Information is power. The Internet is a vast source of information.
Here are some of the best sources of information that I've found on -
A TOUR OF THE WEB
If you don't want to buy TV Guide or a local paper
for TV listings, go to Ultimate
TV or Gist or my current favorite
- TV Guide.
If you hate to ask for directions, you can get road
maps at this section of Lycos.
If you're taking a really long trip or need maps of virtually anyplace
in the world, you'll need to go to MapQuest.
If you want to know the weather anywhere in the world,
you don't need a TV to get The Weather
Channel. (If that channel is temporarily busy, a good second choice
is Yahoo! Weather)
If you want to check out movie reviews, you'll find
plenty at the search engine at Telerama.
If you want to find out if a movie is suitable for your kids, Screen
It! gives you an extensive preview. If you've already seen the
movie, see what Mr.
Cranky has to say. And if you want to look to the future, check out
the Coming Attractions.
My friend wanted to buy some software about movies
and moviemaking. The Internet Movie Database
is better than anything he could buy and it's free !
If you want to find some nice links for children that
are educational as well as fun, this is an excellent
place to start. If you want your child to get a full hands-on web-searching
experience that will avoid all those lurid and nasty websites, visit Yahooligans!
If it's NEWS you want, you can find practically ANY
newspaper in the world at the Ecola
Newsstand.) And here are some links to magazines,
too!
Personally I would still much rather go to a book
store or library to check out books. That's why I never go to Amazon.com
Books. You can also find the full text of over 6000 books on line for
free at The On-Line Books Page.
You can find out the trade-in value of your car at
the on line version of the Kelley
Blue Book.
You can get a free Last Will at Legaldocs.
There are other free legal forms here as well as forms of the nonfree variety.
If you don't have a decent way to send and receive
e-mail, you can get this service for free from Hotmail.
If you find a web site that
you will want to visit again [like this one :)], make a bookmark. If you
are not there already, go to the web site that you want to bookmark. Then
...
In Netscape Navigator click
on the word Bookmarks at the top of the screen and then click on
Add Bookmark. That's all there is to it! Whenever you want to return
to this web site, again click on Bookmarks and then click on the
name of the site on the pulldown menu.
In Internet Explorer click on
the word Favorites at the top of the screen (Yes, it's there twice.
Either one will do.) and then click on Add To Favorites. That's
all there is to it! When you want to return to that site, again click on
Favorites and then the name of the site in the pulldown menu.
If you wind up at a web page
and you want to go to its home page to find out about related topics, delete
the end of its address in the location window, and then press Enter - e.g.
- at http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/vegweb/wwwboard/ar/ , you can delete
wwwboard/ar/ or delete orgs/vegweb/wwwboard/ar/ .
Do not give personal information
to strangers - e.g. a phone number will tell anyone your name and address.
Check out the last search option at isleuth.com.
Play around with the other options as well. Find out even more at the The
Stalker's Home Page.
There are many search engines
and directories available for finding information. If you cannot find what
you need from one, try some others. Take the time to read the help or tips
file for each one, since each one uses different symbols or words (e.g.
- + - * ", AND NEAR NOT , etc.) to narrow your search. If you'd like
to search everywhere at the same time, there is a site for you - Dogpile.
A direct search link to Dogpile is also available at
the bottom of this page.
Personally I use Yahoo!
(a directory) quite a lot. If a search produces no results, your search
is automatically sent to Alta
Vista (a search engine) and answered there. If unhappy with the results
I use HotBot (a search engine) and
InfoSeek (a search engine/directory).
( A directory lists URL's that have been visited by people who maintain
the directory. A search engine scans the text of URL's robotically. [A
URL is a web address - http://etcetera.]) Direct search links to Yahoo!,
HotBot and Infoseek are also available near the bottom
of this page.
If you try to go to a URL but
get an error message or only receive part of the page, hit the Reload
(or Refresh) button immediately or try again later on. If you don't
get through, the page may no longer exist, but then again it might. Bookmark
the page and try to visit it when web traffic has diminished.
Sometimes web pages are very
long and it's hard to find what you are looking for. Most browsers have
a Find button at the top of the screen. Click on Find and
type in a word. Your browser will take you to that word on the currently
displayed page and highlight it wherever it appears as well. (In Internet
Explorer you have to first click on the word Edit at the top of
the screen and then on Find in the pulldown menu.)
If your browser cannot connect
to a page at all, try hitting the Stop button and then clicking
on the hyperlink again. You will often connect immediately.
If your browser is taking a
long time to load a web page, click on the Stop button. Web pages
often contain excessive graphics which are sometimes fun but often annoying.
If you want to see the full page, you can always click on Reload
or Refresh.
You may have an e-mail program
that can do a lot of fancy colors and hyperlinks and such. If the person
to whom you are writing doesn't have the same program to read the e-mail,
your letter will still be readable but will look quite different and possibly
quite bizarre.
The middle of the night (2AM
- 7AM E.S.T.) is a great time to surf the web. Unfortunately it's
even a greater time to sleep.
Rename your bookmarks or favorites.
My bookmark listing for TV Guide was called New York Metropolitan Edition.
I changed it to TV Guide followed by my Nickname and Password. (Although
my computer supposedly remembers this, for some reason TVGuide forgets
this every so often and forces me to remember them.)
In Netscape - Click on Bookmarks
at the top of the screen. Then click on Go to Bookmarks. Right click
on the listing that you want to change. Click on Properties. In the box
that says Name: type in whatever name you would prefer. Click on OK. Close
the bookmark window.
In Internet Explorer - Click
on Favorites. Then click on Organize Favorites... Click on
(highlight) the listing that you want to change. Click on the Rename
button. Type in whatever name you would prefer. Click on the Close
button.
Several websites (e.g. - The
New York Times) insist on a password even though they are free. You
can either make a little password folder in your computer or (like me)
always use the same password. If security is important (such as
logging on to an Internet Service Provider) then by all means use a
unique password.
Almost any browser will allow
you to visit more than one website at the same time. This is particularly
useful when you are downloading a large file or graphic-heavy webpage.
If you are downloading a file (other than a webpage which is itself a file
or combination of files), simply surf off to any page you like and keep
surfing until the download is completed. You can also open your browser
program more than once. If your computer can multitask,
simply start your browser program again while leaving the originally started
browser program open.
I will add more tips to this
page from time to time. Keep checking back often!
EXTRA BONUS
Dogpile Search
Search and then
Wait a maximum of Seconds.
