Week 1: Clear

Information Search

The World Wide Web is the largest, and in my opinion, most culturally relevant source of information that there is. Because of its ongoing mass-accumulation of content, it's important that we, as users, have some understanding of how it is organized and the appropriate ways to operate within it.

Two main tools that help us navigate the web are:

1. Search Engines: Web sites or software that search the Internet for documents that contain a key word, phrase or subject that is specified by the user to the search engine. Each engine has its own method of searching for information. (dictionary.com)

Examples: Google, Yahoo, Ask

2. Subject Directories: Smaller, more selective, searching Web sites than search engines.

Examples: About, Yahoo

The defining difference between the two navigational tools are that search engines use "bots" to collect information and links to build their databases while subject directories use humans to sort out and find information, thus making them much smaller but also useful.

Expand your knowledge: Learn how to efficiently search for what you're looking for on Google using the cheat sheet. It's useful to use more than one search engine when you're looking for something specific, since they usually provide unique results. As you can see in the chart below, Google holds the majority of search engine market share (most used) for 2009 with Yahoo coming in a not-so-close second.

(chart by: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3283/3309147191_8505368d21.jpg)

It's critical to be as efficient as possible when searching for something on the Web since it is so vast. Without search engines the World Wide Web would be a mass of confusion of links that would soon be undoubtedly rendered useless.

Netiquette

Acting appropriately while online, otherwise known as "netiquette", is the golden rule of the Internet. It can be assumed that my generation already knows most of the basic rules of netiquette (writing in all caps=shouting, read before you send, etc.), but as we are approaching graduation, hence the "job search", this site on business netiquette will prove to be very helpful. Upon entering the corporate world, you are expected to act professionally and conduct yourself in an acceptable manner-including while online.