*** ANSWERMAN INTERNET EXTRA *** For the week of March 3, 1997 This is the free weekly newsletter for the community of Internet users on America Online. This week, AnswerMan focuses on searching for stuff on the Net. =*=*= IN THIS ISSUE =*=*= AnswerMan's Update -- Searching the Net Upcoming Weekly Focus & Chats -- What's coming up The End -- How to contact us or unsubscribe =*=*= WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK WITH ANSWERMAN =*=*= Go to keyword: For: AM FOCUS Pointers to great search sites, lots more ANSWERMAN Daily tips and Internet message boards NET HELP Get quick help for your Internet questions NET TUTORIAL Clueless about the Internet? Start here! AM CHAT Read transcripts of Internet chats that you missed AM GLOSSARY RTFM to decrypt that Internet jargon Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: Go to keyword AnswerMan Go to keyword AM FOCUS Net Tutorial =*=*= ANSWERMAN'S UPDATE -- Searching the Net =*=*= What's up with WINNEWS? A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a great newsletter for your Windows usin', Windows lovin' folks, called WINNEWS. As luck would have it, as soon as I sent out that newsletter, Horace the Evil Net.God went back in time and retroactively removed all traces of the WINNEWS newsletter. Or something like that. Actually that newsletter went on an unannounced hiatus. Anyhow, I'm happy to say that WINNEWS is back. You can read it online, or subscribe to the weekly updates. Really. I promise. To read WINNEWS on the Web, go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/winnews/index.htm -- or to get the newsletter for free every week via e-mail, send a message to ENEWS99@MICROSOFT.NWNET.COM with a message body of "SUBSCRIBE WINNEWS". On a different topic: Reader Seawolfs2 sent me a message asking, "How about a few lines on how AOL is doing on installing new equipment to help get rid of the busy signals? I know I can go to different places and read a canned letter or statement, but it might be old news. I want to hear about this week or today AOL added 30 new modems that can handle 5000 calls and hour. Things like that." I'm happy to report that daily updates about AOL are available. Check out keyword AOL INSIDER, where you'll find a list of all the new access numbers added each week, a list of system hiccoughs (planned and unplanned) as well as groovy tips and interviews with AOL's "tech bwanas". I read the Insider every day, and you can even have it delivered to your e-mailbox daily, for free (of course!) -.-.- Searching The Net -.-.- Alright, on to this week's topic: searching the Internet. Let me tell you: the single question that I get most often from the teeming masses (that's you!) is "Where can I find information about ____ on the Internet?" where the blank is anything from genealogy to the Pittsburgh Steelers to finding an apartment in Cleveland to Magic cards to ... you name it, someone has asked about it. Searching for information on the Web isn't difficult -- but quite honestly, it takes a little practice to get the hang of doing it well. The most common complaint that I hear about Net searching is something along the lines of "I was looking for a site on fighting child abduction and all I found were sites on alien abduction!" or "I'm looking for information on how to deal with fogging windows in my home, but all I get are Microsoft Windows sites." Doing a Net search is a little art, a little science, and mostly just being comfortable with the search engine that you're using. There are many search engines on the Internet -- web sites that let you enter a keyword or browse topics to help you find whatever it is that you're looking for. It doesn't really matter which search engine you use -- as long as you're comfortable with it and it has the features that you want. Some engines are better at certain things, so it pays to be on friendly terms with a couple of them. Another common complaint about search engines is that they provide too much information -- if you're in a hurry to find out what that purple stuff coming out of your child's nose might be, seeing "First 10 of 20,000 hits" is not comforting. Most of the time, its quality that matters, not quantity of matches. All of these problems can be resolved by knowing how to make the most of your searches. All search engines let you enter a word or phrase to search for. When typing in your search terms, you simply can't be too specific. In any search engine, "Printer broken" will lead you down an unhappy road, but "ThinkJet dip switch settings hewlett packard printer" will probably yield much better results. (I used that phrase and the Excite search engine find an HP support web site that showed me how to bring an a dead printer back to life.) For a speedy search that's right on target, always use the least common words first -- for instance, "ThinkJet" (a specific printer model name) is a whole lot less common a word than "dip switch" or "Hewlett Packard printer". If you do manage to make your search too specific and end up with no hits, don't fret, just back up and try again. Try a different phrasing or remove one of the less-common words.) Don't be afraid to use the special features of your favorite search engine to your advantage. For instance, a little menu on HotBot's search screen says "Search for all the words..." This will locate a page that includes all of the words in your phrase, in any order. But what if you're looking for a specific phrase? Then change the menu to "the exact phrase" -- HotBot will then do a much more specific search. HotBot also can search for "any of the words" (a "loose" match as the geeks call it) and even a "Boolean search." What's that? Simply, a Boolean search means that you can use the words AND, OR and NOT to make your search more specific. HotBot, Excite and some other search engines support them. If you want information about newts, but not the Speaker of the House, you can type "newt NOT gingrich". You can even get creative and say "newt AND salamander". Every search engine handles the chore of searching the Net a little differently, and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. For instance, some, like Lycos, offer capsule reviews of some sites that you can read before visiting the site. Also, each has its own database to search, so one engine could hit on an entirely useful site that another engine doesn't even know about. If you want to be thorough, it pays to check more than one source -- but often, one is enough. Something in my nature (probably a mutant of the gene that makes most males refuse to ask for directions) makes me want to tell you to ignore the online help at a search engine's web site, but I know in my heart that that's so far from the truth. Every search engine has "search tips" and "advanced search" pages, and they're always worth reading, even if you don't think you're an advanced searcher yet. The information is valuable -- specific to that search engine and totally worth the investment of a brain cell or remember it. Before you run off a-searching: engrain this in your brain. "If at first you don't succeed, try at least 6 more times." It's worth the effort. I've mentioned just a couple of search engines here -- as there are more. For descriptions of, and links to, a whole slew of them, go to keyword AM FOCUS and click on the "Search the Net" link. You'll also find more Net search tips there. So get going! Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: AM FOCUS: Go Forth and search WINNEWS Keyword AOL INSIDER HotBot search engine Excite search engine Lycos search engine =*=*= THE WEEKLY FOCUS & CHAT =*=*= Every Sunday, AnswerMan hosts a live chat to close out that week's Focus topic. Here's what's coming this Sunday, March 9, 6PM ET: How to Find Anything on the Net -- Tonight the AnswerMan will show you how to find just about anything you're looking for on the Internet. Want maps of the world? Clip art of a camel? Information about bugs in Windows 95? Sound files? Chess tips? Just name it--the AnswerMan will show you how to find it. week, AnswerMan focuses on a particular facet of using the Internet. Here are the Weekly Focus topics we'll be covering in the near future: March 10 - March 16: Audio e-mail March 17 - March 23: Finding People with the Net March 24 - March 30: Chatting on the Web March 31 - April 6: Privacy & the Internet Here is a direct link for AOL 3.0 users: AnswerMan Chat and Transcripts =*=*= THE END =*=*= That's all for this week. Got comments about this newsletter? We want to hear them! Send 'em to AnswerMan. The e-mail address is AnswerMan@aol.com. We would hate to see you go, but if you must leave, there are two easy ways to unsubscribe yourself from this newsletter. You can use either. #1: Send an e-mail message -- To: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Subject: UNSUBSCRIBE Body: UNSUBSCRIBE ANSWERMAN #2: For AOL 3.0 users only: Click here then press "Unsubscribe". Knock three times and whisper low that you and I were sent by Joe. Read these words and you will know...this is copyright 1997 by America Online. All rights reserved.