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Finding Academic Sources Online

February 6, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

The first place many people turn these days when they need to find information is the internet. This is the case for not only general users, but also college students who are researching papers for their classes. The internet is full of good information, but finding good sources for academic papers can be difficult. If you can’t get to the library to talk to a reference librarian, here is the next best thing you can do.

Even though there are great search engines out there with tons of information, the majority of academic journals do not put their articles online without requiring some kind of payment. When you do a general search you will probably not have much luck finding these.

The best way to go about finding them is to access the database from a library. You can try your local library or a library in your state to start. They will quite often buy the subscriptions needed to access certain journals so you can see them online without having to go to the library itself.

You can start by accessing the home page of the library. Look for some kind of link that will get you to either periodicals or databases. From here you can choose the database that you need. The best resources are journals that have been peer reviewed. You can narrow your search by choosing to search specific types of databases.

Just like with any other search engine you can broaden your search term or narrow it down to get more of what you need. Keep in mind that you may not find exactly what you are looking for since it quite often takes time for these types of articles to be published. The information you find may not be as up to date and current as what you are looking for.

If you can’t find exactly what you need you can try other library databases, or combine what you do find with other resources. The important thing is to put enough time in researching, but not so much that it is a waste of time.

Filed Under: Online Research, Online Resources Tagged With: Librarian, Student, Web search engine

Playing to Win With a Great Casino and a Fast Computer

January 23, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

There are all kinds of things you can do on your computer. One of the most fun computer items is to play casino games. As long as you’re old enough and you play responsibly, there’s really no reason you shouldn’t have fun with an online casino. In order to maximize your enjoyment and your chances to win, you’ll want to make sure that your computer is optimized for the best performance possible. That way you can stay competitive against other people and have a better experience. You’ll want a fast Internet connection that’s very stable, and you should have broadband, not dial up. You should also make sure your computer is doing its part. Clean it up and defragment the hard drive.

Check to see how much memory and hard drive space you have, and make sure that your processor is quick, too. If you have all of those things, you should have a better time in any of the online casino games you play, because you’ll be up to speed and able to compete. You don’t want to miss out on a sure bet or a good hand because the connection on your Internet wasn’t fast enough to let you get involved. Not only is that frustrating, but it can cost you money in the long run and make your experience less than optimal.

You can find plenty of online casinos where you can play games, but you’ll want to take your time and choose only the best ones. Being reputable matters, and it’s important that you find good, safe places to play. Check out what other people are saying about the casinos you’re considering, too, so you have an idea if they’re worth your time. Some offer better perks and sign up bonuses than others do, and you can get more benefit from that so you can play longer.

Filed Under: Search Engines Tagged With: Casino, Casino game, Consultants, Gambling, Games, Guides, Online casino, United States

Organic Business Growth

January 21, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

: Image via Wikipedia

Do you know how you can grow your business organically?

What is meant by organic is through methods that get traffic and customers without using disingenuous tactics or by skewing numbers. Organic traffickers find your website through natural search engine results. These search results can be from the optimized keywords that you have that link directly to your site. Organic searches do not engage the use of paid listings to the website and also doesn’t rely on link baiting or other such methods.

Now, when you grow your business organically, you have a better chance of keeping traffic attuned to your site and you lessen the risk of losing traffic. Why? Because those that come to your site through their search engine results were looking for your product or service specifically. There was no enticement or luring of any kind, and the customer feels in control of his finding.

Organic results can also be heightened further by engaging the customer on the site once they arrive. Provide a feedback forum for the customer to ask questions so that you can assess what their needs are and how you can best serve them. Use survey tools like polls, questionnaires and forums to solicit the customer’s feedback. The best kind are survey platforms where the customer can ask questions directly on your site and get the information that they need right away.

Make your site’s tools readily available to the customers so that they can become engaged right away. Make the survey or polls visible on your site’s landing page or perhaps on the contact page. You can and should also use any social media platforms that you have available to interact with customers. Businesses with Facebook pages or Twitter accounts seem to fare well when it comes to customer involvement. Customers can find your site’s links from these platforms as well.

Filed Under: Search Engines

How to Screen The Information You Find on the Internet

January 15, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

The information on the internet is always changing and evolving. There is a continuous stream of content being created every day. There is also a huge variety of different kinds of information including opinions, facts, fiction, statistics, and sales material. There are also varying levels of reliability and of quality of information.

In order to make sure you are getting exactly what you need from the information you find on the internet you can use a short screening process.

The first step starts before your search does. You want to think about what kind of information you are actually looking for. Do you need statistics and facts, or are you looking for opinions? Is the reason for your research to find a new idea, or are you looking to back up an opinion you already have? Once you have this information the process of finding what you are looking for will be much easier.

