"There's too much stuff! It's like drinking out of a fire hydrant!"
That's the most common complaint about searching on the Internet.
A recent example: It's 5:30 p.m. I'm about to leave work for the day. Dinner is not planned. I'd like to cook some seafood. Maybe scallops, or mussels. I need a recipe so I can shop for ingredients on my way home. I go to Yahoo and look up "shellfish." There are no fewer than 42 site matches. Most of them are coastal companies that sell shellfish to retail stores. Or sites about the shellfish industry. They all look about the same on the list.
Halfway down the list, there's Shelly Schmalheiser's
Personal Home Page: "Princess Shellfish's World
of Pink–sorta phreaky, sorta funky, stuff about the
color pink." I admit it: I'm tempted to click.
Who wouldn't be? Princess Shellfish is a perfect
illustration of how easy it is to get distracted on the
Internet.
The final match, item no. 42, is a link to the San Mateo Sr. Youth Buddhist Organization.
Buddhist? Hello? Wasn't I looking for shellfish?
This is the sort of experience that gives the Internet a bad name. It needs to be easier than this.
I suspect that if I narrowed my search to "recipes," I'd be swamped. If I studied the "advanced search tips" I might be better off. But I've already spent 20 minutes on this, and I'm no closer to having dinner settled.
Isn't there a better way? The answer is Yes. I have
three tips:
1) Be focused.
Otherwise, you'll get distracted. You'll waste a lot of time. Your brain will feel like mush, like it does after an hour wandering around a big department store. Set boundaries. Put a timer near you if you must. Remember: this technology has to work for you, not against you. It should save you time, not fritter time away.
2) Be creative.
Many sites have search engines living inside them: for
plants, there's Garden.com. For health, there's
MayoClinic.com. For sex, there's DrRuth.com. The
trick is to pick a site that has expertise in your subject.
It's like matchmaking. Think of leads that make sense.
Is your question about sports? Go to espn.com. Does it
concern a famous person, or current events? Try Time.com
or CNN.com, both of which have deep searchable databases.
You can find out an awful lot on any given subject by
reading the book reviews at BarnesandNoble.com or Amazon.com.
3) Be organized.
Each of us has interests that come up regularly. I recommend
making a list of yours and creating a folder for each
one, into which you save relevant Web site addresses.
You'll pick these up from a variety of sources–friends,
articles, and your own online explorations. For instance,
my "Cooking" folder includes the address for
the iVillage Food channel: www.ivillage.com/food. This
site has an Interactive Kitchen with a Recipe Finder.
At the top of the "Interactive Kitchen" page,
there's a banner for a site called Digital Chef.com.
Click: I go there. The recipe search is on the Home Page.
I enter "scallops," and Presto! 47 recipes.
I decide on one, I print it out, and I'm off to the
store.
I'm tempted to spend more time online. But, I tell myself, enough of the Internet for now. It's time to get back to real life: cooking dinner.
Have you discovered creative ways to search successfully on the Internet? Tell me at Sarah@SheClicks.com. I'll share your best tips in an upcoming column.
