of results before I restructure my search or have found what I need.
Once you’ve found a website you want to view, click on the blue underlined link. Scroll down the pages of our results and read the web addresses until you find freerice.com. Click on the link for that site. Voilà!
This is a wonderful site where for each answer you get right, the website’s sponsors donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations World Food Programme to help end hunger. You can click on Subjects at the top of the page to choose which subject you would like to answer questions about. You can also change the level of difficulty of the questions by clicking on Change Level. The better you do the more rice is donated to the World Food Programme. Truly amazing, isn’t it?
My mother and I visit this website daily and answer questions until we’ve hit 1,000 grains of rice.
Don’t forget to bookmark a website you may want to visit again. (See page 179.)
• Click to choose an answer to donate free rice. Visit freerice.com every day to make a donation of food and more without ever opening your wallet.
What if you find a piece of paper in your wallet with a phone number you’ve scribbled down, but no name? Visit reversephonedirectory.com and be sure to use dashes when you type the number in. If the site offers you the name associated with the number for a fee, use the back arrow to return to reversephonedirectory.com and scroll down until you reveal the form for “white pages.” Click in that text box to activate it, type the phone number, and click Lookup. Now, you see the information and no one is asking for money. Remember, unless a website is selling something, most make their money from advertisers. Some of these advertisers deliberately make their ads look like they’re part of the website. If you find yourself being solicited for money, close the website or use the back arrow. Start your journey again and look at the entire page (don’t forget to scroll!) before you click on anything.
In Google, you can also type in a telephone number to find a person. Try it with your home phone number. Use the dashes between each set of numbers—it improves the search. Click Google Search. Did your name and address come up? If your number is unlisted, you’ll come up dry, but for those of us that are listed in the telephone book, our names, phone numbers, and addresses are public information. Try the same search in Yahoo! and Bing.
• Reverse phone directory website.
If this revelation upsets you, keep in mind you didn’t uncover anything private. A phone book would have revealed the same information (albeit by searching by name, not phone number), but I understand how it can put you off to feel so exposed. Public information is just that. The Internet makes public information more easily accessible, but it doesn’t reveal anything that isn’t already available.
Search engines aren’t the only way to find people, places, or things on the Internet. There are websites designed to offer specific information depending on what you seek. What if you have someone’s mailing address but not the zip code? Visit usps.gov. Click on Find a zip code at the top of the window. Fill out the form with the information you do have and click Submit. Handy, isn’t it?
• The U.S. Postal Service’s website where you can search for a zip code and buy stamps.
Next challenge. You have the street address of your destination, but you want to see where it is on a map. Visit mapquest.com. Click in the address box of the form to activate it and type the street address. Continue to fill in the form with the necessary information. Move your mouse onto Search and click. Amazing! MapQuest also offers driving directions, which include length of trip, estimated travel time, and turn-by-turn instructions, along with a map. Play with this site to see all it has to offer. It’s one of my favorite websites. (Accordingly, I put it into my Favorites! See page 179.) Come back to the book when you’re ready for more.
• MapQuest provides driving directions as well as maps.
Let’s go to amazon.com now. Look across the top of Amazon’s home page to see if there’s a table of contents, in the form of a list of topics or shopping areas, to guide you where to go. The table of contents can also appear as a sidebar on the left or right of a window. If you click on an item to see where it leads you, remember to use the back arrow (near the word File at the top of the window) to return to the previous web pages.
Some websites offer a text box built into the site where you can type keywords to search for information on that particular website. These are internal search engines. An internal search engine points you to where you want to go on that site (as opposed to the entire World Wide Web). Some of the same rules apply: Type keywords for your search. The text box is not case sensitive, so caps don’t matter. Type quotes on either side of your keywords to narrow your search results.
Less talk and more search…
• The table of contents gives you choices of where to visit on a website. The internal search engine allows you to search for keywords within the website, not the entire Internet.
One of my favorite websites for medical information is mayoclinic.com. My confidence in the site is based on the extraordinary reputation of the wonderful Mayo Health Clinics located in Scottsdale, AZ, Jacksonville, FL, and Rochester, MN. Their website is one of the best designed for finding information about ailments, treatments, medications, and more. Join me at mayoclinic.com to practice some searching techniques.
Click on Health Information at the top of the page. The search box is to the left, and “Find it Fast” (an alphabetical search) is below. I prefer the alphabetic search method because it doesn’t require that I spell the ailment—instead I need only know the first letter. Let’s look up De Quervain’s tenosynovitis. (See my point about spelling?)
• Click on D in Find it Fast.
• Scroll down the page to De Quervain’s tenosynovitis.
• Move your mouse onto De Quervain’s tenosynovitis and click.
(Did you notice your old friend, the hand, indicating the cursor was on a link?)
Look at the wealth of information available on this condition! They’ve broken down the information into manageable chunks. You can click on the section that interests you or read each small article and click at the bottom of the page to continue. Notice that at the top of the page it lets you print either just this section or all sections, and it offers you the opportunity to view the site in larger type. Very thoughtful and practical of the website designers. If you click on Print the page is modified to have only the text of the article and none of the additional information on the page, simplifying the reading and saving you ink.
• The Mayo Clinic’s website offers information on medical conditions, treatments, and much more.
CLICK AND GO
1. Click on D in Find It Fast.
2. Click on De Quervain’s tenosynovitis.
3. Click here to print.
Linger on this site as long as you want. When you’re ready, we’ll sleuth out some more information from the Internet.
Have you ever wished you had an encyclopedia at your fingertips to support your version of the facts? Just the other night at dinner my sister and I could not agree about when the first crossing of the English Channel happened by air (1909 by French aviator Louis Blériot). You don’t have to always search around the Internet for what you seek. You can go directly to a known source of information, as you would if you were in a library. Feel free to access the many encyclopedias offered on the Internet.