The next stage in the screening process is to decide what kinds of sources will be the most helpful in reaching your goal. If you are looking for statistics you know you can pass over blogs and other opinion based websites. If you are looking for a different opinion about a subject, you might be able to start with a blog that has an opinion and then go on from there.

With so much information available it is important to realize that you don’t need to use the first website you come across. You don’t want to spend all day researching one topic, but you can also do a little digging to make sure you are getting all you need.

Filed Under: Website Tagged With: Information

How to Find the Information You Need

January 11, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Starting a search for information on the internet can be overwhelming. You think you are doing the right thing when you enter in your question on a search engine, but then you get millions of results and you don’t know where to start to find out exactly what you need.

The key to getting the right information is to define what you actually need and then take advantage of the features that many search engines offer. The search engine you use will depend on what you really need to find out.

If you need understand the entire scope of a subject you can start with a site such as Intute or INFOMINE. These are both good websites for searching academic subjects.
If you need to expand your scope and find topics that are related to yours you can use Googles “related searches” or their “wonder wheel”. Bing will also give you ideas for searches that are related to your subject.
If you need to narrow down your subject you can look on websites such as Wikipedia to learn more about a topic and then pick one aspect to focus on. Surfwars is also a good site where you can enter in your query and then click on “focus” to show topics that are related.
If you are looking for a controversial issue to research or write about, try going to Google’s “Hot Topics”. IDEA Portal is also a good website that shows both the pros and the cons for many controversial subjects.
If you are looking to gather information on the background of a certain subject, you can start with Wikipedia.

All these are good places to start, but you should always use a number of different sources when you are gathering information. Make sure you get back up information and sources for user generated websites such as Wikipedia.

Filed Under: Search Engines, Website Tagged With: Web search engine

Tips on Recognizing a Fake Website

January 9, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

The internet is full of good information. The problem is that the internet is also full of bad information. It is important to be aware that you can not believe everything you see and read on the internet. Just like you can’t believe everything you see on TV or read in the newspapers. You need to look carefully at everything you see on the internet.

There are a few things you can look for when you are trying to decide if a website is legitimate or not. There are a lot of spammers out there trying to make money off of internet users, but if you do your homework and look at everything with a critical eye, you will see the differences.

Check the URL. Always look at the address of websites you are visiting. There are some websites that will try to impersonate a legitimate site by just changing the spelling. If you are not sure how to spell the name of the company or service you are looking for, check into it first.
Try the links. If you click on a link and it leads you to a blank page, or it doesn’t go anywhere at all, you are probably on a fake website. You can also check this out by just bringing your mouse to the link and hovering. make sure it is going to where it says it is going.
Look for dates on the page. This could be a date that the page was last updated, or a date that something was posted by a user. If it has been updated fairly recently, it is more likely that the page is legitimate and someone is taking the time needed to update information. If the last time the site was touched was two years ago, you should quickly move on.
Look at the number of advertisements on the page. If a page has more ads than actual content then the site is probably there only to generate money for someone. This is sometimes a tough call because there are many legitimate websites that use advertising, but again, look at it with a critical eye.

Filed Under: Website Tagged With: Website

How To Look at a Website with a Critical Eye

January 4, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

If you feel like you are being bombarded with website options when you are looking for information and you don’t know where to turn, you are not alone. There are a lot of people putting information on the web, some are putting out good information, while others are not.

When you go to a website there are some basic questions you can ask yourself to help figure out if it is a good site or not. First, look at the author. If you can’t even find this information then you should move on to the next site. Once you find out who created the page, verify their information and background. This is very important if you are using the internet for research. If you can’t verify who they are, you should probably look further.

You can also look for the last time the information was updated, or when the last time the page was updated. This is more important in some instances than others. If you are researching a history paper, the information does not necessarily need to be created within the last few months. If you are researching a current events project, you don’t want to write a paper about something that happened two years ago.

Does the information and the flow of the website make sense? This sometimes takes a very critical eye. When you look at the page is the information on it clear and organized? If you feel like you are skipping all over the place without really learning anything, you should probably move on to a different site. You should also make sure that the information within the site does not contradict itself.

Look at the advertising. Although this is not a sure sign of a spam website, it is important to look at the number of ads on a page. If you are having trouble finding content within all the ads, the site may only exist to make money.

Filed Under: Website Tagged With: Website

Wikipedia, is it a Good Resource?

December 28, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

There is so much information on the internet, but how to you know when you are getting reliable information? This is a subject that many people struggle with, and many more are not even aware of.

