Browser Back Button Botching?

Have you ever been searching the Web and come across a web page that will not let you Back up to the previous page?

Here is the scenario: You are using a search engine and are scanning the different sites that appear on the results page. You click on a result. You review the site. You click the browser's Back button to return to the search engine's results page. However, one site keeps redirecting you to itself. You cannot return to the results page because every time you click on the Back button, it just reloads the current page. How selfish!

To return to the search engine's results page, click on the tiny upside-down triangle next to the Back button. You will see a list of all the previous sites you have visited. Select the results page and there you go.

Use this same tool to access a page you viewed several pages ago without having to click the Back button repeatedly.

How to Limit Your Google Searches to a Specific Type of Site

Google has a nice handout that highlights some fancy tools you can use to perform some advanced searches. One of these is the site: tool. Use this to limit your search to a specific site. For example, click on the search terms below and take a look at the results:

global warming site:memphislibrary.org

I was familiar with this tool before, but I did not know that you could also do this next step. You can broaden your search by limiting it to a specific type of site. For example, click on the search terms below and take a look at the results:

global warming site:edu

This limits your results to only .edu sites.

Which Engine Should I Use Today?

Phil Bradley has an excellent resource that poses various search-scenarios and offers you the best tools to complete that search.

Click here to see it in action.

Search for the Format You Want

Someone recently passed on a Google search tip that could be useful when creating a quick First Responder display. This tip could also be useful for customers wanting to print something basic on a broad topic. For example, you would like to display a fact sheet and some of your books about Manatees. You need to find something that can be printed quickly and easily.

We all know the Web is not the best format to print from, but the Web also holds many PDFs. PDFs are wonderful in that the documents remain the same no matter what computer you are on, hence the name Portable Document Format. For example, if the IRS did not use PDFs for their tax forms, different computers would arrange the text in different ways. Not what the IRS wants. So whenever people want to place their documents online and they also want to ensure that the format of those documents is not changed, they will place them online as PDFs.

To perform a search from Google for only PDFs, click on Advanced Search. Enter your search terms in the first text box. Then, about the sixth line down, you will see File Format with a text box that lists several different file formats. Select Adobe Acrobat PDF. Your search results will return PDF files only. These are all files that are "ready to print".

Search Engines of the Future

Here is an interesting article about some new search engines (or search engine concepts) to look for in the near future. Here is an excerpt:

First-generation search ranked sites based on page content - examples are early yahoo.com and Alta Vista.

Second-generation relies on link analysis for ranking - so they take the structure of the Web into account. Examples are Google and Overture.

Third-generation search technologies are designed to combine the scalability of existing internet search engines with new and improved relevancy models; they bring into the equation user preferences, collaboration, collective intelligence, a rich user experience, and many other specialized capabilities that make information more productive.

The article then provides descriptions and links to several active search engines utilizing this third generational technology.

What are AOL Users Searching For?

Here is an article by Lee Gomes at the Washington Post about the AOL Web-search data. This is a great synopsis of what people use the web for.

Internet: Google Tools

Google can do more than just search the Internet. It offers a few cool bells and whistles that can be very helpful. It allows you to reverse lookup telephone numbers, convert weights and measures, and perform calculator functions. All this can be done from the search box located at http://www.google.com/. Here are some examples:

1. Reverse Lookup: Type in telephone # with area code and press enter. If it’s a listed number, the name and address of person with that number will be displayed.
   
2. Conversions: Type in something like “Convert 18 tablespoons to teaspoons,” and then press enter. The answer will be displayed. (54 teaspoons) It can also convert from Fahrenheit to Celsius.
   
3. Calculator: For calculations simply type in something like 4 + 5 and then press enter. For multiplication, use the symbol *. For division, use the symbol /.