Here are a couple to start:
britannica.com
wikipedia.com
I’ve always considered the text in an encyclopedia to be unquestionable and almost sacrosanct. Wikipedia, which launched in January 2001, is an exception to that rule. It is self-described as “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” Interesting notion, but it does make me a bit leery about what is fact and what is opinion, or even a prank. That said, I haven’t heard much about people abusing the power given to them to edit the facts, and in my experience, Wikipedia has proven a great resource every time I’ve visited. Still, proceed with open eyes.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica’s home page.
• Wikipedia’s main page.
Whatever your interest, there’s a website chock full of information for you. Start to notice and make note of interesting website addresses that cross your path. Web addresses are often referred to in newspapers, magazines, and on TV. If there’s the slightest chance the site mentioned is of interest to you, jot the address down. Computer magazines, as I said earlier in the book, can be overwhelming. However, if you see a magazine cover with “100 Best Websites” or some other in-depth review of the Internet, it may be worth picking up. Because the Internet is constantly evolving, there is no single directory listing all websites. If you’re considering buying a book with a directory to websites on the Internet, be sure to check out the copyright dates and buy the most recent book published.
Here’s just a sampling of what’s out there for you to enjoy. When you’re ready for more surfing, take a look at the websites listed (by category) on page 416 or visit my website (abbyandme.com), to see other recommended sites.
“As a retired librarian, I had no idea of the impact of search engines and other research tools on the Internet. It’s extraordinary.”
—Rhonda
• For movie buffs, one of the best sites is imdb.com (Internet Movie Database). Here you can look up a movie using the names of the people involved both in front of and behind the camera, the movie title, the plot, and so on. I’ve found the most consistent results come from searching for an actor, director, or character name. This website has settled many a movie trivia debate!
• If words are what you seek, there are a multitude of resources. Here are a few:
m-w.com (Merriam-Webster’s site)
rhymezone.com (rhyming dictionary)
oxforddictionaries.com (Oxford dictionaries)
• The sports-minded can look up scores, view schedules of competitions, and get the inside scoop on espn.com. From the editors of Golf magazine, there’s golf.com. The complete TV listing of ice-skating events is available on usfigureskating.org.
• Foodies, make sure you spend some time at foodnetwork.com and epicurious.com. They are both excellent sites to find recipes, cooking instruction videos, and party ideas.
• There are websites for every hobby and interest: For toy soldier collectors, there’s toysoldiersgallery.com. Siberian husky owners will want to check out the Siberian Husky Club of America’s site, shca.org. There’s even a site for time travelers (time-travel.org). I kid you not.
• The jackpot of all research websites is refdesk.com. If there was only one website on the Internet to lead you to all other sites, this would be it. The amount of information it contains is extraordinary, but a bit overwhelming when you pay your first visit. Take your time and enjoy it in small bites. Anything in blue may be clicked on to lead you to more information on the subject. The home page is very long—be sure to utilize the Scroll Bar to its fullest. During my first visits to this site (found by my mother, by the way), I would alternate starting at the top of the page and then the bottom to be sure to take advantage of all it offers.
• Refdesk.com’s home page.
Are you beginning to get the picture? You name it and you’ll find it on the Internet. Each of the sites I mentioned offers a way to navigate and search the site. The more you travel the Internet, the more adept you’ll become at finding what you need.
Never underestimate your own powers of logic. Let’s say there’s an organization you’d like to find on the web. Feel free to take a stab at its web address. Type www.(yourguesshere).com. When guessing, I would type www., in case it’s necessary for the website to open. Keep in mind that there are no spaces in a website address. Revisit page 175 for web address basics. If you’re wrong, either a website you’re not interested in will open or you’ll get an error message because no website exists under that address. (Is it possible that you could be led to a fraudulent website that registered a similar name hoping to snag viewers who made typographical errors? Yup. And beware: These websites are often pornographic.) If you really get muddled up, close everything until you’re back at your Desktop, and make a fresh start. Losing your way, bungling a website address, and ending up someplace completely unexpected is part of the learning process. Every time you turn on the computer, have a research challenge at the ready so you can hone your skills. Do I have to repeat myself? Okay, I will. It is only with practice that you will tame the computer beast. Practice, practice, practice!
Q: Is there a website where I can find someone’s cell phone number or e-mail address?
A: At the moment the answer is no. Tracking e-mail addresses is particularly difficult because people register new addresses every day, and they do not always use their real names to do so. I’m not sure why there isn’t a registry of all cell phones, but there isn’t.
Q: Is there a definitive website to visit for research?
A: Of all the search engines we’ve discussed in the chapter, my favorite research site is refdesk.com. My mother found the site when I was working on this book. The site is so jam-packed with information that you have to take it in small bites or you can get overwhelmed. This is the one site to visit if you need to find a doctor by area of expertise, to contact your congressional representative, to convert a cooking measurement, to read a Tel Aviv newspaper, to see the time in Hong Kong, do today’s crossword puzzle, to translate a German word… Are you starting to get the picture? Visit the site and don’t forget to use the Scroll Bar to reveal all it has to offer.
Q: Can someone trace what I’ve researched online?
A: The websites that you’ve visited shouldn’t be tracing your steps, but your computer keeps a history of what websites you’ve visited. So, if someone has access to your machine they can see where you’ve been. To clear the history on a PC in Internet Explorer, click Tools, then click Internet Options and, under Browsing History, click Delete. To clear the history on a Mac, when in Safari, click History and then click Clear History. To clear the history using Firefox, on either a Mac or PC, click Tools, then Clear Private Data, and finally click Clear Private Data Now.
