Thursday, June 10, 2004
Untangling the web
I thought it would be good to put aside the weightier matters of the world for a moment, and pass on what I hope are some helpful tips on searching the Internet for useful information (seeing it's my job).
Tip 1: Chances are, you use Google as your main search engine. If so, download the Google Toolbar (unfortunately, this only works with Internet Explorer, which is a disappointment). The Toolbar allows you to enter search requests without going first to the Google site, which saves time. It also blocks pop-up ads, and makes the coffee. (Okay, I'm working on the latter.)
Tip 2: Also related to the Google Toolbar. When you do a general search at Google, it only brings a small number of pages from any given web site. The Toolbar allows you to drill down into the site even further, by doing a "site search". I have often located items this way that were not found in a general search, sometimes not even located using the site's own search engine (if it has one).
Tip 3: To narrow down the number of results and improve the probability of a good "hit", enclose your search terms in parentheses ("). That way, Google searches on the exact phrase. You can have it search on several phrases or terms at once.
Tip 4: If you place a tilde (~) mark in front of a word, it will also search on words which have a similar meaning. Eg, if you type ~street, it will also search for "road", etc.
Tip 5: Even the best search engine catalogues less than a third of all the pages on the Internet. This is because a huge resource is available only through databases. Eg, all the world's library catalogues are in databases, and a Google search won't find any of them. You can find an astonishing amount of material by visiting a library and delving into its database. (Try the Smithsonian Institute, for instance.)
Tip 6: Many of the world's major newspapers and journals allow access to their archives only by subscription. There is a way around this, however. In New Zealand, nearly all libraries now offer what are called "Premium Databases" through their Internet sites. Through these, you can look at issues of just about every journal you can name. AND IT'S FREE, YIPPEE! All you need is your library card number and a PIN number. This particularly useful, for instance, in the case of newspapers belonging to the INL Group, which means most NZ dailies (including The Press, Dominion-Post, etc). The Stuff web site, where they reside, allows access to only the last 24 hours stories. But you can find the stories in the NewsText section of the library premium databases. Incidentally, I have to commend the NZ Herald, which has a very good search engine for its archives, and allows you to search back for yonks.
Tip 7: It is very easy to forget the location of a good web page that you came across. Use the "Favourites" or "Bookmarks" feature of your browser to store these (it doesn't matter if you have hundreds of them - just keep them well organised by category), and you'll come up smiling every time.
Tip 8: Again, this one is only available via Internet Explorer, much the pity. IE allows you to save web pages in a special archive format, which keeps all the information (including graphics) in place. When you want to save a page for later reference, choose File Menu/Save As/ and under file type choose "Web Archive, single file (*.mht)". Make sure you save the file to an easily found location on your computer's hard drive. To view the page later, simply double click on it.
Tip 9: Turn your computer off. Get a life!
I thought it would be good to put aside the weightier matters of the world for a moment, and pass on what I hope are some helpful tips on searching the Internet for useful information (seeing it's my job).
Tip 1: Chances are, you use Google as your main search engine. If so, download the Google Toolbar (unfortunately, this only works with Internet Explorer, which is a disappointment). The Toolbar allows you to enter search requests without going first to the Google site, which saves time. It also blocks pop-up ads, and makes the coffee. (Okay, I'm working on the latter.)
Tip 2: Also related to the Google Toolbar. When you do a general search at Google, it only brings a small number of pages from any given web site. The Toolbar allows you to drill down into the site even further, by doing a "site search". I have often located items this way that were not found in a general search, sometimes not even located using the site's own search engine (if it has one).
Tip 3: To narrow down the number of results and improve the probability of a good "hit", enclose your search terms in parentheses ("). That way, Google searches on the exact phrase. You can have it search on several phrases or terms at once.
Tip 4: If you place a tilde (~) mark in front of a word, it will also search on words which have a similar meaning. Eg, if you type ~street, it will also search for "road", etc.
Tip 5: Even the best search engine catalogues less than a third of all the pages on the Internet. This is because a huge resource is available only through databases. Eg, all the world's library catalogues are in databases, and a Google search won't find any of them. You can find an astonishing amount of material by visiting a library and delving into its database. (Try the Smithsonian Institute, for instance.)
Tip 6: Many of the world's major newspapers and journals allow access to their archives only by subscription. There is a way around this, however. In New Zealand, nearly all libraries now offer what are called "Premium Databases" through their Internet sites. Through these, you can look at issues of just about every journal you can name. AND IT'S FREE, YIPPEE! All you need is your library card number and a PIN number. This particularly useful, for instance, in the case of newspapers belonging to the INL Group, which means most NZ dailies (including The Press, Dominion-Post, etc). The Stuff web site, where they reside, allows access to only the last 24 hours stories. But you can find the stories in the NewsText section of the library premium databases. Incidentally, I have to commend the NZ Herald, which has a very good search engine for its archives, and allows you to search back for yonks.
Tip 7: It is very easy to forget the location of a good web page that you came across. Use the "Favourites" or "Bookmarks" feature of your browser to store these (it doesn't matter if you have hundreds of them - just keep them well organised by category), and you'll come up smiling every time.
Tip 8: Again, this one is only available via Internet Explorer, much the pity. IE allows you to save web pages in a special archive format, which keeps all the information (including graphics) in place. When you want to save a page for later reference, choose File Menu/Save As/ and under file type choose "Web Archive, single file (*.mht)". Make sure you save the file to an easily found location on your computer's hard drive. To view the page later, simply double click on it.
Tip 9: Turn your computer off. Get a life!
