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As most of us sit down at our computers each day, we might realize that we have begun to take this Information Age for granted. What would we do if we did not have 24/7 Internet connections to keep us connected to the world?


Online Bill Pay

When it is time to pay bills, we logon to the Internet, pull out our debit cards or credit cards, and then we get to work paying our bills online. It is no longer the case where we have to sit down at the dining room table with our checkbook, a stack of bills, and a book of stamps.

Back in those dark days of the pre-Internet existence, we were not yet done with bill paying when we licked that last stamp. Instead, we had to jump in the car and run down to the post office to get the checks in the mail. If we had paid our bills close to their deadlines, then we had to sweat whether our payment would arrive on time. If we were really worried about our payment arriving at the other end of the transaction on time, we would take time out of our lunch hour to run to the bill collector’s office to make our payment just under the wire.


Mom Online

Yes, back in those old days, we used to call mom on the phone once a week to check in and catch up. Now, we can logon to our favorite Internet chat client or call her on our Internet phone and talk to mom everyday. We can even share pictures of the kids with mom through our Myspace accounts.


Online Education

Back in those grand old days, if we wanted to learn something of value to our lives, we needed to go to the library or bookstore and check out or buy a book that would answer our questions about the world around us. It was either that or we had to enroll at a nearby college and take classes relevant to our interests.

Today, it is much different. Nearly any topic that might be of interest to us can be learned, after a trip to our favorite search engines. We might have to pay to gain access to the information we want, but in many cases, information is handed out like candy on Halloween, on the Internet.

We could even go further and enroll at a major university online. We can now take classes and get a degree at our favorite university or college, even if we live one thousand miles away from the school.


Local Shopping

Back in the day, in order to find out what great sales were running at the national chains, we had to subscribe to a newspaper for the full week and take the time to review the paper everyday to make sure we did not miss those important sales.

Now, we pop open an Internet browser and navigate to the website of the chain store we are interested and click through to their sales circular page. What does Wal-Mart have on sale? Let’s go to their webpage. What about Napa Auto Parts stores? Let’s go their webpage. How about \”Ace, the helpful hardware place\”? Let’s load up their website. Walgreens — what kinds of specials do \”they\” have this week? We are off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz (also known as Al Gore, the guy who \”invented\” the Internet).


Comparison Shopping

Before the World Wide Web, if we wanted to know the \”skinny\” on a particular product we were interested in buying, we would need to ask friends. For an expert opinion, we would need to subscribe to Consumer Reports, or take our chances by visiting the local store that sold the product and have faith that the salesperson was not loading our brains full of commission-biased opinion.

These days, we can go online to learn all about any single product or service we might be interested in purchasing. Even better, we can look at a cross-section of products under the same classification and make an intelligent decision based on factual research. If we put our minds to it, we could even pull up customer reviews on the products we want to purchase.

The sky is the limit. We can do as little or as much research as we would like to do on a single product or service and be happy with our final decision.


Dig Up In-Depth Product Specifications

Sometimes, we can trust the Sears salesman not to lead us astray in our purchase selections. It is pretty straight forward as to which brand of wrenches will give us the best performance over many years or to find out which 27\” television has the best picture.

But, with other product groups, a cursory glance will not deliver the be-all-end-all analysis that we need to make intelligent shopping decisions. Such examples include insurance products or financial products such as credit cards and loans.

If you have to ask yourself what the difference between a term-life insurance policy and a whole-life policy, then you need to get some really in-depth information to make a good purchase decision. There are insurance websites and information websites that will pass this kind of information along to you. They may even let you apply online for a new insurance policy and give you an instant approval for your new policy.

The same mindset will often accompany your interest in learning about credit card products. With so many choices and options available, it is hard to know which credit card offer or credit card rewards program will be best for your needs.

The beauty of the Internet is that the answer to all of these questions and more are right at your fingertips.

Credit card offers range from gas credit cards, student credit cards, low APR credit cards and even 0% interest credit cards. Among this range of credit card types and special offers, many banks also offer credit card points in the form of airline miles, credit card travel rewards, cash-back rewards programs, and store credit at your favorite chain stores or restaurants.