Pages like Wikipedia and Answers.com look official, and seem like they have good information, but the problem is that many people do not realize that this content is all generated by internet users just like you and me. There is no real system of checks and balances to ensure that the information being posted is correct, and there is no assurance that the person writing the articles or information knows what they are talking about.

There are some websites where it is obvious that the information is coming from other users. Places like Yahoo! Answers are written in the format of a forum with questions and answers posted by users, so it easy to tell that you should take all information given with a grain of salt. But when a site like Wikipedia looks official, it is hard to tell what is true and what is not.

There are a couple of things you can do to make sure you are getting good information. First, look at how the article is written. If it is only considering one angle of a subject, beware of where the information is coming from. You should also look at the sources. If there is only one or two sources listed beware of the information you are getting. You can also look up information about the contributor. If they are experts in the field that they are writing about, you can be assured that the information is probably accurate.

The last thing to take into consideration is that sites like Wikipedia should only be a starting point in any research. It can give you something to start with, but always keep going with further resources.

Filed Under: Online Resources Tagged With: Internaut, Wikipedia, Yahoo! Answers

How to Find Good Resources Online

December 25, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

There are a few things you can do to make sure that you are getting good information from a good source. There are many websites that may look official, but they are full of content generated by users who may not know what they are talking about. To ensure you are getting valid information from websites that are good sources that can be referenced you should turn to .gov, .edu, and some .org websites.

A website that ends with .edu is most likely a reputable education institution. A site that ends in .gov is most likely a government website. Both of these are good sources of reliable information. If you cite an .edu website, make sure to research the institution though because they may have a political bias. If you use one of these, it would be a good idea to include several different points of view to make sure you don’t show an unintentional bias.

A website that ends in .org is most likely a non profit group. These can be a good source of information, but they can also be very biased. There are many non profit organizations that have a political agenda, so they may be biased in one direction. Before using one of these sites it is important to research the organization so you know what the background is.

There are also many internet journals and magazines. These can be very reliable sources, but you need to check out their list of resources to make sure. The bibliography should include many resources that are not from the internet, along with several scholarly sources.

Many people now turn to the internet to research papers and projects now instead of going to an encyclopedia or other print sources. The big question is how do you know the information is accurate and the source is something that can be trusted? How do you know that the research paper you are putting together with open office will not be full of false information?
There are a few things you can do to make sure that you are getting good information from a good source. There are many websites that may look official, but they are full of content generated by users who may not know what they are talking about. To ensure you are getting valid information from websites that are good sources that can be referenced you should turn to .gov, .edu, and some .org websites.
A website that ends with .edu is most likely a reputable education institution. A site that ends in .gov is most likely a government website. Both of these are good sources of reliable information. If you cite an .edu website, make sure to research the institution though because they may have a political bias. If you use one of these, it would be a good idea to include several different points of view to make sure you don’t show an unintentional bias.
A website that ends in .org is most likely a non profit group. These can be a good source of information, but they can also be very biased. There are many non profit organizations that have a political agenda, so they may be biased in one direction. Before using one of these sites it is important to research the organization so you know what the background is.
There are also many internet journals and magazines. These can be very reliable sources, but you need to check out their list of resources to make sure. The bibliography should include many resources that are not from the internet, along with several scholarly sources.

Filed Under: Online Resources Tagged With: Business, Information, Politics, Website

The Different Search Engines and What They Do

December 23, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

: Image via CrunchBase

When you think of a search engine you probably are most likely to think of Google or Yahoo, or even Bing. These are all good options, and the most widely used, but there are also other types of search engines that may be even more helpful depending on what you are looking for.

Along with your basic search engines there is also what is known as the metasearch engine. These are search engines that combine the results of several different search engines one you enter in your keyword search. Instead of going to Google to see what you would get there and then to Yahoo to see what you would get there, you can use a metasearch engine to get the results from both of them at the same time. Most metasearch engines offer the results from five or more search engines.

One of the most comprehensive metasearch engines is Dogpile. Dogpile offers several different features to help you with your search along with combining the results from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, and more. It can also compare the results from three different search engines so you can see where the good information is coming from.

Another metasearch engine is Clusty. Clusty takes information from several different search engines and organizes them for you. It puts them into folders with similar results. This is helpful when you enter a general search term. You don’t have to spend an hour looking through a ton of results that are not relevant. You can jump to the most helpful folder.

Zapmeta, Kartoo, Search, and Mamma are all metasearch engines as well with similar features. It may take some time and experimenting to find out which of these works best for you. It really depends on what kind of information you are looking for and how you need it organized to make your life easier.

Filed Under: Search Engines Tagged With: Bing, Dogpile, Google, Yahoo