When browsing the Internet you have two ways of reaching a website. You can use a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Live, Lycos, Excite, etc. etc. or you go directly to the website by entering the address in the address bar. I’d like to first address the immediate issue that a good percentage of users have a problem with: I’ve come to find that people will enter the address of the site that they want in to the search window of their current home page. This normally doesn’t cause any issues but can complicate the process of getting to the website if your not careful. This is kind of a pet peeve but also an issue in that spammers will build their websites around making sure the sites return results get people to click on the links that the search engine returns. An easy with to avoid this is to enter the address of the website that you want to go to in the address bar at the top. One of the problems with busy websites (sites that have too much going on such as Yahoo, Excite, and Lycos) is that when you try to enter the address of the site that you want, it’ll pull your cursor back to their search entry. Search engines make money by providing advertising while you use their site. They want you to stay on their site as much as possible in order to get as many ads in your face to make more money.
One thing to remember when browsing the internet is that companies want to know what you want. If companies know what you want then it makes it easier to target advertisements. Websites like Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, all have content filled sites. For some this can be a good thing because the content that they might want to find might already be there, such as news, sports, stock information. If you just want to search and don’t want to deal with content being thrown at you then I’d suggest using Google or Microsoft Live. These two sites offer instant search options without having to dig through ads and extra content. One advantage of Google over Microsoft Live is that Google offers a search result called ?Cached. ? Cached results are nice because you’re going to view the website and it’s content through Google’s snap shot. The Google snap shot also highlights the words that you used in your search, making it even easier to locate the content on the site.
This all has to do with a very important thing when browsing the internet. A vast majority of problems that happen to computers are user caused. Too many users assume that what shows up in their search results and what pops up on their screen is for their own good. Because of this mentality, its very easy for spyware to propagate around the Internet. The first step in staying safe on the Internet and keeping your computer clean is knowing how to find the information you’re looking for. Thats why it’s important to know your search engine. There are many features in search engines that you can use to better your searches and keep you safer on the Internet.
Many times by just entering the name of the website in your address bar you can go straight to what you want. If you use Bank of America, then just go to bankofamerica.com or if you shop at Amazon, just go to amazon.com. Search engines are nice and you can search for the page you want but all you’re doing is adding another step to get to the content that you want.