So, how do you know which credit card will be best for your needs? All you have to do is to start with a plan as to what you would like to gain from a credit card, and eliminate credit card offers that do not match your needs. Then do a side-by-side analysis of those credit card offers that remain to see which one will deliver to you the best value for your dollars.

Don’t be afraid to dig in and get the facts on any product you may be interested in buying. I have learned a lot on the Internet about insurance products, credit card plans, and high-definition televisions. Even when I had questions that the Circuit City salesperson could not answer, I was able to turn up that important information on the Internet.


Longing For The Old Days

No, I don’t really long for the old days anymore, except when my Internet connection is down for more than just a few hours.

If I want to add a credit card to my wallet, I only need to decide which one I want and then fill out the online credit card application. If I want to buy car insurance, I can shop around for the best policy and buy it right then online, without having to go to an agent’s office. If I want to shop for a better price on my next software purchase, all I have to do is to go to a shopping website and compare prices.

The Internet has improved the experience of my life one-hundred-fold, and I do not want to ever have to return to those days before dial-up. Before I came on the Internet, I did not even know why I would want to buy more than one type of home insurance. Now, I sweat if I might miss my payment.

If you take the time to search and research the Internet for the information that will help you to make better shopping decisions, you might just find as I have that the Internet is something that you never want to live without ever again.

The vast majority of internet users will use a search engine occasionally, if not frequently. Search engines are routinely included in browsers, no matter if you use Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, or Netscape, with the intent of saving the user time.

It may seem odd to talk about saving time on the internet. Thinking back to 15 years ago, the internet was just starting to burst into mainstream America. The speed and reach of the internet was mind-boggling at that time. Now we’ve come so far with the technology that we actually find ourselves wanting better and faster results.

As is true with nearly all technology, the internet has evolved to be something much different than it was 5, 10, and certainly 15 years ago. But have internet users evolved in the way they use the internet?

We know that humans are creatures of habit. Most of us like to do what we’re familiar with, see who we already know we get along with, and go places we already know we like. I think it’s fair to say that the same can be applied to our internet habits.

New programs, applications, and websites are constantly being created and marketed to users. The ones that get a lot of media attention have a good chance of getting users to at least test them out, even if it’s just on a trial basis.

However, there are other sites on the internet that have been around but aren’t getting the attention they deserve. Let’s go back to search engines. Most people are familiar with the \”Big Three\” of engines - Yahoo, MSN, and Google. If you’ve paid attention to web trends over the years, you know that each has had their heyday, with Google probably receiving the most attention in recent years.

This is a good illustration of the fact that what is popular one year on the web may be at the bottom of the list the next year. Does anyone remember when http://www.webcrawler.com or http://www.excite.com were touted as the destination search engine? It’s all a part of the natural evolution and progression of search engines.

Another evolution of the search engine is the creation of the meta search engine. Meta search engines are similar, in that you type in a term or phrase to be searched. The meta search engine then gathers results from several different search engines, compiles them, and presents them in its own search results page.

The results from a meta search engine will vary, depending on which other engines the meta engine is pulling from. http://www.Dogpile.com, for instance, pulls results from Google, Yahoo!, MSN, http://www.Ask.com, http://www.About.com, http://www.MIVA.com, http://www.LookSmart.com, and others. This quickly accomplishes what would take a user much more time to open all those browser windows and type in the same search term over and over again.

However, Dogpile does receive criticism for its compiled search results page. The sponsored results are mixed in with the \”real\” results, which can be confusing if you’re not paying attention. It’s also hard to believe that the search results are in any particular order of relevance when broken up with those sponsored results.

Another search engine, http://www.Widow.com, uses a tried and tested algorithm to compile its results and then order them in relevance, without sponsored results. When doing a side-by-side comparison of the five top search engines (Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL, and Fastsearch), you’ll see that Widow.com comes up with not only the most highly ranked results, but some very useful links that the other engines didn’t pull.

To illustrate my point, I looked at how the different search engines handle a specific search word. If we take a term that has been in the news a lot lately, \”foreclosure\”, and type that in to different search engines, we’ll see different results.

Not surprisingly, Fastsearch had no results on \”foreclosure.\” Though it is one of the top search engines, its focus is on business and information technology. So it’s really not going to be relevant for anything beyond those topics.

