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This Month's
Tip: Organize Your Web Surfing
If you’re
reading this, you use the internet. And if you
use the internet, you are inundated daily with
new web sites, new offers, and new ways to share
your life with the world. The process can
become overwhelming. You find yourself clicking
link after link, finding great site after great
site, then after three hours of sitting at your
computer, you realize you can’t remember where
you started, or what the URL of that fanitastic
travel site was.
Here are some
tips that will help you while surfing the
internet. Included are tips to help you manage
your surfing, as well as your e-mail.
MANAGING WEB SITES
The journey
·
Speed Is a Factor—If you’ve been using the internet since its
inception, you may recall that crackling dial
tone connection that emitted from your speakers,
and the five-minute downloads for one small
photo. Some people still use modems, although
they are a bit faster now. But for someone who
uses the internet on a regular basis, it is
worth your while to use a high-speed DSL or
cable connection. The cost of the service will
pay itself back in time. Not only that, but
several users can be on the internet at the same
time from various locations throughout the house
if you network your computers. You will be able
to visit numerous more sites and download
information and files much faster with a good
connection.
·
Stay Focused—How often do you find yourself sitting down to look for
information on a new medication your doctor
prescribed, only to be sidetracked by an ad for
scented body lotion, or by a pop-up screen
offering you a vacation of a lifetime? Or you
sit down to look for an oatmeal cookie recipe
because your dog ate your only copy (true
story!), only to find yourself reading about
Oprah’s next choice for her book club. Then you
look at the clock, realize 30 minutes have gone
by, and you still haven’t found that recipe.
Sound familiar? Your time is precious. So use
it wisely. Stay focused until you find what you
need. Then, if you wish, you may visit those
other tempting sites.
·
Set Time Limits—This goes along with staying focused. If you sit down
with a specific goal in mind—say to check your
e-mail—give yourself a time limit. One e-mail
journey can end up in visiting several web sites
and before you know it, you’re rushing out the
door as you trip over the dog because the
carpool children are waiting for you at school.
If you know you only have fifteen minutes,
decide beforehand what you can get done in that
time frame, then set an alarm if necessary.
Another effective way to set time limits is to
schedule online time into your day. Discipline
yourself to use only that time for e-mail and
surfing.
·
Monitor Updates—Rather than waste time by going back to a web site day
after day, only to find nothing has changed,
(but it may any day now,) use notification
software to monitor your favorite web sites.
This software can be downloaded for free, or
purchased, depending on the package. EasyWatch-The
Website Watcher is a free download software.
Some you can purchase are URLy Warning and
WebChecker. They all serve the same
purpose—monitoring web pages for changes. You
can decide which is best for you by comparing
features. This software is not meant for
high-profile sites like HGTV which change
constantly. It is more for those sites that
change content regularly, but not enough to
visit daily. There are many products out there
to choose from. Do a search for “Web Site
Update Monitoring” or similar for results.
·
Use Search Engines—The search engine is your friend. By using key
words and phrases, you can locate web sites
specific to your needs. However, the drawback
to search engines, is that you may get thousands
of web sites only remotely relevant to your
needs. Be as specific as possible when surfing
the net. Use the Advanced search features on
sites such as Google or Yahoo whenever
possible. You can refine your words, thus
narrowing your results.
The memories
·
Storing Favorites Online—After years of surfing, you have come across
some useful sites. Sites you wish to visit
again and again. If you use an internet access
service such as AOL or Internet Explorer, you
can save your favorites to a special folder.
Just click on “Add to Favorites” and the URL is
saved. You’ll see only the title of the page,
but clicking on the link will take you to the
correct page. Create categories for your
favorites so you can find them more easily. For
example, create a “Recipes” folder, a “Travel”
folder, a “Research” folder, etc. You can
create subfolders within each folder to get even
more specific. For example, in your “Travel”
folder, you might have an airlines subfolder, a
hotel subfolder, and a foreign subfolder. Use
categories that you will remember easily and
work for you.
·
Storing Favorites Offline—Of course, it’s convenient to have a
Favorites file while working online. But what
about accessing it while working on a project or
paper offline? There is software which manages
your URLs for you in a file on your computer.
One such product is Advanced URL Catalog. You
can keep track of all your favorites in a
database, which can also be password protected
for privacy. It’s a convenient way to refer to
your favorite sites while writing a research
paper or talking to a friend on the phone.
·
Sharing Favorites—So you ask what happens when your computer crashes,
or when you’re traveling and don’t have access
to all those wonderful web sites? Well there
are web sites and software for that also. There
are Social Bookmark sites like del.icio.us,
netvouz.com and Blogmarks.net, which allow you
to copy your favorites to a folder online. You
create an account, which you can access anywhere
from any computer. Some sites also offer the
option to share your favorites with others, or
keep them private. Those that are shared can be
viewed by anyone using a keyword associated with
the site. So not only can others view yours,
you can view other people’s favorites to see if
maybe it can become one of yours.
MANAGING E-MAIL
·
Basic E-mail Accounts—E-mail is a part of the internet. It is the way
you communicate with others, whether it’s
personal or business. So it is essential to
have an account, despite the drawbacks of spam.
Some people have e-mail accounts connected with
their internet service provider, such as AOL or
Comcast. Others have free e-mail accounts
without a commercial provider. Sites such as
Yahoo and Hotmail offer free accounts, but limit
the space, and close down your account after a
period of inactivity. (The time frame varies
per provider.) Google now provides Gmail for
free, with more storage space, and a search
feature to locate old e-mails on a specific
topic. You can literally have as many e-mail
accounts as you want as long as you can monitor
them. Keep your time factor in mind when
setting up additional accounts.
·
Business vs. Personal—It is essential that you have at least two e-mail
addresses-one for business and one for personal
use. Many companies now offer an e-mail account
for employees, which should be used only for
business purposes. If you are self-employed,
you should have a business e-mail address
separate from your personal one. Not only is
this professional, it eliminates the need to
scan through hundreds of personal e-mails just
to find that one new referral or lead buried
amongst the rest. Thus, when you only have a
few minutes to check e-mail, you can quickly
scan your business messages without being bogged
down by personal ones.
·
E-mail Forwarding—This service will save you time by having to check
less e-mail accounts. You set up one main
account, then have other e-mail addresses
forwarded to that account. The sender would not
know that it is being forwarded to a different
address. This will save you time in that you
will only have to check one e-mail address
rather than 10 or more e-mail accounts every
day.
OFFLINE BUT NOT OUT OF REACH
·
Keep a Notebook—How many times have you seen a web site flashed across
the TV screen, or recited on the radio, but when
log on to your computer, you can’t remember it?
Start a small notebook to record just such web
sites. Make it a habit to write down the URL in
the notebook, or on a piece of scrap paper, then
transfer it to the notebook when you get home.
Keep this notebook near your computer, then at
your next scheduled surfing time, visit the site
to see if it’s worthwhile. If it is, save it to
your favorites folder.
So next time
you sit down at your computer, use your time
wisely by following these tips.
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