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Tips on the Web
by Steve McCabe
Search Tips
Im still amazed when I see people go to a search engine and type in the full URL of a web site they want to go to. Not the best use of a search engine! The real power comes when you use advanced features. For instance, enclose a multiple-word search in quotes (for example Dominica news) to search for the phrase. Or you can refine your search by using + or to include/exclude words, So youd type: dominica republic if you wanted to find web pages that dealt with Dominica but didnt deal with the Dominican Republic!
I recently discovered my favourite feature: Googles Calculator function. Besides allowing you to do basic maths, its especially good for doing metric conversions. Its as easy as typing something like 100 miles in kilometers. Instead of the usual search results, it will show 100 miles = 160.9344 kilometers
Hot sites
Software: Snapfiles.com. Just a well-organized shareware and freeware site.
Programming: Hotscripts.com. If you do any kind of web programming you must know theres rarely any need to reinvent the wheel. This site has scripts in a wide range of flavours.
Hot stuff
Blogs. Big buzz going around about web logs, or blogs as they are known. They are basically online journals, diaries or personal pages covering a wide range of topics. Unless theyre well written or juicy, who wants to pour over someones inner monologue? Why then should we be interested? Because they are so hot! They are personal, easy to use, and considered addictive. And hot means potential for traffic. And traffic means potential business. You dont necessarily have to bare your soul to the world, but think about using them to promote yourself, your business, or Dominica in general! See one in action at www.stevemccabe.com.
You can blog on a communal site like Salon.com, or add blog software to your own website (see hotscripts.com).
Be warned
New virus came out last night: MyDoom. By now no doubt youll have heard of it, and your preferred virus program will have been updated to handle it, but theres always a time when the virus is so new and the attachment so intriguing that youre tempted to open it. Bad idea. Never open an attachment from someone you dont know, and be cautious about attachments from people you do!
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