All of the other search engines (five of them!) had one or more sponsored results at the top of the page. Dogpile.com, as I previously warned you, had the most sponsored ads - an astounding 10 sponsored ads on the first results page. Plus, they’re all mixed in with the other results, with just a note at the bottom to let you know it’s an ad or otherwise paid for result.

The only search engine that returned no sponsored results or ads was Widow.com. It sorted through the results, performed its algorithm magic, and produced variety and depth in its results page. Better yet, Widow has a nifty search term bar on the left hand side that allows you to pull up search results for related terms. Talk about saving time and energy!

Of course, the main reason search engines were developed was because the internet is so expansive. No human can search the entire web on their own, hoping to stumble upon the answers and information they’re seeking. Search engines are tools to help users find pertinent information in a timely manner.

Taking a traditional approach to search engines is fine if you have the time, the motivation, and the desire. Sometimes the best drives are the ones where you only have a vague destination, right? So I suppose the same can be true of using one of the top five engines we’ve mentioned.

But sometimes, thinking outside of the box, can not only inspire new ways of thinking, but can help push you or your research in a different, better direction. The most efficient way to do that is to utilize a meta search engine. Try stepping outside of your usual search strategies and see for yourself why it \”is\” sometimes greener on the other side of the fence. There’s a whole wide world (web) to discover and explore!

With the ever-expanding enormity of the Internet, desirable search engine results are more important than ever before. Search engines are generally an efficient way to narrow down the millions of pages of information available, to a few relevant results.

Advanced Search Features

The relevancy of results can depend on several factors. For one, the search terms used make a difference. Boolean search rules are probably the best-known and most widely used. These consist of separating specific terms with AND, OR, or NOT, to include or exclude results. To get an overview of the Advanced Search Features available in a number of search engines, check out this chart: http://www.mlb.ilstu.edu/ressubj/subject/intrnt/srcheng.htm

One rule to remember is that the more specific your search terms are, the better your results will be. For example, instead of searching for \”dogs\”, try searching for \”terriers\”.

Another rule is that less is more. Be concise with the search terms you pick - putting too many search words into the engine can result in confusing or too few results. In fact, most search engines limit the number of words that can be used in a search request to ten words.

Finally, you can also add filters to whatever you are searching. For example, if you are searching full text files, you can enter title:oxygen to find only files with the word \”oxygen\” in the title. The same can be done for URLs. If you know \”oxygen\” is part of the URL you’re looking for, you would enter inurl:oxygen. I use this tool all of the time to find information provided on a government website by adding inurl:gov to my search criteria.

Organic and Paid Search Results

If you’ve ever used more than one search engine, you’ll quickly realize that not every search engine returns the same results or links. There will be similarities and differences across most search engines, especially the \”Big Three\”: Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

The Big Three search engines tend to include sponsored results (basically, results that somehow fit the search term as defined by the advertiser, and which appear above the real search results). Usually the sponsored results will note that they are \”sponsored\” results somewhere, so as not to be confused with the \”real\” results. Except, the search engine companies actually hope - that you’ll click on the paid results instead of the real results, so the search companies can get paid for you visiting their clients’ websites.

The results from the different search engines can actually overlap. If you want to have a wide variety of relevant links, you may spend time typing the same words into different engines, only to come up with mostly the same search results.

There is a tool that makes the similarities between the search engines abundantly clear; although this search tool is not good for much other than to show you how similar search results can be between Yahoo and Google: http://www.langreiter.com/exec/yahoo-vs-google.html

A variation on this theme can be seen here: http://ranking.thumbshots.com/

Meta Search Engines Combine Results From Many Search Engines

Instead of relying on the Big Three search engines alone, don’t be afraid to try some different search engines. Meta search engines are a good way to be more efficient with your searches, and they will help you to get a much more diverse set of relevant search results. Meta search engines, such as http://www.Clusty.com and http://www.Widow.com are both good at returning a wide variety of results.

For demonstration purposes, let’s take a look at some different search terms in each of five different search engines - Google, Yahoo, MSN, Clusty and Widow. The three search terms used for this unscientific experiment are: unemployment, weather, and Myanmar.

