Paul Whybrow
Full Member
As writers, we frequently need to research our subjects. My browser history can look alarming as if I'm intending to murder someone with references to poison, putrefaction and post mortems. It's not me, honest your honour, it's what my fictional killer is going to do....
Few of us have been trained how to use a computer, and we just pick things up as we go along. It's easy to miss shortcuts and refined techniques in how to run internet searches. I use Google for 99.9% of what I look for, but sometimes it's as dumb as a sack of spanners and I turn to Ask.com—formerly known as Ask Jeeves.
A few years ago, I was startled to run across information on how Google's Autocomplete suggestions are based on not only where I live and what language I use, but also what I've searched for before. Perusing the suggestions made me wonder if it was me who was weird or other Google users....
One aspect of searching the internet, that's always driven me nuts, is how Google favours whatever is new and hogging the media. For instance, were I searching for Mandrill Baboon and there was a rapper with that stage name making the news at the moment, then most of the early results would be for him and not the ape.
There are ways around this irritation, such as the minus operator (-) to narrow the search. This article contains some great tips:
10 tips for smarter, more efficient Internet searching
(Me, getting angry at another failed internet search)
Few of us have been trained how to use a computer, and we just pick things up as we go along. It's easy to miss shortcuts and refined techniques in how to run internet searches. I use Google for 99.9% of what I look for, but sometimes it's as dumb as a sack of spanners and I turn to Ask.com—formerly known as Ask Jeeves.
A few years ago, I was startled to run across information on how Google's Autocomplete suggestions are based on not only where I live and what language I use, but also what I've searched for before. Perusing the suggestions made me wonder if it was me who was weird or other Google users....
One aspect of searching the internet, that's always driven me nuts, is how Google favours whatever is new and hogging the media. For instance, were I searching for Mandrill Baboon and there was a rapper with that stage name making the news at the moment, then most of the early results would be for him and not the ape.
There are ways around this irritation, such as the minus operator (-) to narrow the search. This article contains some great tips:
10 tips for smarter, more efficient Internet searching
(Me, getting angry at another failed internet search)
