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Searching Smarter Online

June 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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Image via CrunchBase

When utilizing the many resources that are available on the internet, it can be tough to know how to find specific topics, articles, and information. For those who are new to the computer world, or even have been using the internet for years but aren’t successful at obtaining information, there are few easy steps to take in order to get the most information in the shortest amount of time.

A search engine is an online resource that provides a box in which users can type in just about anything, click the button, and receive pages and pages of results. Sometimes the pages listed won’t be exactly what the individual was seeking, so there are more specialized ways to search as well. For example, placing quotation marks around words that should only be searched together can help eliminate unrelated pages. Search engines have been around for more than twenty years, and one of the most popular sites is Google, since it provides a ranking of popularity, and how many users found the page useful when performing a similar web search. This is very helpful in knowing what other individuals are researching and finding to be informative. There are many other search engines available on the internet, and most provide service at no charge. Some companies choose to pay extra in order to have their product or business listed at the top of searches, or in bold type.

The internet is one of the greatest places to market, since hundreds of thousands are logged on at all times. Choosing to use a web search can help boost business and reduce the amount of information presented at once.

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Using the Library for Online Research

March 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

When students are assigned a research project whether it is a paper, a presentation, or a video, the first place they turn to get information is the internet. The problem with this is that the information they find on the internet is always necessarily the quality they need.

The web offers an incredible amount of access to all kinds of information including current news, and the perspectives and thoughts from experts in every field you can imagine. But it is also a public platform where anyone can give their opinion. There is no real system of checks and balances. It is important to be extremely critical of the source of the information you find on the web.

One of the best ways to get good information is to use a library website. Public libraries and school libraries will often have subscriptions to online sources that are good sources for any kind of research. These sources are usually an oline version of many sources you used to use in their print form at the library. You can now just access their online version. It is easy to cite journals, scholarly magazine articles, newspapers, and government documents.

It is also important to learn the proper way to cited online references. The standards for citing sources you find online is still in the process of developing. At this point the most important part of citing is to give as much information as you can about the source. Always include the title, the author, what the publication is, and even the URL. Some good sources on how to properly cite an online source is the MLA Style Sheet, and Hacker & Fister’s Research & Documentation Online.

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Search Engines and Directories: What They Can Do For You

March 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

There are several different ways to search for information on the internet. Many people automatically turn to Google when they need to find information, but there may be a better way depending on the kind of information you are looking for.

Search Directories are databases that have results that are chosen by real people. Yahoo is a search engine that offers this through their special directory page. A directory is a good option when you only have a very general idea of what you need. A search directory uses text from the title and a description of the site instead of text from the actual site.

Search Engines. This is what we are all most familiar with. Google and Bing fall into this category and have the most amount of users. They use a computer program to search the web based on the words you enter into the query box. If you know what you are looking for these are a good option.

Metasearch engines. A metasearch engine search a number of search engines and directories all at the same time. This may be a good place to start, but there are shortfalls. Since different search engines use different languages, you may not get the best results from each individual database. If your query is complicated you should probably go right to a single search engine. The benefit of using a metasearch engine is that some of them have additional features such as clustering that are not found on the regular search engines.

Specialized search engines focus on only one kind of information such as news, blogs, or academic journals.

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Tips for Getting the Most out of a Search on Bing

February 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Bing is working very hard to capture its portion of the search engine market share. It has some good features and is a good alternative to other search engines that have been around for a while. If you are looking for ways to get the most out of your Bing search read these tips.

  • Use the summary. If you hover your mouse on the right side of the page you will see a summary of the results page. You don’t have to click on the result to get a good idea of whether or not it is what you need.
  • Use the related searches. The left side of your page on Bing will give you a list of relates search terms. Bing does a good job of changing it up enough to give you some different ideas that can be helpful.
  • Best match. This feature will give you the best match possible for your query.
  • Save your search. You can easily save a particular search in Bing. On the left side of your page you can also quickly see your search history. This is a good feature for when you find a result you have been looking for but can’t remember the keywords you used to get it.
  • Preview Videos. If you hover your mouse over video results you can get a preview of the video without having to actually click on it. This feature makes finding the video you really want to see quick and easy.
  • Bing at a glance. Click on this link and it will bring you to all the different search types Bing offers. Search for just shopping results, images, dictionaries, or social media.
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Tips for Internet Research: Website Evaluation

February 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

When you are doing any kind of internet research you should also to research on your sources. If you keep a checklist of things to think about and determine as you are looking for information you can easily determine it if is credible. Credibility is necessary for any kind of citation in an academic paper.

  • First, look at authority. Determine who is in charge of the website. Is is a legitimate business or organization? You can determine this by looking for contact information or a link to their page. From there you can verify their legitimacy. If you can not verify any of this information, you should not use the website as a source.
  • Is the information accurate? You can determine accuracy in a few different ways. First look for cited sources. If there are good sources listed, the information you are getting is most likely god. Look for the qualifications of the author and how well the article is written. A well written page is more likely to be credible than one with spelling mistakes and grammar errors.
  • Is there a bias? Look at the motivation behind the page. Is is an organization trying to sell their position on an issue? Are there are advertisements all over the page so the content is not the focus? If you see these things, you should not use this website as a source.
  • Good old common sense. Your best tool for finding good sources on the internet is your own common sense. If you don’t think it is a good source, then it probably is not a good source. Move on to the next one and go from there. There is no reason to risk adding a source that is not credible when there is so much good information available.
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Playing to Win With a Great Casino and a Fast Computer

January 23, 2011 By 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.

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Organic Business Growth

January 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
seo block
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 Find the Information You Need

January 11, 2011 By 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.

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The Different Search Engines and What They Do

December 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Image representing Bing as depicted in CrunchBase
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.

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How To Get The Most Out of a Search on a Search Engine

December 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

There is nothing more frustrating than entering a query into a search engine and getting back over 1 million results that don’t apply to what you are looking for. The goal of both users and website owners is ultimately the same. Users want relevant results to come up on the first page they look at,the higher on the page the better, and website owners want their website to be listed on the top of the first page that users see.

There are a few things you can do to help in your search for relevant information. First, instead of just entering in the question that you may have, or the term you are looking for, think about the page you are looking for and what it will look like. A search engine is going to match the words you give it, so if you put in “I woke up this morning and my head hurts” you will not get the same results as “headache”. Most medical sites will use the term “headache”.

It is usually better to use as few words as possible. There is no need to put in words that are not needed. Most search engines will use all the words entered so every additional word could possible reduce the number of relevant results. This could cause you to miss valuable information. The goal is to choose only the words necessary to bring up the pages you need. There is no need to add any fluff to your query since this will just bring up pages related to the fluff and not what you need.

You can also use descriptive terms. Using descriptive terms specific to the information you need will get you the results that are most relevant. The more descriptive the better, and again, there is no need to add other words that are not descriptive.

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