Searching The Web Using Google

SEARCHING THE WEB USING GOOGLE

1) Type in your search term(s), such as "genealogy" (without the quote marks) in the white box provided. Try to use the most descriptive words only and do not type in common words like "of" or "a."

Note: Unlike web site addresses (such as www.latimes.com), you can use upper and lower case letters and spaces between the terms.

2) Click on the Google Search button next to the white box, or press the Enter key on the keyboard.

3) Since you will receive a list of thousands of web sites for a search on "genealogy," you may want to click back into the search box, and modify your search text to something like "genealogy software" (without the quote marks). Then click on the Google Search button again, or press the Enter key on the keyboard.

Note: Use the I'm Feeling Lucky button next to the Google Search button if you are pretty sure that you've typed in the actual web site address correctly and want to go directly to it (such as www.genealogy.com in our example, which is one of the largest and most popular web sites on genealogy).

4) You can click on any text that is blue and underlined (this is called "hypertext") in the list of web sites that Google finds to go to that web site.

5) If you want to return to the Google search site to click on another hypertext "link," click on the Back button at the top of the screen.

6) Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page instead of clicking on one of the first web site links you see at the top of the page, in case there is a better site listed further down on that page.

7) Click on Next at the bottom of the page, if there is more than one page of listings. When you are on the next page, you can scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on Previous to get back to the first page.

8) Many of the listings on the search site pages may have nothing to do with your search term(s) (e.g., they may have nothing to do with genealogy). You can ignore these listings.

9) When you've found a site that interests you, be sure to save the address to your Favorites list (click on Favorites, then on Add to Favorites), or write the address down on a piece of paper.

Note: The top four or five sites listed on the first page are usually, but not always, the best sites to go to. The web sites at the top of the list for many search sites sometimes get there by paying for the privilege, or by submitting their addresses many, many times to that search site. (Google has the paid sites in a sidebar at the right.)

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SEARCHING THE "NEWSGROUPS" USING GOOGLE

Note: "Newsgroups" are a part of the Internet where you can post messages to message boards that can be read by anyone who has access to the Internet. There are thousands of newsgroups that have to do with computers, sex, pets, skiing, fishing, eBay, etc., etc.

1) Click on Groups.

2) To narrow the search right off the bat, click on the Advanced.

3) Next to Language -- Return pages written in: any language, click on the Down Arrow, then click on English to avoid getting results with gibberish characters in them.

4) Type in your search term(s), such as "genealogy software" (without the quote marks).

5) Click on the Google Search button.

6) Scroll down and find the articles that say, "RE: Genealogy Software" or View thread (3 articles) next to them. Don't click on anything that just says, "Genealogy Software" and View thread (1 article), because this is usually the original message with a question. It doesn't have the answer or reply from someone else that you need.

Note: The newsgroups are a great place to find solutions to any problems you may have with your computer, printer, or any other computer peripheral or software. Just type in the name of the hardware or software and the type of problem you are having, such as "Microsoft Word printing" (without the quote marks).

7) If the message has many replies (threads) to it, you may see a "Read the rest of the message" link at the bottom. Click on this link to read the rest of the message.

8) Click on File, then on Print to print out any message postings and their threads.