Business Computing Tips
By Karen Fainges


Ever spent a frustrating afternoon trying to find something on
the web only to find nothing but porn? Finding things on the web
involves a little bit of luck, but with help, you can cut down on
the searching time. One way is to go to the right search engine
for your subject.

If you are looking for a business subject, the easiest one I've
found is www.altavista.com. For the Australia site, just add .au
on the end. Altavista has the ability to do Boolean searches.
This is a fancy term for adding the things you are not looking
for in your search. For example, if you click on Advance Search
on the Altavista page, you can type in 'dogs NOT poodles'. This
will bring up pages that have dogs on them, but not ones with
poodles.

A general rule is to start off as specific as possible, and then
widen the search. For example, don't type dogs, put in dog
clipping, Brisbane. The pages you do find will be more useful. If
nothing at all comes up, leave off Brisbane. I guarantee you will
find something. Altavista also has separate search engines for
pictures, video and sound.

Yahoo is another good place to find things, but although it has
more pages listed, it also has more dead links and rubbish. To
find something there, go through the headings. If you go to
www.yahoo.com go down to Regions, and keep clicking until you get
Australia, Queensland, Brisbane and then type in dog clipping.

To ask a question, try www.askjeeves.com. 'How do I clip a dog',
will bring up at least some rough guides, and suggested books
etc. on the subject.

"It has to be practical, it has to be cheap, and it has to work."