Test Search: Unemployment

For \”unemployment\”, Google, Yahoo and Clusty first returned sponsored links. MSN and Widow both returned online encyclopedia results - MSN using Encarta’s encyclopedia; Widow returning Wikipedia.org results. Wikipedia also showed up in the other three search engines, as well, but further down in the results lists.

A similarity between all of the search engine results was they each turned up specific states’ unemployment links in the first page - primarily California, New York, and Ohio. Google and Yahoo also brought up current news items related to unemployment.

Widow.com (the meta search engine) provides additional tools in the left sidebar for related-keywords and clustered search options. For the search term \”unemployment\”, the clustered results offered: insurance, compensation, unemployed, rate, workforce development, benefits eligible workers, information employers, data, individuals, and welcome Ohio. All of these additional search terms are just a click away.

Test Search: Weather

The next term is \”weather.\” In this search, only Google and Clusty returned a sponsored result at the top. The top result for the other three engines was weather.com. The secondary results in each of the engines included, in varying order, Yahoo weather, and NOAA’s National Weather Service website.

Differences for the term of \”weather\” included MSN showing MSN weather in their results, as well as a UK weather website on Widow.com. Again, I was impressed by the optional clustered search engine results on Widow.com. These included options for city searches, Doppler, and the latest weather news.

Test Search: Myanmar

The final search word for the five search engines was Myanmar, to test the relevance of findings for a region that’s received a lot of media attention in the last few months since the Myanmar Cyclone. The results on Google started with several colorful maps of the area, a feature that really stood out for me.

As for similarities, each of the five search engines contained one or more Wikipedia results. The search engines also included current news links and some tourism links. Once again, many of the clustered search results on Widow.com caught my eye: travel, Burma (Myanmar’s previous name), culture, cyclone, statistics, politics, government, and tours.

Search Lessons Learned

What are we to learn from this little search engine experiment? There are several things that you can take away from this. For starters, the Big Three search engines tend to have pretty similar results. Occasionally there are differences, but not anything spectacularly different.

Another conclusion that can be drawn is that you are more likely to get sponsored results when you use more general terms (unemployment, weather), as many advertisers can link their products to a wide variety of general terms.

The most pleasant feature is the availability of diverse range of clustered and related terms, available with a single click of the mouse, on Widow.com.

The potential for Meta search engines to cut down on multiple searches is there, if users are willing to break out of their typical searching habits, to uncover jewels of information within the existing data.

The Widow.com Meta search engine goes above and beyond what I have experienced with other Meta search engines. The Clusty.com Meta search engine also offers clustered search terms, but for some search terms, some of its offerings are simply nonsensical.

How I Discovered Meta Search Engines

In the course of my own work, I spend a lot of time searching on the web for information on a variety of topics. As a ghostwriter, I frequently write on topics that I know little about ahead of time, so I do loads of research to help me cover the topics I write about in a much more logical and educated manner.

I used to use Google almost exclusively. But, one day I was researching an article topic that I had written about previously. Imagine my aggravation when the only material that Google would show me on the topic was material I had written myself!

While I had written about that topic previously, I was not an expert on the subject. I did not want to simply rehash what I had written before; I wanted to write on the topic in a new and different way.

I tried Yahoo and MSN and met the same disappointment with the search results. Then I went to http://www.DogPile.com. I thought their results were awful, but I liked the concept of the Meta Search Engine.

I tried many Meta Search Engines, and then I came across the Widow Search Engine. I liked it so much that I made it one of the default search engines in the article search tools on my website. The thing I like about Widow best is the Clustered Search Listings. With Clustered Search, Widow brainstorms the keyword variations for me, so that I don’t have to figure out the related search terms on my own. As they say in the MasterCard commercials - this is priceless!

In the end, this article is not about which search engine will send the most traffic to a website you own. Instead, this article is about which search engine will give you the best information to help you find the answers you want and need.

Good luck and happy searching.

Wikipedia is the center of the online encyclopedia universe. Millions of entries on every conceivable topic makes this website an authority source that many young students and adults turn to from all corners of the globe.

