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Five Tips for Using the Internet
1) Use Mouse and Keyboard Shortcuts
- Right click on links, and open them in new windows. The use alt-tab to return to your original window and continue working while the other page loads in the background.
- Control-n This launches a new browser.
- Control-c This copies text. When using this shortcut, highlight the text first, then execute the shortcut.
- Control-x This copies text and erases the text that was copied. When using this shortcut, highlight the text first, then execute the shortcut.
- Control-v This pastes the text in a new location. When using this shortcut, place your cursor at the spot you want to paste the text before you execute this function.
(To execute these keyboard shortcuts, hold both keys down together.)
These text editing shortcuts are helpful composing e-mail and pasting links on Web pages you are creating.
2) Use Creative Search Techniques
If you are having trouble finding things on the Internet, maybe the problem is the way you are looking for it. Here are some ideas.
a) Learn to use the "advanced" search functions of search engines where available. For example, at www.atlavista.com, you can run a simple search or an advanced search, and the "help" link gives you information on how to use these functions.
b) Use meta-search engines. Some search engines will give you in the top 10 hits in several popular search engines. This is useful because different search engines have different databases and index sites in different order. For an example of a metasearch engine, try www.dogpile.com.
c) Use specialized search engines. Why do I get so many irrelevant hits? One reason is because there is so much irrelevant material in the database. Specialized seat engines try to focus on one area, like law, and this can be an advantage. Go to www.findlaw.com and try their lawcrawler search engine.
d) Use catalog style search tools. Keyword searching has its strengths, but looking through a catalog-style index can also be useful. For one of the most popular examples, try www.yahoo.com.
e) Use all of the above. Don't forget that searching the Internet is not like searching in Westlaw. No engine's database covers the whole Internet, and no engine organizes things perfectly.
3) Look Beyond the Web
Don't forget that the Internet is larger than the World Wide Web. One important resource beyond the Web are the thousands of Usenet Newsgroups on a wide variety of potentially useful topics. For an easy to use Web gateway to these newsgroups try www.dejanews.com.
4) Be Open While Maintaining a Healthy Skepticism
Don't limit yourself to what you expect to find on the Internet, because you will often find the unexpected. There are many excellent sites on the Internet that you will find and ask "Why is this here?" There may seem to be no commercial purpose, and when that is the case there often is none. Many useful sites are not commercial, they are labors of love. But because anyone can put up a site, you must be skeptical of the content you find on an unknown site. Is it accurate? Has it been updated? The trend today on the Internet is away from the unknown authors that pioneered the Internet and back to the well known brands that dominate other media, with news from ABC News and definitions from Merriam Webster, for example. It was not always this way, but the diversity of a few years ago seems to be giving way to the commercial as more an more people find their way on line. Don't forget that Internet traffic doubles every six months. And many new users are not technically inclined and seem to be looking for the familiar brands, not adventure. I still find the real attraction of the Internet to be the unknown, although its convenience makes even traditional media more useful. What takes less time to find the weather, querying www.weather.com or turning on the weather channel and waiting for the information you want to come around? The same is true for headline news and sports scores, to name just a few.
5) Bookmark Megasites
The hardest step on the Internet is the first step. That is why "portals" are so hot right now. Bookmarking megasites, sites that have many useful links, lets you launch that site from your bookmarks list, and lets you surf links from that page. This gets you started quickly, without a search. One example of this for law is my www.usual.com site
A Cookies Monster?
After you have read the article A Cookies Monster?, you may want to consult additional
references. I recommend the following links:
From Netscape, Persistent
Client State HTTP Cookies explains the technical side of Cookies.
From Wired News, DoubleClick
Trues to Force Hand into Cookie Jar discusses proposed changes in cookies
standards and how they might affect those now using cookies.
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