The widespread popularity of Wikipedia has made it an easy target for quite a bit of controversy and critique. Many academic institutions disapprove of any use of unverified Internet sources, including Wikipedia articles. Ironically, Wikipedia prides itself on the idea that its information is verifiable. Read more about Wikipedia’s Verifiability policy here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability

Wikipedia Basics

By participating in various online game sites on the web today, it is easy to build various skill sets, network with other online gamers, and win some great prizes. Online game sites have evolved from simple card games and picture contests to full-fledged casino-style games, tournaments, and competitions. More and more online game websites now feature interactive platforms for word games, puzzles, unique prize drawings, and even company-sponsored contests for terrific prizes.

Here Is Advantage Playing In Different Communities

The operation of any company will usually entail many decisions that will determine the success or failure of your business. Choosing how you set up your company’s communication system will no doubt be one of those crucial decisions you will have to make.

How your company communicates with its clients, employees, business partners, suppliers, shipping agents… are all vital to the running of an efficient business. Your communication system should be integrated, seamless and available everywhere.

Simply put: you must connect all your operations together into one useful network where none of the patrons listed above should be left out. Everyone should be connected and easily reachable; no matter the time of day or the location.

One obvious component of any company’s communication system will be the Office Fax. However, the old traditional fax machine is slowly being replaced by a new kid on the block. For the reasons listed above and below, many companies are choosing to go with Internet Fax as their preferred method of faxing. If you’re not familiar with online or email faxing some background information might prove helpful.

Internet Fax is simply using the Internet and your email system to send and receive faxes, anywhere anytime. It is mobile, paperless, efficient and you won’t get any busy signals. Plus, there is no need for a second phone line.

Internet Fax is an extremely fast, convenient and simple way to send and receive your faxes. In order to use Internet Fax you have to sign-up to a Fax Service Provider where you get a local or Toll-Free fax number and an online site to send and receive your faxes. Your fax provider acts as a mediator, handling all your faxes whether they are coming from a standard fax machine or from another Internet Fax user. Faxes are sent as email attachments usually in TIFF, PDF or JPEG formats. Most services also let you store your faxes online so they are available wherever you have the Internet and these days that’s just about everywhere.

Internet faxes are private and secure with SSL and PGP encryption. Most if not all companies are compliant with such privacy regulations as Gramm-Leach-Bliley and HIPAA in the United States and PIPEDA in Canada. Your faxes sent and received via email can be protected through PGP encryption.

Internet Fax also has some special benefits for companies that work in remote locations or away from the office such as real estate agents, engineers, onsite builders and contractors, traveling sales agents… just to mention a few.

Plus, keep in mind, Internet Fax is completely scalable to meet your company’s needs. You can have or expand to different fax numbers for each department or salesperson in your company without the cost of installing all those extra phone lines.

Then there is Fax Broadcasting where you can send the same fax to thousands of agents or clients quickly and easily. This is not to be confused with JunkFaxes which are similar to email spam. Fax Broadcasting can be a very important factor in the competitiveness of your business.

If you do choose Internet Fax there are many well-known online fax providers you can use such as MyFax, eFax, RapidFax, TrustFax, and Send2Fax. You should also consider some lesser known fax providers such as Metrofax out of Seattle and Faxage out of Denver; sometimes going with a relatively smaller company will give you better individual service… you or your company won’t get lost in the crowd or in the large numbers.

Also, many companies and individuals like to consolidate all their phone/fax services into one provider. RingCentral is a popular choice since it gives you virtual phone and fax services all rolled into one.

If you do use an Internet Fax services make sure you shop around to find the best plan that is suited to your needs; plans range from a very modest $20 a year to around $10-$15 a month. Each plan will have a different number of faxes that you can send and receive. Rates are usually based on minutes… so multiple page faxes will cost more with 5 cent per minute the average cost. Keep in mind, International faxes will usually cost more.

Since Internet Fax involves the web and computers, it can be totally automated to meet your needs. It can be used to connect and integrate your whole working network. Also remember, Internet faxing is the wave of the future, if you want your company to remain completely competitive in this brave new computerized world you must have online fax.

Like any business decision, it really comes down to one sticking point, it is not a matter of whether you can afford to use Internet Fax but whether you can really afford NOT to use it. It’s Your Call?

New Internet marketing tools are coming online each and every day. Why should you care? Mainly because these new marketing tools can have a dramatic impact on your online traffic, leads and sales. So much so, your online competitiveness can greatly depend on you finding and using these new marketing tools before everyone else does.